festive flare in felton

merry christmas from our festive little town in the santa cruz mountains!

travel lessons in barcelona

we started our nearly three week trip to europe this summer in barcelona, spain. our trip didn't exactly start out the way i envisioned. our first flight was delayed two and half hours, which took our connection in frankfurt from three hours to twenty minutes. and we had to clear customs. we ran through the airport and just made our flight, but of course our bags did not. everyone's bag made it on the next flight except mine. travel lesson #1: always travel with someone who is the same size as you so when the airline loses your bag you have clothes to wear the next day (thanks, jenny!). travel lesson #2: carrying an extra pair of socks and underpants in your carry-on is a pretty good idea. in addition to the travel and baggage fiascos, i got a migraine in the middle of the night. by pure happenstance, i got my bag about 24 hours after we arrived and was spared the agony of having to go clothes shopping...my version of hell.

our time in barcelona was short....we essentially had 24 hours to see the city. our time can be summed up in two words - food and gaudi. antoni gaudi was an architect and artist that defied convention. many of his most famous works, which collectively comprise a UNESCO world heritage site, are located in barcelona. his masterpiece and most famous work is the sagrada familia, an unfinished and unparalleled church. gaudi was an innovator, which was especially apparent in the architecture of sagrada familia. we also visited park guell, an outdoor museum of sorts and gaudi's home. 

 why take the stairs when you can ride the outdoor escalator??

 one of the many structures gaudi built while living in park guell

 many of the buildings in the park were ornate like this one
(headlines such as: "was gaudi gawdy?" are pretty common)

next up was sagrada familia. gaudi sadly died before he could finish his masterpiece. he worked tirelessly on the design and construction before his untimely death. he had completed the plans for the church and others have continued his labor of love for the last 80 years without modifying gaudi's vision very much. the church is scheduled to be finished by 2026, one hundred years after gaudi's death. 

the church is enormous--on par with most cathedrals--but it is anything like a standard cathedral. from the outside you can see the gothic influence, but it is heavily altered by the art nouveau style. for example, you enter through the nativity facade, which is busy and ornate like many gothic cathedrals. 

nativity facade - ornate, but pretty typical

the passion facade on the opposite side, however, is austere and quite different.

the stark passion facade is a dramatic contrast to the nativity one

the inside is unlike any other church i have seen. most large gothic churches and cathedrals are DARK inside. the sagrada familia is filled with light and color! the numerous stained glass windows were abstract designs rather than stories from the bible. the columns throughout the church were made of different materials, depending on where they were and their importance. the four columns that hold up the center of the church are made of porphyry and represent the disciples matthew, mark, luke, and john. the columns all branch as they approach the ceiling, providing a dispersed support system for the roof and eliminating the need for flying buttresses. the columns are also meant to look like trees--another example of gaudi bringing nature into his architecture. 

 lovely doors devoted to plants and bugs (bees!)

 abstract stained glass windows

 branching, tree-like columns supporting the roof

 porphyry column in the foreground; sandstone, 
marble, and granite columns in the background

three of the four central porphyry columns representing
the disciples matthew, mark, luke, and john

we got to go up one of the finished towers to get a closer look at the upper parts of the church. there is still a lot of construction going on, but it was really neat to see the towers and some of the exterior details up close.

 getting up close and personal with the towers

 color! not traditional for the exterior. this design on this

tower is the wheat and host central to most christian faiths. 
therewere others with a chalice and grapes.

stained glass rose window from the outside

our next stop was the barri gothic neighborhood, or old town. the barcelona cathedral is located in this neighborhood and hit all the marks of a conventional cathedral...ornate, dark, and full of biblical symbolism. 

 barcelona cathedral

ornate chairs in the choir

 altar area

 beautiful ceiling stonework

spires from the choir rising to the ceiling

i love old doors...

last but not least...food. padrone peppers where high on our list of food goals because the peppers originated in the padrone region in spain. we grow them at home and love them, but it seemed fitting to eat them in their native habitat. we found them at a tapas restaurant along with a jug of sangria, which was a great way to spend part of our afternoon. 

paella was another must-have and these giant pans of completely melissa-friendly versions did not disappoint. my bag had arrived by this time and my migraine was gone, so dinner was completely enjoyable!

the pacific flyway

a couple of weeks ago i drove to seattle to do some lab work with a colleague of mine. i don't usually drive, but i didn't think the airlines would appreciate a centrifuge, dry ice, and acetone in my carry-on bag. 

i've driven that stretch of i-5 numerous times while living on the west coast and i can honestly say that i really enjoy it. well, except for the part from santa cruz to redding. i can usually do without that stretch of traffic and flat land. but this year the bay area was my only nemesis because the pacific flyway was cranking! 

the pacific flyway is one of the four major north-south migration corridors that pass through the united states. it actually runs from alaska all the way to patagonia in south america. birds typically migrate along some part of this flyway in the spring and fall to move between feeding and breeding areas. the pacific flyway runs right down the central valley in california. lots of birds use this route (see more of them in a blog post from 2012), but the geese win awards for their numbers and noise. 

