Fireworks

I spent July 4th recovering from paper deadline hell with my ISI colleagues at Burton Chace Park in Marina del Rey, which puts on a nice fireworks display over the water in the marina. Very enjoyable. Click here to judge for yourself how successful (or not) I was at photographing fireworks.

Not California (or: Columbus Zoo)

I had to attend a conference in Columbus, Ohio recently, so I stayed an extra day to see the Columbus zoo. My guidebook claimed that it has one of the best reptile collections in the U.S, and that's all I needed to hear. :) The conference banquet was held at the zoo a few days before my planned visit, and I began to worry that I'd made a mistake. The zoo is poorly laid out, and the map is atrocious, so the zoo seemed ordinary at first glance. But the zoo did live up to expectations! The reptile collection truly was outstanding, and I fell in love with an extremely active and photogenic Mexican Beaded Lizard. The Komodo dragon exhibit was the best I've seen (and I've seen many Komodo dragon exhibits :) with a huge 3-dimensional outdoor enclosure. I watched a beautiful dragon take a leisurely stroll tongue-flicking through the grass before climbing up a rocky ledge to bask in the sun. I felt as though I was watching a dragon in the wild! The animal enclosures were unusually spacious, and the zoo has an eclectic variety of animals (especially since it isn't all that big, though it isn't small), so the high proportion of exotic animals is what stands out.

The most special exhibit was a pair of manatees. Manatees are such utterly improbable animals. They look like they couldn't possibly survive in the wild (well, I guess they aren't doing a particularly good job of it, but only because of people). One of the manatees was rescued by Sea World personnel after a boat mangled her tail, and many surgeries were performed to save her. Manatees usually rely on their extraordinarily powerful tails to propel them through the water and they don't use their flippers much, but a zookeeper pointed out that if you watch the injured manatee you can see that she uses her flippers a lot more than her companion. When I asked if they are smart, the keeper said she didn't know but that she'd observed one adult manatee help nudge a reluctant baby manatee into the bigger tank with the adults. I also watched one manatee seemingly groom the other.

I struck up a conversation with the orangutan keeper as well. I'd heard that orangutans were extremely intelligent and legendary escape artists who had been known to pick locks. The keeper more than confirmed what I'd heard. She said that she regularly finds straw in the locks of their enclosure (!), and that in her opinion the orangutans are the smartest of all the apes. The other apes (e.g., chimps) are easily distracted (e.g., by a noise or something shiny). But not the orangutans -- when they work on a task, their attention stays focused and they will persist. They have incredible memories and will come back to things later. And they learn extremely fast -- can pick up a new word in just 2 days.

And you gotta love this story. The orangutans like to bring sticks into their indoor enclosure and hide them in their "loft". If the keepers leave anything outside the door of their cage, the orangutans will wait until the keeper has gone, use the stick to pull the item into their enclosure, and then stash it away in their loft. Their favorite items are garden hoses! When they want to have fun, they bring the stolen garden hose down from the loft and display it to a keeper. The annoyed zookeeper then painstakingly pulls the hose through the bars of the cage -- this takes a while because hoses are heavy and long! When the hose is just about out, at the very last minute the orangutan hooks a single (incredibly powerful) finger around the last segment of the hose and instantly yanks the whole thing back into its cage. You just know the orangutan is laughing its ass off at the stupid human!

Photos live here (warning: reptiles are disproportionately represented ;)

Santa Barbara

During my stay in CA, I have asked many people for advice on interesting things to see and places to go in the Los Angeles area. One recommendation that seemed to be on everyone's list was Santa Barbara. However, every time I asked what exactly there was to see in Santa Barbara, the response was always the same: the person would pause, stare blankly ahead for a few seconds, and then shrug and simply say, "It's nice."

Curiosity finally got the better of me, so I drove to Santa Barbara to find out for myself. And I hereby report, with the utmost sincerity, that "It's nice". Very nice!

I now completely understand all the generic responses. There are a lot of things to do and see in Santa Barbara (none of which I did or saw!), including museums, missions, Spanish-style architectured buildings, a zoo, a botanical gardens, etc. (Unfortunately, I was only there for a day, and a short one at that.) But what stands out is that the area is very pretty and has a smaller and more charming, almost "quaint", feel to it than the coastal areas closer to the bustling metropolis of LA.

