Tales of the Heliosphere

What do you get when too many pigeons try to fit in the same food bowl? Here it is. As always click on the photos to zoom in.

From Birds

From Birds

From Birds

From Birds

-tdr

Republished to change images size.

Labels: Birds, Nature, Photography, San Diego

Somebody's cage is missing a Zebra Finch. (Here.) The bird is not native to Southern California. Fortunately for it, it found a backyard feeder; and for me: it's got a sweet call and beautiful coloring.

Meanwhile, a native bird feeds on a San Diego Sunflower in the front yard.

The sunflower plant still blooms but it's losing flowers in anticipation of summer. The blooming flowers continue to feed hummingbirds and insects. The dying flowers feed other birds. Nice!

-tdr

Labels: Birds, Photography, San Diego

Today's a holiday at my office. We get all the holidays California state judges get, and they get a lot. So, this idle morning was spent in the backyard along with these visitors:

A Black-headed Grosbeak.





A House Sparrow, I think, came along.



Pigeons, too, of course, flew in from the nearby grocery store.



Meanwhile, the cat roamed the yard blissfully unaware of her appointment for vaccinations later today.



Have a day, everybody.

-tdr

Labels: Birds, Photography, San Diego

This weekend's shots of birds were taken at Mount Laguna about 50 miles east of San Diego. Saw 14 different types of birds. If I were a real birder I'd give you a list. But I'm not. So, here's a picture of a Steller's Jay, instead.

For more pictures of this and other birds go to my picasaweb photos page at picasaweb.google.com/tdavera and open the 2009 Laguna Mountain Folder. (Here)

-tdr

Labels: Birds, Nature, Photography, San Diego

San Diego, along with the entire state of California, has a water crisis. San Diegans are threatened with water rationing because of our state's long drought and loss of water from the Colorado River.

According to a recent story in the Union-Tribune, the per-capita water use in San Diego is 157 gallons per person per day. (Here.) Rationing may force San Diegans to find a way to save 20 percent of their water usage. That would reduce per capita usage to 125 gallons per person per day.

Here's a way for my fellow San Diegans to make that work: remove your lawn and replace it with native plants. I did that and my water usage has shrunk by 50 percent. This month last year my average daily use was 61 gallons. This month, my average daily use was 31 gallons per day.

-tdr

Labels: San Diego

The federal government may have pushed the date back for conversion from analog TV broadcasts to digital but 4 of the 7 English-language stations in San Diego are making the switch today. (Here.) And why not? Only 5.9 percent of San Diego households aren't prepared for the conversion. It's not like they haven't had plenty of advance notice to get cable, satellite, or a little converter so they can continue watching TV. 94.1 percent of the rest of us are ready to go.

Not that those who didn't prepare for the transition will be deprived of TV. Three stations, including the Public TV station, haven't made the change. And Mexican Spanish language stations won't make the transition at all. This could be a good opportunity to learn a second language and become hooked on telenovelas.

-tdr

Labels: San Diego, TV

NASA plans to launch a nuclear-powered robotic rover to Mars in the year 2011 for landing in 2012. If it goes, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), will be a Mars rover on steroids compared to the two already there. The MSL is big. How big? This big. Sorry, kid, there's no right to privacy in a public place. And it's this much taller than your typical American adult male. Besides its large size, the MSL will have very robust mission capabilities, thanks in no small part to its nuclear power source. Although you wouldn't know it by the signage and educational video accompanying the mock up MSL at the Reuben Fleet Science Center in San Diego. So, here are photos of the mock up MSL's mock up nuke. Top view.
Bottom view.
For more photographs of the mock up of the MSL on display at The Reuben Fleet Science Center, visit my Picasa Web Albums page (picasaweb.google.com/tdavera/)and view the Mars Science Lab Fleet folder. (Here.) For more information on the MSL mission visit NASA's webpage. (Here.)

-tdr

Labels: Mars, NASA, San Diego

San Diego's downtown buildings viewed from the Imperial Beach pier, hard by the United States-Mexico border. That's Coronado's strand in the foreground, and the blue steel rising from left to right is part of the Coronado bridge.

(Click image to enlarge.)

