A couple Monterey Bay pics

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A couple/few weekends ago my "wife" and myself (aka me) spent the day at Monterey Bay (it still sounds odd saying "wife"). Due to the fact that Lauri hates Mexican food, not one taco was consumed the entire trip. Sea otters were abundant, as were seals and birds and large numbers of large tourists. I did some naked diving in the bay and I took this jellyfish shot with my Canon 20D stuffed in a ziplock baggy while fighting off a great white shark. I got YOWCH zinged by the jellyfish but that's what I get for dangling my bait around like that.




This is a bird.




This is a rare long-beaked California Pygmy Penguin.




This is a rare California Condor. He's disguised as your every day common gull, but believe me, he's not. It was a good day for extremely rare birds.

FYI, the first jellofish shot was actually my 20D against the glass at the jellyfish display in the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I didn't really go neked skinnydipping and take this with a baggy over my camera.”

“your example of a rare long beaked pygmy california penguin is amazing.”

“Great as usual Buck.”

“I am so glad you labeled the bird pics. Those dang things are so hard to identify! :-)”

“where's the ivory billed woodpecker?

very nice!”

“Nice pics. I've been to the Monterey Aquarium also.

My favorite place in or around Monterey is Pacific Grove. It's this charming town that just out on the water and it kind of like San Francisco where it's always around 65 degree, then you drive 5 minutes out of town and it's 75 degrees. It's beautiful there.

I also kayaked the Elkhorn Slough in Monterey. It was fantastic. I had an otter follow me down the slough on his back, cracking open shell fish by banging it against a rock on his stomach. He stayed right next to my kayak and would keep diving down for seafood and returning. There were loads of seals and babies there too on the beach.”