Adventure Quest #2 - Aquarium of the Pacific

Adventure Quest #2

Aquarium of the Pacific - Long Beach CA - 5 Stars

Last weekend I visited the Aquarium of the Pacific if you count Sea World this is the 2nd aquarium I've visited in California thus far. I arrived rather late in the afternoon and had about 2 hours to look around before they closed.  There were so many exhibits I was not able to see them all before they closed for the night. 

I consider this a top notch aquarium primarily because they had many tanks with living coral.  Out of the other 3 aquariums I've visited in recent memory only one of those, the one at the Henry Doorly zoo in Nebraska, had living coral.  The Aquarium of the Pacific had much more coral than any of the others I've seen thus far.  Live coral is a huge plus for me because sometimes you get to see cool interactions between the fish and coral.

It also makes the tanks look a lot cooler and more natural than having that fake plastic coral all over. 

 

This aquarium also had some very unique sea creatures I've never seen in real life before.  This was super exiting because I've visited aquariums and zoos all over the country my entire life, and sometimes it can be difficult to find an aquarium that has something I've never seen before.

They also had some outdoor tanks with sea lions, penguins, and sting rays and sharks.  I didn't get a chance to visit their shark tank, but the others were underwhelming compared to Sea World.  So if you're looking for fun touch tanks/larger sea creature tanks stick with Sea world for that.  Since that was not what I cared about this didn't bother me in the least and I just breezed by this section. 

The primary attraction was currently their jelly fish collection.  I was highly impressed by the variety of jelly fish they had.  Previously I have only seen jellies at the Henry Doorly zoo in the Omaha Nebraska zoo.  They have some very nice jelly tanks there but they only have two or three varieties and tanks.  The Aquarium of the Pacific on the other hand had many different types of jellies and they had them in different three stages of their life cycle.  I found the polyp and ephyra stages to be super cool.  The ephyra stage in particular was super neat because if you look at the tank from the distance it appears to be water with just a bunch of particles floating around, but when you take a look very closely you can see thousands of the tiniest jellies swimming around.  They were adorable because they seemed swimming around frantically and full of energy unlike the adults that always seem so calm and peaceful just drifting along. 

To my delight they even had these little bioluminescent guys (Cydippida) that I've only ever seen in nature videos.  Seeing them in real life was brilliant.  They produce a very wide range of colors and their light patterns seemed almost endless in variety.  They were a true delight to see. 

Overall I highly recommend visiting this aquarium.  

I give this adventure 5 out 5 stars.

Welcome All the Fish

[Matt 13:47-50] ⁴⁷ 'Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet that is cast in the sea and brings in a haul of all kinds of fish. ⁴⁸ When it is full, the fishermen bring it ashore; then, sitting down, they collect the good ones in baskets and throw away those that are no use. ⁴⁹ This is how it will be at the end of time: the angels will appear and separate the wicked from the upright, ⁵⁰ to throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.

The other day at Mass the Priest read the Gospel reading above.  Being quite the fish fanatic I was surprised I did not remember this comparison of the Kingdom of Heaven.  I remembered the one about the mustard seed, and the one about the field sown with weeds by the enemy, but this one about the Kingdom of Heaven being like a net I had forgotten. 

Fr. explained that the net caught all kinds of fish, big fish small fish, old and young, and the net is the Church.  He pointed out that it is not until "the end of time" that the fish will be separated, until then all the fish are to remain together in the net.  We are not the fishermen, we are the fish.  The fishermen are the Angels.  With this in mind our job is not to separate the good from the bad, in fact as one of the fish there is no way for us to know the good from the bad, so our job is to welcome all the fish so that God may transform the bad into good.  Everyone has until "the end of time" or the end of their time, whichever comes first, to be transformed. Fr. ended by pointing out we are not the quality control we should accept all. 

Well I found this all to be quite lovely and I wrote it down so I could remember it later and went on into my day.  It just so happens that I work in quality assurance at my office.  As such I suppose I have developed quite an intolerance for low quality or even low morality.  At lunch time I happened to overhear a conversion about just such low morality and I became quite angry.  I was so angry that later when I saw the person who had made these comments, I responded very sharply to their question and brushed by them as quick as possible not looking at them, because I did not want to associate with such a person.

