Photo ABCs

Meling Ranch

More memories from a 2011 visit to Rancho Meling in Baja California:

The owner's dogs seemingly enjoy the sunset:

Meling Ranch Time Capsule

As noted in the previous post, while staying at Baja California's Rancho Meling in July 2011, the owners let us into a cottage which had not been used for many years, and had not yet been cleaned and restored for visitors. They knew we were photographers and interested in documenting what we found. It was a privilege to step inside.

What we found was a time capsule!

What lay behind these doors?

Stepping inside:

The calendar reads Wednesday, July 19,1978:

No one has called lately:

In the workshop:

A different take on the picture in the previous post:

Framed in time:

 

A Time Capsule from Rancho Meling

Now for something entirely different!

I've been reviewing photos from Baja's Meling Ranch from trips I've taken over the last ten years.

I'll be posting more photos soon of birds that I've seen there.

But here's a photo I came across from what I think was my first trip to Meling Ranch, in 2011.

The owners of the ranch gave us a tour, and opened up for us one of their cottages which was not yet being used for guests.

We came across this pile of books, which is a time-capsule of 1960's popular fiction!

Erle Stanley Gardner, of course, is the author of the Perry Mason series, popularized by the 60s TV show starring Raymond Burr (as well as many movies starring other actors in earlier decades). The yellow title to the left is "The Case of the Demure Defendant," a typical Perry Mason title. The Perry Mason books, as well as the earlier movies, are more racy than the very understated characters familiar to us played by Raymond Burr, Barbara Hale, et. al.

I'm intrigued that W. Somerset Maugham (perhaps my favorite author!) takes top billing, because he wrote the introduction to Henry Fielding's Tom Jones. (the book at the top of the picture)

And hiding below the Return to Peyton Place book (which I have not yet read or seen) is The Sandpiper (the book with the blue cover), a novelized version of the 60s movie starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Eva Marie Saint. I'm pretty sure I saw that on Turner Classic Movies!

More birds coming soon!

Meling Ranch Birds

A few more birds seen at Meling Ranch, Baja California, in late August of this year:

Mourning Dove, in the late afternoon light:

California Towhee, a few moments later:

Eurasian Collared-Dove, in the evening light:

Cooper's Hawk:

Cassin's Kingbird. The sun has set on the bird, but still gives a pink glow to the field behind it:

A Black Phoebe continues to hunt after sunset:

California Quail

Every trip up the mountain to San Pedro Mártir National Park in Baja California, turns up countless California Quail.

I have never seen as many, however, as during a visit in August of this year.

While exploring Meling Ranch, I must have seen many many hundreds, if not thousands of quail!

Here are a few:

Footprints of a large flock catch the evening sun:

This quail was serving as a sentinel, keeping an eye out for danger as its flock fed below:

The same bird from a different angle becomes a silhouette:

Black-tailed Jackrabbit

Meling Ranch is one of my favorite places in Baja California. It is a peaceful and quiet ranch on the highway to San Pedro Mártir National Park.

It is home to plenty of wildlife, including the Black-tailed Jackrabbit, photographed in August of this year:

This rabbit is NOT going to win at hide-and-seek!

Long-billed Curlew

A Long-billed Curlew, photographed at Estero Beach, south of Ensenada, Baja California:

Another, photographed a few minutes later:

Reddish Egret, Willet

The Reddish Egret is uncommon in Southern California (except at Bolsa Chica). It is more common south of the border.

Here is one at Estero Beach, photographed in August of this year:

A Willet, photographed a few minutes earlier:

Yellow-crowned and Black-crowned Night-Heron

In Southern California, the Black-crowned Night-Heron is by far the predominant Night-Heron.

South of the Mexican border, however, the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron quickly becomes much more common. At the Estero Beach Hotel estuary, the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron seems to be the predominant Night-Heron through most of the year.

Here are a number of Yellow-crowned Night-Herons photographed in August of this year:

This bird is enjoying the neighborhood pool!

The bird is a first-summer Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. Its crown is not fully yellow like an adult's.

A juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. The spots are smaller than a Black-crowned Night-Heron’s, and the bill is thicker and darker:

Another juvenile, enjoying the pool!

A Black-crowned Night-Heron:

Lincoln's Sparrow

Lincoln's Sparrows, photographed last month at Covington Park in Morongo Valley, California.