Today's walk report: 031217, these are not the ducks you're looking for

I was completely out for a few weeks with a sciatica issue and the flu. The two complemented each other in an excruciating way. I am so glad to have been back out with my wonderful girl taking pictures today.
These are not the ducks you're looking for...

One of the pleasures my Docken and I have missed most on the outside during our bouts with the flu were "our ducks" (look back a few posts and you'll see) who we named after us because they remind us of ourselves. Well, I think we'll see them again but on our last few trips out we've been greeted by another pair of mallards. We believe we saw our ducks fly overhead just as we were arriving last week only to find these two in their place.

Not Docken Duck.

Not Eric Duck.

Nevertheless, they got duck food but we miss our ducks.

Here's another changing of the guard. My last post,  Today's walk report: 012217, featuring Rusty, was erroneous. That wasn't Rusty at all. It was an imposter. I knew a week or two earlier that there was another male Allen's hummingbird about but I followed this ones patterns and thought it had to be Rusty. As it turned out this little fellow was chasing Rusty.

Imitation Rusty, male Selaphorus sasin.

And here's Rusty taken on Feb. 10th...

I'm pretty sure I can tell the difference now. I did not see Rusty today but then I only saw 3 hummingbirds. The other two were a male and a female Calypte Anna that were rather evasive. Three hummingbirds in a one acre garden on a beautiful warm day is rather odd but we also didn't stay long.

Whilst looking for hummingbirds, this guy almost hit me in the nose flying by...

Gray bird grasshopper (Schistocerca nitens).

Alyogyne huegelii.

We have an Alyogyne huegelii bush in our front yard too. It's done quite well with the recent SoCal rains. It's taken almost 4 years to really get going but it's not in the most hospitable location. The daisies in the background are Dimorphotheca sinuata.

Back to the walk and also in full bloom and quite majestic, Acacia boormanii, aka, snowy river wattle.

We decided to take our stroll a little past the garden to make it more of a walk and passed the campus sundial. Today is the first day of daylight saving time. The shadow was pretty much spot on, this photo was taken at 11:25 DST. I'll also note it says, Daylight Savings Time, with a "s". I learned last night that Daylight Savings Time is a misspelling, but its use is more common than the correct term.

Back home. The first scarlet flax (Linum grandiflorum) are blooming in the front yard. This is one of my favorite flowers to photograph here in the spring. By the way, the Spring Equinox is still 8 days away and right now it feels more like summer with the current afternoon temp being 91º F.

 Thanks again for coming along. It was great to be able to go out and do this!