An osprey flew by with lunch

I had a factory recall on the van this morning. Went to the dealer. Steering wheel thigamajig. Got finished super quick so I decided to head down to the San Elijo lagoon and take a walk, maybe shoot a few pictures of birds. I am on antibiotics, just getting over a super crud so strength is limited.

Even with all the clanging on the new train/road project it was great to be out. Saw a night heron buzz by on my right and a bunch of egrets cavorting. Perfect day to be out in Southern California, about 78°, light wind.

A perfect day for bananafish.

Speaking of which, I have never seen a day with so many fish jumping out of the water.

Fish were catapulting into the heavens left and right, seemingly unprovoked.

Of course capturing such leap on a digital sensor is near impossible without a hand from providence and there was nary one in sight so you will have to take my word for it.

Watched a harrier make its graceful and deadly dive.

And a phoebe chatting away to anyone who would listen.

There were cormorants jumping out of the water too but I am not sure those count. We were talking about Salinger weren't we? No? I guess the late great Vonnegut has some new work coming out. You always have to wonder if an artist or author is really down with posthumous releases of their stuff. There might be a good reason he never put it out, he may have not thought it good enough.

Painters tend to burn their second rate material so as not to infect the greater body of work.

I guess the new stuff is supposed to be heavy on the moral message, whatever that means. Maybe we could use some finger wagging... Vonnegut could be amazingly good, looking forward to drawing my own conclusions.

An osprey flew by with lunch.

I have to throw out the standard caveats now, it was out of lens range, didn't have my expensive new lens on, another one got away, blah, blah, blah.

Reality is, you get the idea and I did the best I could with what I had but I would have preferred something tack sharp. One of these days I will hopefully nail this shot.

Guess you had to be there.

I watched the sea eagle take its prey over to a familiar roost to dine.

Been many a year since I lived in Cardiff but I tell you, it's a hard place to get out of your system. Couldn't afford it now, of course, a veritable sea of Range Rovers and Porsche Cayenne's. Wealthy Arizonans with second homes. I saw a very nice Mercedes with a surfboard strapped on top. But frankly, that is all of Southern Cal these days. Glad I lived here back when it was still working class but that train has long ago left the station.

A nice day was had by all.