Today's walk report: 072113

Yo, look behind you, look behind you... the weather, look at the weather.*

Gray, drab, muggly weather. At least it was a little more in proportion with heat and humidity today.

This was the sky...

Once again not much activity going on. I saw two bees and two dragonflies but I never saw one land. There were the Green fruit beetles (Cotinis mutabilis) once more and they were at this again.

 
I also caught one in flight this time.

One Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) was somewhat cooperative, however it was so dismal out this shot with ISO set on auto went at 4,000... pretty grainy to say the least. I was trying to get close enough to shoot with flash. Every time the bird would look forward and away from me I took a step. Unfortunately I still got busted.

I did get a score out of the garden. The strawflowers were producing seed and I nabbed a bunch. I'm adding this to my collection for fall/spring germination--if I can find out the right method. I have envelopes with seeds I've gathered. So far there are these strawflowers, Red yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora), Desert willow (Chilopsis linearis) and Narrow-leaved milkweed seeds (Asclepias fascicularis.) The milkweed seeds, for example, need to be refrigerated for 6-weeks prior to planting. I'm trying to learn some of this stuff so I don't kill shit before I even get started. I also like the idea of free seeds.

The bottom-most flower is all seed.

 * That line is from the stage announcements on the Woodstock (1969) soundtrack when the rain was coming in, some guy yelling in the background. It oddly came to mind as I started typing.