I spent more time than previous years but almost none of it photographing--I was waiting for some inspiration but got none. Instead, I embarked on a mini informal herp transect along Steven's Creek and tributaries. Here's my route [UPCOMING]:
And here's my haul:
407 California newts
4 unidentified larval salamanders [1 apparently arboreal, 3 unknown--very dark but too small to be giants]
3 unidentified large fish
1 San Francisco garter snake
0 Red-legged frogs
0 Robot ninja zombie badgers
I estimate that I undercounted the newts by between 10-50%, giving a total newt population along the transect of ~450-600. I estimate that the 3 fish decreased the newt population by about 50 based on the dramatic decrease in newts in the fishy sections. I probably missed several dozen of the larval salamanders because they are much more prone to hiding and I tried to disturb the habitat as little as possible [no rock-flipping, etc]. Montebello probably holds several thousand newts altogether.
At night [alone, as usual], a couple great-horned owls frolicked above me in the trees until I disturbed them with raucuos nose-blowing. A wild turkey greeted me in the morning and I watched a wrentit gather nesting materials.
Now for the pictures:
Lupine at sunset.
My unfortunate attempt at a 2011 entry into my ongoing Montebello Light Project. It's a lupine as pacman, eating the sun.
You can bet when this white-tailed kite decided to start kiting near the setting sun that I really missed my 500mm f4 [this was taken with a 180mm]:
I found a small deer skull and thought it would be fun to combine it with some cool water effects. I aimed the skull so that water entering the breathing tubes at the back of the skull emptied out the nose. In the full-size version, the little squigglies made by reflections of the sunlight on the surface of the water make for a very cool abstract pattern.
California newt. If you see the full-size version, there's a funny little parabola of water spray coming from the salamander. I've spent many hours over the last couple years trying to get good newt pictures and these two are the first I've felt good about.
As always, thanks to my wiff for letting me go!
