Today's walk report: 022722

 Escape. That's the word that kept begging me this morning, trying to tell me what to do. While I enjoyed the walk, talking with Docken, watching the pretty skies and seeing the beautiful birds, I could not escape a feeling of despair. I could not cast aside my disdain for the emperor in his war room and for those who cling to his ugliness. 

You must pay the price of hate, and that price is
Your soul ...
Live in peace or die forever in your war-room.*

Here are some pictures I took today... I really don't have a lot to say. I simply need to keep myself distracted.

This is male Calypte anna hummingbird, AKA, Dusty once again. It was early. It was 38ºf.

I went up to the top of the hill via a bazillion stairs.

Red-tailed hawk number one, on a break during nest building. Both the male and the female contribute in nest building.

I didn't realize the nest building until I got home and saw that this was a small branch in the bird's beak. I had commented to Docken that I thought it was a rat. This is a horrible picture but I was far away and lucky to get anything. You're gonna have to click on it if you care to see what's in its beak very well.

There's always a mockingbird.

No ID on this El Camino. I gave it a shot but couldn't narrow it down. I'm not big on cars these days but I'll say it's the nicest looking El Camino Ive seen in at least 30-something years.

Male Selasphorus sasin.

One more red-tailed hawk spotted as I was about to head home.

and in close company, another mockingbird. The mockingbird was singing happily. I couldn't figure out the white coloration toward the top of the tree. When I got home I realized that the bark had been chipped away.

The hawk was looking at me... Oh, you're one of those humans.

 *The Emperor in His War-Room
Song by Van der Graaf Generator

Live by sword and you shall die so,
All your power shall come to nought,
Every life you take is part of your own,
Death, not power, is what you've bought.

Today's walk report: 022022

It's still dipping down into the upper 30ºs in the early morning and today it was 54º out the door. It was a little later than I had planned on leaving but I nevertheless decided on a t-shirt and jeans for my walking attire. I'm glad too, even though it was just 65.5º when I got home I was perspiring. Not only was it cool and crisp but it was also a quiet and beautiful morning to be out walking. Doc and I were on the phone again. She was out walking 45 miles north of me. We both saw some beautiful stuff to talk about and take pictures of. Here are a few of the pictures I took.

 Okay, not beautiful. Actually a small blight on our beautiful planet--Mylar balloons. This one has almost certainly been traveling for close to a week. Escaped or released from a Rams fan Super Bowl party last Sunday no doubt. The lower brown balloon was a football. I moved all to a trash bin after some camera clicks.

 
Female Calypte anna hummingbird. I was shooting into low sun glare, I couldn't see much of anything in the viewfinder. Thank goodness for autofocus.

Only about 45 meters down the path I was on there was the extremely reliable male Calypte anna hummingbird affectionately known as Dusty.

I was "talking" to Dusty during that second shot and to my surprise he took off from his perch and hovered right in front of me, less than an arm's length away. He dazzled me with the iridescent reddish-pink feathers on his head and throat. 

Birds of prey have been rare sightings for the past two weeks. I only saw one last week and one again today. In fact, it's not improbable it was this same bird. I was a long way away when I first spotted this red-tailed hawk. In fact, I probably walked well over a 100 meters before I was certain it was a hawk. From another angle, and off in the distance, it appeared it might have been a clump of something, perhaps a nest.

On the way to the hawk, I once again got a brief but pleasant interruption from a flock of Canada geese.

That's all I've got. Tomorrow morning at the time of my regular daily constitutional (seriously early), there's up to a 40% chance of rain. Once upon a time I would go out for a walk even in torrential rain, those days are gone perhaps forever.

Today's walk report: 021522

 I'm writing this down so I don't forget when it happened. It was on this particular morning, at approximately 6:35 A.M., that a coyote (Canis latrans) was out walking across the street from me. I think it was a female and she was sort of trotting on the sidewalk directly across from me. I measured it, she was 43 feet away. That's 13.1 meters. She came up from behind. That's the closest I've ever been to a coyote. Docken and I were talking on the phone and it was quite the interruption. I've seen coyotes here many times, it's not hard to figure out where they've migrated from, there are canyons as little as two miles away and I'm sure this area was home to coyotes well before human suburb development and intrusion but it's still really freaky to see a wild canine in your neighborhood. Especially running along side when out on my morning constitutional. She slowed down once she was a couple of houses in front of me, crossed to my side of the street and had me thinking about following her direction--I mean, it was my route too. Anyway, she rounded the corner about 45 yards (41 meters) in front of me and once I got there (I had slowed down considerably) she was no where to be seen. Keep your pets inside folks, she wasn't out for exercise.

The coyote is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecological niche as the golden jackal does in Eurasia. Wikipedia

Mass: 15 – 46 lbs (Adult)
Speed: 35 – 43 mph (Adult, In Pursuit)
Fastest man: 23.35 mph
Me: I don't run anymore. I can muster a modest jog for maybe 100 yards/meters if so inclined. Okay, maybe a short dash but I'm not testing that.

This is one of my closest previous encounters with a coyote and I was easily 50-60 yards away.

 I walked 2.8 miles, smelled skunk for about 1/2 a block and got barked at by some annoying little mutts that bark at anything that moves and whose neighbors hate them.

