On Friday, a news release from Amazon went public stating that…

“Kindle 2’s experimental text-to-speech feature is legal: no copy is made, no derivative work is created, and no performance is being given.” While making their stance clear, they Amazon has started modifying their systems “so that rightsholders can decide on a title by title basis whether they want text-to-speech enabled or disabled for any particular title.”

via Kindle 2 Makes Text-To-Speach Publisher Selected Feature – mediabistro.com: MobileDevicesToday.

When this controversy hit a couple of weeks ago, I commented that it was more complex than many were making it out to be. There are a lot of future complications that need to be worried about today because we’re setting precedents now that may have to live with. (at the same time, while I sympathize with the Author’s Guild position here, I don’t think it should win out).

I wasn’t terribly surprised when Amazon backed off and made the text-2-speech feature a per-publication option. I certainly can’t blame Amazon for not wanting to commit the resources needed to litigate this when there’s no real revenue aspect to it today. It’s a minor feature of an emerging product, and other than, say, my mom, who’s sight limited and for which audio books and text-2-speech would be nice to have, it’s not a big deal (today).

But I realized this morning that Amazon’s got a secondary motive here, and as usual, they’re thinking a step ahead of the rest of us again. Think about it. They are now allowing authors to choose whether to allow this on a title by title basis. That’s an information goldmine: if 90% of the authors allow it, that undermines the Author’s Guild argument in a huge way. And if 90% of the authors refuse to allow it, that tells Amazon not to pursue this. Either way, Amazon generates data that helps it resolve this issue without throwing lawyers at it. Even if the result is more 50-50, that helps Amazon because it shows that the authors aren’t united behind the Author’s Guild position and that the setuation is more complicated.

My guess is that most authors are going to be less ornery about this than the AG is, and that can only help Amazon. Simply by adding the option to turn it off, Amazon effectively kills the potential for expensive litigation here (“don’t like it? don’t allow it!”) – and it gives them a way to figure out the consensus of the authors, and that’s potentially useful information to fight the Author’s Guild if it shows that the general author population doesn’t fall in line with it.

That, folks, is a great hack.

This article was posted on Chuqui 3.0 at Kindle 2 Makes Text-To-Speech Publisher Selected Feature. This article is copyright 2009 by Chuq Von Rospach. This content may not be republished on another site without explicit permission from Chuq Von Rospach. Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed so you don't miss a single one of my carefully crafted, emotionally satisfying and Pulitzer-quality words. Kindle 2 Makes Text-To-Speech Publisher Selected Feature

The developers of Kindle decided that it would be a great idea to add in the ability for the books to be read through text-to-speech in an attempt to not break your concentration and allow you to do what needs to be done. Forget bookmarking your place and coming back to it, now you get to hear a computerized voice say what you’re too busy to read. The issue here is that this infringes on the audio rights of the author, which are “derivative under copyright law,” says Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild.

It’s safe to assume that there was some oversight in this issue ever coming to light, as Amazon does own Audible which is responsible for more audiobook sales than any other source. There’s a huge difference between an audiobook and the test-to-speech experience that the Kindle 2 brings to the table.

via Kindle 2 Text-To-Speak Might Cause Copyright Issues – mediabistro.com: MobileDevicesToday.

At first glance, this might seem like a silly argument, but I can see where the Authors Guild is coming from.

If you look at the recent fights the Writer’s Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America have had with Hollywood, a lot of the conflict were over things like DVD residuals that at the time they were negotiated didn’t seem to be very important, but as technology changed, came to be significant revenue situations. and once the genie is out of the bottle, it’s hard to fix the problem.

How’s this relevant to the Kindle? Well, today, Kindle’s text-to-speech audio capability isn’t going to be a serious competitor to current audio books — but five years from now? Look at how technology improves, it’s not hard to see speech technology improvements that could turn this into a viable alternative to buying an audiobook. As a consumer of books, I like the idea of buying the book once and being able to read or hear it as I prefer. As a once-and-maybe-future author, I can certainly understand why the AG is worried about this cannibalizing the audiobook market (and its revenue stream for authors).

I think, however, that this is a fight the Author’s Guild should lose. I think Neil Gaiman covered it well, and I agree with his view — ultimately, I don’t see either a rights derivative conflict here OR any kind of implied guarantee that just because audio books are a viable revenue stream now that this has to be guaranteed to continue existing. I’d encourage the Author’s Guild to start laying the groundwork for rationalizing rights purchasing for the time when these things bundle back together, not trying to prevent it from happening — because ultimately, they’ll lose (and should).

This article was posted on Chuqui 3.0 at Kindle 2 Text-To-Speak Might Cause Copyright Issues. This article is copyright 2009 by Chuq Von Rospach. This content may not be republished on another site without explicit permission from Chuq Von Rospach. Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed so you don't miss a single one of my carefully crafted, emotionally satisfying and Pulitzer-quality words. Kindle 2 Text-To-Speak Might Cause Copyright Issues

There are three technologies I hope get to the point where I’m willing to buy into them this year. They’re all things I’ve been watching and wanting to buy, but every time I look, they’re not quite where I want.

