In April 2014 I (Phil) went on a "birdathon" trip, part of a fundraiser for Golden Gate Audubon Society (anyone who wanted to go on the trip is supposed to raise at least $500, although they cut you some slack if you miss the mark). Pinnacles is a bit far for a day trip from Berkeley --- about 3 hours drive each way --- so I had never been there before. Beautiful place, though heavily visited

Richard, the guy on the left in the vest, is a volunteer with the California Condor recovery project. He came along for part of the trip and told us lots of great stuff. Rusty Scalf, the trip leader, is behind him in the blue shirt. 

We saw our first (and only) California Condor before getting out of the car!

Condors were down to the last 22 individuals in the world before the recovery program started in the late 1980s. There are a couple hundred in the wild now. Without constant work they would be wiped out again: when they eat remains left by hunters they ingest lead shot and bullet fragments, which poisons them. Twice a year, every condor is trapped and tested, and if their lead level is too high they are taken in for treatment. The solution is to get hunters to stop using lead shot…and FINALLY, after years of the NRA successfully fighting a forced switch to copper, California is banning lead shot (the ban starts next year I think). I'm afraid hunters will simply import it from other states.

Talk about a face only a mother could love. And look at those talons. Really, this bird looks like Death incarnate…which is fitting, I guess, for an obligate scavenger.

Condors are huge. I'm tall and my arm-span is even longer than my height, but this guy has me beat by several feet.    You can see the radio transmitter on his wing 

At the start of the trip we also got a look at some acorn woodpeckers. These gregarious, clownish-looking birds cooperate to create a "granary tree", in which they drill holes to store acorns.

Same photo as the previous, cropped so you can see the acorns in some of the holes.

The group hiked up the trail, looking at birds, wildflowers, and geologic features as we went. Rusty Scalf, the trip leader, is a really good naturalist.

The yellow thread-like stuff is a type of dodder, a parasitic plant that feeds off the stems and leaves of its host. The orange flowers are Indian Paintbrush, a parasitic plant that feeds off the roots of the host. This host plant is really getting it from both sides.

I love the fractal look of the trees and bushes on this hillside. Almost impossible to judge scale, isn't it?

The park has lots of drought-tolerant species like Blue Oak, but there has just enough rain over the winter to green them up

After the rest of the group turned back, another participant and I continued along a loop up to the ridge top. It had some steep sections like this, plus some other somewhat difficult bits. But man, there were a lot of people out there…dozens and dozens on this moderately strenuous 6-mile loop. If you go to the park, go on a weekday.

Up near the top, we hung out for an hour and a half with Rose, an intern with the Condor project. Every fifteen minutes or so, she cycled through the frequencies of all of the condor transmitters and recorded direction and signal strength. 

Here's one of the pinnacles for which the park is named. Note the people at the bottom right. These are pretty cool geologic features.

We hung out waiting for condors to show up in the thermals, and were hopeful when the sun came out and lots of turkey vultures and ravens started soaring around, but alas, no condors showed up for us.

It's a beautiful place, and I'll go again. But not on a busy weekend.

This is probably how most tourists think of Belize, and there's no doubt the beaches are beautiful.

Lots of friendly kids and friendly dogs around too. 

Tourists who aren't here for the beaches are often here for the diving. Us too! We did four scuba dives, and all were good. Belize, where all the diving is above average!

And of course there's the opportunity for fruity alcoholic drinks on pleasant verandas, or, as Juliet discovered, for a massage and manicure.

In addition to the water activities, there's stuff inland too...such as caving.

This trip was surprisingly technical, lots of climbing, squeezing through narrow passages, etc. No lights except the ones on your heads (or your camera flash).

These caves were used for Mayan ceremonies hundreds of years ago, as these pot remnants attest. Some people don't know that Mayans are still around: the civilization that built the temples collapsed hundreds of years ago, but the people are still here, still speaking their Mayan languages. Several of our guides were Mayan.

Here's an interesting way to transport a canoe. Oncoming traffic handled it with aplomb. There are lots of potholes so cars are used to weaving all over the roads anyway.

This (non-Mayan) guide took us on a great tour of Monkey River.

We split our Monkey River time between the boat and a walk in the forest.

You've gotta be careful where you put your hands. Lots of trees have some kind of protection.

See? 

We looked for jaguars. We did see lots of fresh scrapes and tracks, but this is the closest we got to a jaguar. (This is at Cockscomb Jaguar Refuge).