Today's walk report: 021322

 A short walk, a little over 2 miles. Not a lot of action, quiet with some nice conversation with Docken on the phone. Not much on the photo front either. 

This is the same great egret (Ardea alba) I took pictures of back on Halloween. The hummingbird is the famous male Calypte anna hummingbird named Dusty. It appeared he was following me for awhile.

I was about 290 meters away from the egret in the first images and I had commented to Docken that either my eyes were really tired and my ocular focus was whack or the bird had its beak open. My eyes were tired but I was sort of glad to see the egret did have its beak open and it also had some downy feathers stuck to it.

Note the beak and the egret down around it.

 

 

More preening.
 

 

 

 I wasn't sure this was Dusty until I got home and had a closer look. He had been in the territory I'm used to seeing him just a few minutes before I walked to this spot, although, it's only 85 meters (93 yards) from where we normally hang out together. Earlier I watched him fly east of what I consider his regular territory until he disappeared from my vision. Then he showed up here.

That's all I've got today. Remember my tired eyes? Well, I might be due for a nice power nap. Only babies take naps. Adults, we take POWER naps. Thanks for tagging along.

Today's no walk report: 021222

 That's right, no walk today. I decided to do housework instead. That inspiration is short lived but I got some serious grunt work done and then decided to share a little of what is going on outside my humble abode. Wildflowers in suburban SoCal. I have not put much energy into taking pictures but have been enjoying the plethora of flowers, the first real effort since Covid. 2020 and 2021 seasons were only what came up from previous year's reseeding watered by whatever precipitation happened without my intervening with a garden hose. Add sunshine. There was some minimal effort on my part in the backyard, summer 2021. In October 2021 I put down 1/4 pound of Dimorphotheca sinuata seed and I also planned ahead for some summer flowers--front and back this year. Stay tuned for that.

Dimorphotheca sinuata, I'm gonna borrow from Wikipedia. It's okay. I gave them $5 during the holidays...

Dimorphotheca sinuata, the glandular Cape marigold, Namaqualand daisy, or orange Namaqualand daisy; syn. Dimorphotheca aurantiaca hort. is an African species of plants native to southern Africa.

Actually, they come in a variety of colors but are mostly orange or yellow.

The blue to somewhat purple flowers with a hint of white are Arroyo Lupine (Lupinus succulentus). There's a lot of lupine growing but, again, I haven't been taking many pictures.

 

 

 

The photos really don't express how impressive this experience is. I'm stunned every time I walk outside. Every moment is a little different.

Once Upon a Walk Report - Part Eleven

 Once again, a trip back in time. A lot of photos here taking me back to circumstances surrounding these days, mostly wonderful but also a couple of very unpleasant events. Photos I have taken not only take me back to that moment, they take me back to everything else that was going on at the time. This is often an emotionally challenging experience. 

These images are from folder 15 (this is a reminder for me). Folder 15 contained 9,381 images from November 27th, 2016 up to April 1st, 2017. I purged 6,163 from the folder never to be seen again and I put aside 211 images for this blog post. Those were edited down to 62 items and I'm about to see how many ultimately get used. I'm going to post by the date taken. There are days here which were never presented in any previous posts.

121016 (that's the date format, month, day, year)

Bee on Salvia microphylla

121116. Not a great picture but I remember this crow very well, parading back and forth on a rooftop with cracker in beak, like, look at me and my cracker!

121716

Docken Duck

122016

Female Calypte anna

Eucalyptus 'Moon Lagoon'

122716

One of the more spectacular aerial quarrels I have witnessed between red-tailed hawks and American crows.

 123016

Female Calypte anna

Male Calypte anna

Red-tailed hawk

 011417

Northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)

Female Calypte anna

The same bird with a shift in lighting

Selasphorus sasin

 012017

Selasphorus sasin

Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)

 012117

Eric Duck

Female Calypte anna

Selasphorus sasin (same bird, same spot as above, different day)

012717 and 012917 (two days of mostly male Allen's hummingbird "Rusty")

The only shot of a female Selasphorus sasin

Rusty

 

 

 020417

Female Calypte anna

She was regular for some time

Rusty...

Male Calypte anna

021117

Male Selasphorus sasin (not Rusty)

021217

The first image is a female Selasphorus sasin. Note the bit of spider web on her beak. That's a sign of nest building. It's very likely that the male in the image that follows was her mate. Males are promiscuous and beyond the actual 3 to 5 seconds of mating have no further involvement.

031917

These are all male Selasphorus sasin "not Rusty".

032617 (at home, wildflowers were everywhere)

Hoverfly on Calendula officinalis

Scarlet flax (Linum grandiflorum)

032917

Papaver rhoeas, Common poppy, Shirley poppy. This on was along the walkway to the front door but for the most part these flowers impressively took over the backyard. I put down (package said) 100,000 seeds this year and so far see no evidence of Papaver rhoeas plants. This might call for a bad review.

Last, this VERY accommodating (for both Docken and me) western tiger swallowtail butterfly (Papilio rutulus). Several of the images taken were published in this post on April 1, 2017. The butterfly visited on 033117.

 

 That's all. A couple of things got a little wonky with Blogger and formatting but I'm done messing with it. I'm not too thrilled about delving into folder 16 which contains 8,743 images from April 2, 2017 through October 29, 2017 but it will get done. Thanks for visiting.