Today's walk report: 031823

 Under blue skies which are gone now only five hours or so post today's walk and it doesn't appear they'll be blue again until Thursday. There's more rain ahead for SoCal in about 22 hours, give or take, arriving somewhere around 2:00 PM tomorrow. 

Today's excursion was around two hours, some of that time was spent sitting. Some of it was driving. Overall, the walk was about 80 minutes. Docken joined me on the phone as she went to do the same at her local garden, minus the sitting and the driving. Thank you Dockie. Here are some pictures from today. 

This common raven was carrying on quite a conversation with at least two other ravens relatively far away, one to the southeast and one to the southwest.

 I mentioned last week that there are lots of desert cottontails running around. An extremely wet winter season means increased plant life in the spring, and thus increases in cottontail populations. Appears to me they've gotten a jump on the spring part.

There were several female Allen's hummingbirds all wanting to hang around this one Grevillea shrub. This was only one that hung out long enough for me to take some pictures.

 I'm fairly positive this is the same mourning dove I took pictures of last weekend. If I remember, I'll come back and ID the cactus. Right now the name escapes me.

This common raven found some fast food condiments in a trash bin. I had some dry cat food in the car, I just wasn't quick enough.

I wandered around at the top of the hill for awhile but photo ops were in short supply. I spotted this mourning dove while it gazed across the Valley.

I haven't seen this shrub before, very pretty. No ID.

I decided to drive down below to the western edge of the campus. These Angus cattle were the closest I've ever seen them to the road. I was a little disturbed when I got home and out of curiosity upscaled one the the tags under the right ears. Apparently they're owned by Bayer who are engaged in research efforts investing in areas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including in the life cycle of cattle. This info is according to the Bayer website. I can't put a whole lot of trust in a company like Bayer.

Above the pasture a red-tailed hawk and a turkey vulture circled overhead.

Here's a song about a different kind of big black cow. So outrageous...