Cafe Bassam

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Roger

All my life I’ve heard three things about San Diego:

  1. It’s always 72 degrees.
  2. It never rains.
  3. There are no bugs.

To be fair, I haven’t seen a lot of bugs. But this is the second year in a row that I’ve been in San Diego when it was in the 40s and raining.

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The booth team has a tradition to go out for pie on at least one evening after things shut down. This year we picked Tuesday and Cafe Bassam. As it turned out, they didn’t have pie, but we all got something to drink (I had a raspberry Italian soda) and sat around playing Golf (a card game) until we started to fall asleep.

It was a weird place. The girl behind the counter steadfastly refused to show us the smallest glimpse of civility in spite of all our efforts to be friendly. The owner wore a fedora and acted as though he thought himself quite the character. The entire place was decorated with an eclectic mix of antiques and art, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I wasn’t paying attention, but I was told by my friends that the unfriendly girl was glaring at me when I put the chair on a piece of furniture for this photo. She probably would have said something if she could have done it without actually talking to me.

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Imperial Beach

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Roger

On Tuesday morning before the booth opened, seven of us drove to Imperial Beach, the southernmost town on the Pacific coast of the United States. We ate breakfast at The Wave Cafe. As we drove through town, I noticed this statue of a surfer in a small plaza along the beach. As always, I eat faster than I should, so I had time to walk the few blocks to get this photo and be back before the others were ready to leave.

Imperial Beach has a surfing culture. Many of the world’s most famous surfers are from the area. The statue, The Spirit of Imperial Beach, was put up in 2008 in honor of the town’s heritage. Some surfers consider it good luck to touch it before heading out to sea. The base of the statue is a tribute to the annual Sand Castle Days.

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After breakfast at The Wave Cafe, we wandered over to the pier. I had a great idea — go down under the pier, put the chair in the sand and take a photo as a wave washed around it, as you see below. What you don’t see is what happened two seconds later, as I rushed ankle-deep into the water to keep the chair from being washed out to sea. That’s why the photo is slightly blurry and not very well composed. And why my shoes, socks and pants were wet.

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I am capable of learning from experience, so I set the chair a bit further up the beach and took another photo.

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That’s a Western Gull standing under the pier. The Coronado Islands, owned by Mexico, are visible in the left distance.

If one were so inclined, it would be an easy thing to kick, step on or probably grab the Rock Doves on Imperial Beach Pier. I was only inclined to photograph them with a small red chair. They paid me very little attention.

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Confession. I saw this done somewhere else — I don’t remember where — but without a chair. I had it in the back of my mind to try it the next time I saw words painted on pavement. It just happened to be on Elm Avenue,  a side street on our way from the pier back to the car.

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Animal #63 — Short-beaked Common Dolphin

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Roger

Delphinus delphis

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Pacific Ocean off San Diego, California

We cruised several miles out into the Pacific off San Diego in search of whales, but saw none. We were well on our way back into Mission Bay when the captain spotted a pod of dolphins. I rushed to the upper deck and found a spot by the railing. The marine biologist on the boat got on the intercom and told us what to look for.

It wasn’t a large pod. I don’t think I ever saw more than three dolphins at once, but there may have been more than that. A couple of them raced toward the boat and a few of them fell in beside it. I spotted one bow-riding just below me.

Short-beaked Common Dolphins

Short-beaked Common Dolphin

We were told they were Common Dolphins, and I learned later from the biologist that they were Short-beaked Common Dolphins. I have to take her word for it, because my photos aren’t all that great.

Short-beaked Common Dolphins

Short-beaked Common Dolphin

We circled for a few minutes, then headed into port. I spotted them off to the south a ways, porpoising through the waves.

The earlier cruise had seen a pod of 50 including babies. Such is life.

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Bird #464 — Scripps’s Murrelet

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Roger

synthliboramphus (from synthlibo, to press, and ramphos, beak, referring to its laterally compressed bill) scrippsi (perhaps named for Ellen Browning Scripps, journalist and philanthropist, who funded Scripps Research Institute in San Diego)

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Pacific Ocean off San Diego

It’s odd to see seabirds the size of robins, but that’s what these were. I spotted about 15 of them on the whale-watching cruise out of Mission Bay. They seemed warier than the Rhinoceros Auklets and a bit more likely to fly away from the boat, but other than that, the behavior I observed was much the same — small birds floating on the ocean.

Scripps's Murrelets

Scripps's Murrelets

I was told by Melissa, the marine biologist on the cruise, that she sometimes saw birds that had eaten so much they couldn’t get airborne but just skittered across the water to get away from the boat. Not long after, I saw one doing just that, although I’m not sure if her explanation of the behavior is correct. The murrelet kept this up for at least 15 seconds.

Scripps's Murrelet

 

Like the Rhinoceros Auklets, I don’t think I saw one within two miles of shore.

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Bird #463 — Rhinoceros Auklet

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Roger

cerorhinca (from keras, horn, and rhynchos, beak) monocerata (from monos, one, and keras, horn)

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Pacific Ocean off San Diego, California

I traveled to San Diego to work at a conference. We arrived late in the morning and spent the afternoon on a three-hour whale watching cruise out of Mission Bay on the Privateer.

On our voyage out into the ocean, I spotted several small birds swimming in the waves. I had my old binoculars, which were worthless in those conditions, so I wasn’t having much luck identifying what I saw. On the way back to shore, I knocked on the captain’s cabin and asked the biologist on the crew about the birds I was seeing. Birds weren’t her specialty, but she knew the common ones and was able to point out several Rhinoceros Auklets as we passed by. I took many photos, none of which came out well but a few of which are good enough for identification purposes.

Rhinoceros Auklets

Rhinoceros Auklet

Rhinoceros Auklet

Rhinoceros Auklet

The auklets are about the size of a Green-winged Teal — about 15″ long. I’m not good at judging distances, but I don’t think I saw any that weren’t at least a couple miles off shore. Usually the auklets just swam away from the boat, but if we got too close, they would fly a short distance. I couldn’t see the white stripes or the knob on the bill with my eyes, but was able to identify them when I zoomed my photographs. I probably saw 20 total, although I have no idea if I was seeing the same ones on the way in that I saw on the way out.

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