It wasn't until later when I realized that Jesus would not have treated this person that way.  This person clearly has some brokenness in their soul and perhaps was making such offensive comments in public as a cry for help.  I was not welcoming toward this person, all I saw was a bad fish.  I was putting myself in the place of the fishermen rather than the fish.  As one of the fish it's my job to encourage the rest of the fish.  Everyone of them is scarred, we are in a net and we don't know where we are going or what is going to happen to us.  In fact the reading itself is quite frighting emphasizing the fact that the wicked will be thrown into the furnace.  I don't know about you, but I don't want to end up in the furnace and I don't want anyone else to end up there either.  So it's my job to try and help those other fish, even if they act bad, that doesn't mean they are bad.  In fact I may be the one who needs their help so pushing them away is not going to help me or them.  

I am sad that I can not go back in time and do this moment over, now that I have clarity about the matter.  However, I can pray that I remember I'm am only one of the fish, and next time a situation such as this occurs, I hope I can show love and mercy just as the King of Mercy would.  Please pray for me dear fishes, and pray for all, that we may all be transformed into upright fish by the the end of our time. Amen.

Snorkeling in Hawaii

Last week I visited Hawaii, the island of Kauai.  I went with my two sisters for a week.  I will probably write more about the trip, but I want to start with the snorkeling.  This was my first time ever snorkeling, we went three times to three different beaches.  Kauai has a ton of beaches, below is a map of all the major swimming ones.

We visited a few not listed on this map but didn't swim in them including Donkey Beach on the east side, which was an awesome small beach with some great little tide pools, and Queens Pond, I believe it was called, on the west side that had a 5 mile dirt road to get to it. There where quite a few kite surfers at that one. 

Donkey Beach - East side Kauai

Near Queen's Pond kite surfers - West side Kauai

Poipu Beach

Poipu Beach was the first beach we ventured to snorkel at because it was newbie friendly and since I had never snorkeled before I wanted to try it out there first.  This beach is located on the south side of the island.  It had a "kiddy pool" behind a rock barrier on the left that blocked the waves and a "reef" side on the right that had a bit rougher water.  We went in on the reef side.  I was awe struck right away.  As a fish enthusiast who enjoys viewing fish in aquariums I was very enthralled to be in their natural habit as I felt as if I was swimming in an aquarium.  Most of the fish were very small, and the "reef" consisted mostly of scattered rocks.  However, I saw the most beautiful fish, that quickly became my favorite. They were christmas wrasses.

*Not my picture* - Christmas Wrasse

These fish were very shimmery and had a lot of colors so I really enjoyed seeing them the most.  I also spotted a fish that camouflages really well like part of the rocks, it may have been some sort of stonefish, but I'm not sure.  I was super exited to see that because they extremely hard to spot.  The orange edges of it's fins gave it away, and I saw it swim to confirm. 

Lastly I saw what I believe was a baby snowflake moray eel being pestered by a larger fish as it was trying to make it way under a rock, but was having a very difficult time finding one it could fit all the way under.  This little eel was adorable and I had a very good time watching him.

*Not my picture* - Snowflake Moray Eel

The water at this beach was odd because it had warm pockets and very cold pockets.  My sisters and I enjoyed the warm pockets more of course! 

Ke'e Beach

Ke'e Beach is last beach on the north side of the island accessible by car. The Napali coast is only accessible by a two day hike or by boat/helicopter.  This beach had a splendid coast line as it's leading into the Napali coast. I didn't get a picture of the beach itself cause I didn't want to get my camera sandy, but here is a shot from the parking lot.

View from parking lot Ke'e Beach - North side Kauai

This beach was basically like a cove with rocks along the left going up to a mountain and reef circling around all the way to the shore almost on the right.  We started out on the left side per a tip from the lifeguard.  There we found a really cool school of medium sized fish against the rocks. 

I did have an cheap underwater digital camera so the pictures came out very bad, but if anyone can identify these fish please let me know.

School of fish at Ke'e Beach

Once we got tired of the left side we swam over to the right where we found a legitimate reef.  The entire ground was made up of the reef and there were some cool cracks in it that fish liked to dodge in and out of.  To me it felt rather eerie to swim above the reef because it seemed like it went on forever. I saw some pretty cool fish though and they were much bigger than at Poipu Beach.  The tourist info said Ke'e was a good place to spot sea turtles, but we did not find any which was rather disappointing. 

Tunnels Beach

The last beach we swam at was Tunnels Beach, which is also on the North side of island with a great coastal view.  I got some pictures this time.  This was the only beach we swam at that did not have a lifeguard there full time.  One came by on a four wheeler every once and awhile.

