Today's walk report: 012217, featuring Rusty

There will be no walking today. Right now, at 11 AM, we're showing rain being predicted for the next 26 hours and .68" has fallen since 1:00 AM with as much as 1" per hour being predicted. California really needs the rain and northern CA the snow packs but not all at once, please. Several foothill areas had mandatory evacuations this morning due to mudslides, an aftermath of summer fires. Going back several years when I was living in the Windsor Square suburb of Los Angeles I WOULD have been crazy enough to go out in weather like this but not anymore.

Despite this being the 3rd in a series of storms we have managed a couple of breaks that permitted walks of up to 4 miles with cameras in tow with only faint amounts of precipitation. The downside has been dark foreboding skies but with a little tweaking I still managed some decent images.

This is Rusty. Rusty has been published in these reports several times before. I've photographed this bird for at least a few years now. Rusty is a male Allen's hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin). This perch is new for Rusty (at least it is for me), the upper most branch of a Caesalpinia gilliesii shrub which has been frequented by many other hummingbirds in this blog. He more typically hangs out near a coral gum tree about 55 yards (50 meters) NE of this location. Over there being able to get this close was exceedingly difficult so I hope he maintains this territory at least into some sunnier days.

As always, thanks for coming along on the walks. I hope you enjoyed them.