Mokka mit Schlag

From the L.A. Times:

Proposition 98

• Yes 39.1%
• No 60.9%

Proposition 99

• Yes 62.4%
• No 37.6%

Prop 99 was actually weaker than I would have liked–I would have preferred a measure that banned eminent domain for private development, period, not just for owner occupied residences–but 98 was just over the top.

Of course now we get to miss the fun of watching the courts sort out the mess that would have resulted if both had passed, since they actively contradicted each other.
Read the rest of this entry »

Desert Spiny Lizard, Sceloporus magister cephaloflavus
Butterbredt Springs, Kern County, CA, 2008-06-01

Saturday, May 10, I got up bright and early to catch a boat out of Dana Point that the Sea & Sage Audubon Society had chartered for a four-hour cruise starting at 7:00 A.M. The goal was just to see what we could find in Orange County Waters. May is not the best time of year for pelagic birding, but the trip a few months ago had been canceled, and there’s usually something out there if you look. Plus it would be my first West Coast pelagic.

The route was out a a couple of miles to sea, north to roughly Newport Beach and then back a little closer to shore. This limited us to relatively near-shore species, but that still offered some good possibilities.

The parking lot produced Rock Pigeon, American Crow, and Black-crowned Night-heron (three perched on a small pier). Before we even left the harbor we had Double-crested Cormorant, Hermann’s Gull, Brown Pelican (in the hundreds), American Crow, and too many California, Western, and Ring-billed Gulls to count. I spotted a Spotted Sandpiper on the jetty. We were barely out of the harbor when we added Caspian Tern and Brandt’s Cormorant to the trip list.

At first we mostly just saw more gulls and pelicans, but once we got a little ways offshore we picked up our first real pelagic bird: a Sooty Shearwater. Not a life bird for me. I’ve had them on East Coast pelagics, but at least one for my California list, and the first Shearwater I’ve seen in a couple of years.

At 7:42 we pick our first loon of the day: Red-throated, a relatively common species around here, and even commoner around New York.

At 8:05 we get our first phalaropes, 2 Red-necked Phalaropes in the water, off the starboard side. However the leader doesn’t see them, and the boat blows right past. (I tend to think most pelagics go way too fast.) Oh well, there are more out here.

8:30 A.M: I’m beginning to think the trip will be a bust when we spot a Rhinoceros Auklet! My first life bird of the day, #421. Some Least Terns also fly by.

(Yes, I know the photos are even worse than usual. You try taking pictures of fast moving birds far away from a rocking boat with a point-and-shoot camera.)
Read the rest of this entry »

Used to be the Pirate Bay posted ads for gambling, borderline porn, and questionable dating sites; the real bottom feeders of Internet businesses. Then I started using Adblock Plus; and didn’t see ads at all. :-)

However I just happened to be using Safari for a few minutes while Firefox downloaded an extension update, and followed a link that happened to point into the Pirate Bay, and I was quite surprised to see this:
Read the rest of this entry »

This was one of those tricky lifers. You’re not quite sure when you saw it first because you’re not quite sure about the first sighting. I think my first Red-necked Phalarope was at San Joaquin Wildlife Refuge on April 27. However those birds weren’t in breeding plumage, and I didn’t have a scope. I can’t say with absolute certainty that they weren’t Wilson’s Phalaropes (though I do think they matched Red-necked much more closely.)

Fortunately just a few days later I was in Santa Clara County on business, and as I like to do I went to Mountain View Shoreline before work. Usually I start out at the end of San Antonio road and walk around the lake. However, today I decided to take a different route and explore the area to the north along the 101. About halfway to the next exit, I found some ponds, and in one of them a flock of about 20 Red-necked Phalaropes were feeding. This time most of them were in full breeding plumage so even without a scope there was no doubt. I even got some recognizable pictures:

Read the rest of this entry »

Yep, I did it again. I ordered yet another PC from Dell. I wasn’t exactly happy about ordering my latest box from convicted fraudsters; but nobody else I trusted came close on price, especially when the Memorial Day sale price kicked in. I actually wanted a less powerful system with no monitor, mouse, or keyboard and Windows XP; but that would have cost quite a bit more than what I did buy.

I most certainly did not buy the extended 3 year warranty with onsite service. I have no faith at all that Dell would actually fulfill any part of that promise. However, this isn’t a mission critical system (I mostly bought it for Age of Conanexperimenting with Java 7) and I’m capable of supporting myself for most tasks.
Read the rest of this entry »