Of course we did lots of birding and looked for wildlife. We saw tons and tons of birds, but fewer mammals than we expected...but (as we will show in a subsequent post) we had some great looks at howler monkeys. We also saw kinkajous at night, which was pretty great.

Try a Maine Coaster, the delicious cocktail from the State of Maine

Fresh lime juice, fresh mint, maple syrup, and light rum. These are the principal ingredients of a Maine Coaster. A bit of club soda finishes it off. (The photo above shows enough to make several of them).

The inspiration of the Maine Coaster (which I, Phil, invented about 6 years ago) is the mojito. A mojito, as you know, is made from lime juice, mint, simple syrup, rum, and club soda. A Maine Coaster simply replaces the simple syrup with maple syrup. Although to make a really good Maine Coaster you also want to adjust the proportions slightly differently from those of a mojito. 

Try this:

4 mint leaves

3 oz lime juice 

2 oz light rum

1.5 oz Grade A maple syrup (or 'Fancy' grade works too)

1 oz club soda

a few ice cubes

Muddle the mint in the lime juice very thoroughly. Pour into an 8-oz glass, add everything else, and stir. That's it!

The goal is a drink in which you can easily taste each of the principal ingredients. If you find yourself saying "well, I mostly taste lime, but I _think_ I can taste a bit of maple" then you need to use less lime next time, or more syrup. As long as you can distinctly taste all four main ingredients, you have yourself an officially recognized Maine Coaster, and you may feel free to adjust the proportions to make it relatively minty or limey or rummy or maple-y. The recipe above makes for a rather strong-flavored drink, which is the way I like it. Obviously you can use more soda and less of everything else, and get a lighter flavor. That's the way they make them at the Nebo Lodge on North Haven, Maine, which is the only bar or restaurant where you can get a Maine Coaster at the moment. Unfortunately this is not a drink they can mix for you at your local bar, unless you bring your own maple syrup.

One thing that ought to go without saying, but doesn't, I fear: if you don't have maple syrup, you can't make a Maine Coaster and it is not worth trying. Using maple-flavored corn syrup is simply a waste of rum and lime and mint, whether it says "real maple flavor" or not. If it didn't come out of a maple tree, don't use it. 

Now, go make yourself a Maine Coaster and enjoy!

Little bits of Paris

We are only a few hours from the end of our European vacation. So sad. Now we have two weeks in Maine before heading back to Berkeley. We're ready to come home but also sad that the trip is over; it really has been fantastic. 

I (Phil) was glancing through my Paris photos and realized that I have several that show similar things arranged next to each other, so that's the theme of this blog entry. I can't think of a good way to describe it: "similar things next to each other" just doesn't sound all that interesting. But it is! It is!

I've been to Europe enough times that I'm no longer thrown by the fact that you have to go up a level to reach the 1st floor. 

Cheeses.

Fruits and vegetables.

Locks on a bridge railing near Notre Dame. This was featured in one of our first blog entries, when we were in Paris at the very start of our trip.

There's a shop in the Marais district that is full of old stuff related to the airline industry. 

This looks like a compact history of two-wheeled transport, but in fact it is a sign that shows that all types of two-wheeled vehicles are allowed to use the adjacent parking spaces.

Children's books about nature.

A "bee hotel" in the Jardin des Plantes. The adjacent sign says that "all types of bees and insects are welcome." 

These were actually in a horizontal line but spaced too widely to show up well in a single photo. These are from a monument near the Jardin des Plantes that I think was dedicated to Georges Cuvier, the originator of comparative anatomy. I say "I think" because when I saw the name Cuvier on a plaque next to the fountain I assumed that's who it referred to; he was a hugely important figure in his time (although he was wrong about a lot of stuff). But Wikipedia says that Georges's brother Frederic was also a zoologist and was the head keeper of the menagerie (i.e. zoo) at the Paris Museum of Natural History, so maybe the monument is to him instead. Or maybe both of them. Alas, I don't have time to go back and look.

 

London for the Olympics!

When our vacation is over we will have more free time to add to this blog (I'm not kidding!)  I am taking a few minutes to do this now because I have to let my bike computer recharge, but as soon as it is topped up I am heading out. So this'll just be some photos and captions.

