Fleet Week San Francisco

Last week was Fleet Week in San Francisco. Dave, this is especially for you!

The Blue Angels were thrilling, although the low cloud ceiling put them on a modified routine.

This biplane pilot was insane!

How's this for a tight formation!

The local pelicans got into the spirit. This one is in a dive, about to hit the water.

Some of the fleet was pretty old. The California Hornblower here.

I think you can see the pilots' heads.

The Potomac.

The peli's closing out the show.

Saturday with the Birds

It felt great to be back at IBRRC, today, after being out of town last weekend.

This Snowy Egret practically lives at IBRRC waiting for someone to turn his or her back on a bucket of fish. He is pretty good at removing towels from buckets, and just generally waiting for a chance to raid the food cart.

These two Ne Ne's are geese native only to Hawaii. They have been at IBRRC for several months, but can't be placed until the proper permits are obtained. They are doing fine. They are small, somewhat tame, and loveable.

This big Canada Goose is isolated and on a strict diet. His weight ballooned to over 8 kilos, and his feet have open sores from standing out of the water constantly. Today, we put up this barricade to keep him in the water to help his feet heal. We are all rooting for him to become "the biggest loser".

He's back!

This is a Black-bellied Plover. He was taken for release shortly after this picture.

Laura and Gail are putting booties on a fulmar. He had to come in from a pelagic pool, get blow-dried, and will spend the night in a pelagic box which has a soft, mesh bottom. The booties will help keep him from getting foot lesions, since fulmars spend most of their time on or over water.

Booties being expertly fitted. To feed this guy, I needed to use a needle to inject fish with air under their skin so they would float. They are odd birds that look somewhat like gulls, but behave much differently. Well, that's all for today.