First — the eBook reality. the first Kindle intrigued me, but I’ve seen the “future of electronic books” before, and so I decided to wait and see. the Kindle actually surpassed my expectations, and now Amazon has introduced Kindle 2, and it’s much better. My primary interest here is to have a good, easy to use/read electronic library, especially of technical stuff, that I can carry around. Reading for recreation on an eReader is less insteresting to me, but couldn’t hurt.

Unfortunately, even thought the new Kindle comes closer, at its current price point, it doesn’t make the cut. I’ll keep waiting. Maybe the rumored Kindle software on mobile phones? We’ll see. but we’re nearing a tipping point where electronic books will make sense, which three years ago, I wasn’t sure we’d ever see. Kindle at half the price? I’d buy it. Today? I am staying on the sidelines.

Second — the convergence of electronics in the living room. I keep waiting for Apple to upgrade the Apple TV to be a real living room dominator. And I guess I’ll keep waiting a while. They’re doing a survey on possible features to a limited audience right now, which indicates to me that they’re now trying to figure that device out and get serious about a “non hobby” product — and I honestly expected to see that product at the last Macworld. So Apple’s product timelines and my expectatons are still in sync. The big limiter here is availability of content, still; for netflix streaming to my Xbox, only about 10% of the items in my queue are avaialble for online delivery. A quick look at iTunes shows that’s not any better. That makes this convenient — but not an option. Yet. And whatever Apple does needs to have 5.1 built in so I don’t need a separate home theater box to drive the speakers…

Something tells me this year is the year companies dive in and seriously try to own the living room. My short list: Apple, Microsoft and Nintendo. One of them will get it right in the next couple of years. If someone else wants to come in and distrupt the market, the window is closing.

Third — For the last few years, we’ve had internet in the house via DSL. This is our third generation of network in the house, going back to 1998 or so when that means leased lines and expensive routers, so it’s amazing how far it’s come. But now, I’m starting to look at what comes next. And what I want is a home network based on EVDO or 3G, a dongle I can carry iwth me when I travel and plug into a device at home to drive the wireless network, with real broadband speeds and reliability. This would allow me to finally dump the landline/DSL (and their monthly payments), and carry my network with me, since when we’re not home, do we really need the netowrk there? Not really. Unfortunately, I’m just not convinced this is ready for prime time — the dongles are there, but the home network interfaces aren’t yet. Unless you know something I don’t know, of course.. I mean, seriously. We use (and are really happy with) DirecTV. The idea of installing cable just to get a modem and fast cable modem speeds instead of DSL irritates me — but that my mom’s home network is faster than mine annoys me. Even though, in reality, I rarely notice my network’s speed, which implies it really isn’t “slow” as much as I’m realizing it’s been a few years since I upgraded….But isn’t that part of being a geek? Oh, and I’d love to do the portable dongle, but I just don’t want to add one more monthly charge to my budget. Unless I can remove one I don’t need, and the logical one seems to be the DSL line, no?

Honestly, I’ve been waiting for Wimax for a while, but the rollout is — problematic, painful and slow. So maybe I’ll stop waiting.

This article was posted on Chuqui 3.0 at Three technologies I’m hoping mature this year.. This article is copyright 2009 by Chuq Von Rospach. This content may not be republished on another site without explicit permission from Chuq Von Rospach. Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed so you don't miss a single one of my carefully crafted, emotionally satisfying and Pulitzer-quality words. Three technologies I’m hoping mature this year.

I’ve been shirking my blogging duties again, a bit. Lots going on and it seemed like a good time to just quiet down a bit and relax. Laurie and I have our PVR subscriptions up to date — a bit of a quiet period, other than Battlestar Galatica — so we’ve been working our way through the Netflix queue a bit.

Tonight’s gem was Hellboy II with Ronald Perlman with a suntan. Very well done, good humor, don’t think about the plot too damn hard. Extra credit for the sheer steampunkiness of the movie. I can give it no greater honor than to say that I liked it as much as the original. Sequels rarely do that for me.

A few others we’ve seen recently that I liked include Tropic Thunder, which was just wonderfully gonzo, Groundhog Day with Bill Murray showing an ability to handle a surprisingly complex character long before anyone really believed he could act, and Wall-E — how did it NOT win best picture? Just a stunning piece of work.

We’ve started experimenting with the live Netflix streaming to the Xbox. It seems to work great; the only two complaints are (surprise surprise) the relatively limited selection, and that if a work is episodic (like TV shows), you can’t currently see them on Xbox even if they’re available for instant watch on other platforms. Which means I need to get my Billie Piper fix elsewhere for now.

