Picture of the Moment—What happened to my nest?

I have been trying to get a good picture of a cliff swallow ever since 1973 when I was a freshman at Texas A&M University. I had gone to the football game in Austin and discovered all the swallows that live under the bridges near downtown. They fly too fast, are small, and take off if you get too close to them. Now, with a 600mm lens, I can get close without getting close.

I got the picture below under a bridge on Old Highway 80. Sources indicate that although the highway was built in the 1910s and widened in the 1930s, the bridge was built in 1973. It carries traffic over the La Posta Creek, which actually had water in it when I was there yesterday.

People don’t seem to like cliff swallows since they like to build their nests on manmade structures, like bridges and under the eaves of buildings. Swallows, however, do a great job of keeping various swarming insects under control since they like to eat flies, bees, wasp, ants, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, and other bugs.

All swallows are protected by state and federal regulations under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 as migratory insectivorous birds, so it is illegal to take, possess, transport, sell, or purchase them or their feathers, nests, or eggs, without a permit.

Swallows like to use the same nest year after year. The picture below seems to indicate that someone, probably the California Department of Transportation, has been by since last year’s nesting season to destroy all the nests. So these poor birds, returning now from their winter migration to Mexico, Central America, and South America, are finding that their nests have been destroyed. They probably are under a lot of stress.

The one below obviously found its old nest but it’s nothing like the poor bird left it late last year. Lot of work to do.

This post approved by Zoey the Cool Cat in absentia.

Impostor!

One of these is not like the other.

…and we have #4

When I was young and living in Kingsville TX, if I wanted to see dragonflies all I had to do was set out a bucket of water.

Multiple dragonflies within minutes.

Kind of like setting out a box if you want to see a cat.

In the 24 years I have been in San Diego, I have seen four dragonflies, with the fourth coming two days ago at a pond at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Since I was testing a Tamron 150-600 mm lens, my rental lens, I was able to get several shots of this beauty. Of the other three dragonflies, I only have a picture of one, and it’s not a great picture because you just can’t get close to these things without them taking off.

Here are three of the best from the Safari Park:

Let’s just say I had a margarita to celebrate!

I’m trying to decide on a new lens for my camera, either a Sigma 150-600 mm or a Tamron 150-600 mm.

Turns out that we have a lens rental place here in San Diego so I rented the Tamron yesterday.

Get to keep it for 7 days for just $60. Today it made a trip to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

So what does a 150-600 mm lens allow me to do that I can’t do with my 28-300 mm lens?

Notice that the bigger number on the new lens is twice as big as the bigger number on the old lens, 600 to 300. That basically allows me to get twice as close to something without moving my feet. If there’s a fence between me and my subject, moving myself to the other side of the fence without actually going to the other side of the fence can give me the opportunity to take beautiful pictures. In some cases, like if I’m at the zoo where some of the wildlife is in fenced enclosures, getting inside the enclosure without getting subsequently mauled to death lets me come home with a picture like this:

There are two southern bald eagles in the fenced enclosure, and the fencing is the mesh stuff with teeny tiny really really small holes, not chain-link with big holes. The smaller the fencing holes, the more difficult it is to get on the other side of it. My 28-300 mm lens doesn’t allow me to get into the enclosure with these eagles, so when I first got it seven years ago, I cheated by going where one is not supposed to go (and that’s all I’m going to say!) to get this picture:

In the first picture, the long focal length did a much better job of also blurring the background fence which you can make out in the second picture. And if you look very, very closely at the second picture, you can even see fence shadows on the eagle itself. Look at the two shoulders. I don’t have that problem in the first picture.

So, what’s my initial assessment of the Tamron 150-600 mm lens? Based just on the eagle picture, excellent. Based on that and the other 610 pictures I took this morning: Well, let’s just say that I drank a margarita to celebrate!

Out & About—The Cajon Pass by freight train

Even before California was admitted to the United States on September 9, 1850, as the thirty-first state, there was great interest in it. After gold was discovered in 1848, starting the California Gold Rush, the population exploded, mostly “immigrants” from the United States. Travel between California and the United States, however, was arduous, time-consuming, and dangerous.

Not until the Transcontinental Railroad was completed from San Francisco to Omaha did travel become reasonably less time-consuming and much less dangerous. The railroads have always been a significant part of the State of California, and although the Eastern railroads are older, their history is no more significant than the California railroads.

Once the Transcontinental Railroad was completed to San Francisco, northern California, people began looking for a way to build a transcontinental railroad into southern California. The competition for the western terminus was between San Diego and Los Angeles. For a while it looked like it would be San Diego when the California Southern Railroad (a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway) built through the Cajon Pass in the early 1880s to connect Barstow and San Diego. Today, however, the Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway use the pass to reach Los Angeles. San Diego is a secondary afterthought.

The interesting Mojave Desert mountain scenery, as well as the many long trains that transit Cajon Pass, make for a fun day of train watching. The video below is a BNSF container train heading east, so the containers mostly likely are fully loaded with cargo from ships docking at the Port of Los Angeles. There are 117 railcars carrying 234 containers. Quite a load up a 2.2 – 3 percent grade. There are two front engines pulling and two rear engines pushing. All four engines have 4,400 horsepower each, for a total of 17,600 horsepower getting these 117 railcars over the Cajon Summit.