Lou Dobbs take note. The IB Pier is in the United States but my cellphone service is hijacked by a Mexican cellphone service whenever I set foot on the pier. A text message appears on my phone welcoming me to Mexico. It's the reconquista! (Here.)

-tdr

Labels: San Diego

Gun owners know that California is in its own universe when it comes to gun laws in the United States. The Second Amendment has limited scope here.

The specifications website for any handgun sold in the United States has a special category that states whether the gun is legal to purchase in California. The Ruger SR9 webpage is a good example. (Here.) The SR9 was not legal to own in California until it was certified by the Department of Justice back in December 2008 and placed on this list. (Here.)

Many handguns sold legally elsewhere in the US are not legal in California because the law here states that

" ... no handgun may be manufactured within California, imported into California for sale, lent, given, kept for sale, or offered/exposed for sale unless that handgun model has passed firing, safety, and drop tests and is certified for sale in California by the Department of Justice. Private party transfers, curio/relic handguns, certain single-action revolvers, and pawn/consignment returns are exempt from this requirement." (Here.)

Long guns don't fall under this law but long guns that qualify as assault weapons are illegal in California. (Here.) In general, an assault weapon is a semiautomatic rifle that accepts a detachable magazine and is outfitted with certain scary-looking design features like a pistol grip, a foldable stock, a flash suppressor, or a grenade launcher. (Okay, that last characteristic is probably reasonable to ban no matter how cool it would be to have.)

California's assault weapons ban also outlaws semiautomatic rifles that can hold more than 10 rounds in a fixed magazine, and some handguns and shotguns with certain characteristics. The characteristics are a bit detailed, so if you want to know more, go here and scroll down to section 12276.1.

Oh, and machine guns are forbidden in California, too. (Here.) But, surprisingly, Gatling Guns are not. This sweet-looking baby was for sale at Discount Gun Mart in San Diego, California, when I went there tonight to purchase my new Ruger SR9.


This fierce looking weapon holds 100 low caliber 22LR cartridges in its magazine. Gun owners would call this a plinker.

It's not a machine gun because it's a semiautomatic. It's not an assault weapon because it doesn't have the characteristics of a rifle. It's clearly not a handgun, even for Hellboy. And, best of all, it's perfectly legal to own in California. All you need to do is pass the background check and fork over $20,000. Who could have predicted that the state with some of the strictest anti-gun laws in the United States would have a Gatling Gun loophole? I'm falling in love with my home state all over again.

-tdr

Republished once for content.

Labels: California, Guns, San Diego

This Northern Harrier (here) takes flight empty handed at Mission Trails Regional Park within the city limits of San Diego.



This drab little bird, a Cassin's Finch, I believe (here), looks curiously at the photographer in a San Diego backyard.



Happy Weekend, everybody.

-tdr

Labels: Birds, Photography, San Diego

We're having a cold spell in San Diego. Really. It was 40 degrees Fahrenheit in the backyard this morning and a frost was on the ground. Here are some closeups of the frost on the shredded redwood mulch, a sage, and melting on a heart-shaped weed.

As always, click the images to zoom.

-tdr

Republished once to correct grammar.

Labels: Gardening, Photography, San Diego

A hard rain fell on Thanksgiving morning in San Diego. After the rain, the yard smelled like redwood and sage, and the birds came alive with singing. Small somethings to be thankful for.



-tdr

Labels: Birds, Photography, San Diego, Thanksgiving

The San Diego Padres are in some kind of a meltdown. The team lost 99 games last year. Published stories indicate that payroll next year will be in the $40 million range, which is a bit more than half of payroll last year.

The team has let Trevor Hoffman go. To be frank, that's probably the right thing to do. Hoffman has lost his edge. Plus, he's a closer. Even when he's on, he's no good to the Padres unless the team has the lead entering the ninth inning. Better to put the money elsewhere and give Heath Bell a shot at closing.

The real heartache for fans is the effort to push Jake Peavy out the door. Peavy is the team's front line starter. Without him, there's just one truly top of the line starter on the team in Chris Young. With Peavy, the Pads have the edge going 2 out of 5 games they play.

Peavy trade talks are going nowhere, which is hurting the team's effort to rebuild the rest of the lineup.

