‘Bear’ is what we call her even though her paperwork name is ‘Callisto.’ The nickname is appropriate though, since the mythical Callisto was turned into a bear by Jupiter at one point, when she misbehaved.
Our Bear seldom displeases us, though. She has the sweetest personality and is a wonderful companion for us. When we take her to pet care, the caretakers always dote over her and are sorry to see her go home. I just love her.
Today we took a detour down by the ocean on our way for the weekly grocery shopping. It was just after a rain last night and the winds were whipping. We stopped at the L.A. Harbor breakwater by Cabrillo Beach and saw a number of sea birds including sandpipers, Caspian Terns, pelicans and several varieties of seagulls. The gull in the picture is a Heermann’s Gull, characterized by its black legs and feet and its red bill. Click on the picture to see the 1024×768 version in the image viewer.
From Wikipedia:
The Heermann’s Gull (Larus heermanni) is a gull resident in the United States and Mexico. Of the current population of about 150,000 pairs, 90% nest on the island of Isla Rasa off Baja California in the Gulf of California, with smaller colonies as far north as California and as far south as Nayarit. After breeding, birds commonly disperse to central California, and less commonly north as far as British Columbia and south as far as Guatemala. They are usually found near shores or well out to sea, very rarely inland.
Some of the prettiest scenery can be seen on days where the weather isn’t exactly ideal for outdoors activities. Last weekend during the rain showers on Saturday, we drove down to Palos Verdes and took some pictures of the coastline features.
On a stop at the Point Vicente fishing access, a seagull landed on the fence post and watched us while I took several pictures of him. It was between showers and there were a lot of birds in the area, including a red tail hawk, some crows, a pelican, pigeons and lots of seagulls.
I also took this picture of the Point Vicente Lighthouse and Coast Guard Station from the fishing access. The visibility wasn’t crystal clear, but on days like this, the fog adds something to the mood of the scene.
We have enjoyed visiting these colorful and unique landmarks in rain and shine, in wind and calm and in crystal clear weather to pea soup fog.
Click on the images to see full-sized in the image viewer.
As we drove to the grocery store this morning, I was astonished to see a big black dog on a rooftop barking at passers by. If I were Santa and the reindeer, I would watch out for this bad boy.
A closer look at the situation revealed that to the rear of this house there appeared to be an open door on a rooftop patio or something. Rover obviously came out through the door – I hope that his people got him back inside before he could fall and injure himself.
I set the small animal trap to try and catch the squirrel that gets in Damsel’s garden and raids the bird feeders. Then this little ‘possum wandered in much to it’s dismay. Not to worry, though, it got released back into the “urban wild” shortly afterwards.
Image courtesy Damsel. Click image for hi-res.
Opossums are probably more beneficial than they are destructive in urban areas. Consider this description from the National Opossum Society:
Opossums help to maintain a clean and healthy environment. They eat all types of insects, including cockroaches, crickets, beetles, et cetera. They catch and eat rats, roof rats, mice, and they consume dead animals of all types (carrion). They like over-ripe fruit, berries, and grapes. And they think snails and slugs are a delicacy! Nature’s little Sanitation Engineers!!
Typically they go about their quiet task late at night, and you usually won’t know they were around…unless your dog (being territorial) starts barking, or you happen to take a midnight stroll when one is munching insects or snails in your yard.
“Bear” is our family pet. On Sundays, after going to the shooting range, we give her a “Frosty Paws” frozen dog treat – it’s like ice cream, but without stuff that might be bad for dogs. When she finishes her treat, she often strikes this relaxed, happy pose.
All the years that I have been in California, it was not until last weekend that I saw a red dragonfly. In fact, there were red dragonflies in abundance, around the lake at the South Coast Botanic Gardens. This is one of those infrequent occasions where I got an outstanding picture (Damsel is the queen of artistic photos in our family).
I did some research and found out that this is a Ruby Meadowhawk, a variety of the suborder Anistoptera (Dragonfly). This is an excerpt from the WikiPedia page on Dragonflies:
Dragonflies typically eat mosquitoes, midges and other small insects like flies, bees, and butterflies. They are usually found around lakes, ponds, streams, and wetlands because their larvae, known as “nymphs”, are aquatic. Dragonflies do not normally bite or sting humans (though they will bite in order to escape, for example, if grasped by the abdomen); in fact, they are valued as a predator that helps control the populations of harmful insects, such as mosquitoes. It is because of this that dragonflies are sometimes called “mosquito hawks.”