Tunnels Beach - North side Kauai

This beach had a very shallow reef that went all the way up to the beach, and it went out to very deep water.  I started out on the shallow side and kind of freaked out because it seemed like it was so shallow I would scrape against the coral.  So I made my way to deeper water and found amazing very deep looking fissures in the reef, which may be where they got the name Tunnels Beach.  These cracks were so deep they where completely dark.  I swam over them, but it was a little eerie because I could just imagine a gigantic eel or something emerging from the depths.

This reef dropped off into really deep water abruptly.  I swam to the edge and it was way too freaky to swim over the edge because it felt like the edge of the world.  I did swim over a tiny bit later, but quickly returned to swimming over the reef.  I believe I saw a sea lion or seal out there, a big group of snorkelers swam toward it, but I hung back, it's a wild animal you never know what it will do!  I also saw a scuba diver out there.

I swam around a long time, the fish here were bigger than both of the previous beaches the biggest I saw was at least a foot long maybe a little bigger!  

I also saw what I think was an Aha Needlefish.

*Not my picture* - Aha Needlefish

By this time my sister found me and informed me they had found a sea turtle and she would lead me to it.  I swam behind her and the water kept getting more and more shallow and the reef closer and closer to my face.  The water got so shallow I thought maybe they had found a baby turtle.  But when I got there it was a full size green sea turtle I believe. Unfortunately I did not get any good pictures of it.  We were all very happy to see a sea turtle it was hanging out in the shallow reef grazing.  It was really cool to see how it was not disturbed by the waves at all.  Where as I was being tumbled around it was completely chill.  Finding Nemo got their personalities down perfectly! LOL

Here is the best underwater picture I got.  I believe it's a saddle wrasse.  These were also very pretty fish.

Saddle Wrasse

I saw many different types of fish I don't remember them all. I know I saw some yellow tangs, some kind of parrot fish, possibly a baby puffer, and some kind of brown sea slug, I'm not sure what else.   This beach had the strongest currents so by the time we were done swimming were pretty tired out. 

Overall I really enjoyed snorkeling it was quite amazing to see all the fish and sea life.  I highly recommend it if you love fish. 

Why I still go to Sea World after watching "Black Fish"

Dolphin at Sea World San Diego

A Little Background

I moved to California at the end of May 2013.  Since moving to Orange County I have visited Sea World in San Diego three times.  The first two times were before watching the documentary "Black Fish" and the third time after having watched this documentary.  I hope to continue visiting this park when I can.

My most recent visit was the end of June 2014.  After visiting several coworkers asked in typical fashion what I had done over the weekend.  When I told them I went to Sea World, a few hastily replied, "Have you seen Black Fish?"  I told them yes I had watched the film and I went to Sea World anyway.  One coworker was appalled and accused me of participating in animal abuse.  Another explained that he used to enjoy Sea World but after watching the film "Black Fish" he would never visit the park again and would defiantly never take his son there.  While another joked saying he had seen "Black Fish" as well and it made him very hungry. 

What I thought of "Black Fish" (Spoilers)

"Black Fish" is a documentary primarily about the way Sea World treats it's Killer Whales.  Here are a few main points I felt the film was trying to bring up:

1. Sea World cruelly stole baby whales from the ocean.
2. Keeping whales in captivity makes them aggressive and they have injured or killed quit a large number of their trainers.  I believe the film said about 70 some injuries or deaths total.
3. Sea World treats the whales cruelly by keeping them in small tanks, separating them from their family structures, and forcing them to perform tricks.

Point #1 The film showed a very emotional scene of a pod of whales desperately trying to escape from from hunters using boats and helicopters.  They show how intelligent the whales are because the mothers and calves separate from the main group to try to throw the hunters off course.  Their plan backfires and the hunters catch at least one calf.

I thought it was very sad to see the whales outsmarted by the hunters but not surprising considering the hunters had at least one helicopter helping in the chase.  I was surprised to see the hunters take the calf alive as I know there are plenty of hunters who are not nearly as merciful when it comes to whaling.  I would not hold this against Sea World because even the film indicated the whale was for for a small company that only had three whales in a small net enclosure in the ocean.  The film later says this whale, Tilikum, was purchased by Sea World later and given a bigger enclosure and treated better than before.  The first captive whales had to come from the ocean, how else would we acquire them?  While it was as to see the whale taken from the ocean it is nice to know they now bread their whales in captivity.

