Saturday, April 29... This was a quiet walk. The weather forecast was for unseasonably warm temps, it ended up hitting a high of 92.4º F. I chose to avoid that as much as possible and I left home for an early walk. I was at my starting destination at 7:00 AM, The temperature was a cool 51.6º F. There was only one problem...
Dim, gray, dark and gloomy. The fog was ominous. I tried to make the best of it. Onto the garden...
Does this look familiar? Take a peek back to April 16th, same goose, different roof. I didn't mention it then but I had read that it is not uncommon for Canada geese to nest on large, flat and open spaces where they can be alerted to predators approaching. Rooftops aren't unusual. I also read several years ago that the geese sometimes aren't inclined to migrate as much as they used to and are often full-time California residents. This bird had only migrated two roofs west since we last saw it.
Just a few more steps and I was in the garden.
Carpenteria californica, AKA the bush anemone, is a genus of flowering plants in the hydrangea family
Speaking of flowers, there are lots of flowers in the garden now. Heavy winter rains really did a number on that front and I noticed already it has encouraged less infighting between hummingbirds over territory.
This male Allens hummingbird was hanging out only about 20' outside of the territory where I would usually find our male Annas hummingbird friend, affectionately known as Dusty. I did not see Dusty on Saturday, although he may been one of a few hummingbirds flying about that I never got a good look at. There's also a lot more foliage for cover.
Flowers, flowers and more flowers.
I believe this is Ceanothus sanguineus but I could be wrong.
Caesalpinia pulcherrima. I had three of the red variety, Pride of Barbados, growing from seed, started under lights in a closet and once they were about 6" tall they went outside. They did not survive the winter. Don't you hate that?
Salvia clevelandi. There are two different cultivars of this in my backyard just starting to flower.
Verbena.
Sciurus griseus. Cute but seriously annoying.
Sylvilagus audubonii. Seriously overpopulating.
Possible remedy. Accipiter cooperii. Two photos, the same spot, just goes to show how challenging the lighting was.
I took off to walk my lower campus loop.
Another goose and I suspect the male mate of the rooftop goose but he seems to always be hanging out down here on what is the small-fry kid's soccer field. The male generally protects the female and the nest quite aggressively. As the goose flies this bird is about 300 yards away from the female.
Finally this scene, in part, is what provoked today's (Sunday's) walk to remain a tad early in the morning, even though temperatures were supposed to be about 15º cooler today. As it turns out, it didn't really matter, there were plenty of other people events going on that ended up putting a damper on today's walk. This is the parking lot that typically hosts the antique car worshiping events. They end up moving one parking lot west when something else is going on Sundays.
These rides look like something out of a creepy movie to me.
This thing apparently pins your body to the wall as in spins around at forces up to 3 Gs. I'm sure that's a good idea.
I think this one is called the Ultra-Vomit. Spin AND swing people up and down.
Anyway. I couldn't find any information on when that stuff was going into play but I knew I needed to avoid the scene.
Sunday, April 30 (today)
I trusted weather dot com and headed out an hour later today to no avail. It was also gray and foggy this morning. There were a few different events going on. My local Assemblyman was visiting outdoors with constituents, or so a sign said, the AARP was having a "Day of Service" (whatever that means), there was supposed to be a live music event and of course the ancient car worshipers were gonna hang out. I made sure I got nowhere near any of that or the carnival rides designed to make people feel dizzy and nauseated because they conflict with motion-sensing organs in people's bodies.
I went straight to the top of the hill away from all of the people down below. I ended up only walking a few 1/2 mile laps around the hilltop.
I believe this is Tabebuia impetiginosa (Pink trumpet tree).
I let my photo editor cut through the fog a bit so we could see the cows. The first shot appears to be the Angus cattle seen in this post and the second shot are a combination of longhorn and Braunvieh cows. Although, I could be entirely wrong.
The event that made up for everything sucky about the excursion. I'm pretty sure these are the same two common ravens I've seen up here a few times now. Mature adult ravens are highly territorial and do their best to exclude all other ravens throughout the year. You can see the same pair of ravens in the same area in this post form March. The previous dry cat food feeding event with the male took place here.
I was doing a lap around the parking lot when they arrived. Unfortunately I was about 130 yards (yes, I measure these things) away from my car and the bag of Purina Cat Chow Naturals in the passenger seat when they arrived. I talked to them. I asked them to hang out for a moment. Did they listen?
(The male raven is on the left).
This is when I made a beeline for the car. I was about 1/2 way back to the ravens when I saw them take off. I followed in the same general direction but I didn't see them, until I headed back to the parking lot. They flew right overhead, back to the lamppost. So maybe they did listen? The female went across the road onto a fence post and the male again sat on the lamppost, watching me shake my plastic bag of kibble and then throw some down. This is exactly how it happened on April 9th.
Something seemed to have her feathers in a bunch.
The male seemed immediately aware of what I was up to and I made it as obvious as possible.
I backed up a few feet and he was on it.
The female suddenly took off and I thought she was going to join him but she only circled as if to say.. com'on we've got stuff to do.
He had a few more quick bites and took off after her.
And I took off for home.