I spent my day exploring the waterfront area, including Stearns Wharf and The Santa Barbara Harbor. Stearns Wharf is essentially a glorified, extra-wide pier with many stores, restaurants, a Sea Center, and other typical Californian establishments. I happened upon a few Sea Center personnel hauling up clumps of kelp from the ocean. They carefully inspected the kelp for fish and mollusks that might be hiding within, and then snipped off seaweed samples to add to their exhibits. I also learned that Santa Barbara was (and still is) a major commercial fishing area.

A long breakwater wall surrounds the harbor area, and you can walk down a path along the full length of the wall, which is cool except that you run the risk of being soaked by huge waves that regularly break against the wall and dump lots of (slippery) seaweed all over the place. I enjoyed a Wild Kingdom moment when I discovered a small sea lion sitting on the rocks just below the breakwater wall. I jumped up onto the wall to snap some photos, and observed that the sea lion had discolored fur and possible injuries around its head and neck. As I began to worry about the poor fellow, some Harbor Patrol guys showed up with a giant net (which looked eerily like the prototypical dog catcher nets in Sunday morning cartoons!). I asked them if the sea lion was sick, and they replied matter-of-factly: "If we can catch him, then he is." A few minutes later, one guy slowly approached the sea lion and then suddenly lunged at him, trying to trap him in the net. But the sea lion took off like a shot and escaped, swimming off into the ocean with terror in his eyes. Hopefully the sea lion is healthy after all!

Have I mentioned that California is the most dog-friendly place I've ever been? Dogs are everywhere, especially Chihuahuas and other small breeds. In Santa Barbara, I did a few double-takes as I observed some boats with a human family and their dog, and other boats with a dog family and their human.

The full set of pictures can be found here.

Huntington Beach

Another weekend, another beach. Huntington Beach is well-known for being surfer paradise, so I ventured southward to see surfers in their native habitat. I wasn't disappointed. The density and quality of the surfers was impressive. The ocean was filled with surfers, who were further from shore than I am used to seeing in Venice, and many were extremely good! It was fun to watch the surfers ride the waves for long periods of time.

The beach was filled with volleyball courts and people, including a few who were flying kites, such as this super-cool shark kite. (Speaking of kites, I saw a totally awesome macaw kite at the local beach recently.) The Huntington Beach pier was surprisingly nice. It was clean, spacious, and for some reason (possibly my imagination) seemed to have an especially expansive view of the ocean. I also witnessed a fisherman catch an odd-looking sting ray, which flipped upward to reveal its mouth before curling up and showing its dorsal fins. I'm guessing it is a thornback ray. And I finally got a decent picture of a sea lion, who was swimming near the pier.

The touristy area around the beach was small, consisting of a Surfer's Hall of Fame with statue in front, a Surfer's Walk of Fame, and ~2 blocks of restaurants and shops, many of which were named after Duke. I didn't see it, but apparently there is also an International Surfing Museum. My main regret, however, is that I just missed the Duck-a-Thon! Damn, that would have been fun...

The Living Desert

On those rare occasions when it's cold and dreary in LA, the perfect antidote lies just 120 miles to the east, where the desert is perpetually sunny and warm. Last Sunday, I drove to Palm Desert to visit a zoo / botanical gardens called The Living Desert. While it was cloudy and struggling to break 60 degrees in LA, the sun was bright and the temperatures were in the 80s in beautiful Palm Desert. :)

The Living Desert specializes in animal and plant life of desert ecosystems, similar to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tuscon, AZ. The Living Desert isn't on a par with the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (which is absolutely world-class wonderful - if you haven't been, you must go!), but it was nice and had interesting exhibits. Some of the more unusual animals included hyenas, bat-eared foxes, a Mexican wolf, and a thirsty gila monster. Scattered around the grounds were palm trees, of course, and also beautiful animal sculptures. The weather was perfect on this day, but there were reminders that the desert can get brutally hot.

On the way back, I stopped in Palm Springs for a few hours to see this famous but strange town. The cities of Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, and Palm Springs are small islands of civilization plopped down in the middle of an empty desert. As you walk along a "downtown" street, if you stop and peer down a side street you will see a barren desert landscape seemingly just a few blocks away. Palm Springs is more touristy than I expected, and clearly has a substantial retirement community. It also had some nice galleries and artsy shops, where I was tempted to buy funky reptilian wall art.

The full set of pictures is here.

Grunion

Mother Nature is impossibly creative. The most imaginative minds couldn't dream up a fish that lays its eggs on land. But that is exactly what the grunion do.

