When we stepped out to walk the dog, this was what we saw looking toward the last sun rays falling on the Catalina Mountains near Tucson, AZ. All those big, beautiful motor homes and fifth wheelers, a palm-lined road, and our little rented 24 foot trailer, one corner barely visible at the extreme right (not to be confused with the imaginary extreme right that the Democrats hallucinate about). The trailer may be small, but it’s quite comfy.
Click image to enlarge – not the trailer, the photo.
That is not the actual name of Point Vicente, but it seemed appropriate as these California Brown pelicans soared along the cliffs today. Catalina Island can be seen in the distance with historic Point Vicente Lighthouse on the left. Click on the image to enlarge.
According to WikiPedia, the Brown Pelican was listed as endangered since 1970 when its numbers dipped to 10,000. Since then, the population of Brown Pelican had been climbing and was recently removed from the list in November 2009. Current estimates place the population at 650,000 individuals.
This flight of a baker’s dozen was the largest number of birds that passed us today. Other groups that passed were as few as two, and averaged about five or six.
On a whim, we drove to Point Vicente on the south side of the Palos Verdes peninsula in the southwestern corner of Los Angeles County. We wanted to see the coastline and Catalina Island after the brisk winds we had in the area last night. Alas, when we got there, the wind had only kicked up the sea mist and the visibility was not as good as we had hoped. But, there’s always something to see along the coastline.
The sea was a little choppy, with a few whitecaps topping the waves offshore. The air was clear enough that we could see the island in the distance, but not as razor sharp as on some previous post-windstorm days. We watched the surf and the birds in this peaceful, relaxing environment. It’s good to be retired and able to enjoy indulging our whims.
I snapped a bunch of photos of pelicans, seagulls, the Point Vicente Lighthouse and the Interpretive Center. In one fortunate image, I managed to get a California Brown Pelican and the Point Vicente Lighthouse in the same frame with Catalina Island just visible in the background.
Click on the image to see full-sized.
Well, it’s more like a trade-off than a sacrifice. We’re giving up our annual vacation to the City of Avalon on Catalina Island. Our wedding anniversary falls in the middle of September and we generally go back to Avalon, where we were married, to celebrate.
We’ve gone to Catalina for the last five years straight, but we’re not going this year. Instead, we will be going to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno, Nevada. We will spend our anniversary at the Silver Legacy Hotel among the ranks of some of the Gun Bloggers.
We look forward to going next month, but we will also miss some of our favorite Avalon places, like the Casino, where this world-famous art-deco image of a mermaid lives.
Image credit: Damsel – click on the image to enlarge.
We have gone to Catalina Island many times over the last ten or eleven years and just last year, we looked up and saw a bald eagle in flight high over Avalon. That was in September of 2008. Prior to that, the eagles were few and far between on the island, but these days they are making a comeback.
I was just thrilled today when I found a link on the Daily Breeze that took me to a live web camera of a nest of Bald Eagles. I watched for a very long time and could see one of the parents in the nest and could see the wobbly eaglets bobbing around – they were so CUTE!
Go here and watch them in the nest – disclaimer – daylight hours in California are currently from about 6:30 AM to 7:30 PM PDT (13:30 to 02:30 GMT).
This was such an unusual happening, the local Fox remote Catalina camera got these shots of heavy surf in the normally pond-like Avalon Harbor. I took these shots of the TV yesterday morning as the waves were happening. None of the usual open air putt putt cars seemed to be going up and down Crescent and Via Casino as normally is the case.
On a clear, beautiful day on the Southern California Coastline near Point Vicente, I took over two hundred fifty photos. This is one of several that stood out as exceptional. These are California Brown Pelicans soaring in the updrafts over the cliffs on the south side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Santa Catalina Island can be seen across the channel in the background.
Click on this image for the large size.
The Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis californicus) is the smallest of the eight species of pelican, although it is a large bird in nearly every other regard. It is 42-54 in (106-137 cm) in length, weighs from 6-12 lbs (2.75 to 5.5 kg) and has a wingspan from 6 to 8.2 ft. (1.83 to 2.5 m).