Archive for February, 2009
A Different Wetlands
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
A sea otter relaxes in the sun.
Like Baylands Park, Elkhorn Slough is a restored wetlands area. The 105 acres of wetlands adjoining Baylands Park are a largely dry marsh. Elkhorn Slough is much bigger and wetter: at 1,400 acres, it’s the largest tract of tidal salt marsh in California outside of San Francisco Bay.
Mammals we’re most likely to see at Baylands are ground squirrels, rabbits and gophers. In Elkhorn Slough, it’s sea otters, sea lions and bay seals. I’m sure there are many small mammals along the shore, but they’re hard to spot from a boat.
After buying tickets from the captain of the Elkhorn Slough Safari, we boarded a 27-foot pontoon boat — a box riding on a pair of floats — along with about 25 other sightseers. Our guide and captain was Yohn Gideon, a local naturalist and birder.
Rainy Days
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
Sometimes it’s best to wait to charge your batteries until you’re not standing in a puddle.
The dust has settled on our bathroom remodel, a two-week project that accordioned into a month. And it’s been payback time for all those balmy days we enjoyed in the fall.
Between the challenges of Dog-Contractor Space Management and Very Unsuitable Weather, I’ve barely been flying or taking photos, which means that it’s been a challenge to update the blog.
Well, “challenge” is a sugar-coated word. Fact is, I’ve updated zip. February is a Lost Month.
Dodging rainstorms, I made it out to Baylands twice this week, though, and enjoyed combat both days. I’ve also been flying my Mini IFO. Today I flew it once on the Great Meadow (Lake Pickleweed, Dave North called it this morning), trying to avoid an unplanned landing which would cause me to slosh across the grass to recover the downed craft.
Then I spent some time flying it from the picnic area, deliberately threading it among the trees on the upper stretch of grass.
“My depth perception sucks,” I said out loud, trying to circle a tree and discovering that I was about to hit it.
“Reduce your throttle,” Dave advised while watching me. I slowed it down a bit and found that I had better control and more time to figure out where the plane was. Then the trick was to goose the throttle when it threatened to stall.
Later, Mike Nadler posed for a Rain Safety Poster, setting up his battery charger while putting his thigh-high rubber boots to good use in a puddle of water.
