One Little Seahorse

While on our way to La Jolla to meet up with friends Rae and Robert, Heather and I made a brief stop at the Scripps Birch Aquarium to check out the seahorses.

  

Bernardo Winery - SD-DSLR Monthly Group Shoot - May 2011

The San Diego DSLR Photo Group held its monthly Group Shoot for May at the Bernardo Winery this morning. The winery, in Rancho Bernardo, was founded in 1889. It's a fun place to wander around with a camera, and the restaurant, Cafe Merlot, has a great lunch menu.

Click here to see more images from our morning walk around Bernardo Winery on Saturday, May 14, 2011.
    

Balboa Park Evening - Friday May 6th

On Friday, May 6th Heather and I were joined by a few friends for a picnic dinner of take-out from Phil's BBQ, followed by a little photo-walk around the Park after dark. Here are a few images.

     

Lions and Tigers and Bears . . . Oh My!

Here are a few images from some recent trips to both the San Diego Zoo (5/8) and the Zoo's Safari Park (5/4). We saw a lion up close.

The tiger had a very large fresh bone to chew on.

The grizzly bears were wrestling.

We waited a bit, and eventually Nindiri the jaguar finished her nap and went for a prowl.

I doubt that these next guys would have been too happy to see the lions or the tigers. Even I seemed suspicious to them.

We stopped in to see the hummingbirds.

The images above were all from the Zoo on 5/8. Earlier in the week I spent the afternoon at the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park (formerly known as the Wild Animal Park) in Escondido. It was getting towards the end of the Butterfly Jungle special exhibit.

And now something a little bigger.

Click here to see more images from the San Diego Zoo on Sunday, May 8, 2011.


Click here to see more images from the Safari Park on Wednesday, May 4, 2011.
   

The Lily Pond at the San Diego Botanic Garden

Heather and I took a walk around the San Diego Botanic Garden in Encinitas this morning. It was already pretty warm and bright when we got there at 9:30, but we did manage to walk almost the entire property. Here are few shots from the lily pond, and a link to a few more images from other parts of the garden.


I got lucky with this frog, there are only a couple of spots around the pond where you can get right up to the edge, and this frog just happened to be facing exactly where I was able to get to. Later he turned to his left, and I got a nice profile shot.

The flowers were equally cool.

Click here to see more images from our morning at the San Diego Botanic Garden.
   

Backyard Birds

We always have a great selection of birds in our backyard - I'm sure the large bird feeder that Heather keeps well stocked has something to do with it. Here are few, all shot this morning, starting with my favorite, the California Quail. They're great to watch as they hop their way down the hillside, or along the fence.

The doves are equally beautiful.

This time of year the hummingbirds seem particularly active.

Click here for a few more shots, and I'll be adding to that gallery as I get more.
    

Anza Borrego - Hiking in The Slot - April 30, 2011

I lead a trip to Anza Borrego Desert State Park with SCCX (the So Cal Xterra club) on Saturday, April 30. We wandered around the Buttes Pass area, then traveled up Borrego Mountain Wash as far as you can drive (it gets too narrow) then went on foot through The Slot. After that we drove up the very sandy Blow Sand Canyon and up and over the aptly named Goat Trail. Later we explored up Harper Canyon. I'm just going to put up one photo from the trip, and a link below to the rest of them.


This is Acuma, a Boston Terrier. He belongs to a club member named Brian, and has been on 3 trips with us to Anza Borrego. He's a very good natured dog, and likes to explore, but he wasn't about to try to climb up this one really steep narrow spot in The Slot, so he got to take easy way.

Click here for more pictures from Anza Borrego on Saturday.