Smart Mommy Solutions» animal encounters

Weekend Camping in the Desert

Tonya — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:07:08 +0000

We went for a great camping trip in the desert over the weekend. We went to the Anza Borrego State Park, and went for a hike up Palm Canyon to an oasis that is up the canyon. The oasis is really cool because you start the hike in dry desert where you can’t imagine there being any water for survival. You end the hike in an oasis with a flowing stream, a little water fall, and lots of shade provided by palm trees.

On our way up the canyon, we came across a group of 3 beautiful male Big Horn Sheep just hanging out and eating in the canyon. The were not bothered by us at all, and we were able to get close enough to get some really good pictures. I do have a telephoto lens on my camera, so I was not as close as it may look.

These animals are beautiful, and are considered endangered. In the 1990’s, there were only around 280 of these animals left in this area of the desert, and they were put on the endangered list. Their population has increased since then, but they are still endangered. This is their canyon, and I am so glad that they tolerate us visiting it.

The kids enjoyed climbing on the rocks up at the palm oasis.

It was a beautiful camping trip.

Dragonfly Macro

Tonya — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 23:38:51 +0000

I have been trying for a while to get a good dragonfly picture, but those little guys are fast. Most of the shots I get are blurry or they are too fast and are out of the shot before I get a chance to take the picture. I finally got a chance to get my shot.

This was taken at the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The dragonflies were shooting around all over the place. At first they weren’t landing, so I could only get blurry shots of them darting all over the place. Below is one of the action shots.

Kind of blurry, but cool that he is up in the air.

Here is a lovely flower shot too. Taken in a garden in Salt Lake City.

Sweet baby hummingbird

Tonya — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:38:36 +0000

My birthday is next week, and I found an awesome deal on a zoom lens for my camera. I found it at Target for only $99. It is a Canon EF 75-300mm zoom lens. Today I had my first chance to see how well it works. We were outside, and my daughter pointed out a hummingbird on the tree. I ran in to change lenses, and came back out to snap some pictures. I noticed that there were two hummingbirds at first, but that when I came back outside with my longer lens, there was only one. I waited patiently, and even sat down for a bit to wait and see if the mommy came back.

It was well worth the wait. Here is the baby waiting for mommy to come back.

Baby is still waiting.

Here comes mommy.

I am so jazzed about my new lens. I did have to manually focus because there were so many branches that the camera couldn’t figure out what I wanted it to focus on. I just manually focused and then stayed in the same spot to take all of the pictures. The baby stayed in the same place the whole time.

I have high hopes for things that I will be able to capture now.

Yosemite Valley Bear

Tonya — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Our annual trip to Yosemite Valley started out with me stressed from work. I was overwhelmed at work, and had to bring work with me on the long weekend trip, so I was not feeling the fun, rest and relaxation that I had hoped I would feel.

The weather was beautiful and I did eventually start to relax. To make the weekend even better, a young bear came searching around our cabin area.

Our rooms looked out over a marshy meadow area next to the river, and while we were all hanging out in the evening, I looked up as a bear was just walking out of the meadow. We all got our cameras out and started to snap away. The bear had no interest in us while he worked on ripping apart a log to look for grubs and other juicy morsels to munch on.

This was an awesome encounter with a beautiful animal, and it really made my weekend.

New animal Quest: Bats in a cave

Tonya — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:00:00 +0000

I have decided on a new animal quest for this year, since I achieved my last quest. My new quest is to see bats in their cave. I have seen wild bats flying around in the evening before, but I have not been to a cave where bats congregate. I have seen one bat in a tiny cave, but I want to see a full congregation of bats. I might be satisfied by seeing them flying out in the evening in a large mass.

I will keep you posted when my quest is achieved.

Animal Quest: Birds of Prey

Tonya — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 12:33:59 +0000

I love animals and I really love getting to see animals that you don’t get to see every day. I was inspired by some pictures that I saw last summer, and made a goal to find and get pictures of a nesting bird of prey. Mind you, I never said that they had to be good pictures, just pictures. It would be easier to get good pictures if I had a zoom lens, but we work with what we have, and I am happy to have a DSLR to use. Some day I will get a zoom. My Dslr is a Canon T1i
by the way.

