Berkeley Marina

Last weekend walked around Berkeley marina.  Nice little walk and you can be surprised at times.  My wife told me about some ground owls which nest in the area and we did find one.  It seems that they have been nesting every year in the same area but there numbers are going down.  This year they said non have shown up yet, but we did find the one and with talking with some bird watchers in the area, that one showed up a couple of weeks before.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the owl.


Also the areas is known for the Herons or Egrets.  I'm not sure of the different types but there where two types in the area.  Here are a couple of shots of them.  (I try to practice with birds since I find them so hard to shoot.  They are constantly moving and to get feather detail is tricky.  Thus the following pictures I tended to get the focus pretty good but detail was lacking.  It did not help that is was the afternoon sun also.)


Here are a couple of shots of a brown pelican.  (I'm pretty sure that is its name.)


I caught this guy taking off on burst (6 frames per second).  They all tended to be in focus thus I have added the sequence.


This was one second after the last shot.  He obviously saw food and dove back in.

Yosemite

Qun's brother came into town recently and she wanted to take him to Yosemite.  Even though there was the Rim fire, most of Yosemite did not burn.  So this is the first time we went off season and it was fantastic.  I can not say how much I enjoyed driving around and not have to deal with traffic.  We where told that early spring and winter are even better!

Entering the park.

Here is the first little waterfall that we saw.

Here is Brideviel Falls as you entry the valley.  There was very little water and the wind turned most of it to mist.  (Yes my daughter and I climbed quite a ways to the falls.)

Half dome.

El Capitan.


Yosemite Valley meadows.


So here are a lot of general landscape pictures.


This was the night sky at the place we stayed.


Hetch Hetchy area.


Here are a few pictures of the fire damage.  The first ones are from the Hetch Hetchy area, while the last couple are from the Hwy 120 vista overlook.  I can see why this was a fast moving fire.