Tall Ship In Town

There is a tall ship visiting Morro Bay at present and on the way home from school today my buddy Blake and I took the time to check it out before it leaves in a couple of days. The 1542 replica galleon San Salvador is visiting to raise money for the building of the Morro Bay Maritime Museum.

Photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

My Cross To Otter Trip

This afternoon I joined my buddy Mike and his family on a drive over to the coast via Vineyard Road to Adelaida Road to Klau Mine Road to Cypress Mountain Road to Santa Rosa Creek Road. We then went up and checked our marine mammals near Point Piedras Blancas while failing to find any elk on the inland side of Highway One. We did manage to see Heart Ranch zebras but I did not take any images of them on this day. We then headed down to Morro Bay for dinner and afterwards headed home. On the way to dinner from the north coast we saw the spoutings of about 30-40 dolphins north of Morro Rock in three distinct podlets but I could not capture them on film as we were in transit. Before dinner we stopped by Morro Rock and we saw a large clan of sea otters.

Viewed from Cypress Mountain Road.

Elephant Seals at the rookery.

Humpback Whale off shore from the rookery.

Spouting from the same humpback whale.

Sea gull at Morro Rock parking lot.

Like two ships passing in the afternoon.

Iconic Morro Bay Power Station towers.

Sea otter + wave inside the Morro Bay Harbor where the rest of the following images were taken near Morro Rock.

Note the reflection in this image and the rest of the nearby three power plant towers.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Morro Bay In Five Frames

Today while retrieving the remaining rock show banners that remained in the Morro Bay area I stopped at Morro Bay State Park and shot these images.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Shark Bait

As I and my Cuesta College Cohorts Blake Burgess (who graduated with me today) and his girlfriend (and fellow Cuestonian) Krystal Marie Sprague and my big lug of a pal (and also fellow Cuestonian) Kameron McMeekin burned some time in Morro Bay this afternoon waiting for the graduation ceremony to begin we espied this wryly humorously named boat in the harbor as viewed from the embarcadero. Image taken with my iPhone (all rights reserved).

SLO Road Trip Down Memory Lane

Tonight on Facebook I found this wonderful 1949 Chevy advertisement entitled "San Luis Obispo: Heart of Old Spanish California" from their "Roads to Romance" series. It features some wonderful scenes from around San Luis Obispo County that year including Atascadero "The Beautiful". However, I'm surprised Paso Robles did not get any attention.

The scenes of Morro Bay and environs interested me the most for some reason, perhaps because it shows Morro Rock sans the modern causeway that connects it to the shore and creates the northern part of the harbor's protection from the Pacific Ocean. At the time this film was shot the ocean entirely surrounded the rock.

Picture of the Day - Giant Cigarettes

Over this past weekend I hung out with some friends in Morro Bay, CA, for a few hours. My dear friend Angelica pointed out to me that these exhaust towers at the power plant in Morro Bay look like giant cigarettes. I must admit I had never thought of them in that light but she makes a valid point. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Evil Rock

.... or rather "Picture of the Night" and an ominous-looking one at that. This image was taken in the wee hours of this morning from the North Jetty at the southern base of Morro Rock; a large truck-sized chunk of volcanic dacite backlit by a street lamp shrouded in fog. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Eclectus Arcania - Bird Is The Word

Today I worked for my buddy Susie Christian, a notable local photographer and bird author, in Morro Bay, CA, for the second time in three days. I did so at this particular time not coincidentally in regards to the ongoing heat wave that has seen Paso Robles (where I reside) hit triple digit temperatures for a week not to mention most of the rest of California.

Susie breeds a type of parrot I have never noticed before and knew nothing about until this week. This form of parrot is called an Eclectus and lives in various location scattered across the Western Pacific Ocean including northeastern Australia, New Guinea, the Moluccas Islands, the Soloman Islands, and Sumba Island in Indonesia. Susie owns more than one sub-species of this beautiful type of tropical bird as evidenced in the images below which show two different female types.

Five arcane eclectus facts:

1. Eclectus are sexually dimorphic which is not a perversion but merely means that the male and female look quite a bit different from one another. Males are green with yellow beaks and the females are red and blue/purple with sometimes some yellow/orange on their tails but always have black beaks.
2. Eclectus are considered a pest in some regions as they have a tendency to eat folk's fruit off their trees, particularly papaya and pomegranate.
3. The average lifespan of the Eclectus is not currently known with any certainty given how recently they became actively held captive and bred in captivity; 30-ish seems like the best guess as this point.
4. Eclectus are polygynandrous which is to say they are dirty birds; both males and females can have multiple partners (please pardon the anthropomorphism there). 
5. Prehistoric Pacific Islanders hunted one now-extinct sub-species of this parrot called the Oceanic Eclectus. It seems to have gone extinct about 3,000 years ago around the time the Tongans settled what would become Tonga.

After spending the better part of two days with the Eclectus I'm beginning to really fall in love with them. Aside from being beautiful they are quite personable and are gifted with oodles of personality. I now officially desire to have one someday and given the name of this bird (and this blog) it seems apropos that this bird become the official mascot here.

This female eclectus, the second one I encountered in the enclosure, was the most spectacular-looking of the three females.

The lone male eclectus was very upset by my presence and needed calming by Susie.

This was the first female I encountered; she seemed to really take to me and wanted to be in close to my face.

My friend Susie trying to calm the male eclectus - to no avail pretty much.

This was the third female I encountered.

Two of the three females in the enclosure (#2 and #3 respectively). This duo is of differing sub-species.

The male was trying to warn his bitches about me, all of whom pretty much ignored him although at the end #2 seemed to respond to him and when over to him.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Low Tide In Morro Bay

Tranquil Morro Bay at low tide this morning with distinctive Morro Rock in the background. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Dining With Project Surf Camp

I was in Morro Bay this morning and visited Miner's Hardware to pick up some T-posts for signage banners for the upcoming Cayucos Gem, Mineral, and Jewelry Show.  Unbeknownst to me they were conducting a store-wide sale and thus their parking lot was jammed with cars and pedestrians. I also noted that there was some sort of food-serving operation. Typically I ignore these but this morning I had not eaten anything and hungered. I elected to stop by the booth of what turned out to be Project Surf Camp holding a fund-raiser in front of Miner's Hardware. On the menu were..... hot dogs..... and that was it! In any case I didn't care and ordered three which I consumed with various condiments..... I always use a condiment! I wish to thank the good folks at Project Surf Camp for the wonderful service they provide youth with special needs as well as for feeding me hot dogs for breakfast this morning. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).