'Cause I didn't get pictures. It was exciting. Just as I was crossing the street to enter the campus I see a red-tailed hawk going after two crows and I mean REALLY going after them. I started to point the camera upwards while only 2/3 across but I also noticed the "walk sign" counting down and traffic waiting for a green so I thought better. Actually, there was two rounds of attacks and if it wasn't so darn exciting to watch I might have been able to get a shot or two off but all I ended up with during the aggression was one of the crows.
I'll make an assumption that the red-tailed were protecting a nest. That's the other thing. I didn't realize until the battling red-tailed hawk's "return to base" that a mate was also in that tree.
As soon as I walked across the street on campus toward the birds the lower one took off. Once I got square with the front of the tree the upper bird, the aggressor in warding off the crows, followed.
I walked around a bit trying to see where they went and if indeed there was a nest in the area but I lost them.
Looping back to my regular course I spotted my 1st woodpecker with camera in hand. As soon as I got close enough to get a modestly decent photo the little pecker took off. This was the best I could tweak out of Photoshop so I could get an idea of what the bird looked like. This is about 45 meters from that tree. I always take the 1st shot I can get and then start moving in. At least that way I can get an idea of what to look for the next time.
As you can see it was another gray dismal day for the most part. Except the difference today was it actually rained a little. It didn't even get the ground wet but perhaps it's a precursor of more to come this week. Friday reads, 60% chance of rain at the moment. However we've seen that sort of prediction fizzle several times already this winter.
Here's male Anna's hummingbird #1 once again but what I wanted to show was we're seeing some foilage on the Caesalpinia gilliesii bush now. While the flowers on that bush are really wild bees are much more attracted to them than hummingbirds are, in fact I don't believe I have any photos of hummingbirds going for the Caesalpinia flowers.
Here's what those flowers look like. This photo was taken last April. In fact it may have been taken for the 1st walk report on this blog, 041913.
There's several plants showing blooms now that are attractive to the hummingbirds. Scarlet bugler (Penstemon centranthifolius) and Grevillea olivacea are both coming in nicely. So is this Chandelier plant (Kalanchoe delagoensis.)
New signs in the garden... Austrailian Natives (north end) and California Natives as you enter from the south side. I'm a California native myself.
Despite it being mostly gray we got a nice sunset. I was far away from my usual sunset vantage points by this time having cut the walk a little short (7.39 km) wanting to get home. This is a 4 image stitch from the front of my house.
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