When spring was getting close, I was keeping my eye on some large nests near a road that I drive to work every day. The nests were empty until one day as I was driving past, I saw a large bird in one of the nests.

It turned out to be a Great Horned Owl with two fuzzy babies. I am pleased that I achieved my goal of the year and was able to see a nesting bird of prey, in person. This picture was taken with my dad’s camera as he has an old non automatic zoom lens, and then I zoomed in more via photoshop.

What is something that you would like to do or see this year?

Summer is over, what have you done

Tonya — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:59:18 +0000

Well, summer is over. I was off work all summer, and really luxuriated in the laziness of it. I took a photography class, and posted some of the pictures on the photography section on day 1 of class, day 2, more from day 2, my favorites from day 3, and then some extra pictures from class. The cool thing about taking the class was that our time was devoted and carved out specifically for taking pictures and editing them. We spent all day every day photographing and editing pictures. You have to spend the time in order to get better. Another great thing about the class was its location. We were in Northern California on the coast near Mendocino at the Albion Field Station, which is owned by Pacific Union College. The coastline is wild there, and we were camping in a little valley on a river/estuary, so there was wildlife galore. There were deer passing through camp daily, osprey overhead, owls next to our camp each night. It was awesome. We were very tired by the end of the week because we started photographing a 6:30 every morning, and we weren’t done until 9 each night. Long days, but pleasant. It was cold there too. We were there mid July, and I don’t think that it got above the 60s every day. I never took my sweatshirt off. Here is a picture of our camp.

Then there is boating on the estuary.

Finally, Here are the cabins that were for rent to camp in. You still had to bring your own sleeping bag and linens, but you got a bed and shower.

So, after our lovely trip to the wilds of Northern California, my daughter had surgery to have her tonsils out. We then spent a lot of time at home recouperating and I spent more time on the computer with my pictures and editing software. I decided to list some pictures on Etsy, and made cards and bookmarks out of my pictures. It has become quite a hobby.

Here is a sample of some of my cards.

I also love this picture that I messed with and made more like art. Here it is in my shop.

Now I am back to work, and I have not completely organized my house like I was planning to do when the summer started. I wonder if my house will ever be completely organized or is it important to always have that to strive towards? I completely ignored my therapy blog once I took the photography class this summer. Now that I am back at work doing therapy, I will have to start updating the therapy stuff again. It seems that life is going to be very busy for a while. Looking forward to Thanksgiving break and Christmas break.

New Snake Eating Dinner

Tonya — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:11:33 +0000

Here is a picture of our new pet eating his dinner of baby mouse. It is so cool. I had no idea that you could buy the baby mice frozen. Such convenience.

Our new pet

Tonya — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 13:41:38 +0000

Ok, I vowed that we would not be getting any more pets. I think that two dogs and two guinea pigs are plenty of work for the average family. I guess that I am now eating my words. We now have a new pet king snake. It is my favorite type of pet though in that we caught it in forest, and we will set him free right back where we caught him when we are done having him as a pet.

Here he is right after he was caught.

Here he is with my dad holding him.

And here he is in his temporary cage until we get the larger aquarium cleaned out for him.

Meet My Adopted Son Fred

Tonya — Sun, 30 May 2010 03:27:00 +0000

We went to the tide pools today in Laguna Beach. It was beautiful. We had just started looking at things when I saw this little guy in the water.

He is a little sea lion pup. He started to come up on the rocks, so we just sat down and watched him and took pictures.

He was washed around on the rocks a bit by the waves.

He slowly worked his way higher and higher on the rocks.

He eventually got to a comfortable spot and lay down to take a nap. He was shivering and exhausted. We hung out for a long time to make sure that nobody bothered him.
He slowly dried off.
He was so close to us. It was a really precious moment.
I hope that my new son Fred finds his biological mother today. I am very worried about him and feel a special bond to him. I felt bad when I had to abandon my new son there on the rocks, but I know that it is the best place for him. I hope that me guarding him while he slept and got his energy back will make it easier for him to find his mother when he is ready to go back into the water. Be strong young Fred, and stay away from sharks.