Calm after the storm

At last our rains have returned. After a dry and suuny January the past few weeks of February have brought us cold and rainy days. The drama of the storms makes for some interesting photography. One lovely morning I was out early and captured the first rays of golden light illuminating the Rock. The skies were still dark and the water was glassy. This combination only lasted a moment and then it was gone. I am learning to appreciate each gift like this more and more.  

Happy Valentine's Day!

My wish has come true. I have seen my Monarchs go full cycle from tiny caterpillars to become beautiful butterflies. I have waited in my backyard for many hours watching and hoping for this wonderful transformation. And yesterday I finally saw and photographed an emergence. It is still a miracle to me. About two days before this event the chrysalis begins to change color. And in the last hours before the butterfly emerges the chrysalis gets very dark and the wings of the butterfly inside become visible. Then without fanfare the bottom of the chrysalis cracks open and the Monarch inside slowly emerges. In a matter of moments it is out and holding onto the empty shell of the chrysalis. For the next few minutes it pumps the fluid it has in it's abdomen into its wings until they expand to reveal their full glory. Once the wings are full size it still takes about an hour for them to harden. The new Monarch then climbs up to a good launch site where it practices flapping its wings and then....it takes off. I can only tell you that my heart lifted with joy as I saw a Monarch take its first flight. We have successfully 'hatched' 8 Monarchs so far and we still have 9 chrysalises and at least 6 caterpillars to go.   

A great 'catch'.

Last weekend Don and I participated in the 15th annual Morro Bay Bird Festival. There were so many great field trips and lectures that it was hard to choose among them. On Sunday we opted to take the Bay Cruise for photographers. Morro Bay is rich with birds and other wildlife at this time of year. My best "catch of the day" was of an Osprey with a fish it had just caught. It is interesting to see how the Osprey carries the fish. It is so very aerodynamic.

On the Monarch front, about 8 caterpillars are still munching away on our Milkweed and we now have 14 Monarch chrysalis jewels hanging from various plants and twigs in  our yard. They could start changing into butterflies any day now. I keep checking them daily and I really hope I get to see at least one transformation.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

It has been my delight this New Year to watch the progress of our Monarch caterpillars. After a caterpillar has eaten its fill of Milkweed and increased to a  mature size, it sets off in search of a nearby plant and crawls up into it. There it to settles into in a "J" shape and hangs down from a branch to await its transition into a chrysalis. So far we have had 6 caterpillars go into their "J". After about 3 days they make their big change. I missed seeing the first 4, but yesterday I spent hours in our backyard waiting for #5. And my persistence paid off. I was able to observe and photograph the entire process. It is truly amazing. Once the skin cracked open it only took 4 minutes for the chrysalis to emerge. At this stage it was pliable and wiggled until the old skin fell off. It then took another 30 minutes for it to attain its final form. And somehow a beautiful Monarch butterfly will emerge in a few weeks. I hope I have the good fortune to see that too.

My first trip to the Oceano Dunes

Taken last Sunday on my first photo exploration of the Oceano Dunes. I joined 3 of my friends for an afternoon outing to this magical place. It had rained the day before and the sand was easy to walk on, but there were many footprints so we had to walk out quite a ways to get pristine sand. But it was well worth the effort. I will defintely be returning to this beautiful place. 

My Christmas wish for you.

DEEP PEACE

               Deep Peace of the running wave to you

Deep Peace of the flowing air to you

Deep Peace of the quiet earth to you

Deep Peace of the shining stars to you

Deep Peace of the gentle night to you,

moon and stars

pour their healing light on you

Deep Peace to you

— a Gaelic Blessing

My image "The WAY WEST" was chosen 'Image of the Year' by the San Luis Obispo Camera Club.

Last night was our final Camera Club Competition of the year. There were some amazing photos shown and I feel very honored to have one of my photos chosen as the "Photo of the Year". Woo hoo! This is the same image that made it into the top 100 images in the upcoming 2011 NANPA EXPRESSIONS book. It is currently on exhibit at The PHOTO SHOP at 1027 Marsh St. in San Luis Obispo as a part of a special show of photos taken in Montana de Oro. The display runs through January 15th and the reception will be held on Friday January 7th from 6pm to 8pm.

We now have at least 12 Monarch caterpillars of all differnet sizes on our Milkweed. They are a challenge to photograph. Most of the time they are 'hiding' beneath the leaves and the slightest breeze makes the image blurry. I hope they make it though the storms headed our way.