Pacific Time Lapse Collection
November 2021
Original Video by: Toby Manzanares
Tuesday, December 22, 2020
Pacific Flyway
You don't have to go to the Serengeti to see a great migration.
Winter days grow longer, temperatures click upward, stirring animals into spring migration. Birds by the millions migrate south to north along an ancestral route from Patagonia to Point Barrow on the northern tip of Alaska, the Pacific Flyway, an aerial superhighway. Scroll down for more. But first...
Hang a bird feeder, have lots of visitors.
A chime of wrens arrives for breakfast
9:15 am Tuesday, December 22, 2020
Laguna Beach, California
What is the Maximum Occupancy of this bird feeder?
Will the structure collapse under the increasing weight?
Count them as they land. Leave your count in the Comments section below.
Wait for the "explosion" at the end of the video.
Yes, that crackling sound is the combination of all those birds cracking seeds during the movie, like a full orchestra in a seed cracking symphony each one playing their part. A... Nutcracker Suite!
You’ve probably heard of the “knee jerk reflex” an instantaneous, involuntary movement in response to a specific stimulus.
In the last milliseconds of this video you’ll see what I call “the startle reflex” in birds. Hypothesis: the startle reflex has survival value. Birds that have this normal reflex live long enough to reproduce and thus the species has a greater probability of continuing their cycle of life.
Maybe we can encourage the supplier to provide a closable feeder option.
Until then, plywood cut with cable slots* and coated with waterproof verathane to keep out the rain. This tray is 12.5 inches by 16 inches. * (1.75 inch cable slots)
December 9, 2021
Same feeding tray as in the video above but now trimmed with ivy branches
to better blend in to the foliage.
Phoebe quadruplets Long Beach California, circa 2014
Excellent illustration of color used in attracting parental attention.
Now back to the Pacific Flyway.
But why? Why fly thousands of miles every spring?
The animals of the Serengeti follow the seasonal spurting growth of protein rich grasses. Similarly, birds of the Pacific Flyway migrate north as the days grow longer. More hours of sunlight trigger plants to grow toward their maximum, which bumps population numbers up and down the food chain. More sun... more food. There is a species of seaweed that grows two feet a day.
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
PACIFIC JOURNAL
November 10, 2023 Friday 9:15am Spotted 4 unhurried dolphins swimming northbound about 50 meters off Aliso Creek Beach. Haven't seen them the last few months. But not long ago, another small pod of dolphins came in very close to shore.
July 14, Observed a seagull chasing a crane northward along the green corridor below our deck. This is the first time I've seen a seagull in pursuit of a bird of a different species. It looked a little territorial or possibly predatory. This is also the first time I've seen a crane in South Laguna Beach.
June 27, 2023. Over the last 6 years, I've only seen seagulls previously down on the beach and not on the east side of Pacific Coast Highway. But this year they have expanded their area and are now flying up our hill and over our deck which is about 200 meters from the water.
Sunday, February 19, 2023, 9:35 am. At first we thought it a floating raft of kelp broken away from their holdfasts. But a few minutes of observation revealed the raft to have a more animal character like some of its parts were moving. We needed more powerful binoculars, though it looked a little like the photo below.
Photo credit: OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center
Video credit: Ted Pederson
What are they doing? You might ask. According to experts they are resting with one flipper up to thermoregulate. When the air is cold, warm blood entering sea lion flippers cools before it returns to the heart keeping sea lions from overheating.
Monday, October 10, 2022. I am 10 days into my 75th year on this planet… taking a daily walk down on the beach to chart 10,000 steps for my 120 and Beyond plan… Two hours away from high tide and I see a unexpected harbor seal head bobbing up at 8:27 AM. Unexpected because it’s common to see them at low tide when offshore rocks are better exposed for them to haul out and…Unexpected because when I see them, it's at low tide when these offshore rocks are better exposed, a place to sun without being washed away… but the tide is high, no rocks. Maybe harbor seals check out so they can find a lonely beach.
I will finish my walk to the south to the end of Aliso Beach. Then return to Treasure Island Beach… Where there’s a see-through cave that’s about maybe 30 feet long through which waves can be seen rolling on shore from the other side, just below the Montage Hotel and Resort… Occasionally a large wave rolls in when I quickly back pedal to keep from getting drenched. It’s a pleasant morning may be around 68°F… Perfect weather for a short sleeve T-shirt walk along the beach no hat necessary.
