TimeOut

Southbound along the Water

We drove to the Chula Vista Marina, not having been there in a couple years. We found the area along the water untouched, but the inland portion in the midst of redevelopment.

Despite all the construction, we had a nice visit. The usual morning marina activities were underway - boats bobbing in the water, dogs being walked, coffee fetched, people exercising,

men fishing, gardeners blowing stuff around, more cups of coffee, etc.

Birds. I forgot the birds. Notice the blue sky above, and gray skies ahead (to the west)

You can see the construction in the background here.

But I would prefer to focus on the foreground. I liked these flowers on the tree.

Someone in the flock of pigeons must have said "Let's fly the obstacle course" and about 50 of them did circles for 5 minutes, through the forest of masts and wires!

We walked on a thin strip of sand while the tide was still out.

Plenty of brown birds were hard at work searching for breakfast. MARBLED GODWIT

I think the gull is trying to fit in (or hoping for a morsel to come his way) as his bill is not designed for grabbing marine life inches deep in the wet sand.

This is the downward curving bill bird (there are brown birds with bills that curve up, out or down but I can't keep their names "straight" without looking them up each time) LONG-BILLED CURLEW

I'm can say "White bird with yellow feet" (egret?) and leave it at that. SNOWY EGRET

Plus pelicans, of course. BROWN PELICAN

Wearing my Credor Spring Drive Moon today.

This pelican did a great, dramatic landing next to a tight group of birds (but he's clearly a loner, so couldn't land right up against the rest of them).

His belly went from gray to white as the light hit the feathers. The other birds turned to watch.

How about that? he seemed to ask, as they ignored him and continued grooming themselves. That was mean!

I went to work with Photoshop to recreate the sequence (what do you think?)

After a few moments, they all took off and headed north towards the National City Marina.

We switched our attention to the enormously gigantic boat lift which was coming out on the dock between us and the pelicans.

It took about 10 minutes to move (a bit like a rocket launch transporter) but since it was low tide, we left at this point.

We could see that whatever boat they planned to lift would need a bit more water under it.

Notice the size of the machine compared to the operator, at the left side of the photo, and the ladder up to his cockpit!

We walked over to the edge of the construction zone and watched the tractors, graders, earth movers, water sprayers, etc. See my video at the end of this post if you love tractors!

I like flowers too, and sadly we didn't find too many today.

A couple of guys were working on their boxing moves. Not an everyday sight -- this is the first time for me.

A very old, very small Asian woman walking her young, very tall grandson who walked the tiny dog.

They were coming from the end of the pier where perhaps they may have just left Grandpa with his fishing gear (one pole for each person?)

I loved the wind-on-the-water patterns

She looked down and where I saw patterns, she saw a dime. I never notice things like that!

I happened to have my GS hat in the car and it looked like it went with my watchstrap and shirt. What do you think?

Giant bird sculpture helping pick up construction debris?

Or is it just a metal clam?

These paths are potentially dangerous with golf carts, scooters, bikes, walkers and dogs galore. My wife noticed one women and a young girl with 4 dogs - which can spell trouble.