Last Christmas was rainy and cool in the Nogorongoro Crater. We were lucky not to get stuck in the mud while down there, and while it was a bit cold for us, the hippos did not seem to mind the rain.
This Kori Bustard is the largest bird which can fly.
This is what most of the big cats we saw did during the day. A few days later, however we saw these two brothers who were a bit more active
These African crowned cranes are the national symbol of Uganda, and were displaying to each other in the grasslands in the bottom of the crater.
Last December I was at the beginning of a huge adventure. I was in Tanzania along with my friends Jim and Carrie. A year ago today I was at a lodge on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. The Crater is an UNESCO World Heritage site. The road into the crater drops 2,000 feet from the rim to the floor. The floor of the crater is 9 miles across. Approximately 30,000 animals inhabit this area. If you saw the movie Out of Africa, the scene where Robert Redford's character takes Meryl Streep's character flying includes flying over the crater. You can read more about the crater here. Maasai people still herd cattle in the crater alongside elephants, rhinos, zebra, ostrich, lions, and cheetahs.
There had been unseasonable long rains in December, and the roads were very muddy, and slick. Lions do not favor wet grass, and on the way down into the crater this young male was laying right next to the road in an attempt to avoid the wet grass.
This male baboon was sitting alongside the road as we drove along the rim of the crater.
We saw our first cheetahs in the crater. This one woke up, stretched, and walked away as we watched from the landcruiser. 
Zebras were plentiful in the crater, and due to the protection from poaching in the elephants here were the largest we saw. 
Joshua Tree is an especially interesting park because it encompasses two types of desert. The Joshua Trees are a dominant form of vegetation in the Mojave Desert section of the park, but are replaced by creosote shrubs, ocotillo, and cholla cactus as one desends into the Colorado Desert area of the park. The Colorado Desert is a part of the Sonoran Desert and is dryer, hotter, and lower in elevation than the Mojave.
Peregrine falcons were removed from the endangered species list in 1999. Their populations are stable to declining around the nation. They are commonly seen in the eucalyptus trees on the mesa.
Kestrels are our smallest falcon and can be commonly seen hunting near the wall. 
This Belding's savannah sparrow is an endangered species, and a resident at Bolsa Chica. 
Great blue herons nest in the eucalyptus trees on the mesa. Since they will eat anything small enough to swallow, they hunt on the mesa as well as in the wetlands. 
White tailed kites roam over the mesa and wetlands in search of food. I saw one perched on the wall eating a mouse the other evening. How long will it be before in pursuit of prey it doesn't see the wall?
Black skimmers fly low over the water to hunt and migrate to Bolsa Chica to breed in the summer. 
This is an elegant tern. Thousands of them nest at Bolsa Chica in the summer. They arrive in April or so and leave in the fall.
This afternoon when Carrie and I were out at the wall we saw a worker applying two decals per pane. The instructions on the packaging for this product suggests one decal for every 3 square feet. Two per pane isn't sufficient. However, by putting them on the wall, Hearthside can claim it is doing something even if it is ineffective. 
The only long term solution to this problem is to take the glass wall down.
The Bolsa Chica mesa is home to several coyotes, and one graced us with his or her presence this morning.
