Camera battery fully charged and in the camera this morning before heading out the door (see yesterday's post). However, whatever chemical potential I humanly have for storing energy for a new day it was definitely below optimal. Yeah, I'd say my battery was hovering around 60% but I got out!
A big motivation this morning was in seeing Stan after his being absent for two mornings and I hadn't seen him for three, although it appeared he showed up Thursday for a late breakfast. This is Stan, search this blog for "Stan" and you'll know more. This image is from late May. I tried to get a picture of him this morning but the patio was still too dark.
If anyone who visits or otherwise stumbles upon this blog and has seen mention of another backyard cat, the one named Cam, and is wondering about her, stay tuned there's a big Cam story forthcoming. This is Cam, taken 8 days ago.
I was out the door shortly after 8 AM, Docken joined me on the phone. Thank you, Docken. It already felt hot and sticky to me. At 8:20 it was only 75.5 F, with relative humidity at 43%. That feels like 79º. Within an hour that went to 80º and 44% relative humidity and that feels like 86º F. These days I find all of that uncomfortable.
You know I'm having an issue with subject matter for photographs when I take pictures of California cottontails but that's where I started once again.
At least the lighting was more interesting than what I dealt with on my last reported walk a couple of weeks ago. The sky and the humidity went hand in hand.
Trusty Dusty, the male Calypte anna hummingbird was hanging out.
I wasn't finding the garden too exciting so I moved on. This female Allen's hummingbird was spotted flying between palo verde trees about 90 yards to the west of the garden.
I wandered around a bit but much of the campus remains fenced off for construction so I decided to head for the car to drive up the hill but the hilltop was even more fenced off than it was two weeks ago. I drove around some more and mentioned to Docken, it looks like I'm going home. Then I mentioned the part of the campus where they put in a "Braille trail" back in the 70s. Docken encouraged me to give it a go so I parked the car once again and started hoofing it. While it appeared some progress has been made since the last time I ventured onto this part of the campus, the area was also besieged with fences and I had to improvise some detours.
Brachychiton discolor (Pink Flame Tree or lacebark tree). I'm certain I must've seen this tree in the past but I don't believe I ever saw it flowering before. Brachychiton discolor is a rainforest tree of eastern Australia. It grows in drier rainforest areas.
A short distance beyond I was startled by a turkey vulture taking off from ground level. I thought it had some sort of carrion in its beak but that didn't bore out in any of the pictures I took. Albeit my pictures were from quite a distance and weren't very clear.
I was distracted from the turkey vulture when I realized I was standing right next to a reasonably large patch of milkweed plants and there were three monarch butterflies floating about. I know the person who was assigned the task of revitalizing this part of the campus. He also maintains the botanical garden and I spotted him not long ago on the campus, so I know he's still around. I'm a little surprised that this plot of about 30 milkweed plants are all Asclepias curassavica, which is a tropical milkweed. Tropical milkweed is a problem when planted in temperate areas because it tends not to die back in winter. This causes the promotion of a spore driven disease and can ultimately effect monarch migration. There is some disagreement over this among experts but the botanical garden contains only Asclepias fascicularis which is a California native perennial. So, why not keep this consistent? I think the garden dude knows this.
On my way back to the parking lot I was a little confused about where to find the crosswalk.
One more picture, from home, just because. This giant swallowtail showed up early evening last night.
Find happiness in your life, be guided by your own happiness.
Man, you hit the jackpot today ! So many awesome pics. I find Stan’s eyes to be at the same time regal, intimidating and a little mesmerizing. I haven’t spent a lot of time with cats but those eyes are unique at least to me. Good to see our old trusty pal Dusty too!
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