Migratory animals, snowbirds all!
Time for summer, time to go north
Time for winter, time to go south
Looking for comfort in the seasonal clime.

One rabbit, two rabbits, three rabbits, four
Three little kids each and our job is done
The sun comes out and we all run off.

Three little kids, six little kids, nine little kids, twelve
One egg each and it’s Easter morn.
Momma, momma, look  --  it’s the Easter bunny!

This poem is an expression of my favorite Easter Bunny story.  Two families, with 12 kids between them, went camping over Easter weekend in the 1950's.  After the kids all went to sleep, the parents hid Easter eggs on the hill behind their campsite.  In the morning, when the sun rose and the kids awoke, there was one bunny hopping across the hillside.  Those 12 kids will ALL believe in the Easter Bunny!

On Sunday I drove to Carlsbad with three purposes in mind:  to see the Flower Fields, to shop in the outlet mall that is adjacent to the Flower Fields, and to see if I could determine what a desalination plant looks like by seeing the one they are building in Carlsbad.  It was the first nice weekend in a month, and the beginning of Spring Break, and it was folly to think that I would find a parking place anywhere near where I wanted to be!  I was able to park along a road that crosses the top of the Flower Fields, and to view what was truly a carpet of striped color!

On the right edge of the above shot is a power plant serving Carlsbad and some of the surrounding San Diego suburbs.  To the right of it is where they are building a desalination plant which should be completed and operational in about a year from now.  As I drove around town, I was able to locate a couple of places where they are doing related road work -- there will apparently be underground pipes transporting water.  Next to the power plant, there are two huge water tanks that will apparently hold newly desalinated water before it goes off to other places.  The right hand side of the next shot shows what it will look like when completed (under all those huge cranes).

My ulterior purpose in wanting to see this is that Santa Barbara will fight building such a plant "because it will be unsightly, right by the ocean."   They will do everything they can to delay such construction until it is an emergency and they will have to put up temporary structures to house a plant.  If they would begin now, perhaps they could have a plant built by the time they run out of water in the drought we are having!

The Flower Fields are growing ranunculus for the flowers and for the corms, which will be sold on the open market, largely in Armstrong Nurseries, a chain company in Southern California.  Near home there is an Armstrong Nursery known for a different display of color -- on the way home, I drove around the parking lot, shooting their colorful display.

 

And I couldn't do this drive without stopping by Dana Point Harbor.  First, my favorite stand of cactus:

There was a tall ship sailing along the outside of the harbor.

And that large piece of equipment that the sheriff was escorting along the channel earlier in the week found its place -- it's underneath the right side of the bridge, which they are repairing.

Rain in the Spring
Brings carpets of green

A trip to the shore
Carpets of blue

Rain in the Spring
Brings carpets of flowers

A view of the colors
Carpets of love

Satellites and pingers
Where could it be?

Ships and airplanes
Where could it be?

Hearing a signal
Where could it be?

Confusion now over
What to do? 

Simply extraordinary!

.
I'm a day late on this one, but I awoke to the news that China is reporting a possible signal from a pinger locator, but simply added confusion to an already confused messy search for MH307. It struck me as extraordinary that there should be any confusion at all in a coordinated search.  Is China sending out false signals again; are they trying to hide capabilities again?  Wasn't it the Australians who had an American pinger locator?  So many questions -- where could it be?!

Spring has sprung
The daffodils are blooming
Spring has sprung
The winter rains beginning

Winter is over
Nature is confused
Winter is over
The heater’s coming on

Spring has sprung
Earthquakes abound
Winter is over
The birds are nesting

If you believe
Spring has sprung
Winter is over
If you believe

When I lived in Honolulu in the early 1970's, there was a TV commercial for a bread company.  One of the venerable Hawaiian Aunties read a legend to her grandchild -- the child asked "really?" and the Auntie responded "If you believe."  Still, 40 years later, I can remember the tone of wonder in that interchange!

I do believe -- and for that, I frequently visit the birds at Dana Point.  I visited earlier this week, but the weather was not conducive to a good interactive visit, and the following was the activity I found.

The clouds from a storm that went through the night before were moving off to the east -- the clouds for the next night's storm had not yet formed in the opposite direction.

