It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday (cue music)

Well, this is it.  I'm on SEFI, hunched over my computer at the dining room table that I built with my bare hands.  This is where I wrote the first TPAD.  To be honest, I'm a bit nervous about what to say as I lay TPAD down for her final rest.  I think I'll pour myself another one and say farewell.  

It's been quite a year.  We have been through a lot of stuff together over the last 365 days.  Farallones, Midway, Hawaii, Angels Camp, San Francisco, the Carolinas, various hell-holes around Southern California... TPAD has been my best friend through it all.  We have seen hundreds of birds, maybe even thousands. We met so many amazing people and friends, and we immortalized them all by taking at least 2 photos of them every single day.

If you are reading this, I want you to know how much I appreciate you.  By merely clicking on TPAD and paying attention to me for a few minutes, you have made my life better.  Hopefully yours has been enriched as well.

I have been thinking about my blogging future lately and am still not sure what I want to do with my post-TPAD life.  I think it may heavily involve the GBRS and all that goes with that...

So I was considering either doing a 10 (ten) PAD, or a 20 (chwenny) PAD tonight, as it is a special occasion, but I think I will just stick with the good old 2 (too) Photos A Day.  So without further ado, here are my last 2.  They are just photos of my best parts of today.  Same as always.  Thank you all for looking at them.  It means a lot.

I found this Baird's Sandpiper lurking around Stinky Ponds today.  I was hoping for a White-rumped, but I'll settle.

I spent a good hour with the Northern Gannet today.  This is maybe the rarest bird I've ever seen in California.  He flew within 30 feet of me about a hundred times and I took a million pictures.  I finally settled on this one to finish off TPAD.  Everyone please now go listen to "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday" by Boyz 2 Men or whoever.  Thanks for watching.

Even More Glory And Fame Than Ever Before

Today was a GREAT SUCCESS!  Beyond all my wildest dreams, destiny beat upon my doorstep and gifted me with one of our earth's most beautiful sights.  Northern Gannet.  Here's what happened at the Farallon Islands today:

Unfortunately, we had to endure a whole bunch of this boring "whales jumping out of the water" crap before we were finally able to go look at the Glory that is a Northern Gannet off California.

Yeah, so the photo isn't as pretty as the Humpback above, but this is a photograph of the only Northern Gannet ever seen in the Pacific Ocean.  Ever.  I'm hoping it will still be on Southeast Farallon Island when I arrive on August 18th.

I Feel Happy Of Myself

The fog cleared to several miles of visibility yesterday.  When that happened, a bunch of birds dropped in to the Island.  Best birds: Red-throated Pipit, Yellow-green Vireo, Black-throated Blue Warbler, and Chestnut-collared Longspur.  The Summer Tanager continued, as did some Tennesse Warblers.  I went up and slept at the lighthouse, in case of massive fallout this morning.  Sadly, life was pain.  Visibility was too far (I could see SF when I woke up) and all I saw were a Violet-green and some Waxwings.

Yellow-green Vireo.  7th Island Record.

My first Red-throated Pipit.  (HE,IKR)

SEFI E-Seals

I borrowed Jim's camera yesterday and headed down to Sewer Gulch to get some shots of the bull Elephant Seals.  There are a bunch of them on the island now, but they will soon head out to sea for the remainder of the fall and won't return until around December. 

This reminds me of that giant snail thing from The Never Ending Story.

Notice their mouths pretty much make a heart.  Cuteness.