Weekend walk report: Beautiful fall weather (in May)

 Yep, it's autumn again in SoCal. Thursday we got .77" of rain here in my neighborhood and there have been beautiful cloudy days (for the most part) ever since. The following are some pictures taken this weekend, Saturday, May 6 and today, Sunday, May the 7th.

Saturday, May 6

I arrived at the nearby college campus shortly after 7:00 AM. There have been a number of events and activities taking place on weekends and I wanted to do my best to avoid that as best possible. As it turned out there was some event in preparation about 280 yards (256 meters) from the center of the garden, which included loud music and someone with a mic preparing to be boisterous on a PA system. Whatever they were getting ready for had me cutting my lower campus portion of the excursion short. I was relegated to the 1.84 acre garden. Docken had joined me on the phone (thank you, Dockie) and the music was also disrupting our conversation. Fortunately, it only appeared to be sound checks for the time being and I got to take a few pictures before heading up the hill and away from whatever was about to take place.

Mama to be Canada goose was still sleeping when I approached the walkway to the botanical garden. I looked it up, eggs are incubated for 25-28 days. The average clutch size is 5 eggs, but can be anywhere between 2 and 12 eggs. The nesting period is from 42-50 days. I just now decided to name her, Kuppi (I say "Cup-e") because I thought she looks a little like a cupcake sitting there. Kuppikakku is Finnish for cupcake and it's too long. Why Finnish? Why not?

I went around looking for male Calypte anna hummingbird, Dusty and did a quick lap and a half around the garden looking for other photo ops. Dusty has decided that his garden is best now observed from the very top of the Caesalpinia cacalaco on the southern edge of the garden. It's not a helpful location for taking pictures.

That was it for the garden and any walking outside its perimeter would have had me butting up against whatever event was under preparation so I headed up the hill. 

The world famous, Elephant Mountain and a couple of hopefully harmless plumes that are always being pumped out of (approximately) Van Nuys. 

When I saw this flock of birds fly into this tree I assumed they were finches because they usually are. It wasn't until I got home that I realized they were cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum). While they aren't at all uncommon to SoCal, I've never noticed them around here before. Had I realized, I would have been a little more diligent about getting pictures. Initially there were approximately 30 birds in this tree. By the time I got close enough and raised my camera that was cut in about 1/2.
 

Much of the hilltop is still closed to construction. The best "lap" for a walk is kinda dull and only about .6 miles (1 km). One and a half laps pretty much brought me back to the car so that was it for walking. Along the way I only had these two distractions.

That's probably one of my regular, resident, red-tailed hawks. I suspect it's the female but I never caught her take flight so I couldn't be sure. Nearby and unconcerned was this mourning dove.

If you're thinking, hey! where were the clouds you mentioned? Well, they came in a little later. I was done for the day.

Sunday (today) May 7 

 Out early once again. Arrival time was 7:20 and it was quiet.

Kuppi was awake.

This mourning dove was nearby, in Kuppi's shade pine tree.

Tagetes lemmonii flowers are already dying back and California buckwheat is moving in.

There's Dusty again, way up in the Caesalpinia cacalaco. Atop his new throne.

This was a blind shot. I saw this female Calypte anna land but the sun was beaming directly at the right side of my head when I took this picture.

I took off to get some walking in on my regular lower campus loop. I widened it up a bit probably adding .15 miles to the regular .51 miles. Every little bit counts. These walks are basically about getting out and taking pictures, Weekday walks are more about getting out and getting exercise.

As I approached the northern most parking lot I could see the ancient car worshipers were already pouring in.

This is a Chevrolet Corvair Monza Coupe, maybe 1965.

I'm tagging this Chevy Corvette at 1959.

The most interesting and most ridiculous car I saw was this Caterham 7. A super-lightweight sports car produced by Caterham Cars in the United Kingdom, based on the Lotus Seven, a lightweight sports car sold in kit and factory-built form by Lotus Cars, from 1957 to 1972.

Ahh, when gas was cheap... I'm guessing a 1970, Cadillac DeVille Convertible. I believe there are supposed to be chrome beauty strips running from just behind the front wheel wells to the rear bumper. It certainly would add some attractiveness to this behemoth. I had a 1971 Volvo 1800E once upon a time that had a three piece side array of chrome beauty strips. They were hard to find in the 80s and were very pricey. Plus people thought it was perfectly alright to ding them with their doors. I can sympathize some with this guy's choice. 

Late 2008, early 2009, I was working to improve my drawing skills in Adobe Illustrator and drew my Volvo (somewhat modified). To illustrate the costly chrome side panel strips, here ya go...

Up the hill once again.

I had to stop and take a picture of this Grumpy bird, AKA, the California towhee, AKA, Melozone crissalis.

 Seriously, I had to stop...

Thanks for coming along. I'll meet you on the next world and don't be late. Now playing from my phone and on my head...