Outside the Harbormaster's office, the red flag is a warning that it's windy outside the harbor -- sailing is strongly discouraged if there is a small craft warning.

But the Sheriff's Office used the time to good advantage, helping guide a barge with some heavy equpment up the channel.  When they got to the first bend, they let down the two pilings in front -- I hope to be able to update what is going on in a future post, but I rather expect it has to do with dredging the sandbar, which has grown very rapidly since the last dredge.

If you believe -- spring is definitely in the air in Southern California!

Memories
Friends
Simplicity
School
Picnics

Traffic
Bulbouts
Roundabouts
Population limits
Friends

It's free verse -- just some thoughts about my hometown!

Poetry is tough

I will attempt a haiku

It's simple as that!

Oh, dear -- I can't even figure out how to make my 'poem' come out in single space format in this new Xanga!  This will have to do for today, but I will attempt some of the prompts through the month, interspersed with heron photos!

UPDATE Saturday 8 pm

It's now 23 hours after last night's 5.1 quake, and there has been considerable damage uncovered in the light of day -- several apartments in a Fullerton complex have been condemned due to cracks in the walls, a thoroughfare street (not a freeway) has been closed because of the potential for rockslides (a slide last night overturned a car, causing slight injuries), and everybody's nerves are a little frayed.  There have been over 300 aftershocks recorded, most of which were not felt by anybody, but one this afternoon was a 4.1.  The experts are saying that this is at the high end of the range of aftershocks expected.  It's time for the news media to talk about something else again!

Original Post

We have had a series of earthquakes this evening -- 3.6, 5.1, 3.4, and 3.6 in the last hour and a half.  They were centered in LaHabra, about 20 miles from here, all in roughly the same place.  For those who know the area, it was just north of Disneyland (the rides are now shut down for precautionary reasons).  There is apparently a water main break, and a rock slide in a rural area.  As usual after an earthquake, the fire trucks are on patrol, and there's a lot of chatter on the news -- it will settle down and we'll know more in an hour or so. 

I felt the second one quite strongly, and heard some stuff rattling downstairs.  The news people are saying that they thought somebody was shaking their truck!  So far, I am safe, and they say that there is only a 5% chance of a stronger shock in the next 24 hours.  Meantime, think of me riding the waves of the quaking earth!

When we reached the end of the road along the harbor channel, our eyes looked up to the great blue herons -- up 50 feet.  At first, there was little sound, and we could see what seemed like only one heron in the nests.  Looking closely, that one became two in the nest.

 

It then appeared that each nest housed at least two birds.  This one had three.

 

Moving on, another pair.

Then we saw single birds watching over their nests from the next tree.

Around the parking lot, there was a pair in the treetop, with a single bird in a branch below.

It's always a nice break for the neck to look down for a moment and watch the whale watchers return from their noon cruise.

We said good-bye to the colony of herons, and walked back along the canal's edge, watching and listening.  As Gary was listening and trying to locate a different bird high in a tree, Mr. Heron flew silently in and settled on the rocks by the canal.

Wanting a side view, I moved one step.  I thought I had disturbed him, but instead, he just stretched his wings and resettled.

He looked around, rejecting several possibilities, then picked up a twig suitable for the nest.

And off he went to take the twig back up to his nest.

As much as I would like to show the twig added the nest, it was taken back to one of the nests we had just left, 50 feet high, and a little difficult to spot from below!  We continued on across the bridge and back to where we had left our cars, thus ending a wonderful afternoon.

Friday was the beginning of our June Gloom weather -- foggy in the morning, with the sun burning through for a nice afternoon.  RighteousBruin was in town, having seen his son off on a deployment, and waiting for an event in the evening.  We had planned to have lunch at the Dana Point Marina.  After lunch, we took off on a long walk around the inner portion of the marina.  I'll split this post in two, showing some vignettes of the harbor in this part, and herons in the second part (only because it makes more sense that way)!  The part of the harbor that we saw was defined by two breakwaters, a road, and a bridge over the marina.  There was a light breeze, breaking up the reflections, but creating a nice effect of its own.  As we crossed over the marina, I noticed a rather nice looking catamaran tied up along the center aisle.