The week of May 8, 2022. I've walked the beach here in Laguna for six years but have never seen tide pools this deep (as deep as 36") and the water, crystal clear featuring a wavy-top turbine snail, 8 purple sea urchins, and 3 California mussels (see below). Seth approached as I was talking with ____ a marine biologist at the edge of the largest tide pool. He wanted to the name of the spiral shell he taken in the photo below.
Photo Credit: Seth Kayga and Deborah Guevara
First time I've seen purple urchins at Treasure Island Beach. These urchins are 10 inches below the surface
but the water is so clear, it appears not to be there.
April 20, 2022
7:40 am, a small group gathered 100 meters north of my Aliso Creek Beach Tai Chi class. They were there to witness the release of rescued and rehabilitated harbor seals. After Tai Chi and over coffee, my instructor Jim showed us a video of a seal release he'd filmed two years earlier.
Sick or stranded harbor seals released back into the wild.
Videography by Jim.
For over 50 years, the PMM Center has rescued and rehabilitated marine mammals needing medical care. Once healthy, they are released back to the wild.
By the way, the PMMC has a website page listing several volunteer opportunities. Click HERE, including marine conservation and leadership and public speaking opportunities for adults and teens 14-17 years old.
PMMC Seal Release with aerial perspective.
Videography by PMMC
In the context of plastic in the ocean.
Video link: PMMC
Sidenotes: Scrub to 6:18, Excellent wild dolphins scene,6:40 Dolphins and pelicans feeding,7:31 Ask not to take plastic flatware when at restaurant takeout.7:40 "Every (plastic) fork you've ever touched in your life is still exists out in the world." -Dr. Alissa Deming, Marine Mammal Veterinarian.
April , 2022
The Grunion are running!
Ellie's three videos taken on an April full moon at Doheny State Beach.
Best seen full screen!
Videography by Elle
Why are these fish beaching themselves in the middle of the night?
What's the point?
Part 2
Part 3
International Geographic quality* videography by Elle. Thank you Elle.
Photo by Holly Williams
For more, click HERE.Fish walks on beach to spawn
Video by National Geographic
Scrub to 5:53 to watch grunion eggs hatch.
*International Geographic videographers
are a band of camera toting adventurers around the world
with an eye for interesting happenings.
Got a good videographer's eye?
Join us.
Wednesday morning, April 6, 2022
I could not have predicted that there would be such an international presence at Aliso Creek Beach in South Laguna.
Surfing in the early morning leaves you with a cold shower before departing. But Aidas and Lucas have a genius idea for a hot shower option. Today I met Aidas and Lucas with their portable hot shower invention. They are from ____. I hope to tell you more about them when they see this clip on Pacific Journal. 
Friday March 25, 2022
After climbing up the cliff from Treasure Island, someone asks if I would take a group photo with an old school single use Kodak celluloid camera (with real film!)
Kodak 35mm One-Time-Use Disposable Camera with Flash,pre-loaded with Kodak Gold ISO-800 speed film
It looked like an artifact found in a museum, I was holding history in my hands! As we set up the shot Michelle, Povina, Ali, and AJ teach me a new word, the Turkish term kardeshims, which means sisters and brothers. It's a version of the Japanese term Goem. Here's the explanation.
Turns out the four kardeshims are setting out on a mission, they've already been to Yosemite National Park. Click HERE for their plan and their new website.
Monday February 28, 2022
Wild Dolphins take human for a walk on the beach.
Best viewed full screen.
February 2022
This time of year California gray whales with their newborns leave the extra salty lagoons of Baja California northward bound returning to their krill rich feeding grounds in the Arctic Pacific Ocean. At birth, newborn grays are 11 feet long and will consume up to 50 gallons of extra fatty milk a day before following their parents north. I had the exciting opportunity to swim with a female Gary and her baby in San Ignacio lagoon (more about that later). The extra salty lagoons of Baja render newborns much more buoyant, making it easier for them to stay at the surface.
Dr. Theodore Walker, the leading expert on the California Gray Whale told me the California Gray whales hug the shoreline on the journey north since they have newborns. When they return to Baja next year, their southbound journey is farther away from shore.
Friday February 11, 2022
Pod of about 6 dolphins 20-30 meters from the shoreline, in what appears to be a feeding mode. Two coming out of the water (probably shooting up from below to capture fish).
Wednesday January 26, 2022
I have a memory stream of this exact moment, like a permanent record of the stream of consciousness. Watching this video, I can feel my Tai Chi muscle memory from ground level below merge with this aerial perspective. Feels like expanding consciousness as the visual becomes more encompassing. Makes me more mindful of how perspective, position, and time influence our world view. Now I fly above while I feel Tai Chi within.
https://www.instagram.com/thedronerangerruss/
Pacific Sunset Time Lapse
Best viewed on computer (full screen).
