Today's walk report: the last 10 days

There were a couple of "no-walks" and one solo walk since the last report. These images represent walks over the past 10 days.

5/30, solo walk...

Agapanthus, in the front yard.

Blue darner dragonfly.

Cactus flowers.

Red tailed hawk catches a grasshopper.

The same bird, up close.

Two crows, sun gazing.

  5/31... another solo walk.

Cooper's hawk on a wire.

Romneya coulteri, Matilija Poppy.

Salvia uliginosa, Bog sage.

Female Rufous hummingbird on Salvia darcyi.

Not much happened on the photo front until 6/6 and I'm back with Docken (yippee!)

Female Rufous hummingbird in a desert willow tree.

American bullfrrog.

Agave flowers, final stage.

This bumblebee's eyes were amazing but I couldn't get a very good shot off to really show them off. The consolation in this image is the tiny aphid traveling on the underside of the Salvia darcyi flower.

I really liked the way the background looked through the lens but not so much in the actual image. Nevertheless, this is a reminder for me to find out what this blue salvia is.

Another female Rufous on Salvia darcyi..

Another Cooper's hawk.

We found out what's going on with a pair of red-tailed hawks we're accustomed to seeing. They've been hanging out around "home base" a lot. It's nesting season...

I'm pretty sure this is mom.

and her nest is here. We watched her fly a rather weighty looking tree branch into this spot. You can just make her out in the picture.

 Meanwhile, we spooked this coyote back down the hillside. We spotted it chasing a young jack rabbit up the hill toward us but fortunately it wasn't too interested after it became aware of our presence.

onto 6/7....

A side view of the bullfrog. This is my 2nd year with this frog. American bullfrog's live an estimated 8-10 years in the wild

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A young rufous hummingbird on silver sage.

While a Lesser Goldfinch munches away on the silver sage seed pods.

and momma red-tailed continues with her nest building efforts. Here she's pulling a small branch from a conifer tree...

...and takes it to her nest.

Dad's nearby and seems rather disinterested.

finally, today, 060814...

Salvia darcyi and Salvia Salvia uliginosa.

It's very unfortunate but I've only seen one other monarch this spring before this one today.

This is a young carpenter bee. I watched carpenter bees and bumble bees today both vying for the same flowers out of 1,000s of Salvia darcyi blooms.

Honey bee on Salvia uliginosa.

A little culture on the way out? All they needed to do was open with John Philip Sousa's, March, "The Thunderer" and we were out of there.

My companion, Docken... she makes everything wonderful.