Point #2 The film claimed that keeping killer whales in captivity makes them more aggressive than killer whales in the wild. They showed many different scenes of trainers being injured or stories of trainers being killed.  They also make the point killer whales have never injured humans in the wild. 

Although it was sad to hear that trainers had been killed or injured it is not really that surprising.  People are injured or killed by all kinds of animals that are kept in captivity or are in the wild.  If you've ever owned or played with a cat you learn pretty fast that they can be quite rough and it's a good thing they are so small or you'd probably end up with your arm ripped off or worse.  I do not agree that keeping these whales in captivity makes them more aggressive.  They are aggressive by nature they are called KILLER whales after all.  The claim that killer whales have never hurt a human in the wild is a nice claim.  It may or may not be true, but even if it is true that doesn't mean they are not aggressive.  How many killer whales have you encountered in your daily life?   If you're like me you've only ever seen them at parks or zoos like Sea World.  Of course they haven't killed humans because they live in the ocean!  What about sharks we hear about sharks killing people don't we?  Well yes, we do because sharks often swim closer to the coastlines were people swim and surf, where as killer whales do not. (sometimes they do but only rarely in comparison to sharks) Also, a human is not much of a meal for a pod of Killer Whales making it even more unlikely for them to target humans in the wild.  

I also watched another documentary called "The Blue Planet a Natural History of the Oceans" this is a series of eight episodes and I forget which episode contained information about killer whales, but one of them did.  This series focus on the natural lives of wild animals in the ocean.  The episode showed a pod of killer whales doing what they do best, hunting.  They had come upon a blue whale, I believe it was, and her calf.  Blue whales, even the calves, are much larger than killer whales so the pod homed in on the calf and each took turns jumping on the baby to force it under water until it drowned.  It took the pod over an hour or more to kill the baby.  This reminded me right away of the the scene from "Black Fish" where one of the whales jumps on top of a person who is ridding on another whale causing injury to the person.  It was not an unusual aggressive act because of captivity, this was a normal act whales do in the wild to take down prey as was show clearly in the "The Blue Planet" series.

Point #3 The film showed a very emotional scene of a mother whale making vocalizations because the Sea World staff had taken her calf away to move it to another park.  The film claimed the whale was very upset and it was a terrible thing to do because in the wild whales and calves are never separated, they live out their lives together. They also claimed that Sea World takes whales from different pods in the ocean and mixes them all up so they can't even communicate with each other because they all speak different languages.  They also showed what a sad terrible life Tilikum (one of the main whales they focused on) now has because he lives in a small enclosure all by himself and only interacts with people when performing his tricks at the end of a show.

The film did a great job of making me feel sorry for the whale that lost her calf.  I was quite surprised that Sea World would take a whale away from it's mother as I had thought they would try to keep families together.  After doing a little research I found that Sea World claims the calf depicted in the film was actually twelve years old when they separated it form it's mother and they claim they've only ever separated two calves from their mothers.  The term "calf" is debatable and they may separate them once they are no longer considered "calves" I don't know.  However, even though I would like them to keep all of the calves with their mothers I don't think that is a reasonable thing to ask them to do because they would eventually run out of space and it makes more sense to spread their whales out so they can all be cared for properly.  Also, I do not think it is excessively cruel or unusual to separate a baby animal from it's mother.  In fact we as humans do it all the time!  Do you have a dog?  According to the US Pet Ownership Statistics 36.5% of households have a dog.  Puppies are separated from their mother as early as 7 weeks to around 12 weeks.  That is a lot earlier than 12 years.  We don't consider it cruel to separate puppies from their mother yet in the wild dogs/wolves are pack animals and live together in much the same way as whales.  We also separate many others animals from their mothers for our food such as cow, chickens, pigs, etc.  Most people do not consider this cruel either.  Also, in the wild plenty of whales lose their calves to predators, lack of food, etc.  In fact the orcas even are responsible for some other whales calves dying as the blue whale example I explained above.

