Weekend Walk Report: More Fool Me

 There wasn't much to report for Saturday, March 30th. Once again I trusted the very untrustworthy predictions of weather dot com and ventured out when they said I was in the clear. Wrong again.

Here's what I saw online...

At 2:17 pm I took off for the nearby college campus where I usually engage in my weekend walks. This is what I saw when I got there...

Out of the car there was a tiny bit of precipitation and I started walking. About a 1/4 mile in I realized things were getting worse. I wrapped up my camera in a plastic t-shirt bag and headed for my modest goal which was to go to the western extreme of the campus, an additional 3/4 of a mile and head back to my car for a total walk of about 2 miles. However, once I added a mere .27 miles I realized I better detour back to the car. It was a wide detour nonetheless. I ended up reasonably soaked. Also, it was only 52º and I wasn't dressed for 52º and wet. I was dressed for 57º and not wet. The total walk was 1.33 miles.  All this because I trusted you weather dot com. My bad. More fool me.

Sunday (today), March, 31st.

Predictions were somewhat shady again but I had quite a bit more blue sky heading out. Docken joined me on the phone. Thanks Docky.

There was a lot of mud to navigate in the garden so I mostly headed out to get at least yesterday's target walk in.

White crowned sparrow bathing. There used to be a bench in this spot.

Our female mallard friend from two weeks ago. I suspect the male was in the pond just behind her but it was slip and slide muddy so I skipped checking. She took off into the pond through a backdoor entrance right after I snapped a couple of pictures.

 Heading out to the west gate. This pair of turkey vultures are becoming regulars.

This common raven shot past me flying low.

Up to the hilltop. The parking lot for the music and theater buildings is covered with photovoltaic panels. It's the first place I ever saw solar panels. According to Wikipedia, the college has a 191-kilowatt solar generation system that has 1,274 photovoltaic panels and a 360-kilowatt, natural gas co-generation system. This project is the largest of its kind to be undertaken by a U.S. community college, yielding around 4.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by more than 1,500 tons over its operating lifetime.

Last shot on the way back down the hill.

Weekend Walk Report: Weather or not

 Pictures and drivel for Saturday, March 23rd and Sunday, March 24th. 

Saturday, the plan was to leave around 11:00 AM. It had rained hard and steady from shortly after 6:00 AM until about 9:20. According to weather dot com I was supposed to be in the clear after 9:30 and I'd even see partial sunshine in the late morning to early afternoon. Cool. Except that was totally wrong. It was sprinkling lightly as I pulled out of my driveway a few minutes after 11:00. I was on the phone with Docken and immediately entered into a WTF? rant. It only got worse (both the rain and the rant) as I arrived at my destination. By the time I parked the car at my regular weekend walk location it was pouring. Docken went online for me to check the weather situation at weather dot com and they lied to her too. The whole weather prediction thing, it's a total scam. Anyway, I sat around in the car mostly until my back was a mess. Sitting in a car does that to me. After considerable consternation, I drove home. 

Things finally cleared up and at 2:43 in the afternoon, I called Docky and we tried it again. Thank you Docken. Here are some pictures from Saturday. It had become a lovely day.

This is not Dusty inside of Dusty's general territory.

Western redbud (Cercis occidentalis) went into some serious blooming over the past week.

It's always a little weird when turkey vultures are circling directly overhead.

But the real story was the sky, the weather...

I have to go back to last May but I kind of think this is Canada goose, Kuppi, from the posts back then and her mate who was rather aloof while she was busy brooding a few eggs. I plan to look for more clues.

Here's the male.

Squirrel!

Up on the hill for part II of the walk. For various reasons the entire journey was only 1.41 miles. I don't know what the story is here. I can make out enough of the sign in front and it says, Circus. I couldn't find anything online. Whatever the deal, they need to hire a new marketing team.

So that was Saturday. At least I got out. Thanks again to Docken for joining in over the phone.  She joined me again this morning. 

Sunday...

Desert cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii)

This is "not Dusty" and what I find interesting is Dusty was on this very same twig on this alleged Pistacia vera tree on March 9th. I went back and forth a few times between the two birds garden territories but I didn't see another male Calypte anna hummingbird. Check out the difference in the two bird’s gorget, the throat feathers, the March 9th image of Dusty is here. I can better distinguish differences between Dusty and not Dusty with right side profiles.

Ceanothus, common name, California lilac.

Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)

Roots.

A lesser goldfinch (Spinus psaltria). Docken and I discussed once again how demeaning that common name is and she decided we should change the name to Lester Goldfinch.

This is one off the same turkey vultures I photographed yesterday. What's up with that? Why are you following me?

Another common raven hanging out on a street light.

The lower campus walk was 2.47 miles and I was anxious to add at least another 1/2 mile at the top of the hill. I felt pretty good until suddenly, I could barely walk. My left foot was killing me with .40 miles to get back to my car. I stopped and sat down to take my shoe and sock off. It wasn't pretty. Not a big deal, it's a problem I've experienced before, it just requires some maintenance on my part and while I was able to alleviate some pressure on my little toe it still went crying all the way home. This is the only set of pictures I took topside. It's a stitched panorama. Some day I'll take a panorama with my DSLR and shoot the same with my phone and see how they compare. I walked a total of about 40 yards and thought better about going any further.

Just had a nice little thunderstorm roll through as I was typing, only about .03" of rain and a little of that was hail. Looks like more is on the way...