"And for a team coming off a 99-loss season in 2008, there are several areas that need to be filled, as general manager Kevin Towers wants to add starting pitching, relief pitching and shore up his bench for 2009.

"But not knowing if the team can or will move Peavy and his $11 million contract for 2009 has all but left Towers in a standby mode until the future of the 2007 National League Cy Young Award winner is decided.

"'That's pretty much it,' Towers said. 'It's certainly a large sum of money we would be moving. Once that's decided, we will have a better idea of what holes we would be plugging.'" (Here.)

It's obvious to anybody that Padres management is moving Peavy purely for financial reasons. The team needs to shed payroll. The question is why?

My guess is it's tied to owner John Moores' divorce. California is a community property state and so everything he and his wife owned must be split 50-50. (Well, there can be exceptions to that, but let's not worry about those.) My guess is that shedding payroll is part of an effort to drive down the value of the Padres to improve John Moores' bargaining position when it comes time to swap assets with his wife in the property settlement. The less the Padres are worth, the less John Moores has to give up in exchange, if he wants to keep the team for himself.

-tdr

Labels: Baseball, Padres, San Diego

Southern California is a dry land. Okay, all land is dry land, but Southern California's land is especially dry. We don't get a lot of rain and we don't have much of our own water. Well, there is that giant ocean just to the west, but it's got all that salt in it, and don't get me started about the lack of desalination plants in this region. So, let's pretend the Pacific Ocean isn't there. That's what San Diego's City Council is doing.

Water supply is so bad that San Diego, thanks to the City Council, is going to start recycling waste water into drinking water. So, if you live elsewhere and have thought about moving here because you see how wonderful the weather is every time you watch a Chargers or Padres game from San Diego, think again. You'll be drinking cleaned up toilet water. Yummy, yummy toilet water. Not quite Tang but just like NASA!

Anyway, all that's a round about way of getting to the point. Those beautiful green lawns that define the suburbs consume way too much water for this region. That doesn't stop everybody from having one. But if the consequence of everybody having a lawn is everybody getting to drink toilet water, well, maybe it's time to go native and start replacing our lawns with native plants. You know, the plants that evolved to thrive in San Diego's low water ecology. Don't buy that argument? Then how about this one: the plants that God in his infinite wisdom perfectly created to grow here.

So, here's the home in the suburbs the week after moving in last February. And here's the same home today, two days after putting in all native plants. And here's a side angle shot.

Not too lush or green just now. (Clicking the photos to enlarge them helps.) But the picture doesn't capture the slight fragrance of sage, either. And the plants just went in. There are close to 100 new plants in the yard and each one produces either flowers or berries. Once the yard is established there will be an abundance of reds, and greens, and blues, and yellows, along with butterflies, hummingbirds, and other seed eating birds.

The best part is, once the yard is established, it won't need watering, except for the occasional sprinkle with the hose using the beer can method. The beer can method, for those not in the know, is this: grab a hose, grab a beer, and water the yard until you're done drinking the beer. Sounds like the perfect Southern California lifestyle to me.

-tdr

PS: Props to Clayton Tschudy of Tschudy Ecological Designs for the design and the plant selection of the yard. He's got the right vision. The plants came from Las Pilitas Nursery, a native plants nursery, north of Escondido. Here are the names and links to the nursery's website for the plants in the yard. (You're going to have to cut and paste to see the pictures of the plants fully grown and descriptions.)

Galvezia "Firecracker"--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/321.htm
Viguiera laciniata--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/1426.htm
Eriogonum umbellatum polyanthum--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/527.htm
Eriogonum arborescens--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/277.htm
Eriogonum grande rubescens--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/288.htm
Mahonia nevenii--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/422.htm
Salvia "Pozo Blue"--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/607.htm
Iris douglasiana--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/352.htm
Muhlenbergia rigens--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/446.htm
Ribes viburnifolium--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/586.htm
Diplacus puniceus--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/247.htm
Zauschneria californica--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/3365.htm

Labels: Aesthetics, Birds, California, Environment, Nature, San Diego

To be honest the only reason for this post is to bump the gruesome dead possum post down from the top. So, here's a picture of a passel of Lesser Goldfinches feeding from a nyjer seed sock. Aren't they cuuuute? I've replaced the sock with a metal mesh feeder. Much cleaner.