Chuqui-bob says “check ‘em out”

This article was posted on Chuqui 3.0 at put down the computer and go watch a movie!. This article is copyright 2009 by Chuq Von Rospach. This content may not be republished on another site without explicit permission from Chuq Von Rospach. Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed so you don't miss a single one of my carefully crafted, emotionally satisfying and Pulitzer-quality words. put down the computer and go watch a movie!

From the robot chicken folks. Enjoy!

(hat tip: Brian Fies)

updated to point to the copy at Adult Swim….

This article was posted on Chuqui 3.0 at Now that’s what I call space opera!. This article is copyright 2009 by Chuq Von Rospach. This content may not be republished on another site without explicit permission from Chuq Von Rospach. Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed so you don't miss a single one of my carefully crafted, emotionally satisfying and Pulitzer-quality words. Now that’s what I call space opera!

Bay Area Bird Blog » Olompali State Historic Park is fantastic:

Over the sixteen years I’ve lived in the Bay Area, I have driven past Olompali State Historic Park — on US 101 about fifteen miles north of the Richmond Bridge — over 150 times. At least thirty of those times, my wife and I have agreed that “we really have to stop by this place sometime.” Yesterday, we finally did…and I’m sure we’ll be back a few times every year from now on. There are some historic buildings ranging from 80 to 150 years old, with several interesting stories attached…that alone would be enough to make a single visit worthwhile; for example, there are some remains of the adobe house of the last Miwok Indian leader, dating from the mid-1800s.

This one is now on my “must visit” list.

This article was posted on Chuqui 3.0 at Olompali State Historic Park is fantastic. This article is copyright 2009 by Chuq Von Rospach. This content may not be republished on another site without explicit permission from Chuq Von Rospach. Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed so you don't miss a single one of my carefully crafted, emotionally satisfying and Pulitzer-quality words. Olompali State Historic Park is fantastic

Not much birding to do in Yosemite in December, but trust us, the Ravens were around, and quite friendly. This one was wandering the meadow near Yosemite Falls looking for an unattended Clif Bar…
All of my Yosemite photos are available from Flickr here.

This article was posted on Chuqui 3.0 at Common Raven, Yosemite National Park in Winter. This article is copyright 2009 by Chuq Von Rospach. This content may not be republished on another site without explicit permission from Chuq Von Rospach. Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed so you don't miss a single one of my carefully crafted, emotionally satisfying and Pulitzer-quality words. Common Raven, Yosemite National Park in Winter

Continuing to work through my photos of the Yosemite trip…..

We came in during the afternoon of the 26th, as a storm was moving in. This photo was before the storm, with some snow, but far from the fresh layer we had in the morning…

All of my photos available from Flickr here. Well, will be once I finish uploading them, but there are already some pretty good ones online.

This article was posted on Chuqui 3.0 at Half Dome, Yosemite National Park in Winter. This article is copyright 2009 by Chuq Von Rospach. This content may not be republished on another site without explicit permission from Chuq Von Rospach. Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed so you don't miss a single one of my carefully crafted, emotionally satisfying and Pulitzer-quality words. Half Dome, Yosemite National Park in Winter

Took thursday off and drove up to Point Reyes to do some exploring and birdwatching. Overall, a very fun day and successful trip with some decent photos. Stopped by Bolinas Lagoon for a quick view on the way in from the road near Audubon Canyon — low tide, mostly egrets and shorebirds, plus one group of about 20 seals hauled up and sunning.

I started out heading to the lighthouse, which was fogged in with a heavy, consistent wind, so I changed my mind and headed off to the area near the rescue boathouse overlooking Drake’s bay. On the Bay were the  typical set of gulls, plus a couple of rafts (about 50 total) of mostly Surf Scoters — with a few other birds mixed in I finally resolved out to be Buffleheads and White-Winged scoters (lifer), all at great distance. Evaluating my photos later, I also found what looks to be a sea otter froclicking in amongst the scoters…

There were turkey vultures everywhere. I counted at least 30 individuals, and at one point, had eight in the sky at one time. I stopped off at one of the historic dairies to watch the vultures and a red-tailed hawk playing in the breezes and occasionally strafing cows.

After that, South beach, where I had a number of fly-overs by Brown Pelicans and Turkey Vultures, as well as one hunting Osprey.

Final stop was Drake’s Beach, where I had a pretty good smoked salmon, chipotle cream cheese and red-onion quesadilla at the cafe (good, but a bit pricey, also 45 minutes or so from the nearest deli; memo to self: pack lunch), where I got a different view of Drake’s Bay and got better views of the White-Winged Scoters. Also along the beach were two Common Loons

As well as various gulls (including a couple I think were Heerman’s but they kept their distance), and a couple of seals sitting offshore and watching the silly humans.

