car eyes

Headlights of old cars look back at you!

bidwell park

birds of the Feather

around mount shasta, california

lithia park

A November day in Lithia Park, Ashland Oregon

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cloudy

views from the road to roxy ann peak on a cloudy day

under the wharf

This colony of sea lions make their home underneath the Santa Cruz Wharf. Always noisy,sounding like barking dogs, they can be found sunning themselves on the rafters.

down on the farm

cold water!

PIPELINE by the Chantays

Pipeline by The Chantays (Original B&W from TV Show)

roadside art

Somewhere alongside an old country road near Paradise, California ...

autumn leaves

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car eyes

the vulture

boot hill epitaph

Walking among the many disturbed grave sites on Boot Hill Cemetery above
Virginia City Nevada, you read a lot of epitaphs that give you pause.
Perhaps none more that this one.

river sorties

surfer dogs

I took these photos at Fort Funston just south of San Francisco. It is one of the few places in the area that dogs can be off leash. For the dogs it's their time to hang ten!

the water is wide video jukebox

at the market

photos by aj

eva cassidy video jukebox

Eva Cassidy was an extraordinary singer who sadly died in 1996 at the age of 33. At the time
of her death she was hardly known outside of the Washington DC area but since then her songs
have been discovered and over eight million of her CDs have been sold worldwide.

If you are interested in the life of Eva Cassidy, the first three videos are of an ABC Special. The fourth video is her most popular song, Over the Rainbow. It is a tour de force!

mystery blog, part three: turn left at the dam!

Prologue: The BIG Dam

In 1968 the construction of the massive Oroville Dam in Northern California to backup the Feather River was completed. At 800 feet high and over a mile in width, it is the tallest earthen dam located in the United States.

Once this dam was in place the course of the Feather River was forever altered.

Part One: A Gathering of Vultures

Why are they gathered here? What do they want?
So the mystery begins ...


Part Two: Here They Come!

For eons the Chinook salmon have migrated from the Pacific Ocean to the upper reaches of the Feather River to spawn, lay their eggs and then die.

The building of the huge Oroville Dam on the Feather River forever separated the salmon
from their spawning grounds. So now the salmon gather at the base of a smaller dam on the Feather as the vultures wait.

part three: Turn Left at the Dam!
Just off to the left of the fish barrier dam is a fish ladder that runs about a third of a mile to the Feather River Fish hatchery. Most fish eventually find this ladder because
water flows at a constant rate that simulates the river current.

Epilogue: Preserving the Species

From holding tank #3 the fish are euthanized and the eggs taken and artificially spawned.
The eggs are then incubated and the fingerlings reared until they are ready to be let go
downriver. From there the fingerings make their way to the Pacific Ocean where they remain until it is time to return to their new man-made spawning grounds.

hallelujah video jukebox

Leonard Cohen wrote Hallelujah in 1984. Since then it has been sung by numerous artists. Who knew that even Bob Dylan has sung Hallelujah? Enjoy the most popular of them in this video jukebox which begins with an early recording by Leonard Cohen and ends with a performance by him in Dublin 2008.

people

in for a landing

I shot these photos from the 22nd floor of a hi-rise hotel.

two lakes

Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake located between California and Nevada in the Sierra Nevada mountains. It has an elevation of 6,250 feet, size of 191 square miles and a maximum depth of 1,650 feet.

Pyramid Lake is a large saltwater lake located in the Northwestern Nevada desert. It has an elevation of 3,790 feet, size of 188 square miles and a maximum depth of 356 feet.

These two lakes, both beautiful in starkly different ways, are connected by the Truckee River which flows 140 miles from Lake Tahoe, down through Reno, Nevada and finally into the desert to feed Pyramid Lake.

concert in the park

peaches the moluccan cockatoo

surf's up

the swarming

I took these photos at Sea Cliff beach in Aptos, CA. These birds are on a feeding frenzy of large schools of fish ... possibly grunion. After one school of fish is harvested, all the birds take-off up the coast to find more fish. It is quite an amazing sight!

the flower show, part II

what's the buzz, part II

surfer dogs

down the coast

in flight

everybody loves a parade

Port Orford, Oregon 4th of July, 2007

world of birds

a safe place to land

I took these photos at the Oroville Wildlife Area in June '08. This 11000 acre nature preserve in Northern California provides birds, such as these turkey vultures, a safe place to land.

home to roost

nectar quest!

the hummingbird, part II

the BIG lake

Lake Oroville in Northern California is huge. It has a surface area of 24 square miles and a shoreline of over 167 miles. It was created by damming the Feather River. This earthen dam is as about 800 feet high and over a mile across making it one of the largest dams in the world. Lake Oroville is part of the California water project which supplies water for agriculture to the Central Valley and also for the thirsty residents if arid Southern California.

I took these photos either at the lake or in the surrounding area which includes the town of Oroville, California.

down by the sea

I took these photos near the quaint town of Port Orford along the Oregon coast. It's a town populated mostly by fishermen and artists. I can understand why artists migrate here because this town is set against one of the prettiest coastlines anywhere along the Pacific.

Enjoy the slide show with the poetry of Rod McKuen and the music of Anita Kerr. Just
click on the ipod.

what's the buzz?

the ducklings

wickham stone park

Wickham Stone Park (circa 1969) is a collection of folk art, consisting of over 30 life-size concrete statues of political figures,Indian chiefs, politicians,patriots and religious figures. The park is the lifetime creation of Tennessee folk artist Enoch Tanner(E.T.) Wickham (1883-1970).

More information about the folk art of E.T. Wickham is available at Wickham Stone Park.

(Click on statue below for a description)

i'm scooter, who are you?

water sculptures

I recently took photos of these bronze sculptures in Reno, Nevada. These were created by sculptor John Battenberg and line a wall following the downtown Truckee river walk. They are quite impressive with water constantly flowing over them.

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