Today's walk report: After the storm and before the rain

 It's been raining, a lot. California is kind of a mess from snow and rain. In my stomping ground we're up to 26.06" of rain for the season. For comparison last season (2021-2022) we had, 12.24" and for the 2020-2021 season we had just a mere 5.38". There's more on the way too. This coming Tuesday could bring a couple more inches here. I would not be surprised to see 30" by the end of the season. Nevertheless, much of California remains inside of an ongoing drought.

Anyway, I was very glad to see there was going to be a break today so I could get outside and walk. Have I mentioned before that walking is the best therapy for a number of my aches and pains? Well it is and today I really needed it. Here are some pictures from the excursion.

Once again Docken joined me on the phone. Thank you Dockie.

Mourning dove (Zenaida macroura). The tree is a desert-willow (Chilopsis linearis).

The ever-present male Calypte anna hummingbird AKA, "Dusty." I saw no other hummingbirds today, which is quite odd. His shrub is Caesalpinia gilliesii.

The desert cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii).

Shortly into what I call "my loop", the part of the walk that takes me north, then west and I loop back to the garden (it's short, just a little over 1/2 a mile) I ran into about a dozen Canada geese, 6 on each side of me. I was only about 8' away from the closet one and when it let out what I assumed was an alert about the large human with a camera, Docken thought it was a car horn it was so loud. We hear Canada geese all of the time but it's a little different when you're just a few feet away.

Up the hill, it was very quiet and it started to rain a little. I did some walking but didn't hang out long. This common raven flew past as I was in pursuit of a red-tailed hawk, once again up on a lamppost.

I was too late on the hawk.

I decided to drive down to the other side of the hill and just as I committed the car to going down the single lane I saw this across the street. I put the car in reverse and made my way to a place where I could stop and get out. I lost a bunch of time in so doing. I have not seen an American kestrel for several years now. The American kestrel, also called the sparrow hawk, is the smallest and most common falcon in North America but they seemed to have vanished from here. I believe the last time I photographed one was in 2015. Too bad the lighting today left a lot to be desired.

On the way back I spotted this red-tailed hawk half way up the hill. I pulled the emergency brake, hopped out of the car and took a couple of quick shots even though the lighting was awful.

And so ended my little adventure for the day.

I felt the coldness of my winter
I never thought it would ever go...