Today's walk report: 103121-Halloween

Officially, happy Halloween. Yesterday I thought I was going to work on something very different today and not post but I changed my mind and went for a late morning walk. It was cool, about 60º F, and it was cloudy, gray. I tried to make up for that in these images. Overall it was a very nice excursion.

Here are some of the over 800 pictures I took. I, in fact, in some instances, took too many pictures and in my haste to do this post I might not have picked the best ones. It happens. 

Red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) seemed everywhere again but I was moving around quite a lot and so were they, so from one spot to the next I may have been seeing a couple of the same birds in different locations. Nevertheless, there were at least three.

I had to stop to take a picture of this mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos).

Tulbaghia violacea, I believe...

This is an obligatory crow shot for Halloween.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned how my seeing Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus) was a rarity. Maybe that has changed. I saw at least four of them today. Two pairs of male and female birds. While they do engage in the common woodpecker eating behavior of poking holes in trees looking for insects, Northern flickers spend a lot of time on the ground. They are voracious ant eating birds.

But the star of the show today was this Great Egret (Ardea alba). I was on the top of the hill facing near north and this bird was slightly down hill but the tree put us on an almost equal elevation. For my closet shots I was just under 22 meters away.

On the other hand, the goats were approximately 291 meters away.

That's it, I'm done for now. Watch out things that go bump in the night and republicans too.

Becoming Stan

 Happy Halloween!

Many posts ago I mentioned a book I received as a gift from my sister, Be More Cat. The title once again resonated with me recently during a discussion I was having with my feral feline friend Stan. To recap… Stan has been more than a welcomed visitor to this property for over four years. For about two years the lovely Docken took care of Stan when he visited mostly in the morning for some sleep and breakfast. She bought him a table for the patio and gave him two little houses, side by side on the table. He had a bed and blankets and as I recall he started using it pretty quickly. After breakfast he would generally take off to parts unknown. He still takes off for parts unknown but the obvious difference is… he does it a lot less frequently and he often comes when called, either by shaking a container of dry cat food or simply shouting out his name. Cats have an incredible sense of hearing, better than dogs and they can hear sounds four to five times farther away than humans can.

For approximately the last two years I started taking care of Stan, best I can. Remember, Stan is feral. Yes, food plays an important role. Docken still buys and donates lots of food for Stan and I let him know about it.

fe·ral

/ˈferəl,ˈfirəl/

adjective

(especially of an animal) in a wild state, especially after escape from captivity or domestication."a feral cat".

After two years, I have only had Stan barely touch the tip of my outstretched index finger with his nose on a few occasions. He’s generally cautious and controls my distance from him carefully. On another level, Stan trusts me. He’s comfortable with me to a degree he probably hasn’t felt with another human and it warms my heart. While he was trusting of Docken too, the difference now is… Stan hangs out with me. Stan looks for me and waits for me. In his own way and beyond anything he had here before, for the most part, this is Stan’s home. Yeah, the food, I know, the food… same with a pet dog though.

Getting back to my recent conversation with Stan and we have at least a short conversation everyday, sometimes a few times a day. Yes, it’s mostly one sided. Most mornings he’s just waiting for me to go inside so he can eat his breakfast but he does listen and he does respond with body language and blinking eyes. While I’m basically cordial with people, brief but polite, for the most part… I don’t like people all that much. Think about friends, think about really good friends who you can count on, heck throw in some of your family. These people are few and far between. Now think of something like Facebook (excuse me, Meta). Quit Facebook (and you should), quit Instagram (and you should), quit Twitter (because it makes you stupid), quit LinkedIn (because everybody lies) and watch, most of your “friends” will melt away forever. Anyway, Stan is feral, he avoids humans, he doesn’t trust them and the older I get the more I appreciate that. With help from Covid along with a really toxic sociopolitical climate, I’m a lot like my sweet colleague Stan.

Feral—used to describe an animal (such as a cat or dog) that has escaped and become wild.

I’m in the process of escaping. Hear me growl.

Black Cat by Gentle Giant, Please substitute he/his for she/her, thank you.

Today's walk report: 101721

 Comme Ci, Comme Ça...

