Today's walk report: 082122

 Not a lot to report. I was out early again at around 6:30 AM, 66º F, with completely overcast skies combined with a little fog. Not especially great weather conditions for picture taking and ended up mostly walking and talkin' to Docken over the phone. Thank you Docken. I put in about 2 miles, which of late is kinda okay. Here are a few photos...

Of course there was male Calypte anna hummingbird, Dusty on his new favorite twig. Last week my friend Trey asked me, How long do you expect Dusty to hang around? I finally answered that, via email, Friday evening. Here's what I wrote... The short answer is, I dunno. Anna’s hummingbirds have an average lifespan of 8.5 years and they can move from one territory to another. This is typically a seasonal thing. Dusty has been consistently in the same general territory for over a year now. I think he’s pretty happy in that garden. He’s a trippy bird. Anna’s hummingbirds seem to be much more accepting and perhaps curious about humans than Allen’s hummingbirds or rufous hummingbirds (both sasins). Dusty definitely knows me, we have a bond of sorts.

Remember the flowering Agave americana (century plant)? Here's an update on that. I'm wondering if they're just planning to let the thing fall. It seems like that could be a liability.

After a few more minutes of hanging with Dusty I decided to walk the same basic walk I did last week and sure enough the car buffs were out again. It seemed to be pretty much the same crowd although I did get snapshots of a few different cars. Despite my owning a classic ('71 Volvo 1800E) as my first car in my late 20's (long story), my general attraction for automobiles ended when I was around 11 years old. My rather curmudgeonly perspective for the past 30+ years is, I just want something that looks okay and is reliable.

Pontiac GTO, best guess is 1967.

  Ford Ranchero, guessing on all of these but, 1964?

Notice how everyone is looking like they could be well into retirement? Well, I'm glad they've got a hobby. Look at Congress, why can't any of those codgers and crones retire? Because they don't have a hobby (Sociopathology is not a hobby) and on the Republican side they don't even have allegiance to the Constitution. Amazing. Who's gonna tell you when it's too late? Who's gonna tell you things aren't so great? Who's gonna drive you home tonight?

A couple of Chevrolet Bel Airs. I guessed around 1957. Looks like a modified hearse to me. Sorry.

 This Avanti, I'm reasonably certain this is a relatively late model car, early 2000's?

I was feeling done once I started to loop back around. Docken convinced me to drive up the hill and look for a bird of prey or two. This is the largest red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) I've seen in quite awhile. Too bad the lighting was so bad. It just sat in this spot for the duration of my time on the hilltop. I even walked a couple of laps around the .27 mile parking lot. Doc, it's a 1/2 mile if I can add the fine arts buildings into the lap. That's still fenced off. [We had this discussion over distance]

That's all. Currently it's 10:40 AM, 73º (fine by me!) and the sun is just breaking through the low clouds. Time to tend to the garden.