And I thought that gulls were hard to identify. Terns are even worse. I'm pretty sure that this is a Royal Tern, ([Update] Wong! This is an Elegant Tern.) that's just coming into full breeding plumage, where the cap is solid black. I had a blast, last evening, at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, trying to capture these fascinating flyers, with their awesome aerobatics. While I was standing on the bridge, one of them dove straight down, at a high rate of speed and less than a yard away, then made a loud "plunk" below me. Others would dive at an angle, but were much too close and too fast to even think about capturing. I eventually learned that the best way to shoot them is to find one that looked like it was coming my way, then get the center point of the lens on him and while holding the shutter release 1/2 way down, try to follow him until he gets close enough to shoot.

Tags:   Elegant Tern Thalasseus elegans Sterna elegans Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve Bolsa Chica Wetlands Huntington Beach Surf City California NaturesFinest NaturesElegantShots AnAwesomeShot

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Mother Nature designed some really weird creatures and this has got to be one of the weirdest. It looks like a cross between bag pipes, a lobster, and a Formula One Dragster Monocoque.

Casque: an anatomical structure (as the horny outgrowth on the head of a cassowary) suggestive of a helmet.

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Tags:   Abyssinian Ground Hornbill Northern Ground-hornbill Bucorvus abyssinicus San Diego Wild Animal Park RubyPhotographer MY CAMERA NEVER LIES Nature Through The Lens NaturesFinest NaturesElegantShots Avian Photography AvianExcellence Bird Watcher The wonderful world of birds

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Meet my new puppy, "Roso", short for Sabroso, which is a type of chili, the English translation of the variety meaning "tasty". Chili was the breeder's theme for this litter, because the sire's name was Chile, who was probably given that name because the breeder lives in Las Cruces, NM, the Chili Capital of the World.

Chile was a great and famous show, obedience, and hunting dog, that produced many fine puppies, while he was alive. The breeder decided to freeze his semen, some of which was used for this litter, 18 years later. Chile was also my dog, Cielo's, grandfather, which makes Roso his uncle. You'd have to see them together to get an idea of how ridiculous this seems. Roso will be just 9 weeks old, next Sunday, and Cielo will be 12 in August. My first search dog, Hopi, was from a litter that was a repeat of the breeding that produced Chile, so our connections go way back.

OK, so I haven't been spending all my time trying to fix our Internet problems. We also made a trip to Phoenix and back, in one day, to pick him up. Yesterday, when the alarm went off, I felt really sleepy, but I figured it was just due to the lack of sleep from the night before. But, when I went downstairs and fed all four dogs, I noticed that the wrong show was on TV. It took me some time to figure out that the alarm was still set for 2:00 AM, but I was glad to be able to go back to bed and get a couple more hours sleep, especially since I decided to take Roso to bed with me. He squirmed and squirmed for a couple of minutes, but soon went sound asleep. I've never had the opportunity to sleep next to a more cuddly puppy than Roso.

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Tags:   Roso Sabroso Vizsla Search dog www.southwestsearchdogs.org ABigFave NaturesElegantShots mywinners

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He posed for me for 10-15 minutes, but took off as soon as another photographer came up. That was OK. I was done.

Tags:   Captive bird White-breasted Kingfisher White-throated Kingfisher Halcyon smyrnensis Owens Rain Forest Aviary San Diego Zoo NGC blinkagain NPC

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Shooting at The Drip was a bust, yesterday, so I didn't mind at all when my wife, Jan, came up behind me and said that she had seen three large old ships leaving the harbor, while on her walk, and that I should come and take a look at them. We had no idea what was going on, but it was a real adventure to have the story pieced together by three or four people that we met, including a docent from the Maritime Museum, while on different parts of the peninsula.

It seems that the Star of India, a ship which is part of the San Diego Maritime Museum and which we have seen many times before and have even been inside of on one occasion, and which is the world's oldest active sailing ship, needs to re-certify every year, in order to prove that she is still seaworthy and we just happened to be at the Monument while she was doing that. Accompanying the Star of India were two other tall ships from the Maritime Museum, the HMS Surprise and the Californian, both replica ships. It was such a thrill to learn about a piece of history and to witness it while it is still being made.

We waited around for as long as we could, but alas, they couldn't find enough wind to open their square sails. That would have been an awesome sight, especially if they had been open as they were sailing back into the harbor, so that I could get a closer shot. What a blast it must have been to be on that ship or even the sailboat behind it!

Tags:   Tall Ships Cabrillo National Monument Pt. Loma San Diego California TopShots SuperShot blinkagain

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