cazalea
[Seiko Moderator]
20933
Hang 'Em High
I am not referring to the movie, but to the Cholla cactus "dripping" from my finger ...
I have warned about these in previous posts ... but today I saw this little cluster on the path and thought I squeeze by it. Wrong!
This is why you should never hike alone, because you never know when you will need some help. Removing this with my other hand might lead to a catastrophe.
With two sticks she was able to knock off the cluster, and with her nails was able to pull the three spines.
That taken care of, here's the second HIGH in my story:
If this looks familiar to some of you, it's because we were here in Dec 2020 on our Seventy-Seven Morning Walks with Seikos. If you don't have time to read that, the sunrise looked like this two years ago:
Back to this morning. If you remember a few days ago we walked by the lighthouse, and the Coronado Islands were visible to the south.
Here one of them is visible again, 27 miles from where I am standing.
In case you get here for a visit, it's tough but not impossible to go to the Islands. Usually it's on a fishing or whale watching trip. You can't go there easily in a private boat because they are in Mexican waters.
Here's the island and in the foreground, a gray whale.
And looking back from the island about 27 miles to the hillside where I was walking this morning:
So I have a couple more HIGHs to share. This guy was curious and after some zooming back and forth, finally sat still and posed for me, from the top of a bush.
As he didn't seem inclined to move, I walked around the south side of the bushes trying to get better light on his red head.
My wife spotted a similar hummingbird on a different bush so I went over and got some more cooperation.
But only for 1 and 1/2 photos!
But waiting there patiently, I was glad that in 30 seconds he came right back to the same spot and posed some more.
Notice the color change as he turns his head! You wouldn't think it's the same bird.
We saw a few more birds (LOW) and a few dogs NOT on leashes, and we gave up for the morning.
I hope you enjoyed our short but HIGH adventure at Kate Sessions Open Space Park in La Jolla.
Cazalea
PS - obligatory watch photo included in the cactus segment 
Hang 'Em High
I am not referring to the movie, but to the Cholla cactus "dripping" from my finger ... I have warned about these in previous posts ... but today I saw this little cluster on the path and thought I squeeze by it. Wrong! This is why you should never hike a...
Loving your....
waypoint markers . Makes it quite intuitive and easy to 'get' the big picture. Always excellent bird photography.... Cheers, Filip
Love the tour and those hummingbird photos 👏
….I spent about a year around and about in San Diego many moons ago. Had some good and interesting times. Cheers 🍻
Beautiful pics as always!
Thanks for taking us along. When I was a kid I stepped with my full weight on a sea urchin, needless to say it didn't go well, your cactus pics brought back those memories! Great to see an early aerospace too, they ate so versatile, love them!
It was not not as bad as it looked
I was playing it up for the camera. The key once you get caught is GET HELP. Don't touch it or try to remove it yourself, as that only means 2 hands injured!