Laurie took one look at this photo and declared: see, loons are simply turtles with feathers, which is why they fly so badly…

The photos from the trip are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chuqui/sets/72157605125990295/

Species seen on the trip:

• California Quali
• Brown Pelican
• Osprey
• Marbled Godwit
• Long-Billed Curlew
• Scrub Jay
• Turkey Vulture
• Red-Winged Blackbird
• Surf Scoter
• Pigeon Guilllemot
• Various gulls
• Great Egret
• Great Blue Heron
• various swallows
• Red-Tailed hawk
• Double-crested cormorant
• White-crowned sparrow
• Song sparrow (heard)
• Chickadee (heard)
• Common Loon
• White-winged scoter (life)
• Bufflehead
• Raven
• American Crow

Also — over 30 deer, all hanging out in plain view in the middle of the day. there’s a big controversy about the deer population going on up there, and while I’m going to stay out of that, seeing so many deer along the road makes me think the population is pretty thick up there. Far too often in these cases the “bambi factor” starts kicking in.

Also seen — sea otter (probable — it MIGHT have been a seal, but I don’t think so), harbor seals, one or two dairy cows…

update: heard from a friend at the local audubon, who thought the white-winged scoters were early for migrants. He checked with the local expert up there, and he confirmed the ones I saw were overwintering, they had three there all summer.

This article was posted on Chuqui 3.0 at Birdwatching trip — Point Reyes Seashore. This article is copyright 2009 by Chuq Von Rospach. This content may not be republished on another site without explicit permission from Chuq Von Rospach. Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed so you don't miss a single one of my carefully crafted, emotionally satisfying and Pulitzer-quality words. Birdwatching trip — Point Reyes Seashore

The original plan was pretty simple: Laurie took a week off last fall to make a run up 395 and visit Lassen for some hiking and photography; her timing was impeccable, it was the last weekend before the Rangers told everyone to go home and they shut things down for the winter. I was going to spend a week in Yosemite the next week, just prior to starting my job at StrongMail.

Then Laurie got sick, and things got interesting. Everything else got put on hold.

And now here we are, a few months later, Laurie’s life’s getting back to normal, I could really use a few days off, but we’re in the middle of the playoffs with the Sharks; I also know if I want to get to Yosemite, I better do it before the hard-core rush of tourists arrive. So with Laurie’s okay, I look at the schedule and realize that (assuming at the time) the Sharks were going to advance further in the playoffs, my only real shot was to sneak in some time during the latter stages of the first round and before the 2nd round really kicked in. Work was nice enough to allow this to happen, and I figured as long as nobody messed up the seedings and allowed the Sharks home ice advantage in the 2nd round so they’d start on the road that I’d be okay. (and fortunately, that actually happened). With XM in the car, hockey’s never too far away, even in Yosemite.

The plan was to spend some time in Yosemite mid-week, then he south to LA to visit the parents (and do tech support on the computers). The plan was to spend a few days completely unwired and unplugged; I got a room at Wawona (but more on that when I write about Yosemite) rather than the valley floor, and really loved it. The trip was designed around three main themes:

1. Yosemite. What’s not to like? It was about exploring and enjoying, doing some hiking, but mostly, just being there.
2. The camera. I’ve been going through a phase of self-examination, critique and evaluation on my camera work (hence the quiet on the photo blog), and it was time to go and spend some time through the viewfinder, and also spend time on different subject matter — most specifically, more landscape work, less chasing birds. Yosemite is a natural for this.
3. birdwatching. As long as I was out, while it wasn’t the primary focus of the trip, it was a good excuse to go after some serious birdwatching in a few places and see what happens.

I’ll talk more about Yosemite later; and the camera discussion will head over to Imaging Reality soon.

Right now, some birdwatching… I made a few birdwatching stops during the trip — on the way to Yosemite, I re-visited the Merced NWR to see how it’d changed since the trip I took in March. Then on to Yosemite, where I spent an afternoon birding the Happy Isles area (especially around the fen), but otherwise, I ran into birds as part of other activities. Down visiting the family (in beautiful Orange County, land of, well, Disneyland), I spent a morning down at a favorite sport the Newport Back Bay area, and then a quick stop at Placentia’s tri-city park, which has an artificial pond that, like most mallard-magnets, sometimes has other interesting stuff. And then on the way home, I revisited another trip I took last year, and took a bit of time out in Morro Bay to check out the harbor and Sweet Springs and see if I could pad my species count for the trip and have lunch.

I was hoping that with some luck I might hit 100 species. I didn’t do badly, totalling 87, including (thanks to Yosemite) 14 lifers. I started keeping track when I hit the 101/152 interchange going east, and stopped when I hit the same location coming north. Detailed species listing and soem comments below:

Bird list — Yosemite trip (87, 14 life)

(* = first time seen on trip)

152/101 -> Merced NWR (9)

I made a decision not to make stops on the way to Merced NWR; birding O’Neill forebay and then reservoir is not recommended at 65 miles an hour; on the other hand, from what I could see, the waters were pretty quiet; as usual, hawk and vultures were everywhere…

• American kestrel*
• Brewers Blackbird*
• grebe* (prb western)
• house sparrow*
• Mallard Duck*
• Red Winged Blackbird*
• red-tailed hawk*
• turkey vulture*
• Yellow-Billed Magpie*
• Merced NWR (29)

When we visited the refuge in March, it was still a very wet area and full of swans and geese.

