Christmas 2011

As is typical, I didn't have a traditional Christmas, but I did have a great one:

Christmas Eve -

Hang out on the cliffs looking for condors - actually got to see a pair of condors mating (not pictured), and had a great day with a couple of friends, all while being out on the Ducati (hence the boots and the leather pants)

(thanks to Dan for the photo)

Christmas Day -

There were six of us on the cliffs all deciding to spend the day out on the coast looking for condors instead of a more traditional day. The condors didn't disappoint!

A Great Condor Weekend, Without Condors!

Yes, this last weekend, I got to see some great condor action (had to haze two of 'em to get them away from being too close to the road, and had a few really close fly by's too).

However, this post is not about condors - it's about all the other wildlife I got to see in between the bouts of condor spotting.

Firstly, we have a pod of Risso's dolphins that swam past the cliff I was atop of. The water was really clear and calm, and the dolphins were in close enough that you could really see them clearly underwater, as you can see below!

On Sunday morning, as I was heading down to Big Sur, I spotted a bob cat in a field next to the road, so I pulled over to check it out. It didn't get that close, as whatever it was hunting for breakfast didn't get that close either, but I did manage to get this shot as it stalked whatever it was after (this is a heavy crop of the original image).


On Sunday, after a couple of close condor fly by's, a flock of pelicans appeared right at our height - they were too close to get the whole flock in the frame, but I did manage to get this one by itself.

Finally, the hummers were flitting around most of the weekend, but were not garnering that much attention as there was so much other wildlife to check out - here's a shot of one of them, flying under the radar, so to speak.


If you're interested in the condor photos too, they're slowly appearing on my Facebook fan page at https://www.facebook.com/webnectar (as will some of these none condor photos too)