Never too cold to surf in California! 

Hundreds of Snowy Plovers were at the mouth of Devereux Slough in Goleta Ca. for the winter-smart birds! 

La Tolteca in Phoenix (1205 E.Van Buren St.)was one of the better Mexican food restaurants I ate at. The tacos were great (although I wished they used two tortillas instead of one). Few gringos here at lunch (think authentic, whatever that means) and has a warm friendly atmosphere. Prices very reasonable.
 

Dead Fish in Phoenix Canal. Arizona, sprawling Phoenix in particular, has a canal fetish. Here in a downtown portion of the Salt River Canal is a bunch of dying fish. Most of them are grass carp, stocked by the Salt River Project (SRP) to munch on aquatic weeds to help keep the canals clean. The canals are drained annually for maintennance and cleaning. Despite SRPs attempts to save fish, some inevitably die. Seems like a waste to me. There's a grocery store in the Chinese Cultural Center that sells live carp, along with live eels, crabs, frogs and other species of fish. Thats a lot of meals going to waste in this ditch! 

Saquaro cactus, the quintessential symbol of the Southwest and Sonoran Desert. 

Saguaros are cool! 

Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. 

Winter Hiatus

Looks like the blog novelty wore off pretty quick. Who really does have time, for this? I spent much of January in warmer climates: Phoenix Az. for 1 week, and Southern California (Santa Barbara area) for two. Weather in both places was fantastic. Az was a work trip but managed some recreation and a little bit of birding on a weekend. Did some hiking in the Lost Dutchman Mts. and some birding there and around Phoenix, mainly the botanical. The AZ bird list wasn't great, 41 species, nothing unusual, although I added two lifers, not saying much since I've only been to AZ once before. Was stuck in Seattle for a night due to the Augustine Volcano going off and cancelling my flight to Anchortown. THANKS DAD and PAM for getting me!!


California (1/17 to 1/31) was awesome, beautiful blue sunny warm skies the whole time. This was R&R, and my girlfriend for life, Susie, traveled with. Took a side trip to Monterrey via Hwy 1 then headed back south on 101 after squeezing (literally) a hike in at Pinnacles (West Side). Stopped for some wine tasting around Paso Robles (Tablas Creek, Wild Horse, Mastantuano, Norman), spent the night in a dumpy motel (Economy Inn -dont't go there).

What made up for the hotel though was the Thai restaurant Basil-excellent food and service!! Then went over to beautiful Morro Bay and woke up to the only day of rain. Much better hotel choices in Morro, we splurged on the Ascot Suites ($99), which included yet more free wine, jacuzzi tub, decent continental breakfast, very nice rooms. Ate at Sabetta's and had a pretty good pizza. Stopped in Santa Ynez area for some more tasting (Rusack, Morovino) and headed back to Carpinteria, where my mom lives (still, thanks Mom!) and I spent most of my younger years, graduated from high school, etc. Little bit better birding in CA, 126 species for the trip, although I have to admit, we did not bird like crazies and go after ever single possible rarity in the area, and missed some real easy ones. Our biggest day was pretty close to 70 - again not trying extemely hard. I like sitting in the sun on the beach (hardly anyone there but surfers cause its too cold) and saying "oh, hey, there goes a royal tern" or "there's a long-billed curlew. Sun sure feels nice!"
Party got over real quick, came back to Alaska and zero degree weather, which sooned turned to below zero for a couple of days. Suppose to warm up to teens for Super Bowl Sunday. oh boy, Go Seahawks. Funny thing both trips I stopped in SeaTac to change planes, both times dumping rain. Well not so funny if you live there. Its all relative. Cold and snow in AK, Rain in WA, sunny and warm in CA, sunnier AND warmer in AZ. Relative.

My IGFA all-tackle world record lenok, Brachymystax lenok, caught in the Anui River, Russia, on June 2, 2000. 

What's up with this muchohucho thing?

Its one of those creations where you had to have been there to fully appreciate. I owe this to my good friend Rene Limeres, guide extraordinaire and Significant Other, none other than Suzanne Hayes. Sometimes we like to get together and drink beer. He has great parties, complete with BBQ, Russian style Banya, and of course, lots of beer (and Vodka). My first of five fishing trips to Russia was in 1992, organized by good friend Goo Vogt and Rene. We fished for and caught lots of Taimen Hucho taimen, many taimen, or as Susie would say in fact "mucho" taimen, hence mucho hucho. Taimen are the most fascinating fish in the world, as far as I am concerned. Rene has authored the most complete book on fishing Alaska, which I contributed to. Planning a fishing trip to Alaska? Buy the book "ALASKA FISHING" at https://site319.mysite4now.com/ultimater/shop/default.asp
but first check out Rene's Ultimate Rivers site: www.ultimaterivers.com Yes, this is unabashed advertising solely on my part.

Muchohucho begins a new year

I've decided embrace the "new" millennium and get into this blogging stuff. What the heck? I begin the year with no serious official resolutions, but I do intend to eat less, exercise more, make more money, find more birds, catch more fish and try to make a positive difference in the world. That's the gist of my 2006 goals.
I'd like to express my first rant for the year: Microsoft, you owe me! I'd like all my money and time back dealing with your inept software security. I hope there is a future class-action lawsuit that will force you to pay for all mine and many other's spyware, anti-virus, and lost data.
First Birds of the year, at the home feeder: black-capped chickadee, boreal chickadee, black-billed magpie, common raven, red-breasted nuthatch, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker. Also have one rambunctious red squirrel, but didn't see the flying squirrel (usually at night, haven't seen it in a few days), and had one moose in the backyard.