Wildlife Refuges for Migrating Birds in Bay Area

Don't remember how I got the information about the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge, but in 2009 we decided to pay a visit. After paying the entrance fee at the visitor center, suddenly I heard some noise that's not familiar in daily life, a noise of many many birds, while there was not a single bird in sight around the center.

The magic unfolded in the 6 miles auto tour around the Refuge.  Forgive me for not be able to describe the scene of thousands of birds gathering in one place.  (Watch the video at the end of this page and feel it.)  I kept on saying "Holy *&^%" that day, which just reflected how I felt.  All the birds simply moving from one pond to another in big number while talking to each other, somehow the process alone pleased me to no end.

My Central America Wildlife Experience

Had wildlife tour in Panama and Costa Rica. The snorkeling in Roatan Island of Honduras was exceptional, if only I can have an underwater camera to catch the images!

Sloth

The first thing said to our tour guide on the Panama Canal wildlife tour was, We want to see sloth! The easiest way to find a sloth is to find the tree grows sloth's favorite leaf (as showing in the second picture), then looking for dark round shape thing. That proved to be quite effective.  But one has to be extremely lucky to see a sloth that moves, because they sleep long hour each day.  Also depends on which kind of sloth. Two-toe sloth actives only in the night (after sunset), while three-toe sloth could be active day and night. Sloths have low metabolism, so they move slowly, and it takes one week for their body to produce waste. They would move down from the tree to poop and urine, cover it, and move back to the tree top slowly.

The Doors and Knockers of Antigua 舊瓜城的門與門環

Doors in Antigua, Guatemala can be enormous for the horse carriage (now for the car) to pass, the small door obviously is for people only. I was fascinated by the shape and design of the door knockers, always took picture while walked around town. Years ago when I visited the Louvre Museum, I thought of taking each and every chair in the exhibition room, kind of like cataloging them. That remains a distant thought. This time I did have extra time, and here they are, the world of door knockers and door decor of Antigua.

有些舊瓜城的古門很大，是以前給馬車通行的，現在當然改成給汽車通過，充當車庫門。若是只有人的話，開小門就行了。多年前我曾奇想把羅浮宮展廳裡的各型椅子都照下來，因為是奇想，當然沒實現。這次在舊瓜城留的比較久，有時間多照些有趣的門和門環。雖然看了多日，還是覺得古意無限，很有味道。