Kristina's farallon islands 2

This is the entire crew for seabird research during the summer on the islands. Most of the time one or two people would take 2 weeks off before going back for another 8 weeks. Those 2 weeks are for recharging, visiting families, and keeping themselves sane without listening birds.

Kristina likes to take picture of birds life. Here is a baby cracking eggshell.

Here is the new Gull baby. Sort of wet.

Now the baby's feathers are all fluffed up.

Some baby chicks are still protected by the parents until they are ready to face the whole crowd of thousands. On the islands, there are 12 different species and about 300,000 populations.

Some young birds get bullied by the neighbor adult birds.

Sometimes Kristina is lucky to stay inside to observe the birds. No attacking! No pooping on the clothes! Hooray!

She learned to band the birds.

Look at the color of this birds. So black and red.

Most of the time the birds try to catch fish for their diet. For this one, she found a tiny rock fish.

When they don't have enough food, then they might even try to eat their neighbor young chick. So sad!

Lucky for this bird. I think it's got a squid in her mouth. Ocean delicacy.

Kristina said that she saw whales, sea lions, and elephant seals. Occasionally her job was to observe their flipper and record some kind of data. If you click on the ocean picture, you might see two whales in the ocean and one was sprouting the water.

Wow! The mouth is UGLY.

Kristina's farallon islands 1

Kristina came back from Farallon Islands internship at the end of July. I will tell you a little bits of her adventure. She went to the island by some volunteer boats.

The island doesn't have any port or pier to load and unload like the regular boat. They have to use crane to transfer people and other stuff.

These are the bands for them to do the banding on the birdies.

The living situation is the tough part. The islands are appr. 30 miles away from SF, so they don't have regular electricity and water and food supply. They collect solar light and rain water, so people have to conserve electricity and only shower every 3-4 days. They get food supply every other Saturdays. Everyone on the land has to take turn to cook for the whole crew of 6. This is their spice rack.

These male birds are doing some kind of dance to get the female interested. I don't know what type of the birds or what type of dance, I only just think that they are pretty and funny.

This is Kristina holding a West Gull (I think). Too bad that you are not allowed to save them (as pet). If you are on the island, you are suppose to just do the job, record the data, and let them to be living the natural way, so the interns are able to collect the precise datas.

She is wearing all layers to keep the cold out. She is also wearing hard hat inside the hood cause the birds see the human beings as their predators. The birds will find any chance to attack and poke her head besides pooping on her every so often.

With all the attacking and pooping, she still loves them. Every time there are some new chicks, she couldn't help but picking up and taking a photo with them.

Mark's quick visit

Mark came for a short visit during the McOmber's reunion. He wanted to take some photos to see how tall Brittany is. Brittany feels intimidated by somebody's height the 1st time. She is pretty tall (5'11") and hasn't felt other people being tall if they are no taller than (6'4"). I felt really short in front of these tall people. Doug and Joe, I enjoyed talking to you both too much to remember taking some pictures with you. We should take some next time.

Mark, Brittany said that she really appreciated that you remember all the activities that she has been doing. She was happy that you paid attention to her instead of just talking to us and see her as a "child". Thanks!

Visiting Lodi

We visited Earl & Betty's family on July 16. It was a great day for a swim. Betty, thank you for all the goodies you prepared. They taste SO good. Earl, thank you for letting us come for the day.

This is Amber with Juno. He is very good-natured boy.

This is Jamie with T.J. He has the gorgeous smile and he is so happy.

Brittany is holding T.J. Brittany loves all her cousin's children . T.J. has those cute dimples.

Mateo (teo) has bundle of energy which goes along with his curly hair.

Juno is following the bigger kids wherever they go. He loves fruit.

Alanna and Mateo were like buddies. They even hide together. But I still got them.

Kalli found her buddy (Brittany) of the day to swim with.

Kids love jumping into the pool. I enjoyed watching them doing that.

The twosomes.

Here is Alanna jumping in.

They found Brittany as the swimming pal.

Dinner is SF w/cousin Ray

Logan's cousin, Ray, was in SF for a night. We picked him up and had a great dinner at "Greens". The restaurant is all about veggie but every dish tasted fantastic.

As you know that Brittany loves photography. This is one of her photo at the dinner. This is showing the ring of her hot cocoa.

Some of Brittany friends like to call her "ginger" because of the color of her hair.

This is another photo that Brittany took by using the sunlight.

Brittany used the twilight going through the water.

Since we ate at Fort Mason by the bay, we took a picture of the sunset.

summer trip

We went somewhere in northern California. When we took a break, we saw this gecko. Brittany took the photo before it ran away.

Brittany likes photography. She used the light and shade as the central idea for this patio photo.

We were eating in this cute deli place and drinking sparkling water, and suddenly Brittany tilted and balanced the glass then took a photo of the bubbly water.

We were quite sure that we were nice so we wouldn't be asked to leave. I like the sign; I want one in my house.

Brittany took this picture of the gate from this little garden. Looks very inviting.

summer fruit from backyard

I forgot to show the pictures of our backyard harvest this summer. The plum tree had quite a bit fruit this year.

The plums taste really good without the pesticides. The apricot tree is still small and produced much less this year, but still tastes yummy.