Grunion are silvery fish about 5-6 inches long that seasonally come up onto southern California beaches and lay their eggs in the sand. About twice a month from March through July, during the periods of high tide, the grunion swim toward the shore and let the waves carry them onto the beach. The female burrows deep into the sand, tail first, and lays her eggs. While she is depositing her eggs, male fishes wrap themselves around her and release their sperm "milk", which drizzles down the length of the female's body and into the hole with the eggs, fertilizing them. When the deed is done, the fish wiggle and flop back toward the ocean and the next big wave returns them to the sea. Sometimes it takes a while for the next big wave to come, but the grunion can survive on land for up to 20 minutes!

For this astounding ritual to be successful, the timing must be exquisitely precise. The grunion mysteriously know to begin spawning just after the peak of the high tide. This gives the eggs the maximum amount of time to develop undisturbed in the sand before the next high tide cycle, and it is also the time when waves deposit sand on beaches, covering the eggs with an additional protective layer of sand. Roughly two weeks later, during the beginning (pre-peak) period of the next high tide cycle, the waves draw sand away from the beach, gradually uncovering the eggs. When the fish eggs are agitated by sea water, they instantly hatch and the baby grunion are carried out to sea. The fish literally pop out of their shells instantaneously when a wave washes over them so that the very same wave sweeps them away to the ocean.

On Wednesday night, I went to the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and took part in their "Meet the Grunion" program to witness this grand event. First, you watch a short documentary about the grunion, which is where I learned the factoids above. :) The aquarium staff then accompany you to Cabrillo Beach and help you spot the fish and explain what you're seeing. The spectacle is amazing, and I got lots of great photos, despite the fact that it was pitch dark! (This event happens very late at night: from ~10pm onward.) At times the entire length of the beach was filled with hundreds if not thousands of fish, wiggling and flopping all over the place. I could clearly identify females digging burrows, and witnessed some males wrapping themselves around the females. Once the "grunion run" (as it is called) is well underway (i.e., the momentum is strong enough that you won't scare them away anymore), you can walk right up to the fish and get as close as you want. I even peered down into one burrow and could see the orange fish eggs at the bottom. I stayed until well after midnight, watching wave after wave bring new piles of fish onto the beach. It was mesmerizing to see the fish engage in their spawning rituals with an intense purposefulness and a furious desperation to get back to the water, all too aware of their death-defying transience on land.

This was one of the most amazing exhibitions of the natural world that I have been fortunate enough to see!

Shark!

I love piers. I love the brief illusion of walking onto the water and standing in the middle of the ocean. The best piers, such as King Harbor at Redondo Beach, showcase the infinite wonders of the sea via artwork, shops, games, and, of course, ever-present fishermen. On a recent return trip to King Harbor, I discovered a restaurant that sells the freshest shrimp imaginable, witnessed a substantial haul of mackerel by a local fisherman, and watched a beautiful sunset over the Pacific.

On Saturday I drove to Seal Beach to see the second longest wooden pier in California. Disappointingly, the pier was remarkably unremarkable. It isn't noticeably longer than other piers, and it has nothing on it but a small restaurant. Seal Beach's main street, however, has some cute touristy shops, including a seashell store that had rows and rows of seashells (I would have loved this place as a kid!), a colorful kite store, and other typical Californian establishments. :)

On Sunday, I took a stroll on my local beach and, as often happens, eventually found myself on the Venice Pier. A sea lion was circling the pier, periodlcally poking his head out of the water. My binoculars revealed that he often had a fish in his mouth when he surfaced. A bit later, I noticed a pod of bottlenose dolphins swimming parallel to the beach, heading north toward the pier. I'd heard surfers claim that the dolphins often swim so close that the surfers can touch them, and I could see from my vantage point on the pier that this was true. The dolphins swam right in front of several groups of surfers, almost seeming to mingle among them. As they slowly meandered northward, the dolphin frequently stopped to engage in jumps and other acrobatics. After many failed attempts, I finally got one picture of two dolphins jumping high out of the water. At one point, the sea lion joined up with the dolphins and porpoised right alongside them.

I was so immersed in the dolphins' antics that I failed to notice a large group of people gathering on the other side of the pier. When I finally turned around, I walked right into a large crowd that was admiring a fisherman's prized catch of the day: a leopard shark! The shark was 3-4 feet long, and a magnificent animal. It was still wriggling around, desperately trying to free itself, and it was sad to watch such a beautiful animal in its last throes of life. But I felt lucky to stumble onto the event - I'd heard that local fisherman often catch shark, but I never expected to actually see one.

Quite an eventful afternoon for a casual stroll on the beach! Sometimes I feel like I live in my own personal Sea World. :)