Coming up beside them were two boys in a raft -- a nice contrast!

We reached the breakwater side, and stopped momentarily at the statue of Richard Henry Dana, for whom the harbor is named.  The sun seems always to be behind this statue, so it's difficult to get a good shot. 

There seems to be an interesting evolutionary thing happening with the ground squirrels that live along the edge of the channel -- a mixing of blonde squirrels into the population of brown squirrels.  The following shots have not been edited for color -- and each one is of a different animal. 

         

 

Looking up, I saw a pair of little birds, bigger than a hummingbird, but smaller than a finch.  This one sat on the flower for a long time, while the other disappeared into a street lamp.

A passerby noticed that we were taking a lot of photos, and pointed out a couple of oyster catchers that we had not seen. 

    

And, of course, we stopped to watch the boats coming in and out of the harbor.

While we were watching the herons at the entrance to the harbor, a whale-watching boat returned from its noontime 2-hour cruise.

And, on the way back around the marina, I couldn't resist this shot!

The next post will show the herons -- they were quite wonderful!

Yesterday, I was at Dana Point Harbor for just a few minutes.  There were few birds there at the time (I think they probably were out foraging for food), so I turned my attention to the harbor itself.  Several people have asked about the first boat shot in  my previous post -- I don't know more specifically what the boat is, but I believe it's some sort of fishing boat.  I took shots of a couple of other boats with much the same basic structure -- the crow's nest on the mast, and the long crane-like structure off the bow.

I expect that the 'crow's nest' is used for searching for fish, and the extension off the bow is probably part of a mechanism to raise nets full of fish.  If anybody knows differently, please feel free to let me know in comments.

The brig Pilgrim was active with school children on board -- it appeared that the children were being given an introduction to life on a brig, but perhaps not to sail at this particular time (hopefully these kids will be able to sail later in the season).  As I watched, the Captain (a different Captain than the one I photographed last spring) was talking to the children about what it was like to sail on a brig, and the crew was working on the rigging.  I am always intrigued by the rigging detail on this boat --  these photos emphasize some of the detail.

 And a lot of lazy or recreatonal afternoon activity within the harbor.

As I stopped about half way along the breakwater to watch the sailing races, somebody pointed out that there was a heron right at the channel's edge choosing twigs to take back to its nest.  Just as they said that, this heron took off, twig in mouth, headed back to the nests.  In my next post, we'll see more of this bird.

About ten days ago, I visited the harbor at Dana Point again for a few minutes.  On the way there, I saw evidence that the ground was grateful for the little bit of rain we had during the previous 4 days -- there is a color green!

There were a few herons in their nests, though not many, as it was too early in the afternoon and they were out fishing.

On a weekend afternoon, the entrance to the channel was quite busy!

I visited the harbor again today, and will post more photos in a day or two.

Having been away for the greater part of two weeks, when I returned from Borego Springs I went to Dana Point to see the Great Blue Herons.  This was still before there was any rain, and it was still quite warm.  I found a few birds, though not as many as the last couple of years.  And this late afternoon shot of a favorite boat that happened to be in the harbor.

A first glance found a couple of birds resettling in the trees.

           

Looking farther, though, I found a sentinel,

 

a very curious bird -- he seems to be saying "who are you, with that thing at your eye?" --

    

This pair was making a tremendous racket -- unfortunately one was behind the tree, but they were swaying back and forth, and clacking their beaks at each other.  I had interpreted this as a part of a mating ritual -- but later learned that it might be a helping ritual, cleaning each other's teeth or some similar routine. 

As I watched, there was one more bird.  The tree in which a black-crested night heron nested in previous years seems to have died, and it appeared that this might be the night heron re-establishing itself in the larger tree. 

As usual, I turned to look at the harbor as well, and there was a flurry of activity there as well.

     

    

And a little drama this time as well.  Apparently a boat had run into difficulty outside the harbor, had been towed by the 'Vessel Assist' crew, and was being lashed to and brought into the harbor.

 

On the way to and from Borrego Springs, I pass by two sides of Lake Henshaw.  It is a small lake, with an earthfill dam at one end, and was probably placed there for agricultural purposes.  On the way home, I found a pullout along the road where I could take a few photos -- the lake looks pretty dry, and is suffering the drought just as much as all others in the area.

