Today's walk report: 082513

When does walking actually become a walk, as in, I'm going for a walk?

For some people getting up from the couch and going into the kitchen, then back again, is a walk. I was trying to qualify or quantify if I was going for a walk this morning at 11:30 or not. Here's the deal, I needed to go to Home Depot and pick up an all-in-one toilet repair kit, then stumbled on a couple of good plant deals in the nursery there. I had decided before leaving I would take my camera either for pictures at the nursery (it helps me plan some things in the garden here for one) and/or stop by the college campus and go to the botanical garden on the way home. I chose to do the latter.

So I could park in the shade I went to covered parking which is up on a hill well above the center of campus. The center of campus being where the garden is. For a bird that's about 390 meters. I, however, took the steps. I also covered a few to several laps inside the garden itself. The garden is about 95x75 meters. Here's what I stopped to take pictures of during my "laps" in the garden.

The Cloudless Sulphur or Cloudless Giant Sulphur (Phoebis sennae). Last week when I did an afternoon walk this was the first little critter I saw. Likewise same this time. However, today it didn't disappear so quick and I finally got some pictures.

Marine Blue (Leptotes marina) on some variety of Callistemon (bottlebrush). There were several flying about this bush and I finally saw what I've determined was a male but I couldn't find one landing and staying still for a wee moment.

one more...

Than I happened upon this lovely couple.

Mom left but dad was hanging out, keeping an eye on me.

Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum). The male holds the female by the neck with its anal clasper while copulation takes place, it can last up to 30 minutes. Notice the heart shape. Romantic, no?

Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis), perhaps calling attention to his anal clasper?

Cereus sp. cactus flower. I need to try and be a little artsy from time to time. By the way, I had these confused  with the San Pedro cactus (Trichocereus Pachanoi) flowers awhile back, they grow right next to each other. I'll probably fix that later.

My red-tailed friend letting me know it's not far away. I see some downy young feathers often. This bird is growing up. My guess is by winter it will be fully adult.

I was still debating if I should officially consider this excursion as a "walk," until I looked up at the steps back to the car.

End of walk one. Start of walk # 2.

This is right at the 1.2 km mark, 3/4 of a mile in and pushing 6:30 PM. This is one of those shots I'll take just in case there's nothing else up the road.

and there wasn't much. I took some pictures indicating the school was ready for "fall" quarter starting tomorrow. I made the mistake of walking the campus 1st day of fall two years ago. It's totally chaotic. Today it's signs like this, everywhere. L.A. County Sheriff's will be everywhere too. It's their big opportunity to "shine."

Bees loving the cereus sp. cactus, end of day. I know that bats are big pollinators of these and other cactus at night and I usually see bats around dusk. I'd like to camp out, maybe bring a lawn chair sometime and see if I can catch any of that.

Yesterday I mentioned "losing" this green lynx spider (I think that's a right ID) right before I had the opportunity to go from my Canon 60mm marcro to the 70-300mm with a 500D close-up attachment. Well, it was right there again today and this time I was ready.

On the lighter side...

Thanks again for coming along on my walks today!