Nick Visits

We had a very enjoyable time with Nick the past few days.  He drove down Sunday and left this morning.

 Gail had seen Ostrich eggs for sale at a produce stand near Safari Park and thought we should get one to make a super omelet with Nick.  We settled on an Emu egg, however, as an Ostrich egg is equal to two dozen chicken eggs.  The Emu egg equals about eight chicken eggs.  This is the egg's natural color!

 To save that beautiful shell, I drilled a hole in one end with a power drill, and Gail blew out the white and yolk by inserting a straw.

 Nick, an excellent cook, sauteed the vegetables and added them to the egg.

Lookin' good!

In the afternoon, we did a hike at our local Calavera Preserve, where we saw this strange bird for the first time.  It kind of looked like a way too big quail. It turned out to be a Chukar.  Chukars were introduced to this country from the Middle East for sport hunting, and there are now feral populations.

Nick made a toy to start the bonding process with Penelope (here) and Yummy.

In the evening, we went into San Diego to see and hear one of Nicks favorite bands, Of Montreal.  It had been awhile since Gail and I have been to a concert so it was a thrill to feel all the energy of a live performance and the crowd.

The evolving group is led by Kevin Barnes, a high energy singer and guitarist (internet photo).

 After a lazy breakfast on Tuesday, we headed to Lake Hodges for a little hiking and nature study.  Nick took many flower and plant photos which we are looking forward to seeing.

 We call this area of the lake, Grebe City, for its hundreds of courting and nesting grebes.

The trail winds up to an overlook.

 A pair of Western Grebes exchanging gifts.

 Maybe they are about to build a nest.

 A fence lizard on a fence.

 We saw a few Killdeer scurrying around.

 This Snowy Egret was catching crayfish, which might explain the unusual red lores at the base of its bill.  We had never seen this red before - even its feet were red!

 Here, it just grabbed a crayfish out of the water.

 A few feet away was another Snowy Egret.

 An American White Pelican being followed by cormorants, at least a quarter mile away.

 White-tailed Kite

 Roadrunner

Crest raised, he is running for cover.

 This morning, we made grated potato bird nests and added a dollop of pesto sauce and a quail egg.  Then we baked them for seven minutes.

 They were so tasty!  We have a lot of hiking to do to work off the treats from the past few days!

Those are the quail egg shells in the upper left.

We hope Nick can come again soon!  We had a blast! (and the best breakfasts ever!)