Interestingly, though, this is the first herd of cattle that I've seen this spring (if it's big enough to be called a herd!).  Most of the ranchers have sold their herds to cut their financial losses -- there's no grass on the hills, and it's too expensive to purchase the hay to feed them.

This stop brought me back to reality after the surreal visit to Salvation Mountain and East Jesus!  And last week we had 4 days of rain, in which we gained about a week's worth of usable water.  It's now back to our summer 80 degree days, but with snow on top of the mountains, and no likely rain in the forecast!  And we're back to summer time, with longer days! 

Just on the other side of the berm that makes up Salvation Mountain, the scene becomes even more bizarre.  During the early part of the 20th Century, there was an army base in the Imperial Valley, east of the Salton Sea.  When the base was closed, all the structures were removed except for the concrete slabs on which they were built.  The area where the structures were has now been nicknamed Slab City, and there is quite an active community of "snowbirds" who land on Slab City when the snow is too intense for them farther north.  Each slab is "inhabited" by an RV, and there appear to be neighborhoods of a sort developed around groups of slabs.  The innermost neighborhood has named itself East Jesus, and touts itself as "an experimental, habitable, extensible artwork in progress."   Translated, that is an more current hippie community.

After a nice lunch in Niland, we drove the few miles out to Slab City and East Jesus to see the "art gallery."  As we drove up, we were greeted by this ark, and an archway entryway.  In the background of the ark photo, you can see the back side of Salvation Mountain.

From inside, the next shot looks back through the entryway arch towards the parking area.

Let's just walk around the "gallery."

A sundial -- we were not able to figure out how it tells time!

There's a pretty extensive bottle wall, ever being expanded.

Notice the gate made of a car door, and the open geodesic dome.

 

An old bus, sinking into the sand.

The entire time we walked around this display of art, we saw nobody else, but behind the gate we were able to hear afternoon conversation.  As we left the area, we saw evidence that there were people around, but only a couple of people, apparently hitching a ride to Niland (we did not pick them up!  I was quite happy when we returned to the relative civilization of Niland!

Leaving the Salton Sea, we drove just a couple of miles to a small village known as Niland.  Niland is a "Census-Designated Place," encompassing 0.402 square miles, and home to approximately 1,000 people.  It is (or, more accurately, was) apparently a support town for the agriculture of this area of the Imperial Valley.  As we drove into town, there were a couple of businesses that were closed, and one small cafe where we had lunch.  The entire village is about two blocks long in each direction from the central crossroads.  After lunch, we moved another couple of miles to a place known as Salvation Mountain. 

Salvation Mountain is described in Wikipedia as "an art installation covering a hill in the Colorado Desert, north of Calipatria near Slab City, and several miles from the Salton Sea."  The art work is made from adobe, straw, and thousands of gallons of paint -- it was created by "local resident" Leonard Knight (who died in February 2014 after 2 years in a care facility for dementia).  Caifornia's Senator Barbara Boxer has described it to Congress as "a unique and visionary sculpture...a national treasure...profoundly strange and beautifully accessible, and worthy of the international acclaim it receives."  Given that description, let's just walk around for a minute.

And then let's look at some of the interior structure of the mountain.

There are people who are trying to keep Salvation Mountain alive -- and there is a fund-raising effort to accomplish that goal (my host posed for this shot).

I do hope that Salvation Mountain survived the four days of heavy rains that we had last week! 

Several million years ago, the Colorado River flowed through the Imperial Valley (south and east of Palm Springs) to the northern end of the Sea of Cortes (where Baja California splits off from the rest of Mexico).  Over time, the river delta was blocked by silt, and the river flowed in a different direction.  In the early 20th Century, the Colorado River flooded, and broke through diversion canals in the then-active irrigation canals.  In correcting this situation, a lake was left behind in the Imperial Valley -- because it had no outlet to the sea, this lake became very saline, and was thus named the Salton Sea.  The Salton Sea sits on top of the San Andreas (earthquake) Fault, and is approximately 15 x 35 miles in size.  During the mid-century years, a very active recreational community built up on the western side of the lake, the lake became a stopping point for migrating birds on the Pacific Flyway, and there was a US Army base a few miles east of the lake.  In the middle of a desert, the lake is gradually drying up, and becoming more saline.

