Today's walk report: Over the hills and far away, yesterday and today

 Yesterday there were a couple of events that had me perturbed to the point of putting the walk report on hold. One was an animal in distress that I won't get into. The other thing was an event which was irksome in the moment and somewhat disconcerting once I got home and Googled to find out what was going on. It was a cheerleading competition. From what I gather, this included rather young children. Children being exploited by their mothers reliving their youth vicariously through their offspring. You know, I could be wrong but I've seen it before. Only Docken knows my next line to this story and it's best I leave it that way. Anyway, the situation forced me to do a number of things quite differently than I would have otherwise and all of that cut picture taking down to next to nothing.

Here are some pictures from Saturday, April 1st.

First there was Stan, before I got out the door I was looking high and low for my sunglasses and that delay permitted the opportunity to visit Stan and deliver him some additional breakfast. Stan was tardy yesterday. Every morning is so much brighter when Stan shows up. If you don't know the story behind Stan there's more here and here. Actually, simply search this blog for "Stan," there's a bunch of stuff on Stan. Stan's really special.

Out on the walk...

Ye old Calypte anna hummingbird known as Dusty.

Mourning dove (Zenaida macroura).

Turkey vulture (Cathartes aura). This bird flew directly above my head, so close I could almost feel it beating its wings. With a wingspan of up to 70" it's a magnificent sight.

Not a great picture but I'm pretty sure this is another bird I haven't seen before during walks although it's entirely possible I have and I mis-IDed one. This is a Lawrence's goldfinch (Spinus lawrencei). Two of them, the female is toward the upper right.

This is another male Calype anna hummingbird, not Dusty.

On to today, Sunday, April 2nd.

Before the walk and after feeding Stan (he left and came back a short while later for some R&R). This is a phone pano of my backyard. Aside from the established shrubs, much of what you're seeing are elegant clarkia (Clarkia unguiculata) plants (mostly on the right with the lighter green leaves) and slightly lower are common, or Shirley poppies (Papaver rhoeas)... 1,000s of each. They are intertwined with some common weeds like shepherd's purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris) and a bunch of chickweed (Stellaria media) both now dying back. It should be a spectacular show for the wildflowers in about 2-3 weeks. The width of the yard is about 55'. It's kind of hard to see the curvature applied by the panoramic feature of the phone's camera. The established plants sort of mid-depth are, left to right, Echium candicans, Salvia canariensis, another Echium candicans, Lavandula, Buddleia davidii, Salvia clevelandii and Salvia leucantha. There's a bunch of other shrubs behind all of that. Ficus trees line the patio on the far right.

Today's walk and thank you to Docken for putting up with me on the phone both days. In fact this is for Dockie. The kiss emoji is probably the most commonly used emoji in texts and emails between us. This was right outside of the passenger side of my car when I got out to get my camera.

Aeonium arboreum.

The desert cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii).

My second encounter with a western bluebird (Sialia mexicana).

Of course, male Calypte anna hummingbird, Dusty.

On to my loop around the lower campus. Ancient car worshipers were out in force.

This is a Studebaker E-series pickup. My guess, mid-50s.

This is a VW T1 "Bus". Can you read the sticker on the rear window? 1960-something, I suppose.

 This gopher was asking me about almonds for some reason.

Mourning dove (Zenaida macroura).

 Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)

Contrails or vapor trails are line-shaped clouds produced by aircraft engine exhaust or changes in air pressure, typically at aircraft cruising altitudes several miles above the Earth's surface. Contrails are composed primarily of water, in the form of ice crystals.

I did a second loop around the garden. Here's dusty again.

This is Descurainia sophia, AKA, flixweed or tansy mustard. Yeah, a weed. I'm posting this because I have tried to ID it for a very long time. This is one of the more pesky weeds prevalent in my front yard. It grows faster and taller than my wildflowers but it always seems to wait until pulling much of it would cause me too much collateral damage. Google image search finally figured it out for me from this photo.

Up on top of the hill. 

Common raven (Corvus corax).

Everything else birdwise was too far away.