Another nice San Francisco nature shot from famous photographer David Cruz.
Dolphins Breaching at Lands End – San Francisco, Dec. 7, 2012:
Click to expand
And here’s the video, with a good half-dozen critters swimming about:
Nature is Everywhere, even in a big city like San Francisco
Here’s a shot from Land’s End from a few years back:
A bit mottled – that’s the way they are sometimes – click to expand
Now let’s hear from Redd Rivett, who recorded some of these critters just the other day:
“These bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) were on the East side of the Golden Gate Bridge, next to Fort Point, in the cove. We get to see them in the summer and fall, when they come in to Ft Point cove for a while maybe twice a week or so. They live mostly along the outer coast to the south of us, all the way to Monterey Bay. Thanks Bill Keener of Golden Gate Cetacean Research for the info.”
This is the part of five-star Yelp-rated Lands End that has the labyrinth.
I think this was taken from Immigrant Point in the Presidio:
Click to expand – Canon 300mm 2.8 IS I + 2x Extender I
Admission is free…
This is all that’s left of SS Lyman Stewart – you can see its three cylinder steam engine from Land’s End at low tide.
The first cylinder is 75 inches in diameter and the second and third are 45 and 26.5:
Click to expand – this one gets real big
This is what the she looked like after her big collision 89 years ago on October 7, 1922. Pwned!
“Lyman Stewart, a steam tanker, wrecked on a rocky beach with people looking on”
Via Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society - click to expand
Take a tour yourself, why not?
All the deets:
“Length over all, 426 ft. 9 in.; length between perpendiculars, 410 ft.; beam moulded, 55 ft. 3j4 in.; depth moulded to upper deck, 31 ft. 8 in.; load draft, 27 ft.; load displacement, 13,960 tons; cargo capacity, 63,964 bbls.; fuel capacity, 2,211 bbls.; gross tonnage, about 5,900; revolutions per minute, 65; designed I. H. P., 2,600; designed speed 10J/2 knots.
The ship is a single screw steamer with the machinery located aft.
The hold is subdivided into 16 tanks for carrying oil in bulk, the starboard and port compartments being separated by an oil tight center line bulkhead up to the top of the expansion trunk.
The ‘tween decks, in the wings outside the expansion trunk, is arranged for carrying refined oil.”
Ever more deets after the jump.
Remember that Yak-50 what used to buzz about the bay area? Good times. (See below for some shots taken from the East Peak of Mt. Tam.)
Well this is better, this one’s a Yak-52 (Як-52). Hurray!
(It probably killed fewer pilots per hour than the single-seat Yak-50, so that’s nice.)
As seen from Land’s End:
Click to expand
(In Soviet Russia, plane kill you!)
What kind of crazy airplanes will Mother Russia send over next?
“This Russian-made Yak-50 acrobatic airplane used to be seen all over the skies of the San Francisco Bay Area – buzzing Mount Tam in Marin County, checking out anti-abortion rallies along San Francisco’s waterfront, that kind of thing.
But here’s your take-away, babe: These things had a working life of just 50 hours back in Mother Russia, as the stress of all them 9G loop de loops and whatnot led to bad things, such as “main spar collapse.” Ouch.
Anyway, looks like fun:
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Canon 1D Mark II with 300mm 2.8 IS I and 2x extender – ISO 400 and lots of digital zoom:
Happy trails.”
Can you see the Cliff House in there? It used to be a lot bigger but it burned down a lot so we’ll just have to make do with the smaller version.
You need to go up a little bit. Most people just walk right by.
Click to expand
Like this, up to the red “A,” see?
See you there!
Or, make that light dolphin traffic. Pretty cool either way.
Swimming past the PG&E Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge:
Via David Yu. Click to expand
Now, here’s one swimming west in the opposite lane, from back in the day from Lands End:
Yes, this critter has a mottled appearance. That’s the way they is sometimes.
But you stand a better chance of seeing dolphins and porpoiseses from the west si-iiide of town, from Ocean Beach and Fort Funston. See?
(Now, why did we name an entire fort after that Filipino Killing Cracker?) Anyway, here’s the view, sometimes:
While Dad’s off having sex with other dolphins, Mom sticks around to raise the kids.
That’s your San Francisco Cetacean Traffic Update. Keep a look-out. Send in your great shots!
Sometimes, people will travel from the East to the West and end up in western San Francisco near Lincoln Park, the western terminus of the Lincoln Highway.
And a few of those people wind up in Land’s End, where the land ends and the ocean begins.
Click to expand:
See the bench? If you sit on it long enough, you’ll see some whales. If you don’t have the time, just hang out until you see the friendly dolphins, like this one:
It’s all in Land’s End. Check it out.
Caught on film, that is. This cute raccoon felt right at home cruising around the grounds of the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco. Raccoons seem to love living on the streets of the City, so there’s a lot of them around. Especially at night.
The NIMBYs must have had a fit when they saw this glass pyramid on the grounds of a historic museum:
Sometimes, it’s a regular raccoon party up there. So be on the lookout for these “pushing hungry” critters the next time you’re doing an illicit midnight photo shoot at the ‘zeum.
The vary same bandit, from last year:
But San Francisco wants you to stay away from these wild animals, on account of the possibilty of them transmitting rabies. Fair enough.