On one of the days when I was with friends in Borrego Springs, they took me on a tour of the southern end and the southeastern side of the Salton Sea.  I was amazed at some of the things we discovered.  Our first stop was at the Federal side of a restoration area for the Pacific Flyway.  As we neared the bird refuge, we noticed a lot of agricultural activity -- there is a major allocation of Colorado River water sent to the Imperial Valley each year for agriculture.  There were numerous stacks of hay bales similar to this, grown for local cattle, for a feed yard, and for export to other uses in Southern California (the daughter of a friend of mine purchases Imperial Valley hay for her horse boarding facilities).

We saw many fields of alfalfa, vegetables, and flowers along the way (more about those smoke-stacks along the way).

We saw only two or three birds at the bird refuge -- it's not quite the right time of year for the birds, and it's no longer the attractive place for them as it used to be before the salinity became too high.

 

There really is a lake -- and this poor bird had a broken leg (or is it protecting a nest).

And there was even a group of birds "walking on water"!

 

Now about those smoke-stacks -- that's actually steam, and the stacks are cooling towers for power plants converting geothermal energy into electricity.  There are several plants in the area, owned by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and they are drilling the wells to create more plants.  Since San Onofre Nuclear Plant was shut down, there has been a lot of discussion about the fact that our power generation is primarily coming from aging coal-fired plants.  I had no idea that LADWP is also using geothermal energy!  The plants basically extract hot water from the ground, convert it to steam which drives turbines, then ship the resultant electricity to Los Angeles, and cool the steam.

There is an area, between several power plants, known as the Mud Pots.  The ground here is dried mud -- thick enough to support people, but thin enough that the hot water has created little volcano-like formations.    Although there were "no trespassing" signs, we walked out to the mud pots and watched them bubble, in some cases from depressions, and elsewhere from holes in the tops of the "volcanoes."

The first mud pot we watched was actually water, bubbling at each end of this depressed puddle.

We moved on to some bubbling pots in depressed holes.

       

As the mud builds into a "volcano," the bubbling mud flows down the hill, similarly to lava flows.

The next couple of flows were fresher -- the mud was still wet.

 

There is not truly a volcano beneath this area -- it's more like the geysers in Yellowstone National Park, but still not likely to shoot a geyser into the air.  It was definitely a fun place to explore, though, watching the mud pots bubbling, and listening to the bubbles as well. 

As I have indicated, I spent part of last week visiting friends in Borrego Springs.  As I drove down to the valley, I noticed a new feature that was not there two years ago.  I wasn't sure what it might be, but thought it might be a solar power plant.

I asked my friends about it, and was told that it is, indeed, a power plant, and supplies not only the Borrego Springs but also sells power back to the grid in San Diego.  It appears that they may be planning to expand it.  During my visit, we went to see it at ground level -- through the fence here, it looks almost like a vineyard -- each of the little squares is a solar panel.

This shot was taken through a gap in the gate, and shows the panels more clearly.

 

 

This is the main gate to the plant, with a site map showing the extent of the plant and a light fixture (solar powered) at the top of the sign.

There's a small control house on-site, but it appears that it is mostly controlled remotely.

When I arrived, I also noticed a new feature on the mountains behind the house.  Late last August there was a deluge in the mountains, and the sand sluiced down the mountain and across a wash that passed the back of the house.  It actually cut a path through their 'yard,' across their property, under the bus, and on down the hill.  Here you can see an 'S' shaped patch of sand where the flood came down.

And in the next shot you can see it cutting across the back yard (that's a road in the background).

We walked down the wash for a little way after I first got there -- and another day we drove up the canyon to see where the sand came down.  It was quite dramatic!

Last time I visited, I wrote about a shrine on the rocks up this canyon -- this shot shows how much more sand there is there now -- the placque used to be at shoulder height!

 

Because there has been so little rain since then, there are few flowers in the desert -- we did see a few, though.  First, a low plant in the lupine family.

The barrel cactus are beginning to bud out.

There have also been serious winds during the last summer and this winter.  My friends have become friendly with the artist, and wanted to take photos to show him the damage to the bird's wing.

