Down The Merced River

Nevada Fall

A trip down the Merced river starting at the rim of Yosemite Valley, down the cascade at Illilouette Creek, then over to the top of Nevada Fall, down to Vernal Fall with a jump off Swinging Bridge into the river in Yosemite National Park.

My new camera can shoot movie clips too and this movie was shot with this camera. As video cameras go, its pretty awful but it has a big advantage over my real video cam. Its small enough to fit in my pocket and as my main still camera, I'll carry it around with me a lot. A crapcam in the pocket is worth a TV studio at home. Maybe now I'll post to this blog more often.

Download: Down The Merced River, 22MB, 3.5 minutes

Congratulations, Its A Tail!

Its A Tail!

Originally uploaded by Dawn Endico.

Last January I got to see four elephant seal births. I was really lucky to see the first one. The mom was close to the surf, and pretty far from me. I had no idea that she was in labor and just happened to be looking out that direction when I caught a big wet 'sploosh'. Wow!

After that, I went back to the other end of the beach where there were a bunch of cows waiting to give birth, and several people watching and trying to figure out which ones were in labor.

Someone noticed that this one was about to give birth when she lifted up her tail and there was a tiny little black tail sticking out too. Two more births followed this one around sunset but it was too dark for pictures.

If you watch the slideshow at high speed you can pretend its a movie of the birth.

Mule Deer at Yosemite

Deer at Leidig Meadow

These mule deer were grazing just a few feet from the sidewalk, not caring much about the tourists walking by. One doe did get a bit spooked though when someone tried to feed her a handful of grass. Later I found out that the animal that's caused the most human injury in Yosemite National Park isn't the bear, or even the coyote. Its the mule deer. Taken in the Leidig Meadow, near Swinging Bridge in Yosemite Valley.

Download: Mule Deer at Yosemite, 21.4MB, 4 minutes