Since then, the migrating birds have departed, and the refuge has been allowed to dry out, turning much of it from marsh and wetlands to meadow. The day was very warm, and it was mid-day, with bright sun with lots of glare, not a great day for photography. For me, the highlights of the trip were the large number of white-faced Ibis hanging around the refuge, as well as what seemed to be Marsh Wren’s literally everywhere. the bad news was that I never got a location where I could photograph ibis that weren’t backlit and I ended up tossing all of the pictures as unacceptable. Will have to try again some day, I’m still looking for decent photos of them.

In fact, the only photos I kept from this stop were of a particularly cooperative (and noisy) Marsh Wren:

But then, that’s a nice enough photo that I won’t complain that I didn’t get the Ibis this trip… I do wish the photos of the Western Kingbird had been better, also, but they weren’t keepers, either.

• American Avocet*
• American Bittern*
• American Coot*
• American Goldfinch*
• American Pipit*
• Black Phoebe*
• Black-Crowned Night heron*
• Black-Necked Stilt*
• Brown-headed cowbird*
• Cinnamon Teal*
• Dunlin*
• Gold-Crowned Sparrow*
• Great Blue Heron*
• Great Egret*
• Green-Winged Teal*
• Killdeer*
• Marsh Wren*
• Mourning Dove*
• Northern Harrier*
• Northern Mockingbird*
• Ring-necked Pheasant*
• Ruddy Duck*
• Snowy Egret*
• Song Sparrow* (heard only)
• tree swallow*
• Western Kingbird (life) *
• Western Meadowlark*
• Western Sandpiper*
• White Crown Sparrow*
• White-faced Ibis*
• Yellow-Rumped Warbler*

Merced NWR -> yosemite (1)

• Scrub Jay*

Yosemite/Wawona area (3)

Then on to Yosemite, where I checked in at Wawona, then drove up to Tunnel View and spent the afternoon and evening watching the light on the valley and geeking photography with a few other souls who weren’t in such a damn hurry. The Wawona hotel area was pretty quiet for birds — Robins, Blackbirds, Juncos, Jays, the usual suspects — but up at Tunnel view, we were visited by a pair of young but very habituated Ravens. One of the ravens decided to try to break into a car:

but fortunately didn’t succeed. The funny thing is, every time he attempted to peck open the door, he made a funny sound that I swear was his attempt to sound like the sound a car makes when you unlock it; I really got the feeling he’d connected the sound to the opening of the door and felt if he got it just right, he’d be able to get in. There were ravens and Steller’s Jays everywhere, I counted 12-15 ravens on the trip, and close to 100 Jays.

• American Robin*
• Brewer’s Blackbird
• Dark-eyed Junco*
• Steller’s Jay*

Yosemite/Hetch-hetchy area (4)

With two fulls days, and two partial days at the park, I decided to focus on a few places; the first afternoon and evening up at tunnel view taking photos of the valley; the next morning, up early and out to Hetch Hetchy for some hiking and exploring; the second full day down on the valley floor, and then the final morning at big trees before heading out the south entrance to LA.

I’d never been to Hetch-Hetchy before, or if I have, it was long enough ago that it’s lost in the mists of time. It’s at a lower elevation than Yosemite, and it’s a mature oak habitat instead of more of a conifer/alpine. The trip involves heading up over Crane Flat, out the park up the 120, and then cut back in and up a narrow toad to get to the dam and the reservoir. On the way up, I had the windows open (the only way to visit the park, IMHO), listening for bird songs in case I heard something I wanted to chase. Mostly, I heard yellow-rumped warblers… As I was headed up, however, suddenly at the side of the road up popped a shape. I immediately saw it was a quail, but it was shaped wrong for California, and it’s topknot was wrong. the Mountain Quail stood there on the side of the road for about five seconds, suddenly realized there was a car near him, and just as suddenly ran off and back into the brush; just enough time to get a good look and ID, not long enough for a photo. So what else is new?

At the dam, I did some hiking up the trail towards the waterfalls. It was very nice day, a bit warm, and almost completely deserted, other than the search and rescue team, the large contingent of rangers, a bunch of white Tahoe’s with government plates, and the terrorist… well, faux-terrorist. Turns out they were spending a day of “catch the terrorist”, where they’d planted the evil nasty guy on the dam, and the security crews were supposed to work there way into the facility and capture him before anything really bad happened; we have to remember that O’shaunnessy is part of the water system in the state, and so they were practicing protecting it. Actually, everyone was cool, although they were careful to tell the few of us visiting what was going on so we didn’t freak. I even had a chance to talk to the terrorist a bit (he was the guy in the red hat); he even had a gun, although the only thing the gun was going to do was cool you off when he squirted you… but it was the thought that counted..

