What could possibly go wrong?
In case it's not obvious, that's supposed to be some sort of floating garden.
What could possibly go wrong?
In case it's not obvious, that's supposed to be some sort of floating garden.
My walks for Saturday, March 29th and today, Sunday, March 30th. Both walks were moderately truncated for various reasons already lost in the passage of time. One thing for today, rain showed up around 5:20 AM and while there wasn't much measurable activity more was being forecast and I wasn't especially inclined to walk around with my camera in case it decided to dump. The lovely Docken joined me on both walks and her company was appreciated. She walked in her hood and to her local garden on Saturday, both of us taking pictures along the way.
Neither day was too exciting on the photo front for me.
Saturday, March 29th (2.5 miles)
This monarch butterfly was acting as my guide as I entered the arboretum at a nearby college campus. He flew circles around me close enough to reach out and touch and stayed along side me for a little over 100 yards. This is where he stopped to give me a photo op.
There's always a mockingbird.
Sunday, March 30th (1.5 miles)
It was pretty gray and dismal out and besides the ominous feeling of impending rain, I had left home bent over with back pain so I was more inclined to "walk the kinks out" than to take pictures. The walk did my back good within about 1/2 mile.
I should have tried taking a wider shot of this. These are wild rose plants that are seriously taking over an area that was dominated by red mountain sage (Salvia darcyi) and bog sage (Salvia uliginosa). I have in the past been able to carefully walk amongst those plants; not anymore.
A long shot of the aforementioned male Allen's hummingbird.
Google thinks the replacement trees are in the genus Hakea. It make sense since this is within the Australian natives portion of the garden. If you look closely slightly above the fresh, blonde mulch and a little left of the base of the new tree, you'll notice one of the stumps from the trees that were removed.
Sally and Twigs Zenaida
I first noticed this pair of mourning doves on Thursday, March 27th. It wasn't until Friday that I realized they were building a nest above the wall outside of my utility room above hot water pipes that run out from where the water heater is located in the garage. It's not the most attractive spot outside of the house. The utility room was added around 1970-1971 and it wasn't designed well to begin with. One issue in April of 2022 was my patching up where water pipes entered the main house due to a problem with a rat getting into the "attic" space above the utility room. This was done with a considerable amount of haste. Midway through the project, sealing off access there was an "escape pod" provided for the rat. From that point moving forward I never heard from the rat again. I only saw the critter once.
Part of the reason it's so hodgepodge looking is because I had to go from rat-escape design to rat no-entry design rather quickly. Remember, rats are out doing their thing at night.
It was also awkward and nobody was ever supposed to see it.
Anyway, 18" in front of this, above the larger foam insulated hot water pipe is where Sally and Twigs decided would be a good place to build a nest.
First spotted was Twigs. The male gathers materials and the female constructs the nest. He was back and forth in as little as 30 seconds. From what I observed, during the more active periods of nest building I'd guess that Twigs was bringing Sally a new sprig of something about once a minute on average. There were several times he would go in with a twig of something only to come back out and wait on the wall outside another 15-20 seconds, presumably for Sally to give him the go ahead for the additional material.
Everything shot from this angle was taken from my bed and we're looking through a dirty window.
I believe this is Sally. Their coloring, like many bird feathers, is iridescent so at times I found distinguishing one from the other difficult.
After this I left them alone for hours but later in the afternoon both Docken and I thought it would be a good idea to bring them some water and I thought it would be a good idea to pluck a bunch of chickweed away from the dish so the birds wouldn't feel like they were swimming in it.
At my closest point I was about 40 feet away when I took these pictures at 7:12 PM. Right after this they both took off over the house and I watched them until they disappeared heading east. I was heartbroken. Twigs is in front.
Day two, they were back as early as 6:25. That's when I first heard some cooing. The first pictures were taken around 7:07. If it's holding a twig you definitely know it's Twigs.
Soft as a dove
I would like to make this brief. Sitting is one of my least desirable activities and I've had enough for the day. Besides much of what is being presented here today is largely similar to the past few weekends. Here are photos taken on my walks on Saturday, March 8th and today, Sunday March 9th. Special thanks to Docken for walk and talk company telephonically.
Saturday, March 8th
Hummingbird activity on the Eremophila has become greatly reduced due to flowers dying back and the male Allen's hummingbird (see previous episodes) dominating the territory. Mine, mine, mine!
This is a Shamel ash tree (Fraxinus uhdei).
This apparently is a Cercis canadensis, the eastern redbud. There used to be a western redbud in the botanical garden. I'm not too sure why it disappeared.
I brought a close up lens today. These are the flowers on the Cercis canadensis seen above.
Pretty sure this is the male.
Down below was a pair of mourning doves (Zenaida macroura). I just took a picture of the lead bird.