I’ve been hunting these guys with various cameras for years. More than 15 months ago, I got a shot of several of these birds on a power wire, but that wasn’t exactly the nice nature picture I always had in mind.

“Birdsong” is not a word that comes to mind when a flock of parrots begins an animated conversation. I heard a loud parrot gossip session begin just as I was sitting down to work. I took three steps out of my office and looked up. Half a dozen of these fine birds were in the neighbor’s tree.  I took this shot by leaning back and pointing the camera up.

It’s nice to see this blog leaning away from reptiles and focusing more attention on birds.

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Most of us have seen video of hummingbirds flying in slow motion. In real life it’s amazing how fast they are. I’ve been hunting these guys with various cameras for years, and this is the first picture I’ve managed to get that’s vaguely worth sharing.

We think of these tiny birds as being little and cute, but in fact they are mean. Their call is a distinct clicking sound, and they aren’t shy about buzzing people, dogs, or much larger birds who get too close to a place the micro bird is defending. This year there are several active hummingbird nests within 15 yards of the sliding glass door to the back patio.

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Yet another amazing creature showed up to pose for pictures early this afternoon.

It feels good to be getting back to taking pictures of dragonflies; maybe it means lizards are done following me for now. I’ve been hunting dragonflies with a camera for years, with some great results! Check out these dragonfly centerfolds from July 2007, July 2008, and September 2010.

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Years ago when I started this blog, I did not expect that I would be spending so much time photographing and writing about lizards. Life is like that sometimes. It’s like I always say: “When life gives you lemons, sometimes you have to break some eggs.” I think it goes like that. Anyway, as far as I can tell, I have written about Elgaria Multicarinata here and here, and I have published a magnificent picture of what I think is a nice representative of Sceleoporus Magister Uniformis (the yellow backed spiny lizard).

No, I never did intend for this to be a Lizards of Southern California website, but sometimes you’ve got to go where life takes you. Probably you can relate to the sentiment – after all, I don’t suppose you started your day imagining how great it would be to read the observations of some guy who thinks lizards are following him.

I guess it’s about time for all those science classes I took at the USC Law School to pay off a little bit. It was a long time ago…but I do remember spending a lot of time at law school studying reptiles, although none of those issues turned up on the California Bar Examination.

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San Diego is a nice place in January, warm and mild compared to most places, but nobody would argue that it is a tropical paradise. For example, this Gold Dust Day Gecko is not native to America’s Finest City. The picture was taken in the Kohala region of the Big Island of Hawaii.

It turns out that the gecko is no more native to Hawaii than I am. Here’s a nice action shot of me taken in a gentle undertow just a few days ago off the Kona coast. Somebody has to do it.

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This spectacular creature showed up and posed for pictures. One of the earliest posts on this website featured another fantastic dragonfly.

I like to take and to publish these pictures for the sake of art, but this one has a little story behind it. These days, I am working hard on revising my bar exam essay writing video program. I really want to be finished. Today I worked all morning at my Ocean Beach office, and this afternoon my sister-in-law Eden, her husband Gil, and their young son Sam came for a delightful afternoon of socializing, swimming and eating. This beautiful dragonfly showed up a few minutes after Eden and her family had left. I was on my hands and knees on the floor of my home office, hooking up some equipment. Alexis and Elana called to me from the patio. How come nobody around here respects my work? Don’t I ever get to take care of my own business?

Fortunately for me, I have a wife and daughter who appreciate that you don’t get that many chances to snag a taste of natural beauty like this one. No doubt you’ll all be pleased to know that somehow I did manage to get my gadgets to cooperate, and that soon a needy public is going to get in on the latest secrets to writing passing essays on the bar exam (for a modest fee).

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The San Diego Zoo is a spectacular place. This week Elana and I are attending watercolor art camp. We spend some time with the animals and then create paintings of them. Here is a great picture Lana took today of a hungry and angry tiger.

I figured it would be OK to help get a better photo by dangling her into the tiger enclosure, and I’m sure you agree that this would be a much less interesting picture if there were bars or reflections off the glass to get in the way of our view of this magnificent predator. Plus, it’s important for parents and kids to bond. Not only do we get  a great photo, but a young woman gets a chance to look death in the face without fear before her 12th birthday.

Here is my watercolor of the same animal.

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Do you ever get the feeling that you’re being followed by elgaria multicarinata? No? This is yet another example of how my life is different from everybody else’s. I took this picture in Ocean Beach late yesterday afternoon. Another fine representative of this species hung out with me in Carmel Valley not that long ago. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

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Here is the latest example of why it’s fun to have a camera handy when you’re outdoors. This bird -  a bushtit, according to George, was one of a big swarm of a couple dozen that zipped off to the next group of trees to the south a second or two after I took this picture. Wait! Maybe the title of this blog entry should have been, “One in the Bush,” or maybe “Bushtit in the Bush!” Oh well, maybe next time.

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This creature is called Carausius Morosus, commonly known  as the Indian Walking Stick because it’s from India and it looks like a walking stick. I’ve reported on these guys once before. Here is a close-up look at one of its little eyes.

Apparently these insects are voracious eaters. They come to America as pets, selling for around $10. The females lay thousands of eggs, and the resulting spawn enjoy munching on the local California gardens as much as we do. No doubt having more competition for our calories will result in our becoming leaner and more efficient.

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OK, actually it’s a lizard, but “Lizard in the Grass” just isn’t as catchy. If I’m not mistaken, this is a fine representative of the Southern Alligator Lizard, elgaria multicarinata.

It’s great when a camera is handy at the right time!

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Friends of the family thought this was a cute name for an essentially nice cat. What they did not know is that the animal you see in this 1973 photograph actually is Ming the Merciless of the planet Mongo. Here’s the story – back in the early-to-mid 1960′s, my dad was a writer for Bill Burrud, well-known for his syndicated travel shows on TV. One of the old-time hands from Hollywood who worked on the team was a guy named Barney A. Sarecky, famous for saying “All houses are haunted. All persons are haunted. Throngs of spirits follow us everywhere. We are never alone.”

Barney Sarecky was the man responsible for producing the Flash Gordon movie serials starring Buster Crabbe back in the 1930′s. It turned out that “Charlie Middleton” was a real alien who had been stranded in America around 1910. He was a shape shifter on his home planet, and enjoyed considerable success in vaudeville and the first couple decades of talking pictures. Barney hired him because it seemed a natural fit and because he didn’t have to pay more than scale.  One night at a Hollywood party, for reasons that remain a mystery, Middleton changed into a cat and discovered that he was unable to change back into human form (his original life form did not breathe our air).

The cat lived with Barney until the old producer died. My dad agreed to take him in after that, and Ming the Merciless, Emperor of Mongo, otherwise known as Charlie Middleton, lived out the rest of his days on Rutherford Drive in the Hollywood Hills.

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“Alex, the parrots are back!”

“What? Parents? Black?”

“The parrots are back!”

“The parents are black? Whose parents are black? Who cares?”

“No, not black, back.”

“Back? Whose parents?”

“Not parents, parrots. The parrots are back.”

“Huh?”

It’s a good thing that my wife and I are so well educated. Who knows what our efforts at communication might look like otherwise? Anyhow, the cool birds have returned and here is some proof.

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I’m not sure what it is, but I like the colors and I’m impressed to be seeing a magnificent creature like this one outdoors on a cold late-fall afternoon. Incidentally, I asked it about current political issues of the day but it did not reply.

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