Weekend walk report: Attack of the Northern Flicker

 Walks and picture taking along the way for Saturday, July 8th and Sunday, July 9th, 2023.

Saturday, July 8th

This was one of those weekends, both days, where I wasn't feeling too keen on going out for a walk and suddenly I found myself getting ready and before I knew it I was out the door. Docken came along on the phone both days. Oddly enough both inbound calls from her found me in the garden in almost exactly the same spot. Thank you, Dockie. Here are some pictures. 

 Here's an example of expectations filtering out what's right in front of your eyes. Well, my eyes. This is a scrub jay but it's occupying a tree that I have come to expect a certain mockingbird almost every weekend for quite some time. I was wondering how come my "mockingbird" wasn't singing. Later I was little upset over this bird taking over his territory.

 Male Calypte anna hummingbird, Dusty, high in the Caesalpinia cacalaco tree.

This is a Bewick's wren (Thryomanes bewickii).

I had a difficult time pursuing this male monarch butterfly. For the most part picture taking opportunities left a lot to be desired (both days).

However, I did manage to put a couple of laps in on the lower campus loop and it was brisk.

Canada geese. They don't want to go home anymore.

Second trip back to the garden, it was just the freeloading scrub jay hanging out. Squatter!

 Sunday, July 9th

It was gray and gloomy this morning. I take no responsibility for that.

This was out of place enough for me to take a picture of it. The nearest bathroom is approximately 75 yards away.

Male Calypte anna, Dusty, again on one of his favorite perches. This particular branch (go ahead, look at previous posts) in a rather large and what I now believe to be, quite dead, California Bay tree. That's too bad, where is that guy gonna go now for leaves to season his soup?

Once again I did the dreaded stairs. I couldn't find anything topside I cared to take pictures of so I proceeded to walk down the hill and back to the parking lot where my car was parked. First, I saw the ravens but they were a tad too distant to pursue. Then I saw what I thought was a mockingbird going after the largest of the ravens (for a short while there were 3). It wasn't until I got home that I realized it wasn't a mockingbird but rather a northern flicker. The raven didn't seem too upset but after about 30 yards of being chased off he decided to fly to the other end of the parking lot. I tried to drive up next to him and his pal (considerably smaller and I thought an offspring as opposed to his mate) and tossed them some kitty kibble. They had some other grub they were more interested in. The pictures suck but at least you get the idea.

The male that was attacked moved out of frame. I was in my car at this point.

Here's something from early on, as I was walking to the garden. It made me laugh. I frequently wear out the toes in my shoes but this morning I noticed this on my left foot. Not only was there a hole in the shoe but it was also lining up with a hole in my sock. I recently bought a little kit on Amazon for darning socks. A couple of YouTube tutorials and I'm good to go.

 
Meanwhile. I'll leave you with this...