Weekend Walk Report: Cold Suns

 It is springtime in the northern hemisphere, right? This is April 7th in SoCal, my calendar isn't broken, correct? This morning I woke to 37º outside and yesterday morning it was down to 34º. Without central heating parts of the house were quite chilly to say the least but my constant feline companion, Lucy and I did our best to keep our bedroom warm. This week was in celebration of Lucy's 18th birthday. Happy birthday, Lucy! You're as beautiful as ever!

Here are some pictures taken during my walks yesterday, Saturday, April 6th and today, Sunday, April 7th. 

Saturday, April 6th.

Special thanks to Docken for joining me both days over the phone. Having her company helps make the sometimes physical demands of walks, the grunts and groans, a lot easier to transcend. 

This is the male Calypte anna hummingbird known as "not Dusty." Dusty remains AWOL.

 A pair of red-tailed hawks were heard before they were seen.

I took the long road to the western edge of the campus, turned around, came back to my car and drove up the hill. As the crow flies, east to west. the campus is almost exactly one mile wide.

There's still snow on the mountains. Well of course there is, it was upper to low 30ºs down below where I was all night.

I did a short loop around the top of the hill (.45 miles) and headed back to my car for the drive home. This Brewer's blackbird flew right at me as I reached to open the car door as if to bid me farewell.

Sunday, April 7th (today).

As soon as I got out of my car I saw a red-tailed hawk fly into a tall pine tree carrying some sort of rodent to munch. I was too slow with my camera to get a picture. Then I saw its mate hovering around, took some pictures and walked down the road to see if I could spot the first bird in the tree.

 I had wondered about this hawk yesterday. I've taken many pictures of this female red-tailed with the damaged left wing. I spent considerable time last night trying to find a definitive answer on red-tailed hawks (or birds of prey in general) recovering from a lost wing feather (or two) during molt. I'm still very unsure if they do but I just looked back at pictures of this bird from March of 2023. This is she. 

I wandered around under the pine tree but I never spotted the male with his late morning meal.

There was this male Allen's hummingbird nearby.

 Onto the garden...

Once again there was not Dusty and no sign of Dusty.

More shots in another location.

Coleonema pulchellum, commonly known as confetti bush, buchu, diosma or breath of heaven.

Iris pseudacorus, the yellow flag, yellow iris, or water flag, is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae.

A female Calypte anna hummingbird hanging out in the eucalyptus, 'Moon Lagoon.'

I followed her into the sunlight.

Onto my walk...

Nobody told these ancient car worshipers today wasn't a meeting day. The car on the left is a Dodge Viper, I have no clue as to the year. I drove in a Dodge Viper as a brief distraction on my son's fifth birthday party in 1995. It wasn't a good fit. The yellow car is a Ferrari 458 Spider, maybe 2011.

Today's sky panorama.

Turkey vultures in the usual places.

A lady bug on the sidewalk. Ever since I was a kid I generally walk looking downwards.

That's it! And the birthday girl stayed in my lap for the duration! It was a challenge but I love her!

Weekend Walk Report: More Fool Me

 There wasn't much to report for Saturday, March 30th. Once again I trusted the very untrustworthy predictions of weather dot com and ventured out when they said I was in the clear. Wrong again.

Here's what I saw online...

At 2:17 pm I took off for the nearby college campus where I usually engage in my weekend walks. This is what I saw when I got there...

Out of the car there was a tiny bit of precipitation and I started walking. About a 1/4 mile in I realized things were getting worse. I wrapped up my camera in a plastic t-shirt bag and headed for my modest goal which was to go to the western extreme of the campus, an additional 3/4 of a mile and head back to my car for a total walk of about 2 miles. However, once I added a mere .27 miles I realized I better detour back to the car. It was a wide detour nonetheless. I ended up reasonably soaked. Also, it was only 52º and I wasn't dressed for 52º and wet. I was dressed for 57º and not wet. The total walk was 1.33 miles.  All this because I trusted you weather dot com. My bad. More fool me.

Sunday (today), March, 31st.

Predictions were somewhat shady again but I had quite a bit more blue sky heading out. Docken joined me on the phone. Thanks Docky.

There was a lot of mud to navigate in the garden so I mostly headed out to get at least yesterday's target walk in.

White crowned sparrow bathing. There used to be a bench in this spot.

Our female mallard friend from two weeks ago. I suspect the male was in the pond just behind her but it was slip and slide muddy so I skipped checking. She took off into the pond through a backdoor entrance right after I snapped a couple of pictures.

 Heading out to the west gate. This pair of turkey vultures are becoming regulars.

This common raven shot past me flying low.

Up to the hilltop. The parking lot for the music and theater buildings is covered with photovoltaic panels. It's the first place I ever saw solar panels. According to Wikipedia, the college has a 191-kilowatt solar generation system that has 1,274 photovoltaic panels and a 360-kilowatt, natural gas co-generation system. This project is the largest of its kind to be undertaken by a U.S. community college, yielding around 4.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by more than 1,500 tons over its operating lifetime.

Last shot on the way back down the hill.