With my new high-flying drone and a new-as-of-today 150-600mm lens for my Canon 760D camera, I have plans to return to Cajon Pass for some great pictures and videos, both from the ground and from the sky, to satisfy my thirst for trains in unique places.

“The Silent Corner” by Dean Koontz forgot to end

I finished reading my free, pre-published proof of Dean Koontz’s new book, The Silent Corner, to be released on June 6.

I thoroughly enjoyed it….

Until I got to the end.

It simply ended.

It was like Koontz said, “You know. This book is already over 400 pages. I think I’ll just quit. Go do something else.”

The last two chapters, which were a page each, seemed completely disconnected from the book itself and left me wondering what the hell just happened.

After the book ends, Koontz includes 15 pages from his next book, The Whispering Room. Sources indicate that The Silent Corner is the first “Jane Hawk” novel and that The Whispering Room is the second “Jane Hawk” novel. I don’t usually read teasers from future books because I know that I can’t read the book, so what’s the purpose? Because I was so perplexed about how The Silent Corner ended, I thought that maybe, just maybe,  there was something in the 15-page teaser that actually applied to The Silent Corner rather than The Whispering Room. I read about five pages and decided that there wasn’t. Nothing to indicate that The Whispering Room is the sequel to The Silent Corner and will answer all my questions. The only way I even know that it’s the second Jane Hawk novel is because Wikipedia told me so, and said that it’s due to be released in 2018.

Maybe I just missed something.

Or maybe the pre-published proof actually was missing a few pages or chapters.

I don’t know what to do.

Maybe go fly my drone and take sky pictures….

I’m putting you on Facebook!

A couple of days ago I found the Bennington Memorial Oak Grove. The place was full of squirrels. Well, duh. Oaks. Acorns. Squirrels.

One squirrel sat there and stared at me for the longest time as I was taking pictures of other things. Finally, I focused the camera on the little one, said out loud, “I’m putting you on Facebook!” and pushed the shutter button.

Here’s the result:

Obviously the little one did not want to be on Facebook. Probably knew that Twitler has sold his privacy rights to big corporations and didn’t want them to know where his acorns are stashed….

It comes with a custom registration plate

This past Wednesday was opening night for the 2017 Cajon Classic Cruise.

It’s where people like me wander around downtown El Cajon looking at classic cars from our youth. Some of the cars are for sale, like this 1931 whatever-it-is:

It was going for a mere $52,000.

Hmmmm.

Not sure about that.

It does have a custom California license plate which told me everything I needed to know:

Poor fellow needs a little help

Poor fellow knows where the water is at the Grape Street Dog Park but he needs a little help to get it.

Bad St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church. Bad, bad church.

I have personal issues with religion, mostly Mormons and Catholics since I grew up in those two religions. I’m now going to add Greek Orthodox to the list.

St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church in San Diego CA recently applied for permits to demolish two homes on Indiana Street, one of which, and possibly both, has been designated historic.

The church owns both homes, but nonetheless…. So, how can they demolish something that officially has been designated historic? Well, it’s another issue that I have with religions.

Religions, the bane of humanity in my opinion, not only are exempt from paying property taxes but are exempt from many other rules and regulations that the general public has to abide by. In this case, because of religious exemptions, the church does not have to justify its decision, quite often a torturous and onerous process (as it should be), and does not have to order impact reports on how it intends to use the land.

The demolition permits cost $2,331, and the City approved them, even though their own documents noted that the homes are historic. Even with religious exemptions, though, the City has the power to disapprove the demolition permits. In this case, I think the City failed.

Upon learning of the demolition permits, the Save Our Heritage Organization (SOHO) immediately went to work to try to save the two houses. They have found a taker for at least one of the two homes but St. Spyridon refuses to delay demolition so that SOHO can get all the paperwork done to relocate the two houses.

The two houses were custom-built in the 1920s. In other words, they aren’t your typical tract homes in this neighborhood.

3688 Indiana Street, San Diego CA
2,886 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 3½ bathrooms
2016 assessed value: $404,500
2016 property taxes: $32.44 (It’s that religious exemption thing)
Last sale: 1987 to St. Spyridon

3694 Indiana Street, San Diego CA
1,241 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom
2016 assessed value: $226,664
2016 property taxes: $29.50 (That religious exemption thing again)
Last sale: 1988 to St. Pyridon

The North Park Planning Committee’s project review subcommittee has found that there is very little the community can do to keep the houses from being demolished. Although they have contacted St. Spyridon, the church appears not interested in discussing the situation with anyone. “This is so frustrating when we know that at least one of these houses has been designated historic and this loophole lets them tear it down,” said Dionne Carlson. “We’d like to encourage them to think about how it affects the community, and take a little more time to support their community. They have every right to do this, we just hope they will look at other ideas,” she added.

Joaquin Castro, whose business it is to move houses, said that moving the house would save the church the $10,000 cost of demolition and disposing of the building materials.

Already signs are going up on telephone and light poles throughout the neighborhood encouraging a boycott of St. Spyridon’s annual Greek Festival.

I’m hoping the public can put enough pressure on St. Spyridon to do the right thing, and the right thing does not involve demolishing these historic homes.

This post approved by
Zoey the Cool Cat
with her cute little pink nose