A little silly

FlickrStats

One of my photos was used in a Flickr blog post and another was picked up by Yahoo. Now I have over 5000 views today. This is up a little from my usual 100+ views a day. Not that I am going to complain, but it is a little silly.

The photos were from my whale watching trip on Monterey Bay last summer. I took a series of shots of a Humpback Whale doing a chin slap. You may recognize one of the images, it was in my best of 2012 collection. The other is at the tail end of the chin slap.

Certainly whales coming out of the water generates a bit of excitement. The thing that amazes me is that this whale wants to make a big splash! That is why it is doing it. But look at it as it comes out of the water. There is hardly a ripple.

Olympic divers who try to enter the water without a splash, could learn a few things from this critter.

Thanks to all of the Flickr and Yahoo folks. I truly appreciate you checking out my photos.

Chin slap

Chin slap

A new bird

Lawrence's Goldfinch

Hi, my name is Tom and I am a birder.

I am not the crazy, over-the-top birder that you might have seen in movies or on TV. But when there is an opportunity to see a bird that I haven’t seen or photographed before, I get a little bit itchy.

When the report came in a week ago that a Lawrence’s Goldfinch was spotted in the Reserve, I thought “Great, that is wonderful that you saw this bird, my chance of seeing it is nil”. Before that moment I had never heard of a Lawrence’s Goldfinch. I knew the American and Lesser Goldfinch and had seen both in the Reserve, but this was a new one for me. I figured it was a migrant and would be on its way shortly, and far too shortly for me drag the camera out.

Then came a second report and a third. Now the itch is strong, time to scratch. I go out to see what I can see. House finches and American Goldfinches, no Lawrence’s. Just what I suspected, it was here and moved on. Then a fourth report, with photos. Ok, It is a mission now and I will both spot the bird and get a photo.

Friday morning, I went out to Granite Point and circled the point three times. The first circle spotted and confirmed the goldfinch was there, The second circle grabbed a shot, the third circle nailed the shot.

So now I have a new bird on my life list and a new photo in my Monterey Birds set.

Itch scratched.