Hetch-hetchy seems to be a nice place for people visiting Yosemite to go if they want to get away from the crowds, even during busier seasons. There’s some nice hiking there, and I found it to be rather beautiful. There’s a simmering argument that continues about whether to tear down the dam and rebuild the valley, and to be honest, I can see why some people have that view. My problem with the plan is that it’s brutally expensive, it requires moving all that water storage elsewhere (basically meaning we have to screw up some other location to fix this one), that it’ll take decades — and even then, it’s unclear just how long it’ll take to bring it back to something approaching what it was, if you can. Given the continuing funding issues of the parks we currently have, I’m still convinced the money is better spent on what we already have than throwing it at a wish to undo something that was done a century ago. Maybe someday, but I’m still convinced we have other priorities to worry about and spend that money on.

The one key bird for me up at the reservoir was Townsend’s Warbler. No picture (but here’s one) — but trust me, I tried. I was only carrying my wide-angle lens, because I was primarily interested in shots of the area, but there was this one large, old oak, and I kept hearing calls out of it. I spent 20 minutes or so trying to get a clear view of who it was, since I didn’t recognize the call, and it finally popped out onto a branch a couple of times and sang, giving me good views. And my honor was satisfied…

On the way back down, when I was back in the inhabited areas and pastures, I realized that there were birds flying out of a stand of trees on the side of the road onto the roadway, and then back into the trees. Intrigued, since there was a pull-out, I stopped and parked and decided to see what happened.

What happened was finches; I realized they were purple finches, not house finches, and they were flying down to where there was a crack in the road and feeding — from what I could tell, it was the entrance to an ant hill, and they were grabbing ants. As I watched, though, a weird looking finch flew in with the purples; it was clearly a female, and and clearly not a purple or house finch, but I had no clue what it might be. Fortunately, then her mate flew in to join in, and the top-knot on the back of the head was clearly visible, giving me another life bird, Cassin’s Finch:

Which I’m told by some of my birder friends is a real catch, especially getting a decent photo of it. (I have photos that show the head patch better than this, but they aren’t as good as photos… so it goes).

• Cassin’s Finch* (life)
• Mountain Quail* (life)
• Purple Finch* (life)
• Townsend’s Warbler* (life)
• Yellow-rumped Warbler

That pretty much ended things in Hetch-hetchy. On the way back, I explored the Cascade creek area a bit, and the Foresta road.

Deer, by the way, were very common and easy to see if you were paying attention. These deer crossed the road ahead of me driving back from Hetch Hetchy, and so I slowed down and got the camera ready, and sure enough, when I drove the by opening at the side of the road, there they were. They stayed just long enough to get some nice shots.

which, I think, is a good example of why you need to take your time, open your windows, shut your mouth and watch…

Yosemite/Cascade Falls area (1)

Cascade creek is little more than a turnout with some attitude, and a pretty little stream of watcher flowing down the rocks. At the same time, this may be one of my favorite shots of the trip:

It was also a place where I ran into another set of ravens more than happy to pose for the visitors:

• American Raven
• Juvenile Bald Eagle*
• Turkey Vulture

Other than that, and a soaring juvenile bald eagle (bodacious!), not much birding the rest of the day, which I spent down on the valley floor scouting photo spots and grabbing dinner at the store…

Yosemite/Valley Floor (5)

I started out day 2 on the valley floor, mostly looking for good photo opportunities. Down on the merced river, however, I had a nice opportunity to shoot a pair of common mergansers

and, of course, it wouldn’t be a nature shoot if it wasn’t crashed by a Steller’s Jay that wants to be the center of attention. I heard this one coming in from far off, he finally flew in and posed, loudly declared his ownership of all around him, then flew back off again, chattering the whole way

By the way, lest anyone think photos like the mergansers are easy to get — I spent about 45 minutes at the pond, looking to get that shot of the pair together. The male spent most of the time wandering all over the pond, going behind things, swimming around, doing everything EXCEPT going near the female. The female, for its part, had her head under her wing in an eddy and was very determined to stay asleep. Not exactly the most enthralling picture….

But eventually, the male wandered over to where she was, and she woke up. They interacted for about a minute, swimming together, and then the male decided it was time for HIS nap, stuffed his head under his wing, and decided to call it — and she swam off behind the island to do whatever it is Mergansers do (probably lunch). Window of opportunity, maybe a minute. Good photography, and Yosemite in general, are not good for the type A people out there (but more on that in the Yosemite essay).

