Weekend walk report: Autumn Playing Games

My walks for Saturday, October 7 and today, Sunday, October 8. Saturday morning it was real obvious early morning that it was going to be a hot one but not quite as bad as Friday. Friday we hit a high of 103.6º. Saturday's high was 102º and right now at 1:30 PM, Sunday, it's 96.3º. That's not my idea of autumn weather. This morning I hit the road at 58.4º and for much of the excursion it looked and felt like fall. That wasn't going to last.

Docken joined on the phone for both walks. Thank you, Docky!

Saturday, October 7

I was greeted in the parking lot as I exited my car by this stately raven.

Onto the garden I recognized male Calypte anna hummingbird's little male Calypte anna friend from Sunday, September 24th. Once again, Dusty didn't seem to be bothered by his presence.

Here's Dusty...

The lighting was harsh so I started to walk in earnest only slowing down for this Cooper's hawk on a lamppost.

I changed course and decided to walk up the hill because the dogs of doom were howling up ahead of me. Once topside I was delighted to see an American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) atop another lamppost. The sun was beaming in directly at my camera and the only pictures I was able to capture were embarrassingly poor. I tried to navigate around to the other side of the bird but it flew the proverbial coop. Here's a picture of an American Kestrel I took way back in 2013, also on a street lamp.

Sunday, October 8, today 

Well, yep... sure looks like autumn and it was about 59º when this all started.

 
Once again, a quick visit with Dusty. The hummingbird high in the Caesalpinia cacalaco tree looks to be a female Calypte anna. Once again, another bird in his territory and Dusty couldn't be bothered with chasing her off. That's unusual.

Onto the walk.

I don't believe I've ever seen mourning doves lined up like this before. There were some birds exchanging places while I took pictures. It went from 10 to 13 birds with a couple coming or a couple going.

Horses are back! I'm pretty sure that the horses are on "loan" to the equestrian facilities. The school offers a 2-year program in Horse Science for an Associates Degree. My guess that's a pretty limited job market in SoCal.

I went back to the car and this time I drove to the top of the hill. This is the first red-tailed hawk I have seen this season.

This mockingbird was nearby, much closer to me and probably about 30 yards in front of the hawk.

Here's the wide shot.

I tried to focus stack the two birds but the lack of depth of field makes it a little odd looking.

100º at 2:20 PM. Yep, that's the fall spirit!
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