Today's walk report: 080314, a weekend report

Time for another weekend walk report extravaganza and a change in schedule.

In an effort to beat the SoCal summer heat we decided to shift gears on Friday and move our daily constitutional to A.M. instead of the typical late afternoon or early evening walks. For Friday we decided on a sunrise walk which meant us getting our somewhat sleep deprived bodies out the door by 5:30 A.M.

080114...

Sunrise through the palo verde trees.

Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus), in a misplaced Sequoia tree.

Nobody's home.

Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) caterpillar.

Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus).

Other side.

Closing

Closed.

Previously reported here, the bud now open.

Some opuntia.

Carpenter bee on Salvia uliginosa.

Live Salvia uliginosa amongst dying  Salvia clevelandii.

080214...

This is a water main on the college campus, heading toward the garden. Why the bucket? 'Not so sure since it's been overflowing for days now. The thing is SoCal is in pretty deep trouble with its worst drought in history. Mandatory water restrictions have been imposed via local municipal utility companies yet stuff like this goes on. Earlier this week, due to a crumbling infrastructure, a water main break along the UCLA campus dumped 20 million gallons of drinking water before it was finally shutoff. The shame.

onto the garden...

 Blue-Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis)

 Blue-eyed-Darner (Rhionaeschna multicolor), male.

Aesculus californica, California Buckeye or California Horse-chestnut seed husks.

Blue-eyed-Darner (Rhionaeschna multicolor), female.

Checkered White butterfly, Pontia protodice on Salvia darcyi

Gulf-Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae on cattails.

Checkered White butterfly, Pontia protodice.

080314... that's today.

August 3rd in SoCal and believe it or not we walked in scattered sprinkles. Last night around 11 P.M. we were still pushing 80º and we got .03" of rain. Not much precipitation but it certainly made for an uncomfortable evening.

It was, of course, cloudy and muggy. The photo front was nothing like yesterday.

Blue-Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis)

2

Creeping water primrose, Ludwigia peploides. Pretty but highly invasive.

Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) amidst multiple salvias.

This is Kevin. We named him that. Kevin carries on conversations with us. American bullfrogs are also often regarded as an invasive species. As far as I can tell the pond contains Kevin and just two other bullfrogs. The problem for all of them is this--they're all males. Poor Kevin, croaking for a love who may never show.