San Felipe: Days 7-9

FINAL REMINDER: Remember to enter the Valentine's Giveaway! I will draw/announce two names sometime in early February, so you have up until the end of the day on January 31st to enter to win what I think are some fun Valentine goods.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

We've come to the last of the San Felipe photos. I'm kind of sad, because going through them has been like a mini-vacation in itself. I miss the sun!

On our last full day there, we went to town to pick up some souvenirs (vanilla!) and have lunch. On our way to the restaurant, we came across this scene. Some guys with a truck of freshly-caught fish were cleaning them and feeding the scraps to the pelicans. I didn't have the right lens on my camera, so these photos are just kind of snapshotty, but still interesting, I hope.

Here, pelicans! Enjoy some fish carcasses!

I've never really watched pelicans eating up close like this! I could've probably watched them for a few more hours, it was so interesting. They have the craziest bills/throats.

And they're so big! I mean, I knew this, but I never really compared them to seagulls. Despite their size, they seem pretty graceful at flying, even just short hops.

If I were a pelican, I'd likely be on the sidelines. Having to be quick and fight people for stuff is not my style. It would stress me out.

Better tuck in that fish tail before another bird pulls it out!

Don't get bored, okay? Just a few more. I wish I had better photos of the pretty males, with their vibrant red and yellow coloring. They tended to let the females get first dibs. Smart.

Okay, I guess those were all the photos I took on that last day. Now we're on day 8, the day we left. [:(] We got up early for our long drive ahead. The sun was just beginning to rise, and I had time to take a few photos.

And now we're back in California, passing that wind farm again. I couldn't help but take a few more photos while my dad drove.

Sunday (day 9) was spent at my parents' place before I flew home the following day. My mom and I spent some time in the back yard while I took more bird photos.

I was glad to get a shot of a hummingbird by the morning glories, even though it's not that great.

Some birds bathing in my parents' waterfall.

This young bird of prey came and landed in a tree in my parents' yard! I could only get a couple photos before it flew off. It was small enough that I think it was not very old, unless it's just a smaller variety of something.

That's it. :) I hope you enjoyed these. Please see my "mexico" label for other photos from this trip, if you missed any.

[NOTE: I seem to be having that problem again where not all my photos are loading up, so you may see confusing captions under a blank space. I'm not sure what's going on with my gallery but if you reload the page later it might be working.]

Frost (part 2)

I'm already back to show you the remainder of my frost photos! I just figured, why the heck not?

There's this place at work that I rarely go, but I was looking for a particular bird and thought I'd see what was there.

It was quiet and frosty up there. Several birds were around, though not the bluebird I was looking for. I even saw some quail, but I didn't get a good picture.

I messed with these pictures a little.

Then I went back down the hill where it wasn't as foggy-white, but there were some interesting sights.

Here's the bird I was looking for! A Western Bluebird. I had been seeing them, and when I mentioned it to a coworker (who is really into birds), he was surprised and pleased. I made it my mission to get a photo.

Here's another.

After lunch, the sun started coming out! I was driving back to my office when I saw these in the field across the street, so I went and took pictures.

I wish I could've captured this better, but the sun was melting the frost into ice that glittered like little Christmas lights.

Back at work, the sun created some nice back-lighting on the frosty path.

The end. Have a great weekend!

Frost (part 1)

Remember to enter the Valentine's Giveaway! I will draw/announce two names sometime in early February, so you have up until the end of the day on January 31st to enter to win what I think are some fun Valentine goods.

(By the way, I've been really enjoying the comments on that post! I need to respond to them soon.)

Now for pictures. Recently we had several days of dense fog and below freezing temperatures that created a layer of frost on everything. I was a little slow to get out there with my camera, but I ended up with LOTS of pictures right before everything melted. I narrowed them down, but they'll still be in two posts.

Some of these were taken at home, some at work.

Sorry I don't have a lot of captions. There's not much to say yet.

These are some of my favs. I always like photographing delicate smatterings of leaves or flowers. They look like jewelry for trees.

One frustration I was having with these photos was with the difficulty in capturing what I saw. There were so many pretty scenes, but these photos don't really depict them all that well.


I'll post part 2 some other day. Have a great Friday night!