Now here's a shot of Kimba sitting behind the Lemonade Berry Bush. The old sock feeder is devoid of birds. Hmmm, I wonder why. The Lemonade Berry Bush is a California native that will get to about 6-8 feet tall and thicker. It's still small because it's a juvenile that hasn't gone through a rainy season yet. Birds love the bush for the small sour berries it produces. I've been told that mixing the berries with water and sugar produces a passable lemonade. (Here.) We'll see.

-tdr

Republished once to add link for making lemonade berry lemonade.

Labels: Animals, Birds, Food, Gardening, Nature, San Diego

Went birding again this weekend. This time to Old Mission Dam at Mission Trails Regional Park in a suburban neighborhood of the City of San Diego. The park is at the end of a large nature corridor that stretches from the mountains east of the city. These nature corridors are one of the reasons why rural brush fires in San Diego County can find there way into the city and nearly all the way to the coast. But that's another topic.

There wasn't a whole lot of activity when I went. All good birders are supposed to list what they saw. I'm not too keen on being shoulded on, but here's my list anyway.

Common Yellow Throat (first time for me)
House Finch
Cooper's Hawk
Black Phoebe
California Thrasher
California Towhee
Bewick's Wren (first time)
Mourning Doves

There's another consequence of the nature corridors in San Diego: wild four legged critters can be seen in backyards and on streets. My house is on a street that dead ends at an undeveloped canyon. As you may remember, a possum has been living in my backyard off and on for about a year now. Well, no longer. The other day, I found the little guy dead and partially eaten on my front walk. It looked very much like it had been killed by a coyote. Coyotes apparently often consume only part of their kill.

I didn't want the possum's carcass to lure the coyote back for more. So, I buried the possum in my backyard. No such luck. The coyote came back again the other night and came right up to my front porch where it made some scary wild noises. I turned up the TV really loud. It was Keith Olbermann bombasting away. The coyote ran off and I haven't heard it since. I've read before that coyotes are pretty smart. Seems right to me.

Not to be ghoulish, but here's a picture of the dead possum. Okay, I guess that was ghoulish. Sorry about that.

Not to be maudlin, but here's the possum's grave in my backyard. Rest in peace, little guy. Yeah, that's a fake Mt. Rushmore in the background. So?

-tdr

Labels: Animals, Birds, Nature, San Diego

The San Diego Union-Tribune published an interview with centerfielder Jody Gerut today. Apparently he has a history degree from Stanford University with an emphasis on Russian histroy. Here's a snippet:

Q: What about Russian history made it so interesting to you?

A: "I was not fascinated with personalities like Lenin and Stalin. What was more interesting to me was the struggle for existence and what it was like to live in a communist state. We still have an example close to home in Cuba, where people just got the right to have personal cell phones, and feminine hygiene products are still rationed. Think about that when you think about where we are."

Q: Needless to say, you studied communism.

A: "Absolutely. I wanted to know as much as I could. I wasn't interested as much in what people thought about Stalin, rather in the lifestyle under communism. I was interested in the impact of the ideology. In the Soviet Union, if you invented the widget, the widget belonged to the state, not to you. So there was really no reason to develop the widget." (Here.)

I love this guy!

-tdr

Labels: Baseball, Padres, San Diego

These two bald eagles are nesting in a bare tree off Highway 76 near Lake Henshaw in the backcountry of San Diego County. This photo was taken on Thursday afternoon, March 20th, over the noon hour. The two raptors remained in the same position the entire time I was there, about 45 minutes. A very cool experience on a day off from work. (Click and zoom on photo to see the eagles more clearly. The second eagle is on the bottom branch to the right of the main trunk. I couldn't get closer than a few hundred yards due to a barbed wire fence and a sign warning of prosecution of trespassers. I suspect a trespassing conviction would be a bad thing for keeping my license to practice law. Time to buy a telephoto lens!)

-tdr

Labels: Animals, Birds, Nature, Photography, San Diego

Padres CEO Sandy Alderson was asked at last night's annual season ticket holder meeting what the Padres will do to prevent the shame of drug use affecting the team. Alderson's answer reflects a big part of the problem that Major League Baseball has with the steroids issue.