The cabs in London are awesome, they have so much legroom that you can just toss all your luggage in there and climb in with it. I asked the driver if London cabbies still have to learn "The Knowledge" and he said "oh, yes sir, 'course sir," but I am skeptical: my friend Andrew says standards have slipped greatly.

These must save a dozen lives a year. They've certainly saved mine.

I knew about Zebra Crossings, but the Humped Pelican Crossing is a new one on me. My friends Emily and Lew say there are also Toucan crossings.

This is a working replica of H1, the Harrison timepiece that was the first really accurate clock in the world, a huge step towards being able to determine longitude at sea. Although we see it here in its normal orientation, it can run when tilted at any angle, and the pendulums (which are driven by springs rather than gravity) are coupled so that a disturbance to one is countered by an opposite disturbance to the other.  I went out to Greenwich just to see it.

A shop in Soho.

This pedicab driver pulled over to ask about the gearing on my folding bike, and we got into a long chat. I commented on what a great mood everyone in London seems to be in, and, like every Londoner we've spoken with, he agreed completely but emphasized "it's not usually like this. Not at all." And then, while we were talking, a woman (perhaps a bit tipsy) walked up and started talking away at us, and almost as soon as we were shed of her, this crazy French guy came up and started enthusing about reggae to the pedicab driver, who said "I don't know anything about reggae! I'm strictly a jazz man." I eventually snapped this photo, and when I turned to the pedicab driver he started laughing uproariously and said "really, it is not usually like this. I tell you!"

There are lots of artworks and statues and so on, all over the place. I was amused to see, in Hyde Park, a large chessboard on which all the pieces were white. Upon inspection, it is an artwork by Yoko Ono, entitled "Play It By Trust."

The Grand Hall (or whatever they call it) at the British Museum of Natural History. The hall is great, and so is the museum. I saw an exhibit of animal muscles/nerves/circulation...you know that one where they took real human cadavers, used a chemical method to replace tissues with plastics, and opened them up in various ways? This was like that, but with animals: ostrich, hare, sheep, elephant, bull, etc. Excellent. 

There's a promenade along the Thames that has attraction after attraction: rides, skate park, cafes, etc.  This is a park with interactive machines; these kids are collaborating to make the dog catch the bone as it falls. 

Cheese pie with gravy and mushy minty peas.  "Mushy" is desirable: I've seen many menus where mushy peas cost more than regular peas.

Here's one of the mini-memorials you find all over the place. This one is for Plimsoll, the creator of the Plimsoll Mark (look it up).

This trash can has slots for newspapers, plastics, cigarette butts, and....gum.

Perhaps the people with the bikes are waiting to go to Barking.  There is also a Tooting. I wonder what they would say at the information desk if I said "I'd like to go from Tooting to Barking."

Mostly we've used the "Javelin Train" to go to and from Olympic Park, but this day it was more convenient to take the Tube, which goes near the park but also serves a big residential area. And it was packed, absolutely packed. I asked "is it always like this, or is it the Olympics?", and was told "oh, no, this is less crowded than usual." I thought the guy was joking, but a woman said "he's right, usually there's a queue to get on the train and the train is at least this crowded. This is better than usual. But you know, it's not bad, there's a train every three minutes and the ride isn't that long." 

And here's Olympic Park. On the left side of the picture the people are filing out, on the right we are heading in. Security, organization, and crowd control have been absolutely fantastic. The only significant waits have been heading home at night, when the stadium plus adjacent venues (cycling, wrestling, etc.) let out at the same time: coping with 120,000 people...it's amazing it can be done at all.

I (Phil) am not actually fat, I swear to you! It's some kind of trick of the light.

Here's everyone taking photos of Usain Bolt. 

Here are police in a phalanx in case things get out of hand as people leave the stadium. In fact the crowds have been extremely patient and pleasant.  At one point, as perhaps 2000 people were waiting packed together in three pens for the next trains to arrive, a "games-maker" (paid or volunteer helper) was trying to keep people entertained by telling jokes and bantering with a bullhorn. Someone from the crowd yelled "I've got one, I've got one: 'What do you call a gamesmaker with no sense of humor?  A policeman!'"  So a bobby took the bullhorn and told a joke. (What do you call a deer with no eyes?.... No idear.")

Here's the world-record-setting 4x100m women's relay team on their victory lap. Check out the guy with the Segway with the TV camera. The athlete walking away is a pole vaulter who had just come over to get some advice from his coach before going for another try.