An Albatross

 An albatross. It had been hurt and was a guest of the Monterey Aquarium while it recovered it's strength. They brought it out into a small courtyard each afternoon so that people could see it fairly close up. The woman talking about it warned people around it to not get too close because it could be a little aggressive if it felt threatened, although she was able to touch it and it responded positively to that. It was a large and impressive bird. The 2nd picture is the actual one, I couldn't get any pictures that didn't have various people in the background so

 I extracted the albatross from that background and overlaid it over a background of Marin Headlands skyscape. I'd rather remember this bird like that. I collect pictures of clouds everywhere that I go, the incredible variety of cloud forms amazes me.

 I never tire of taking pictures of flowers, and most especially roses. Roses are so varied in color and texture and have so many visual moods that it seems endless. They become even more magic when I get in very close to them, sensual and exotic and yet familiar too. Can't wait for spring so I can go out and capture some more images.

The statues on top of the building that is now a bank were originally created back in the 1860's. Ravens, starlings and seagulls often use them for perches

The ocean was rough and the clouds were gorgeous just before sunset on the headlands just down the road from the Mendocino Art Center.

The Presbyterian Church was also built back in the late 19th century but is still a very active place.
I must admit however, that I kidnapped the clouds behind the church from the sky around San Luis Obispo and brought them back here. Tricky me.

The statues again, from a different angle, complete with raven, the edge of one of Mendocino's water towers at the side. The water towers are mostly decorative now but once windmills worked hard on them.

While eating at an outdoor courtyard in downtown Santa Barbara I saw this visitor at an adjacent table. I was intriqued by his/her intensity of focus on the bowl left behind by another diner.

These are swallow babies in a nest located under the roof of the front porch at the Caspar Community Center taken during CasparFest in August of 2011. I had watched them being fed by the parents for several weeks before this shot. During the weekend of CasparFest I observed what seemed like odd behavior of the parent birds. They would fly near the nest like they were bringing food and the babies would perk up noisily with mouths stretched wide but the parent would veer off after coming very close. The babies would reach out and it looked as if they were close to falling out of the nest. Someone standing nearby said that it might be a strategy by the parents trying to get the babies to leave the nest. That seemd to be true and it seemed to succeed as they were gone from the nest a couple of days later.

 We took a nice walk at the ocean today, along the haul road north of Ft. Bragg and down to the water for a while. These are two local inhabitants there, posing for portraits. We didn't see them today but whales have been active just off the coast here in recent days.

I was teaching a workshop at the Mendocino Art Center and was on lunch break, it was late spring and I was walking around town taking pictures of flowers and other things. I was walking down Lansing St., there were tourists and locals all around on the streets and suddenly here was this little guy, sticking his head out of the rosemary plant by the sidewalk. A number of people had just walked by him when my eyes spotted him. He stayed still for several minutes while I shot a dozen pictures or so and then turned and slithered back into the foliage and under the building that was adjacent. It felt like a visual gift from the universe at the time.