Today's walk report: 033014, a weekend report

While walks rarely don't happen, evenings have become more and more precious in consideration of my company so this "report" has taken a backseat to documenting each and every walk. Quite honestly, a lot of the more mundane aspect of journaling walks and trying to come up with something when there's little substance has been replaced by having a dynamic relationship with another person on my walks. I care little to share much of what that entails. I can clue you in though... I never knew what love really meant until now and it kicks ass on everything else. I simply can't find enough time for being with my girl.

The weekend, without much discourse...

032814, Friday...

Lilly growing from the pond.

Female Rufous hummingbird.

Jackass.

Again, Red-tailed hawk on a lamppost.

032914, Saturday... This was a short solo walk. I can't say I enjoyed it. Besides not having my companion to walk with, my iPod went dead about 40 minutes in and that had me ready to turn around and come home. I believe all of these pictures were taken before that occurred.

Western Bluebird.

 This is the same male Anna's hummingbird in all of these shots. I'm getting the feeling that this bird knows me now. Last year there were a few hummingbirds I felt had some sort of acquaintanceship with. This is the same bird as in this, this and this report.

Conejo buckwheat.

Yellow rumped warbler.

Male rufous hummingbird.

Grevillea 'Ruby Clusters.'

The 2nd flavor of iris growing from the pond.

033014, Sunday...

I had "technical difficulties" today so not too many photos were captured.

Male rufous hummingbird, another "regular."

Red-tailed hawk taking flight.

Agave victoria-reginae in bloom.

Another great evening for flying kites. The wind was cool and refreshing.

Today's walk report: 032214

Mockingbird battle... and stuff.

Hey it's Saturday night so screw the banter!

Squirrel on the garden grape arbor.

California Towhee, hee, hee.

Palo Verde in glorious full bloom.

These two mockingbirds went at it for awhile. They sat relatively quiet together at the end so I'd speculate it was a spousal spat as opposed to a territorial issue.

Same male Anna's Hummingbird as yesterday and here. I confess, it's really hard to shoot a hummingbird when it's coming straight at you.

White-crowned Sparrow.

It was a beautiful walk with my beautiful lady. Thanks for taking the time to join in the sights.

Today's walk report: 032114

But 1st a little about yesterday...

Yesterday we did the same basic campus walk as today and we had a few fun episodes with nature. The 1st one was seeing the pair of coyotes, mentioned and photographed here and here, come down from the hilly side of the "farm" portion of campus heading straight for us, presumably spooked by some joggers we could see off in the distance. They came in close enough to the road we were walking on to become aware of our presence and veer off toward deeper pastures.

2nd, we saw what I now believe was a Prairie Falcon (Falco mexicanus), see posts here, here and here, swoop right into the flight path of a mourning dove and give that bird a bit of a fright. Prairie Falcons are known to catch birds in flight. The dove got away. This happened directly in front of us and our response was a simultaneous, "wow!"

The 3rd event was spotting a Great Horned Owl perched atop of one of the backstops for the baseball field as we exited the campus. We also caught this magnificent bird taking flight. It was all really fun however, because it was a school day and I'm not inclined to do so on school days, I didn't bring my camera <<DOH!>>

Today wasn't so exciting but it was a wonderful walk and whatever the situation I always enjoy walking with Docken.

Same old Mockingbird. Two nights ago we had a Mockingbird which sounded to be right outside our bedroom window... cheerfully singing, ALL NIGHT LONG. The songs from the Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) would be fine except they never shut up.

The curator of the botanical garden, Keith, pointed out this Mourning Dove nest and its two young chicks to me, nestled somewhat precariously in a Moon Lagoon, eucalyptus.

Too cute, huh? So here's a closer shot.

A rather ravenous beetle on some eucalyptus spotted by Docken.

A number of recently planted Bush Monkey flowers (Mimulus aurantiacus) in bloom.

A male Lesser Goldfinch hopping around in a Desert Willow.

For the most part I was too close to the hummingbirds for a photo op. I got a few shots off but nothing special. This is the same bird I showed in a recent post here with much better shots taken.

That's it. Thanks for coming along on our walk.

Today's walk report: 031614

Yesterday and today.

A couple of beautiful days and matinée walks with my girl, Docken.

Yesterday we headed out in the late A.M. because we had a party to attend in the evening. If you knew me you'd know that's an unusual event, me+party. In fact I probably haven't been to an adult party in 15+ years. The company made all the difference and the party folks were splendid too.

031514: A short walk to the botanical garden and around, about 6.5 km. Not much on the photo front. It was windy, time stood still...

Palo Verde flowers.

Unknown yucca in a parking lot.

One of the "regular" red-tailed hawks. I hadn't seen him in quite awhile now and it was a 1st sighting for a walk with Docken.

031614: Back to Corbin Canyon.

Docken and I walked to Corbin Canyon on 021314 and I posted that walk here. It was a lot greener today after finally getting about 4" of rain in February.

The bush this bee was on was completely a buzz with 100s more bees.

Honestly, we could not figure out the rest of this message so I left it with "LA."

It may sound frivolous but butterflies and rainbows have been an important theme in my life as of late.

Bothwell Ranch the the last commercial orange grove in the San Fernando Valley.

You wouldn't believe the racket this little woodpecker was making on this telephone pole, so I won't bother trying to explain.

That's all! We hit 90º f today and it's still officially winter, although climatically we in SoCal had given up on the season some time ago. Nevertheless, beautiful walks in lovely company. Thanks for coming along!

Today's walk report: 031414

The past 4 days...

My companion, Docken and I have walked everyday since the last walk report on 031014 but events surrounding the walks and adapting evenings to daylight savings time have put a damper on posting in my typical daily fashion. Quite honestly, evenings with my girl are precious, each and every moment is a treasure. So, quickly here's some stuff from 031114 until today.

Monday's Tarzana Nursery visit reported here led to a trip to Sperling Nursery in Calabasas on Tuesday mostly as a something to do but we had also decided to look for a Tree Mallow (Lavatera maritima) after seeing a few in Tarzana which had overgrown their 5 gallon pots. They didn't have any so I took a lot of pictures instead.

Mostly orchids and their symbolically male counterpart, Anthuriums. All photos were shot with a Canon 60 mm Macro lens.

Leucadendron 'Cloudbank Ginny'

Just because it was tiny.

Docken's special request.

Oxalis-Burgundy

After the visit to Sperling we returned to Tarzana Nursery and picked up one of the Tree Mallows we saw earlier. It had roots running out of its pot and into the ground. The curator at the nursery cut two roots off and the shrub is really hurting from the assault. This picture was taken this afternoon. The plant went into the ground right after coming home on Tuesday. Today is Friday, in case you're not paying strict attention. Anyway, it's our 1st plant together, Docken and I so we are anxious for a speedy recovery.

Walk on Tuesday-Thursday were pretty routine however we did to a supermarket walk Tuesday and picked up a 6-pack of Henry Weinhard's root beer. We've been enjoying root beer floats after dinner for the last couple of nights. Yum.

Found on the web. Our floats are much nicer looking.

Today it was a lovely Friday, late afternoon walk in the nearby botanical garden once again...

"X" marks the spot.

The sunset surrounded us walking home.