It was the early trip to the garden I had hoped to make yesterday. Unfortunately, it was only 46º and the lighting left something to be desired. On the upside it was a pleasant, quiet and very peaceful walk and I got to spend some time following a bird I've only seen a couple of times before.

At first I thought... maybe I'm only going to get pictures of the sky today?

 

There are few signs of the change in seasons.

I did happen to see the Calypte anna hummingbird known as Dusty but the few pictures captured were beyond the compromises I'm going to make for the next bird. The funny thing about Dusty this morning was right after I did get a few camera clicks off he took off, soaring way up to the top of one of the tallest pine trees on the campus. Perched on top of that tree there appeared to be a modest sized bird of prey, perhaps a prairie falcon and I don't know if it was Dusty's intention but he went straight at it and the other bird quickly departed. I decided not to wait for Dusty's return. 

Instead I headed up the dreaded stairs to the top of the hill. I didn't realize what these birds were when I took this picture. Since one of them moved along ahead of my path I soon figured it out. This is a pair of northern flickers (Colaptes auratus). They're part of the woodpecker family. I've only been able to capture images of flickers a couple of times in the past. The little bird over the one on the left was probably a black phoebe (Sayornis nigricans).

Lucky for me the bird on the left went in the same direction I was headed. In my past encounters I never realized just how varied and beautiful their overall plumage was. So I'm posting some images to show you what I saw. Unfortunately my shutter speed, lighting and distance from the bird were far from optimal. I believe this is a young female.

The surprising burst of color when the bird was taking flight...

Also, I've got to say, lately I've had some real struggles in focusing on my subject and not a bunch of sticks.

These mourning doves were somewhat obliging however one more step forward and they bailed on me.

And with that I headed home.

Today's walk report: 101621

 First, two details that saved my day, at least they took the sting out of a bad start to an early morning. Those two things were taking this walk on the phone with Docken and simply taking this walk. What started the morning, once I was prepared to leave the house, was a garage door that wouldn't open. Well, it opened a little. Upon close inspection I discovered one of the springs had snapped in two. The garage door opener didn't like that. Nor did I. Preliminary study into the matter indicated I might be able to do this repair on my own but then I again, I might suffer in the attempt. So, I got on the phone. The job was swift and like almost every service and repair company/person I've ever had the displeasure to deal with (oh, you too?) I was lied to and had to pay up the wazoo. It's not like it's the 1980's, we can look this shit up now but they still lie with impunity. Anyway, the door got fixed and I ended up driving to the local college campus about four hours later than originally planned.

Red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), there were three of them and they were interacting with intensity. This particular bird stole the show. Notice its wide-open beak in this first shot. The screech is loud and piercing, Docken also took note of it over the phone.

I stayed with this bird for several minutes.

All three hawks were circling together in the sky but for the most part it was a wider shot than my 70-300 mm lens at 70 mm would accommodate. I did manage to get a few shots off of the three on them before they flew too distant. Even so, this aspect is Panavision, or Technirama, Dimension 150 if you will, all from bygone eras in filmmaking. So be it, don't you deserve to see what I saw?

Moving in a vigorous circular motion along the top of the hill here are some other pictures. These two donkeys are my friends. You can ask them, they will tell it's true. I first met these donkeys over 10 years ago.

I've known most of these goats for just as long but I never asked them if they'd be my friend.

This is a common or European starling (Sturnus vulgaris). You don't usually see them alone, you see them in masses. I saw an article today referring to them as "America's most hated bird." That's pretty harsh, don't you think? Then I saw another article in Smithsonian Magazine online saying we can blame Shakespeare for their invading North America. I'm okay with that call, I guess. Last and maybe least there was this article, How Mozart Changed My Mind About America’s Most Hated Bird. Really now? You don't say?

I think it's a pretty bird.

Then, finally, there was this event. Having been a cross-country runner in High School my educated guess is this was a city quarter final race. There were too many runners for it to be a regular meet and quite honestly some of the runners I saw would not have qualified beyond a quarter final race. Sorry, more power to them and with all due respect, at whatever level, cross-country running pretty much qualifies as some sort of masochistic indulgence which defies logic. I decided to leave the campus as this was wrapping up, this shot only represents a small fraction of the people who were about to exit as I did.

Special thanks to Docken for the "look on the bright side" viewpoint this morning and to the hawks for being awesome birds.