Category Archives: wildlife

Rushing Grebes

This post doesn’t have any images sadly but I am writing it so you can go online and check something out. Nancy and I took a walk along the shoreline in Hayward. We saw something strange out in the water and, when it happened again, we realized that it was a pair of grebes running across the water. We Googled this and it turns out it is a mating dance that grebes do. They pair up and then start slapping their feet on the water so quickly that they can actually run across the surface in formation. It is called rushing and is quite amazing to watch. I can’t show you anything myself but do look it up. It is crazy stuff.

Nancy Gets the Geckos

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This time the shots I am sharing are not my own. I was there when they were taken but these were taken by Nancy. I was traveling light with one camera and a wide angle lens as we walked along the trails to the falls and Nancy was carrying her camera. It is a Nikon P900 and that thing has a phenomenal zoom range. When I saw the geckos on the leaves of the trees, there was no way I was going to be able to get a shot that showed anything of them given how small they were and the distance to them.

Nancy, on the other hand, had an ideal opportunity to get some shots of them. There were multiple geckos on the plants, some on their own, others together and some others chasing the first ones out of the way. They move very slowly for a while and then burst into action. You do end up with some shots of empty leaves as they spring away just before the shutter is pressed. However, she still got a number of them and their bright coloration really shows up well.

Moisture on the Lichen

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Rain forest conditions do tend to mean lots of moisture in the air. That much moisture means perfect conditions for the growth of lichen. The lichen do a great job of collecting the moisture from the air to keep them well watered. The way the water drops form on the surface of the plant can be really interesting. Just a small vibration would send them dropping to the plant life below but, for now, they were safe.

Roger Goes Fishing

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One evening, while having dinner near the beach, we saw a flash of wings as a bird flew down to the water’s edge and landed. It was a heron. He was standing on the rocks as the waves washed in. Every once in a while, he would catch a fish and then walk away from the water before dealing with his meal. We talked to the staff about him and they told us he was a regular feature every evening. They had even named him Roger. Each night we came by to see if Roger was there and, sure enough, there he was. Same spot each time, just standing and waiting for dinner to come to him. On our first night he was joined by a manta ray that came in very close inshore but, sadly, he never showed up again while I was there with a camera. Roger was far more reliable though.

What a Tree!

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Rain forest conditions produce plants that are uniquely able to exploit the environment. This tree was like something out of a fantasy movie. I think it was one plant but, to be honest, there would be no obvious way to tell where one ended and another started if it proved to be two or more. The branches and roots were spread everywhere. It really did seem like something that should come alive at some point and just envelope the unwary traveler. It was dark and creepy underneath its canopy. I found myself fascinated with it and looking at it from every different direction. The sad part was that it was really hard to find a shot that really conveyed the feeling you had when there.

Sea Otter Surfer

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While watching the waves come rushing in to the Santa Cruz shore, I saw something floating on the surface just a little way out. It appeared to be seaweed but that wasn’t all that was there. A look through the longer lens confirmed that a sea otter was sitting out there enjoying the ride. The clump of weed was drifting closer in so, when the waves started to break over the top, the otter would dive underneath and pop back up once the turmoil had passed. The current was taking him along the shoreline over time so we lost track of where he ended up but he seemed to be enjoying the ride quite a lot!

Turtles at Rest

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The reef by our hotel was home to some green turtles. They seemed to have developed a good schedule. Morning was feeding time. They would go out on the reef and spend their time nibbling away at the plant life growing on the rocks and coral. By early afternoon they would have pulled themselves up onto the beach in an area the hotel had fenced off to keep people away. There they would sleep all afternoon and into the night. Come by during the afternoon and you could see them. In the evening, lights on the beach would be switched on and you could still make them out a little way above the waterline.

No pictures from me of them in action. I saw plenty of them while snorkeling on the reef and sometimes they would come and check me out. You are meant to avoid disturbing them but when they come after you, it is hardly your fault. However, I did kill my GoPro while out snorkeling so the photo opportunities were lost and will have to remain as memories. Shots of them on the beach were a lot easier though so that is what we have here.

Goat Families Stripping the Vegetation

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The Big Island has a large population of wild goats. All of the larger animals on the island were introduced by the visiting peoples at some point and the goats obviously got well established. You can come across them at all sorts of places as you travel the island. I saw them a number of times but the one time I got to get shots of them was while waiting for my helicopter trip across the island. They hang around the landing pads that Sunshine Helicopters use a lot and, according to our pilot, they are not always too enthusiastic about vacating the pads when the helicopters arrive!

While we were waiting, they were certainly not shy. There were both adult goats and some kids in the group that showed up. The kids were clearly more timid and they would not go anywhere until the adults had been there a while to show that it was safe to do so. They would stay back in the bushes for a while before coming out into the open. As soon as there was any disturbance, they would jump back to somewhere that felt safer.

It was quite interesting to see how the group behaved when they first showed up. The whole group hung back in the bushes for a while. Gradually, as they realized that the people that were hanging around were not a threat, they became more comfortable in getting out in the open. Anything that disturbed the environment would get them back out of the way but they would soon become comfortable again and come back out. Indeed, we were soon so used to them that we were a bit bored with their intrusion too and we both went about our way with little concern for the other.

Rodent Miner

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Sometimes I find myself wondering what is happening in the minds of little creatures. I was out shooting when I looked to my left and saw some earth move. It was probably only a couple of meters away from where I was standing so I looked to see if it would happen again. Sure enough, some more earth came flying out of the ground. Shortly afterwards, a little head popped out. It looked at me for a moment and then went back underground. This repeated several times. I would move the camera in its direction and it would instantly dive underground. However, since I knew where to look, I just kept the camera pointed in that direction and, when it came up again, because I didn’t move, it didn’t seem bothered. I have no idea whether it didn’t see me without moving or whether it didn’t perceive me as a threat and so carried on.

Flocking Birds Over the Bay

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San Francisco Bay is hugely popular with birds. One place that they like a lot is the area near to the airport. Birds and planes do not normally mix well but, despite the large numbers of each, they seem to coexist here okay. As the tide goes out, the mudflats that are exposed are a great feeding ground for the birds. They cover all sizes too.

At the top end of the size range are the pelicans. They like to feed in the shallows when the fish are relatively easy pickings. They do stay away from the runways so don’t seem to be a problem (although a pelican would certainly not be a good thing for an airliner). The smaller birds are less of a threat individually but they tend to flock in huge numbers.

I saw a bunch of them flying not too far from the 01 runways. Again, they stay over the mudflats so don’t present a problem. In the opposite direction, there were some rather large flocks circling over the water. While not as large as murmurations of starlings, they were some pretty big groups. They also would move in a similar way with the whole thing looking very fluid from a distance.