When we got home that afternoon, we moved their yard-art turtle so it could be seen from the house.

It's been raining off and on overnight -- it just started again, and it's pouring so hard I can't see across the road!  The wind is blowing, too!  I'm glad I don't live at the bottom of a burned-out hill!

Last week I visited my friends who live part of the year in Borrego Springs, and part of the year in Ireland.  Today I received the following link, leading to a video (promoting a Triumph motorbike) that was shot in and around Borrego Springs, as well as the road down the hill to the Anza-Borrego State Park, and briefly features Buster, my friends' London bus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZapocBKDhvY

It's been a couple of years since I last visited, and Buster had a coat of paint last summer -- she's looking very nice these days (like boats, all buses are female), with details being added all the time.  As a working bus in London, the paint was green -- because Americans think that London buses should be red, this one was painted before being shipped to America some 30 or 40 years ago.  The paint had faded badly over many years in the desert sun, and the bus is now being better maintained by its loving owner. 

I'll show more shots of our touring over the next few posts, but thought I'd share this group first.  There was a tour over the weekend of eclectic desert yard art, and Buster was the first stop on this tour.  The group then went on to a nearby home with a caboose in the back yard -- and then to a spot on the East side of the Salton Sea where there is a lot of odd yard art (a couple of future posts will feature that spot).

The markers in front were used on the streets if the bus had an emergency or breakdown situation.

The paint on the ceiling, particularly on the upper deck, was showing serious decay, in many spots having worn down to bare aluminum.  This is downstairs, newly painted this year.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been away from home, first in Santa Barbara, and then in Borrego Springs.  While in Santa Barbara, my friend and I drove over the mountains to the Santa Ynez River Valley.  I specifically wanted to see Lake Cachuma, the main water supply for Santa Barbara.  As we came over the mountain, we could see how very dry the landscape has become.

           The lake became visible as we dropped into the valley.  We could immediately tell that the water level is very low.        

We drove in to the County Park, which I had never previously visited.  There are many good views of the lake, among the camping and boating opportunities offered there.  We began by driving to the boat launch area, and standing at the top of the launch.  In the next shot, the area is flat to the line where the concrete becomes striated, then it drops at about a 45 degree angle.  There is a small 'marina,' with two floats -- they are usually anchored at water level so that people can walk out to their boats.

 Looking up and out, there is a car driving across the lake bed on what was once a road before the dam was built in the mid-1950's.  That car will soon cross a bridge that nobody has seen since then!  There were a number of birds of prey enjoying new access to rodents now inhabiting the lake bed.

Please stand and gaze with me at the various sights, looking in particular at the low water level.  First a view across the lake.  The boom would normally run across to the left-hand point, keeping debris back from the back of the dam and the spillways.

This sign was at the launch area -- in normal times it has meaning, but that meaning has definitely changed now.

An anchor for one of the marinas, normally under water.

The shoreline, normally under water.  The normal water line when the lake is full of water is at approximately the level where the water visually goes behind the hill on the left -- and you can see well across the lake how low the water line is.

Another shot of the high water line.  Just beyond the boat launch area is the beginning of an extensive camping area.  There are a few yurts on the hill, and a large trailer park.

We drove around till we could see the back of the dam, with the spillways on the left side.  I had seen (but not believed) a photo of a man standing on concrete at the bottom of the spillways, and wanted to see it for myself!

From where I stood, I turned to the left, and saw this shot that shows the low water level particularly well.

Looking back at the County Park, with the yurts on the right.

And here's another bird of prey looking for food.

There is a daily lake-level analysis in the Santa Barbara newspaper.  On that particular day, there were 76,283 acre feet of water stored in the lake.  The 24-hour evaporation was 15.7 acre feet.  There was no inflow from the river, and 48.9 acre feet being pumped in from storage in a lake farther north (there's about a month's worth of water there).  The usage of water on that day was 69.1 acre feet, and a net storage change of <49 acre feet>.  Water will run out in a relatively short time at this rate!

As you've seen, there was no moisture in the air, no clouds in the sky, that day.  The next day I drove home, leaving past the beach pavilion.