when i was driving home from seattle, the skies were filled with snow geese and a variant of snow called blue geese. there were also a few fields next to i-5 covered in them, and as luck would have it, the fields were also close to an exit. i couldn't resist...i had to get closer so i could hear the cacophony and see the chaos of hundreds of birds moving around. 

 blue geese

snow geese

i'm no stranger to this sight, and it made me nostalgic about my childhood. i spent many hours of my youth sitting in hunting blinds in northern minnesota with my dad, brother, and one of our trusty black labs waiting for the geese to fly over our heads within shotgun range. truth be told, we spent a lot more time whittling sticks than shooting geese, but the sound of thousands of geese just on the other side of the trees was something magical.... something special enough to warrant getting out of my warm sleeping bag at 5:30 in the morning rain, snow, or shine. or maybe it was the thermos of hot chocolate... 

the Galápagos Islands are for the birds!

While the Galápagos gets a lot of attention for its tortoises and finches, there are so many other birds that make the islands their home. We like birds quite a lot, but I don’t think we count as legit “birders.” We have binoculars; we make lists; we have bird books for most of the places we have travelled…but we do not plan our trips around birds or get up at crazy hours to see birds. The Galápagos may have been the easiest birding we have ever done. Stepping on a bird was more of a concern than not getting a good look at it before it flew away.

In addition to the finches, there are a number of other birds that are endemic to the Galápagos...the only place on earth where they are found. They are all birds we are familiar with from mainland locales, but these species have been isolated from other populations to become their own distinct species. Some of our favorites that gave us some up close and personal time included the Galápagos dove, hawk, mockingbird, and penguin.

Galápagos dove

Galápagos hawk

it was a bit of a soggy day so this guy spent a lot of
time preening his feathers...five feet away from us. 

this mockingbird was on Española Island. like the tortoises
and lava lizards i mentioned in a previous post, the
mockingbirds also differ between islands.

Galápagos penguin

this is the only species of penguin that lives north of the equator.

And then there were the boobies. Seriously, why were they not called footies?! We saw three species on this trip. The red-footed boobies come in two color morphs - white and brown. 

white color morph on his/her nest in a tree

The red-footed boobies are the only species in the Galápagos that nest in trees (on San Cristóbal Island). Given their webbed feet, it really is not a wonder that other boobies do not nest in trees. 

holding onto branches with webbed feet looks hard!

The blue-footed boobies--one of my most anticipated bird sightings--live on most of the islands. I love their feet best…such an amazing color. I also love their faces. Depending on the angle, their expression changes markedly. 

The chicks are awkwardly adorable and can be quite feisty, especially if a frigate bird comes looking for a meal. Or when they are looking for a meal from a parent...

Wheels up! 

The third species of booby we saw was the Nazca booby (recently split from the masked booby) on Española Island. These birds are stunningly white. Males and females take turns incubating the eggs and raising the chicks. Masked boobies often have two or three eggs in a clutch, but usually only one chick survives. The parents let the chicks duke it out for survival...talk about sibling rivalry! 

 

We saw flamingos on Floreana Island. Flamingos are such interesting birds that rely on brine shrimp for their food and color. We even say babies...they are the grey puff balls on the reef. 

Just when you thought you had seen all of the crazy things birds can do, you get up close and personal with some frigate birds. These birds are amazing flyers. Researchers just discovered that they can stay in the air for WEEKS. And up to 12,000 feet above the surface of the earth. They soar over the oceans but cannot land on it because their feathers are not waterproof, so they have developed incredible soaring abilities and only rest on land. These birds sailed over our boat for hours without a single wing flap. By the time we made landfall, we had seventeen birds flying in formation over our bow. 

  

Male frigate birds win a prize for male showiness. Sexual selection is strong in these birds! During the breeding season, they inflate these ridiculous red pouches on their necks like a balloon to attract females. Once they mate, the pouch starts to deflate. After the pouch is completely deflated, the black feathers on the edges of the pouch cross over and tuck the pouch away for another year. Incredibly enough, the males can fly with their pouches inflated, but they look SO ridiculous. This guys pouch has already deflated some if you can believe that!

The dark side of these guys is that they are thieves and murderers. They harass other birds until they give up their hard-won fish snacks and kill other seabird chicks. 

juvenile frigate bird

Frigate birds are also tree nesters and make platform nests out of sticks cemented together with their poo. And also have adorably awkward looking chicks. 

There was a whole cast of additional birds too. 

Swallow-tailed gulls with their scissor tail that is reminiscent of a swallow.

  

Three types of herons - 

lava heron (endemic)

yellow-crowned night heron 

small great blue heron

One of my favorite birds that we would often see off the stern of the boat is Elliot's petral. They look like little fairies dancing on the surface of the water. So graceful and lovely to watch. 

Brown pelicans were fairly abundant on the islands, but we got quite a show from this one on Floreana Island as it played with rocks in the surf.

The biggest bird from our trip is another ocean-going bird that spends little time on land. This gentle giant is the waved albatross. Another bird with stunningly white plumage. While sitting or standing on the rocks or soaring through the air, they look so elegant... 

and then they try to walk...

Sometimes we just found homes but no birds... (cactus finch nest)