He touted baseball's drug-testing policy as being the toughest in sports, except for the Olympics. Unfortunately for baseball, the only reason that policy is in effect is Congress stepped in and forced the issue. To Alderson's credit he acknowledged that fact. The Congressional hearings two years ago on steroids were a sight to behold. Major League Baseball executive and Player's Union representatives copped an attitude similar to the mob, basically telling Congress to butt out and mind its own business. (I wrote about this at my old blog Here.) Even sportswriters, who should be covering the sport as outsiders instead of defending the sport, took Congress to task. (Here.) Congress, who makes the rules in this country, won that round.

Alderson then said something absolutely unbelievable. He said there are a lot of allegations being thrown around about players using steroids but that "there is a great difference between suspicion and knowledge." With all due respect to Alderson that is a patronizing statement. We fans are not stupid. We may have willfully denied the evidence in front of our faces during the steroids era and believed all the stories about juiced baseballs and other reasons given for baseball's power-hitting surge. But our eyes have been opened by the Congressional hearings and specifically the disgusting spectacle two years ago of former baseball players trying to stonewall a congressional hearing. (Here.) Baseball needs to come clean about its problem and not try to hide the truth about its steroids history.

Alderson's statement is also embarrassing. How embarrassing that statement is will be revealed tomorrow when former Senator George Mitchell releases his report on steroids use in Major League Baseball. Reports today are that 74 players will be implicated in the report as having used performance-enhancing drugs.

It's quite clear to anybody with any observational skills at all that baseball has a serious problem with performance-enhancing drugs. Barry Bonds is the biggest cheater of them all and he is now baseball's all-time home run leader. The only reason he has that record is because Major League Baseball wimped out and did nothing to stop him. Kennesaw Mountain Landis wouldn't have allowed this to happen and neither would have Bart Giamatti.

Fans who care about baseball as America's national past time can only hope that the Mitchell report finally gives Selig the ammunition he needs to do what should have been done before. Impose a permanent lifetime ban on Barry Bonds. What's good enough for Shoeless Joe Jackson and Peter Rose, is good enough for Barry Bonds.

Baseball fans who really care about the integrity of the sport (a quaint phrase in this cynical era, I know) should also hope that Mitchell's former colleagues in Congress will also read the report. History has shown that only threats from Congress can prompt MLB and the player's union to come together and address the problem of performance-enhancing drugs.

-tdr

Labels: Baseball, San Diego

-- Former Dodgers' employee Paul DePodesta started out his talk by saying that every other management person on stage with him has a specific role. His own role is to be "in charge of making sure we beat the Dodgers." Longtime Dodger hating Padres fans loved that one.

-- Padres announcer Ted Leitner asked Kevin Kouzmanoff to talk about how he handled his terrible first month of the season when he struggled at the plate and there was talk of sending him down to the minor leagues. Kouzmanoff gave a lot of credit to support from his teammates and then talked about how the hardest thing he endured was when the local paper did a headline that put multiple K's in Kouzmanoff's name after he had struck out more than once the night before. He said he "learned from that newspaper clipping not to read the newspaper."

His story reminded me of hearing former United States Attorney Carol Lam speak about how her husband used to get the newspaper before she had a chance to read it in the morning, and how he would cut out the articles that criticized her to protect her feelings.

Both these stories are reminders that those who do their jobs in public are real people with real feelings.

-- Former Dodgers pitcher Randy Wolf talked about playing against the Padres and said about coming to San Diego, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

-- But by far the best anecdote of the night came from Padres CEO Sandy Alderson after General Manager Kevin Towers announced to everybody that Kosuke Fukudome would not be playing for the Padres next year. Alderson said he had been in a meeting that morning when somebody asked him how to pronounce "that Japanese outfielder's last name." Alderson said that if the outfielder signed with the Padres, he'd pronounce it Foo-koo-dough-may, the way they pronounce it in Japan. But if he didn't sign with the Padres .... And then Alderson paused, said nothing more, let the crowd think about "Fukudome," sat back, and let the laughter roll over him.

-tdr

Labels: Baseball, San Diego