Fluidr / Jim Frazee's "Cuyamaca Rancho State Park" set sorted randomly

I had trouble identifying them at the time, but later research on the Internet revealed that the white stripe over the eye distinguishes the Mountain Chickadee from all other Chickadees. Shot at a clump of pine trees, next to the school camp at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park (where I went to 6th grade camp, by the way). There were a dozen or two of these cute little birds and they would occasionally allow us to get very close to them, as long as we weren't paying any attention to them. After I went back to the van and got my camera, though, they would fly back up into the trees as soon as I pointed the lens at them. Shooting hand-held and in the shade, during drizzling conditions, meant that none of my shots were sharp, but I'm posting these two, anyway, because I've been trying to capture this species for a long time and I think they're really adorable, even if they are blurry.

Shot these yesterday, after SAR dog training, which was pretty interesting in itself. Sometimes (usually, that is), it is rather difficult, logistically, to set up a problem, since we want everybody to have a turn as a subject, as well as getting to work their dog(s).

Yesterday morning, it was harder than usual, though, because we had to have two subjects and two people with the dogs, at all times, due to Mountain Lion activity in the area. We had only four area search handlers who wanted to work their dogs and one of them wanted to work both of her dogs. And we wanted to do this in the minimum amount of time, because a storm came through in the middle of the problem. We ended up using only one of the trailing dog handlers as a subject, but otherwise accomplished our goals.

Here's the quiz question of the day. How would you set this up, so that four handlers got to work five dogs and also serve as subjects, using only one extra subject, one time, in the minimum amount of time? Oh, and one other restriction. Each handler has to take his own dog back to base camp (over a mile away, which doesn't have anything to do with the problem - I just wanted to make you feel sorry for me, due to how much walking I had to do).

By the way, I think I solved the Mountain Lion problem, too. All I would have to do is carry my camera with me and they would never get close enough for me to shoot them, even with a 400mm lens.

Since I'm rambling, anyway, I thought I'd throw in the lyrics to one of my favorite songs from 6th grade camp, where the girls were cuter and could sing sweeter than even these chickadees:

I love the mountains
I love the rolling hills
I love the flowers
I love the daffodils
I love the fireside
When the lights are low
Boom de-ah-da
Boom de-ah-da
Boom de-ah-da
Boo - oom

Tags: Mountain Chickadee Poecile gambeli Cuyamaca Rancho State Park California NaturesElegantShots BlueRibbonWinner

Stonewall Peak

N 3 B 1.6K C 6 E Jul 12, 2008 F Jul 13, 2008

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View On Black

Although it's only a 900 foot elevation gain from the trailhead at 4,870 feet to the top at 5,730 feet, the trail is two miles long, one way, and takes two hours to climb. From the top, it is possible to see all the way to the Salton Sea, to the east (the direction this shot is facing) as well as Anza-Borrego State Park, the mountains of Baja California to the south, Cuyamaca Peak (6,512 feet elevation, second highest peak in San Diego County) to the west and Lake Cuyamaca to the north. My wife and I climbed Cuyamaca Peak with our dogs a few years ago, after having responded to two search callouts in two different counties, on the same day, with both being canceled before we got in the field, but that's another story.

This image was made in the empty parking space, right next to our van, at the picnic grounds in the Paso Picacho campground in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, where our
K-9 SAR group was giving a demo for the evening campfire program. It doesn't get any easier than this.

Later, we moved on up the road a bit to the old Boy Scout camp at Hual-Cu-Cuish (burned out during and not used since the 2003 Cedar fire), for a night training, which was a lot of fun. I got to go out with Rioghan and Lauren, who is now a member, and Duffy and Janet to give them their night sign-offs. Both teams did a great job and found their subjects in short order, despite the darkness and never having been there before.

Tags: Stonewalll Peak Paso Picacho Cuyamaca Rancho State Park San Diego County California Life~As I See It HDR 3xp Photomatix Noise Ninja