When I composed this image in 2019 I had indicated these were crows but I think it's pretty clear that they are ravens. As adolescents, ravens that live together in a group are referred to as an “unkindness.” These young ravens can be masters of mischief by working together to trick other animals, including paired adult ravens, and steal their food.
How about that, it’s been a month since I’ve posted and I pretty much got away with it. I’d like to thank this blog for being mostly my personal journal of sorts. Walks? There have been a few to several, I’m not exactly sure. I had planned another sunrise walk report on October 5th because the two previous mornings had produced beautiful sunrises I only viewed from my kitchen windows. The sunrise on 10/5 took a turn for the worse. In fact, I called it the sunrise of the apocalypse.
Since then, I’ve been mostly in the repair shop. However, last Saturday, I went out with my camera and Docken joined me over the phone. My thanks for her company. I wasn’t especially enthusiastic about the pictures I was taking and have yet to look at them.
Basically, I spent a couple of weeks trying to figure out what was wrong and then the last couple of weeks trying to fix the problem. I’m much better now, thank you.
In the middle, around October 14th, I was reminded of a couple of events in 2016. That had me going down a rabbit hole of sorts looking at photos from April 3, 2016 to August 21, 2016. I was looking for something specific and it was mostly a pleasant distraction. I didn’t really find the pictures I was seeking. I came close but no dice. However, in searching through 9,722 images I came up with some which weren't included in this OUaWR, a few that were and maybe a couple that were close. This folder is the backup for the folder I already edited on a different hard drive. The story behind the Once Upon a Walk Report enterprise can be found here in the first edition. That project, by the way, isn't done yet.
Here’s what I’ll call Once Upon a Walk Report, Part Eight, version two. I'm reasonably certain these are in the order in which they were taken.
Male Calypte anna
Bee on pride of Pride of Madeira at home
The lovely Docken Duck
Cooper's hawk
The same Cooper's hawk
Female Calype anna
Female Calype anna (my fav)
Same Female Calype anna (maybe immature male)
Grevillea, note the trichomes
Male Calypte anna
Male Calypte anna
Male Calypte anna
Song sparrow (Melospiza melodia)
Hooded oriole (Icterus cucullatus)
Female Selasphorus sasin (the mother lode agave)
Honey bee on California buckwheat
Same bee
Bees on matilija poppies (3 shots)
California scrub jay (Aphelocoma californica)
Female Selasphorus sasin
Leptotes marina on Baja fairy duster
Female Calypte Anna
Kangaroo paws
Female Calype anna
Milk thistle
Capparis spinosa
Hooded oriole (Icterus cucullatus)
Female Selasphorus sasin
Desert cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii)
Praying mantis on my hand
Monarch butterfly (no plant ID)
Western fence lizard
Variegated meadowhawk
Cereus cactus flower
Echeveria
Alyogyne huegelii, White Swan
Female Selasphorus sasin
Female Selasphorus sasin or immature male
Blue-eyed darner
Erynnis-tages baynesi
Leptotes marina on Baja fairy duster
Female Selasphorus sasin
Male Calypte anna
Female Calypte anna
I believe I have also used this song here before but it's certainly appropriate. It's also playing on my head right now.
Yep, good riddance to summer although, after several days of modest temperatures, it is currently 91º at 4:30 PM on Sunday, September 22nd, the first day of fall. The high today in my SoCal neighborhood was quite warm at 93.3ª. The next few days are expected to be in the low to mid-90ºs and it appears it could creep back into those kind of highs for about a week. It's not unusual to have temperatures into the 90ºs as late as Thanksgiving.
Here are some photos from my walk Saturday, September 21. Docken joined me both Saturday and Sunday mornings to chat over the phone. Thank you Docken.
I cruised to both the local botanical garden and the arboretum at a nearby college campus both days. Subjects for photographs were scarce.
Solidago velutina, California goldenrod.
Drimia maritima, known by several common names, including squill, sea squill, sea onion, and maritime squill.
Tecoma stans. See the ant?
On the arboretum side of campus...
Back in July I had thought all of the Anna apples were gone. Not only were there apples, I also found one flower. Hybrid parentage: 'Golden Delicious'. These apples are not much bigger than my thumb. I swiped a few once again to see if I can germinate a seed or two. My last effort failed but it was an afterthought. Currently, I have three Fuji apple trees in containers on my patio. They seem to be taking their time in showing up as trees.
Here's one of my Fuji apple trees taken the first day it went outside on March 23, 2022. They were all started indoors under grow lights. The tallest of the trees in currently just 30". Kinda doesn't look like I'll ever see any apples. For me the ambition and excitement all stems from (no pun intended) the act of growing from a seed. In this case something that was in my refrigerator that I had with vanilla yogurt one morning.
Where the botanical garden's plant markers go to die.
Begonia.
Geranium.
Sunday, September 22, the first day of fall, 2024 (today)
Again, not a lot happening on the photo front. It was mostly about pleasant conversation with Docken and walking around on a very quiet campus.
I noticed these mourning doves congregating in this tree as soon as I stepped out of my car to begin the walk onto campus.
This is part of a much bigger story I keep telling myself to write. These are all young palm trees. These are probably Washingtonia filifera, AKA, the California fan palm, unless you live in Arizona where they apparently resent that name and simply call them, desert fan palms. This is a big problem. I see it potentially as a huge problem because the thing is, palms are popping up everywhere from seed. This never happened here in the past. I believe as the SoCal climate has become more tropical these trees are more inclined to germinate from self-seeding and have become invasive. I grew up here. Growing up I never saw random palm trees popping up everywhere and I mean everywhere. These trees can do some serious damage suddenly appearing in unwanted places. They grow quite rapidly too. This crop is one of several right behind the backstop for the school's baseball field.
This is our friend, male Calypte anna hummingbird, Dusty Jr. I made a special effort of looking for him this morning.
Finally, there's always a mockingbird. I commented to Docken later in the walk when another mockingbird was singing generously that it was the first day I've heard a mockingbird singing in awhile. Northern mockingbirds typically take a break from signing (equate with mating) and start up again from late September to early November. I thought it was interesting that this one bird was being so prolific in its vocalizations on the first day of fall.
On the other end of that same Senna bicapsularis shrub this ground squirrel was being very quiet. It seemed to me that they were aware of each others presence.
Leaving the garden and doing a short loop around the lower campus I finally asked myself what these aluminum attachments to the steps up to the library were for. Relative to the installation of the library about 12 years ago, they are a much more recent addition.
Turns out they are called "Skate Stoppers." They are designed to be a skateboarding deterrent. This was really common during the early years just after the library was built. I saw kids using these stairs for their skateboarding antics all the time and I was sure it had to be a huge potential liability for the school. The product sheet for this particular model skate stopper says, "this product is not intended for use on steps, stairs, sidewalk curb, or any pedestrian trafficked surfaces." Oh well.
When I was a kid we were allowed to do all sorts of stuff in an effort to break body parts. Whatever happened to all of the fun in the world?
I walked to the arboretum side once again but I didn't take any pictures. I just stole some apples.