• American Raven*
• American Robin
• Brewer’s blackbird
• Bullock’s Oriole* (life)
• Common Merganser*
• Mallard
• Northern Flicker*
• Northern Mockingbird
• red-winged blackbird
• Song Sparrow*
• Steller’s jay

Yosemite/Happy Isles “fen” (8)

I then decided that instead of going to mirror lake (mirror meadow…), I’d explore the Happy Isles area instead. My reason was purely pragmatic — at that altitude, at my weight and in the kind of shape I’m in right now, I wanted to limit the total mileage and altitude change in my hiking. I know I could have taken the shuttle bus to Happy Isles, but I also wanted to get some regular mileage in and get started on the exercise, so I parked in the lot outside of Curry, and hiked my way into Happy Isles.

That was not a bad idea, because along the way, I noticed many, many Steller’s Jays in the trees, and while watching them, realized there were other birds flying around in the crown of the trees. Stopping to take a closer look, I realized they were woodpeckers. Specically, Acorns

I carried on to Happy Isles, where I wandered around looking for nice shots of the Merced River. Happy Isles is a former fish hatchery facility on the upstream locale of the Merced (oh, how our sensitivities have changed around Yosemite over the years; I’m old enough to remember playing golf on the Ahwanee golf course, and when they felt it necessary to dredge out Mirror Lake to keep it “natural”, and watching the firefall where they pushed the bonefire over the canyon wall), now converted to a learning center. It’s also the site of a major rockfall a few years back that killed one and reminded us that this park is one of constant transformation….

Happy Isles is an area where you’ll see a diversity of environment; there’s oak habitat, there’s the pine forest and a fair number of dogwood trees, which were just starting to bloom seriously. One area, known as the fen, is a marsh, which as you can imagine is home to a wide diversity of bird life. That’s where I spent most of my time in the area.

Another woodpecker (the second of four for the day!), the red-headed sapsucker

to red-breasted nuthatch

I spent about an hour in the fen, and a couple of hours at Happy Isles total, just kicking back and wandering about. I finally decided that was enough and hiked back to the car. Just as I was within view of the parking lot, I saw something flutter in the trees above me. Getting the binocs on it, it turned out to be my third woodpecker of the day, and one I’d actually hoped to get my eyes on:

the White-faced woodpecker, which did me a favor and gave me five minutes of good quality shooting time, or as good as you can get in the hard twilight of the canopy… As I was shooting the woodpecker, I heard a couple of people walk past behind me, and suddenly, from one of them, I heard “good eyes” — and I thanked them, and thought to myself “well, I’m getting there…”

• Acorn Woodpecker* (life)
• American Dipper* (life)
• American Robin
• Black-headed grosbeak*
• Brown Creeper* (probable/life)
• Marsh Wren
• Red-Breasted Nuthatch* (life)
• Red-breasted sapsucker* (life)
• song sparrow
• Steller’s Jay
• townsend’s warbler (probable)
• white-faced woodpecker* (life)
• yellow-rumped warbler
• Lincoln’s Sparrow* (life)

After that, I went back to the valley floor and spent the afternoon down in one of the meadows, mostly chasing song sparrows. We again had deer arrive and create a crowd, this time a small pack of young male bachelors who’s horns were just starting to sprout:

and the other my fourth woodpecker of the day — I suddenly had a bird fly out of a tree crown and fly across the meadow.

After that, I called it and headed back to the room. The next day was a travel day, and I got down to Orange County.

Placentia area (2)

• American Crow*
• house sparrow
• house finch*
• northern mockingbird
• red-tailed hawk

newport back bay (17)

Saturday morning I had some free time, so I hauled myself down to Newport Back Bay, a nice area to bird, It was early, a bit chilly, grey and hazy, and I left the camera packed up (in retrospect, probably a mistake, but I wanted to spend time birding, not shooting). It started out rather slow; I stopped at one of the turnouts to look and saw nothing but ring-billed gull, a few forster’s terns and some coots. Not an auspicious start. Another birding family appeared and stopped and we talked a bit. they noted they’d heard you could find blue-grey gnatcatcher in the bushes on the hill-side of the road, so they took off into that area, and a bit later, I decided to follow. I found a few hummingbirds and both cliff and barn swallows decided to come out and chase bugs, and the inevitable song sparrows bellowing. At one point, I had an overflight of four birds that were the right shape and size for the gnatcatcher, but I didn’t get a good enough look for me to ID the birds, and they didn’t return. I also later had two birds chasing each other that I’m pretty sure were loggerhead shrikes, but again, the ID remains wishful. Other than that, and a cooperative and very pretty common yellowthroat, that was about it.

Before I left the stop, I decided to check the terns again, just in case. Smart move. While I wasn’t looking, the forster’s had been joined by a few Caspian terns, and I suddenly realized one of the Caspian terns had a funny beak — it was one of the local Black Skimmers, hanging out and trying to look tern-like. Almost worked, too. And then I noticed another bird in the group that looked funny; one line Bonaparte’s Gull, who couldn’t look like a tern if it had to, but could hide in a group of white birds if you weren’t looking too closely.