As for the small enclosure argument, yes the tanks the whales are kept in are smaller than the ocean.  It is literally impossible to simulate their natural habit in captivity because to make an enclosure as big as the ocean is not possible.  If you agree and think that Sea World should just dump all it's captive whales back into the ocean you're basically sentencing them to death.  Whales that were born in captivity and are hand feed will likely not survive for very long in the ocean.  It's a nice thought to think they would know what to do, how to hunt, how to migrate, all on their own using instinct alone, but it's more likely they would not know what to do unless they managed to find a pod of wild whales that accepted them.  Keiko, the whale featured in the move "Free Willy," was actually released back into the wild, but failed to reintegrate with wild whales and seemed to actually seek out humans instead.  There is a petition online to boycott Sea World until they release their orcas.  I think this is very silly because if Sea World did decide to release their whales it would likely cost millions of dollars to rehabilitate them to give them the best chance at surviving in the ocean.  So boycotting them and giving them less money would not help the process.  Even if Sea World did not want to release their whales boycotting them is still not a good solution because they would have less money to maintain their enclosures, provide medical care, and food for their whales.  I too think the whale enclosures are a little small considering how large the whales are.  I also think it would be nice to see some toys in the tanks like they have for the dolphins.  Maybe they do have these at times, but they did not when I last visited.

As for forcing the whales to perform everyday.  I do not find this to be cruel in anyway.  Sea World trains their animals using the reward system.  They receive treats after doing their tricks.  This is a normal and acceptable way to train animals just watch any professional dog show, circus animal, or trained bird.  If anything the performing is good exercise and a way to keep the whales mentally stimulated.  

How I View Animals

The way I see animals in general is really the main reason I have no problem visiting Sea World after watching "Black Fish."

I love animals.  I take great joy in watching them, interacting with them, appreciating their unique and in interesting behaviors.  However, my love for them is not directed at them.  My love for them is directed to God because He created them and directs them.  The uniqueness of animals shows me a glimpse of creativity and beauty of God.

Discus at Sea World San Diego

I see animals as a one of the many gifts God has given humanity as stated in the Bible: (Genesis 1:26) "Then God said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground."  I take this verse to mean that we should care for animals and not abuse them as they are gifts and we should treat our gifts well, but it is also alright to use them for what they are good for such as food, helping us work, living with us as companions, and our entertainment.

A person has the God given right to keep animals in captivity, and to breed animals for food so long as they are not threatening their very existence, or abusing them.  Now I use the term abuse to mean treating an animal in an excessively cruel way.  In our example of orcas, I would say it would be abusive to keep the whales if the trainers caused physical harm to the them in order to teach them to do tricks such as hitting them with any sort of barbed instrument that caused them bleed, or denying them food or medical attention, or allowing the water to become filthy and unsanitary.  However, I did not see any of these when I visited Sea World.  I saw trainers that used the reward system to teach them tricks, they seemed to receive plenty of food as they were not lethargic or skinny, and the water was pristine and clear.  This tells me that Sea World is doing a great job in being good stewards of their whales and they have every right to continue.

I believe animals lives are purely instinctual given to them by God for their continued survival.  Animals, do not have goals, ambitions, dreams.  Animals only have limited feelings purely for their continued survival such as a natural fear of predators.  Animals do not love in the way that we as humans love, this is not possible for them because they do not have free will.  Free will is the ability to choose to love or not love.  As humans we are blessed with free will because we are made in God's image.  Animals, however are not.  Animals behavior is dictated to them, this why animals can do no wrong and no good.  If an animal kills another animal we understand that animals kill to survive and it is not seen as bad thing.  If an animal kills a human we usually blame the human for doing something wrong because we know an animal can do no wrong.  If animals can do no wrong, they can't do good either.  What about the dog that saved it's owner from a burning building, or the cat that saved a boy from a dog?  While it may seem that animals sometimes do heroic acts of good this simply can not be true because animals have no sense of right and wrong.  An animal saving a human may instinctively recognize the human as necessary to it's own continued survival and thus save them, or it very well could be God working through the animal to save the person.  Unlike humans God or His angles can works through animals without their consent as they have no consent to give.  Humans must invite and allow God to work through them, because He gave them free will and respects their free will.  An example is of God using an animal is the story of Balaam and his donkey in the book of Numbers Chapter 22.

Common Thoughts About Animals

When I hear the claim that animals have the right to be free, and it is cruel to simply keep them in captivity because they would live a more happy fulfilling life if they were free.  I believe this mindset is based on people projecting their own desires onto animals.  People are generally not happy if they are in a small confided cell, we usually associate that with prison.  But I don't think animals, especially animals born in captivity, know any different.  When speaking about this topic with my coworkers one guy thought even captive born whales long for the ocean.  I do not think this is true because I don't think animals are capable of longing for anything except perhaps food and a mate and even then I think it's much different than the desire we as humans experience for certain things. 