From there, and as I drove down the coast, I could see an enormous fog bank hanging along the shoreline I would drive along.

As I write this, there is a prediction of rain on Wednesday, perhaps measurable, but not substantial, and on Friday we should have measurable rain up to about 2 inches.  That is a start to helping with the water issue, but won't go very far unless it is followed by additional storms.  In the past, dry years have usually completed the season with some rain in March -- we can only hope (and dance a rain dance!).

Before I begin with this post, a quick update.  Since my last post, we have had a little rain.  Coming in two 'storms,'  the area where I live has had probably about 0.2" of measurable rain plus a little in non-measurable precipitation.  In parts of Los Angeles, there was more like 1.25".  There have been more productive rains farther to the north, and the Sierra Nevada has had a good amount of snow.  This will all help with our drought situation, but is far from enough rain to pull us back from the brink.  This week is predicted to be quite warm, with temperatures approaching the low 80's.  I will be in Santa Barbara later this week, and hope to see the dam and its perimeter for myself.

This past weekend, I was invited to a special event at the San Diego Zoo, spotlighting their three polar bears, and research that is being done on global warming and its effect on the bears.  We began with a half hour observing the bears.  They are rather dirty right now -- they've been rolling in the sand and mud!

The zoo has a male, Kalluk, and two female bears, Tatqiq and Chinook.  There has been no success in San Diego in breeding these bears, one of the questions for the researchers.  We watched for a while as the bears played and roamed their fairly large space.

Doing back flips in the pool!

The keepers

    

encouraged Tatqiq to come to 'the wall,' and to jump up on the wall, which then leaned forward at the top.  This was one of the smaller bears -- they indicated that they could not ask Kalluk to do the same, as he would be too large and too heavy for it to be safe.  They fed Tatqiq lettuce and carrots while they explained the bears, their behaviors and their current situation to our group of about 40 people.

We then went to a lower viewing area, where we could watch the bears underwater.

And LOOK at the size of those feet!

We then went indoors to hear a talk about research.  One very exciting new approach is to look at what is happening inside the dens by using radar equipment which can detect the dens and record who is inside, and what they are doing.  This will help the researachers to determine how damaging external noises may be to the bears, as well as temperatures, and use of existing dens as the climate changes.

And after that talk I stayed at the zoo for a while longer, having lunch at Albert's, a restaurant named for their oldest Orangutan, who is no longer living, and then viewing the Orangutans and the new koala enclosure.

I took this shot from my lunch table at Albert's.  Rather than fast food, this is a regular restaurant -- one of my favorite things to do when the weather cooperates is to spend a day at the zoo, broken by lunch by the waterfall at Albert's!

The new baby Orangutan was out on Saturday morning -- the mother is keeping her very protected from the other Orangutans, though.  Both mother and baby are high in this tree structure, covered by a piece of bark!  Every once in a while, a baby hand or foot would pop into view, but quickly be retrieved.

The others were relaxing within the enclosure area, also staying covered. 

            

This character was outside his cover, pulled a coconut frond over him, and peeked out the other side!

He then tired of that game, and came outside to sit and watch what was happening.

I was last at the zoo in early January -- since then, they have opened a new Australian Outback exhibit.  I went to see this area, and especially the koalas.

Wallabies

And more koalas.

Walking back to the exit, past the flamingo pond, I stopped to watch the parade and to take a few more shots!

I'm not sure who this interloper was -- perhaps a peacock, judging from the pose and the noise.

And a female mallard duck hid under the bush.

UPDATE 2/3/14

Over the weekend, we have had two "storms" come through Southern California.  The first was not very productive -- no measurable rain, and just damp sidewalks in a few areas.  Last night, though, there was measurable rain for the first time in 44 days!  The amount varied by locale, but I've heard numbers ranging from 0.1 inch to 0.5 inches, with the larger amounts closer to the mountains.  This is far from enough to help fill reservoirs, but it is a start, and most of it will have soaked into the ground.  We still need many more overnight rains, and some soaking all-day rains, but this is a good start.  It is cooler today, and there are winter clouds in the sky.  We are to have weather like this for the next few days, but there is rain in the longer-range forecast for a change!

