Today's walk report: 070222

 A week went by and now it's July...

Last Saturday I contemplated a walk in and around the local botanical garden but somewhere before get ready time I thought to check the schedule for the college campus that houses the garden and saw there was some sort of registration event. That killed that but I went today and it was quite peaceful. Here are some photos.

When I was walking out the door to leave I had a thought to make excuses for always having pictures of the male Calypte anna hummingbird affectionately known as Dusty and I closed the topic in my head with, you will miss him when he's gone. I explained this to Docken (thanks for joining me, Doc) over the phone once I got to Dusty territory this morning. Thing is it took awhile before I made a positive ID and thought maybe all that was a premonition.

There was a lot of hummingbird competition going on today over territory. Much more than weeks past. It appears that the migratory Selasphorus rufus hummingbirds are all gone now but so are most of the flowers. It seemed as though establishing and protecting territories was of paramount importance. This is the same female Calypte anna hummingbird that I posted June 19th.

She was defending her domain from this female Selasphorus sasin hummingbird. I first visited this garden in 2010 and by July 2011 my visits became frequent. The garden, established in September 2007, is 1.9 acres and is basically split into two regions, California Natives and Australian Natives (there's also a small division marked off as Channel Island Natives). Historically, Calypte anna hummingbirds have dominated the CA native area and Selasphorus sasin have been the main hummingbird occupiers in the Australian native section. I have no explanation for this, I just find it interesting.

Anybody recognize this guy? Yep, it's the same little ground squirrel that wanted to follow me and I'd swear would've climbed up my pants leg if given a chance last Sunday. It came at me again today.

Right after I ditched that little Sciuridae I saw this adult hanging inside the Agave americana.

 Turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) soaring high.

I wandered around the garden a bit longer and then decided to head back to my car and take a drive up the hill. On the way I discovered, the monkeys are back! You know what? They probably never left. They are the sly ones. They showed up when Fatso announced he was running for president and they have a plan, just you wait and see. Docken knows too!

I went up the hill to look for birds of prey but all I got were these Dietes iridiodes 'Orange Drop', aka, African Iris.

On the way out, I was about 33 yards (30 meters) away when I took this picture of the mourning dove (Zenaida macroura). I didn't even notice the song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) just a few feet below.

That's all I've got. Thanks for stopping by.

Final word goes to Frank Zappa, from CNN Crossfire, 1986. My son discovered this last night. I remember when he said it... Prophetic stuff. Please don't let five people decide the fate of this country and throw away 50 plus years of progress. Vote.

"The biggest threat to America today is not communism. It's moving America toward a fascist theocracy, and everything that's happened during the Reagan administration is steering us right down that pipe … When you have a government that prefers a certain moral code derived from a certain religion and that moral code turns into legislation to suit one certain religious point of view, and if that code happens to be very, very right wing, almost toward Attila the Hun..."