The other highlight was a flock of black-bellied plovers, including a few in full breeding plumage. Now THAT was a pleasant surprise in the scope…

• Anna’s Hummingbird*
• American Avocet
• American Coot
• American Crow
• Barn Swallow*
• Black Skimmer*
• Black-bellied Plover* (incl. 1 in full breeding. pretty!) (life)
• Blue-winged teal*
• Bonaparte’s Gull*
• Canada Goose
• caspian tern*
• Cinnamon Teal*
• Cliff Swallow*
• Common Yellowthroat
• Double-Crested Cormorant*
• Forster’s Tern*
• Great Egret
• Mallard
• Marbled Godwit*
• mourning dove
• Red-Winged Blackbird
• ring-billed gull*
• Ruddy Duck*
• Snowy Egret
• Song Sparrow
• Western Grebe*
• Western Gull* (2nd winter, moulting)
• willet*
• Yellow-rumped Warbler

wishful ID

• (loggerhead shrike?)
• (blue-grey gnatcatcher?)

Tri-city Park, placentia (4)

After that, I headed to my parents. My last stop was tri-city park, a small artificial lake that acts as a “mallard magnet” in the area. Sometimes it has nothing, sometimes it has some interesting birds, and always it has a small flock of Egyptian geese wandering around.

The real highlight for me was that someone is now managing some bluebird boxes in the park, and gave me a good opportunity to look at some bluebirds, and as I was heading back to the car, I saw a bird fly by, and when I tracked it down, it turned out to be a Wilson’s Warbler. All in all, not bad for 20 minutes.

canada goose

• Double-crested cormorant
• Egyptian Goose*
• Forster’s Tern
• greylag goose*
• Mallard Duck
• Western Bluebird* (life)
• Wilson’s Warbler (Pacific)* (life)

After spending time with my family, I came home via 101. I’d decided early on to take a little time and eat lunch at Morro bay and see what was going on in the harbor and on the rock, and if I had time, revisit sweet spring and see if there was anything interesting. It was very grey and foggy, limiting any view of the rock (no peregrine).

and, of course, there were otters and seals

Morro Bay Harbor & Rock (5 new)

• Western Gull
• Pigeon Guillemot*
• Song Sparrow
• Brown Pelican*
• Pelagic Cormorant*
• Common Loon*
• Surf Scoter*
• Western Grebe
• Great Egret
• Snowy Egret
• Marbled Godwit*
• Blue-winged teal
• American Coot

Sweet Water Spring reserve

Sweet water, unfortunately, was more or less a complete loss. A couple of song sparrows and one lousy yellow-rumped. Not even any sign of an egret this trip, much less a belted kingfisher or some interesting warbler. Ohwell, timing is everything, and this trip, it wasn’t good timing. Last year’s trip to Morro went a lot better….

• Anna’s Hummingbird
• Song Sparrow
• Dark-Eyed Junco
• Red-Tailed Hawk

And after that, I hit the road and came home. Total: 82 species, 14 life species, and lots of fun and relaxation…

And some decent photos… Full set of trip photos are now online here:

Yosemite

Morro Bay

Merced NWR

Orange County

This article was posted on Chuqui 3.0 at Trip report: Birdwatching…. This article is copyright 2009 by Chuq Von Rospach. This content may not be republished on another site without explicit permission from Chuq Von Rospach. Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed so you don't miss a single one of my carefully crafted, emotionally satisfying and Pulitzer-quality words. Trip report: Birdwatching…

Sat outside on the driveway again this year to watch the santa clara fireworks show from central park, and the annual “keystone kops parking circus and revenue enhancement festival” on the streets nearby.

Fortunately, this year, the wind was almost directly from the north, sending the fireworks smoke on the crowds in the park, rather than on us, so the pictures are very clear and, I think, much better than last year.

The full set is here.

This article was posted on Chuqui 3.0 at Fireworks!. This article is copyright 2009 by Chuq Von Rospach. This content may not be republished on another site without explicit permission from Chuq Von Rospach. Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed so you don't miss a single one of my carefully crafted, emotionally satisfying and Pulitzer-quality words. Fireworks!

I’ve been focusing (ahem) so much on “big glass” photography lately I decided it was time for a change, so I loaded up the 17-85 onto the Canon, along with a 12mm extension tube, and went small. This was done in natural light, no flash, and I think it came out amazingly well.

More pictures from San Mateo Coastline, and my flickr set of flower pictures (soon to start expanding significantly)

This article was posted on Chuqui 3.0 at Wildflowers with Ladybug: San Mateo Coastline. This article is copyright 2009 by Chuq Von Rospach. This content may not be republished on another site without explicit permission from Chuq Von Rospach. Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed so you don't miss a single one of my carefully crafted, emotionally satisfying and Pulitzer-quality words. Wildflowers with Ladybug: San Mateo Coastline