ORIGINAL POST 1/31/14

For those of you buried in snow and cold, I'd like to present the alternative, which is happening in California right now.  Keep in mind that the following photos were all taken in August, 2013.  Bradbury Dam is situated on the Santa Ynez River, behind Santa Barbara.  It is the primary water supply for Santa Barbara, and a reservoir for some of the water that is purchased from State water supplies.  Normally its lake, Lake Cachuma, would supply Santa Barbara and downriver agriculture for about 5 years.  In August, the water was evaporating at a rate faster than the daily usage, and the lake was lowering very quickly each day -- at that time it was about a 2-year lake.  There was no water flowing in from the river, which dries up in the summers.  Looking across the lake, you can see that the water level is quite low.  Upstream from this area, there were sections of the lake which had no water in them at all, where the natural vegetation was already beginning to take over the lake bed.

           

Since August, there has been one rainy day, in which a measurable amount of rain landed in the lake.  Otherwise, we have had no rain at all.  The normal rainfall in a year is about 15-16 inches of rain -- in all of 2013, there was a total of 3.6 inches.  And in January, there has been no measurable precipitation in Southern California --during the last couple of days, we've had damp sidewalks, but that from mist and drizzle, and nothing measurable. 

    

Over the last month or so, there have been news photos of the road bridges that were flooded in the 1950's when the lake was first allowed to fill in the 1950's -- bridges that haven't been seen since then.  In the last couple of days I read a report that it is now possible to stand on dry land just behind the base of the dam.

For the past week, we have been receiving warnings about the water supply in all of California.  There have been requests for voluntary usage cuts of 20%, with alerts that if there was no rain by March, these requests would be mandatory.  A week later, the cuts are mandatory in most of the State, and there is virtually no prospect of rain. There is an elaborate system of distributing water throughout the State -- Sierra Nevada snowmelt runs into Folsom Dam (originally built as a flood control dam); and the American and Sacramento Rivers run through Sacramento and much of their water is diverted into the California Aqueduct, which is a canal through the State to the south; and water is purchased from the Colorado River when needed to assist in Southern California.  But this year Folsom Dam is also dry -- there was a picture in yesterday's news of a man standing on the lake bed next to marina slips that he said were 100 feet below where the water level would normally be.  And the snow pack in the Sierra Nevada is almost non-existent (it hasn't rained or snowed in Northern California either).  And the Colorado River is also running very low -- there are villages appearing now that nobody has seen since Lake Mead was first filled behind Boulder Dam.

The Governor indicated last week that the flow of  State water would be 5% of the normal allocation -- and this week that has been reduced to 0%.  There are small towns in Northern California that have already begun to run completely out of water -- the Governor has said that he is considering ways to reverse the flow of the Aqueduct, as well as other measures, in order to send water to those small towns.  Supplies are distributed through a maze of water districts, some of which are in better shape than others -- I happen to live in a water district that has had a fairly successful conservation program, and has nearly met its goal of 20% reduction in usage over the last couple of years.  The question then becomes how they propose to cut another 20% of usage as that becomes mandatory.  LA has mandated reductions already -- no watering lawns, no washing cars (except with recycled water), suggestions of flushing toilets only when necessary, and so forth.

I expect to be in Santa Barbara in a couple of weeks, and hope to drive over the mountain to see the lake -- there will surely be photos if I do, and I will post them when I return.

In the meantime, while I definitely understand your discomfort in the extremely cold temperatures this winter, I would ask you to consider the alternative -- a life without water -- and the implications of that life.  Please enjoy your snow, in its visual beauty and its ability to meet the needs of human life.

Yesterday I had lunch with a friend at a favorite golf course restaurant.  It was a lovely day, although the clouds had diffused from almost watercolor-like clouds to an overall film of cloud.  Saddleback Mountain stood out from the clouds very nicely.  But what was most noticeable was how dry the golf course appeared.  Normally it would be lovely green grass at this time of year, watered by a month or so of rainy days.  Yesterday, we saw a very brown, dry course, with green only on the putting greens!

As we finished lunch, I noticed the reflections on the lake of the grass, and of the rushes.

And as I edited this shot, I noticed all the birds lined up along the edge of the putting green in the background.  I hope there is enough water for the grass to grow again and provide enough food for the birds!