Among other things.

Besides chasing birds around Rancho San Rafael park, there were air races to attend. This year the featured performers were the Canadian Snowbirds. They put on a terrific show and for formation flying these guys are among the best.

It looks like chaos but it ain't!

Besides the Snowbirds, there were other aerobatics.

David Martin goes low

Michael Goulian flew his ethanol powered plane.

Kent Pietsch wanted to do a carrier landing but aircraft carriers are rare in the desert. Sooooooo...

And the Smoke-N-Thunder jet car raced (and beat) an airplane in a drag race.

Of course there were fly-bys

Since it is the National Championship Air Races there's racing!

 

Who's a coot?!?!

I've been chasing this coot for a while. I spotted him at the local park but was never able to get close.

He'd swim around for a while, dive,

  
surface with a mouthful of  food,

Then swim away to a tree overhanging the bank

So I crawled through the brush and the mud and the duck sh whatever until I was close.

The miserable bird watched for a few minutes, the preened

and then nodded off on me.

After a few seconds, he woke up and had the nerve to yawn at me!

Twice!!!

Then he tucked his head under his wing and went to sleep.

So I crawled up real close and woke him with the camera flash.

 

American Coot 

Fulica americana

Ghost town

A few days at Tahoe then out to the desert. Berlin, Nevada. 

 Mostly it's ruins now

The most popular place in town.

 My car is almost as new and in as good condition as this one. Berlin was a mining town but never had more than several hundred residents. The mine buildings and much of the equipment is still there.

Nearby is the 'town' of Union. 'Town' consisting of a single abandoned shack.

There were only three other campsites being used. It was utterly quiet and the nearest light about 2 miles away an a few hills over so the stars were clear.There were a few critters. The coyote that sat outside the tent and yipped. Lots of jackrabbits.

And some fence lizards.

It was a terrific trip to the central Nevada desert.