Singing? More like howling. Let's just say it was really windy. A gorgeous late Saturday morning nonetheless. The walk was only 1.5 miles but I've been walking everyday this week, up to 2.76 miles and to be perfectly honest some of the terrain became my reluctant dance partner. Every uneven step, every loose stone, every gust of wind was a challenge, a test of my balance and resolve, a testament to my will. Special thanks to Docken for joining me (and putting up with my grievances) over the phone and assisting with my decisions to push myself and when to take it easy. I'd like to get back to 3 mile+ walks and doing so with relative comfort. There's an old Swedish proverb, att bli gammal suger. Getting old sucks.
Onto today's photos.
Some decent pictures of the male Calypte anna hummingbird known as Dusty. He was perched at the top of a dead California bay tree. These thin branches were swaying about 2' back and forth in the wind but he kept hanging on. Docken commented that perhaps he was having fun.
On the lower campus loop I saw this red-tailed hawk being taunted by a pair of common ravens up near the top of the hill. I was hoping to see all three once I got up there. Sorry, they were moving really fast and were far away to begin with. The couple of shots I got of the ravens were way out of focus.
Top of the hill. No sign of the hawk but the ravens were still around. I'm positive this is the same pair of common ravens I've been catching on top of the hill for some time now. Here's the deal on raven pairs, breeding pairs must have a territory of their own before they begin nest-building and reproduction, and thus they aggressively defend a territory and its food resources. Nesting territories vary in size according to the density of food resources in the area. (Wikipedia) They will also typically maintain this territory for life.
This is the male, vocalizing from the same lamppost I've seen him perched upon before.
His mate was across the road, he was pointed in her direction and she was squawking too.
She moved across the road and onto the next lamppost downhill.
I proceeded up hill and watched them follow and move down near where I began my walk on the lower campus. As the raven flies that was about 530 yards. I continued my loop around the hill.
These are apparently Ceiba pentandra fruit, the Kapok tree. I've mis-ID'd this tree before. For some time I thought I'd like to get some seeds from it and see if I could propagate them. After reading up on the size potential of this tree I've changed my mind. I'm pretty sure this one is not in ample space either. I've seen the tree for years, this is the first year I've seen fruit.
The wind literally pushed me back to my car for the last 25 yards of the upper campus walk.
This was the first album I bought with my own money, September 1970.
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