At 0:06 seconds... catch the sunbeam on the water coming straight for you!
Time Lapse: The Pacific West Wind
Wait for the crescendo toward the end.
All original video and photos by Toby Manzanares unless otherwise posted.
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Receding waves, a grain of sanderlings run. Sanderlings, Pacific wave runners. See them feeding in the video clip below.
Original Video by Toby Manzanares
They are circumpolar breeders, having stopped along Southern California beaches on their 1,600 to 6,000 mile migration from South America to the Arctic. Having seen them since September 2020, I wonder if they have taken up residence here. Where are they staying? When will they leave to continue their migration south? Or will they stay to become local residents?
Original photo by User:Mdf Wikipedia
Original Video by Toby Manzanares
Having sighted this grain of sanderlings on Aliso Creek Beach continually for three months, I had wondered where they were roosting. I finally found them at 7:25 am, overnighting on rocks near the reef by Treasure Island in Laguna Beach, California.
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
Original Video by Toby Manzanares.
Brown pelicans range from British Columbia to Nayarit, Mexico,
Credit: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown_Pelican/maps-range
... but their breeding range extends from the California Channel Islands south to Central Mexico, with the only breeding colonies on Santa Barbara and West Anacapa Islands.
Photo credit: credit: https://www.nps.gov/chis/learn/nature/brown-pelican.htm
Wednesday, November 3, 2021 during a very low tide.
for Laguna Beach California
I’ve spotted two animals for later research, a 4 inch dark brown/black tide fish and a two inch wide shore crab just as a large wave splashed over the tide pool.
Just then, instead of sanderlings, I see a Tide Pool Education sign not far from the sanderlings roost. (see previous post).
Here’s Jessica, an excellent tidepool educator. I bet this marine biologist can answer my questions.
Mike Grone has put together a series of very easy to watch Short Documentaries
on the Intertidal Zone. Try this one for great underwater viewing.
Monday, November 7, 2021
If you’ve clicked on the low tide links at the top of this page, you’ve seen the two high tides and two low tides that on a daily basis influence the California intertidal zone. But I just realized that a sand tide also operates on our beaches. This photo marks the high sand tide point here in Laguna Beach.
💭
Turns out there are other wave runners besides sanderlings here at Aliso Creek Beach.
Arriving at the point where Aliso Creek meets the Pacific I watched as a group of wave engineers (innovative surfers) dug a small channel to release Aliso Creek’s lagoon.
The escaping water cut sand quickly deepening the channel. The subsequent gush became a perfect moment for this wave expert to gather more hydro dynamic data and put his kinesthetic intelligence to the test. Yep, there’s IQ and KIQ. What an incredible world.
____’s brain is making quick calculations as he watches the wave form evolve moment by moment. At the precise moment he launches into the water.
Original videos by Toby Manzanares
When you put all the building blocks together... out jumps a beautiful combination of experience, hydro dynamics, and intelligence.
Spotted four Pacific harbor seals today on the rocks just off Treasure Island Beach as seen in this video. They spend about half of their day on land. It is estimated that about 34,000 of them live along the California coast.
Best viewed full screen.
From Jake, I learn alot about his drone camera system and become determined to dig further for equipment for natural science documentaries. He also tells me he flew his camera closer to the nearby harbor seals and agreed to send me a video clip for today’s post.
Aerial video of four Pacific Harbor seals.
Short Documentary including Jake Allen’s aerial photography.
In the mean time, here’s a little more about Pacific harbor seals.
Photo credit: Marine Mammal Center
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OCEAN MICROBES
OCEAN MICROBES
From the Marine Life exhibition at Harvard's Museum of Natural History.
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(The collection of all microorganisms living in the human body.)
From the NIH: Researchers found, for example, that nearly everyone routinely carries pathogens, microorganisms known to cause illnesses. In healthy individuals, however, pathogens cause no disease; they simply coexist with their host and the rest of the human microbiome, the collection of all microorganisms living in the human body. Researchers must now figure out why some pathogens turn deadly and under what conditions, likely revising current concepts of how microorganisms cause disease.
A 150 pound human subject on the average
contains 30 trillion human cells and
39 trillion bacteria.
Photo credit: Robin Hanbury-Tenison/Robert Harding
The Yanomami have been relatively unaffected by the outside world for 11,000 years.
Their microbiome is the most diverse ever discovered.
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