Lunching

Yesterday we ate lunch on the deck of a home where our friend Eshel is staying not far from us in La Jolla. He had driven to a favorite fish market for smoked tuna and salmon. His view is remarkable -- the house overlooks a wildlife preserve in which a stream runs down to the ocean near Blacks Beach.

In other lunch news, at the zoo a few days ago we saw the pandas waiting to be fed. They were sniffing the trap door through which the food would soon be delivered. Not far from the pandas, a brown bear was gnawing on a large bone. The exotic water birds in their pond were grabbing the small fish tossed to them by the zookeeper. The captive birds have clipped wings, so they can't fly. But wild egrets hang around, hoping to swoop in on the fish with their highly functional wings. We saw them a little later on top of the vulture cages above the pond eating their ill-gotten gains. The bird in the picture is an exotic stork, eating its fish.