It is very common to hear people describe their dog, saying how much their dog loves them or how their dog was pouting after being yelled at, etc.  As people we have emotions and we are unable to fully comprehend what it would be like to not have emotions.  So we project our emotions onto our pets in order to relate to them better.  But does a dog really pout?  Are pigs really lazy?  Are cats really curious?  These are human emotions and traits.  Technically a pig can not be lazy because laziness is a vice, you have to be capable of being productive to be capable of being lazy.  Pigs can not be productive, they do what they do which is lay in the mud and eat.  This is not laziness this is following their instinct to conserve energy and cover themselves in mud to avoid becoming sun burnt and to cool themselves as they do not sweat.  Dog can not love because love is a choice to put someones needs above your own.  However, dogs and all animals are created by the Divine Lover or Love itself, so dogs and other animals may have a reflection of God's love within them, but humans are the only physical beings that are truly capable of love because we are the only ones given the choice to love or not love.  If dogs and other animals have a glimmer of love within them, it's instinctual rather than a choice.  It should be noted that human love, though grater than animals, is still less than what real love is because only God is love in it's purest form.

Lastly some people consider it cruel to force an animal to perform.  They equate it to forcing a person do do something they don't want to do.  Forcing a person to do something is indeed wrong.  Training an animal to do a trick for food is not cruel and not wrong.  Nearly every kind of animal can be trained with food, even chickens, mice, and goldfish.  This is not cruel because an animal will not feel any sense of self consciousness or embarrassment for doing a trick.  They will also not feel a sense of accomplishment or pride for doing a trick.  Animals will do tricks for food or some other pleasure such as a good scratch behind the ears.  Animals do not realize they are performing.  They will do the same trick if there is only one person watching or an entire stadium of people watching.  The only time training animals is cruel or wrong is if they are trained with excessive pain.  I say excessive because horses are often trained with a whip, but it is only light flicks of a whip which are likely only a small annoyance to the horse.  Training an animal in such a way that causes injury would be cruel.

Sea World

What I enjoy most about Sea World is getting to see so many different animals up close that I wouldn't normally get to see.  Also, as someone who enjoys fish tanks they give me some great ideas for fish tanks I would like to have someday. 

Sea World San Diego's fish and aquatic animals are taken care of very well for the most part.  Their tanks are clean and they appear healthy.  Which is more than I can say for your average local PetsMart.  As someone who really enjoys fish I have spent a lot of time researching fish care and identify warning signs of illness.  At Sea World there was only a few tanks that had sick fish.  Fish keeping is not easy and if one fish becomes sick they rest can become sick very quickly because of the relatively closed environment.  It's important to identify and quarantine a potentially sick fish right away.  Sea World has thousands of fish and aquatic animals so I think they do an incredible job of keeping them healthy.  However, they need improvement with their penguins, polar bear, and walrus health and environments.  

I also really enjoy the Sea World shows. I think it is amazing to see what sea lions, otters, dolphins, and whales are capable of and even if I was observing these animals in the wild I would likely not see the interesting tricks humans can teach animals.  To me it is a joy to see humans working with animals and I don't see anything cruel about it at all.  It's creativity and hard work and it's beautiful to see.  I would defiantly visit again.

Finding Fishes Inspiration

Finding Fishes Inspiration

Friday 5/9/14 - I was out taking my normal morning rosary prayer walk in the Orange County CA sun.  Usually I head to the path along the canal which is where I can spot the most wildlife.  Today did not disappoint.  I was greeted by a large gathering of some kind of vulture like birds.

They seemed to be feasting upon a single less fortunate bird of some type.  They gathered in full force on the ground and while may other less brave individuals continued to circle above. Some others observed from a distance on the wires on either side.  I approached cautiously hoping to get some good pictures.  I was able to to get surprisingly close to them.

After watching the vultures I spotted a mommy duck and her three fuzzy yellow and brown babies. I sat and watched them for awhile as I continued to pray.  I was just about ready to leave when I noticed quite a commotion upstream.  I headed over thinking I would be super lucky and spot some otters.  To my surprise it was not otters but very large fish causing a ruckus. 

I was quite excited to find such large fish in the shallow waters and assume they traveled up from the ocean to spawn.  Fish can be found quite unexpectedly I found out.  Now I have became inspired to cast a line into the world wide net to see what I may find.  I hope to help those who are hungry for love and hope and joy by sharing some of the tidbits of inspiration God has given to me.