Yesterday's butterfly, Papilio rutulus, the western tiger swallowtail. It didn't spend much time with me and to be honest it wasn't very comfortable hanging around in the backyard at 95º.
The walk this morning was... disquieting. The first sidewalk past my own street, there was a homeless man sleeping across most of the width of the sidewalk, his bags and his bicycle propped up around him. Witnessing another's vulnerability, their basic needs unmet while surrounded by excess, is a painful paradox. Nobody needs to be worth a billion dollars. My general mood shifted to sorrow laced with anger.
Another 200 yards in there was a news helicopter, unusually low and hovering loudly. About a quarter mile beyond that another, much louder, helicopter took it's place. I took a picture with my phone because I couldn't see any markings and thought a photo might later reveal something. I wondered if it was military.
Nothing and the helicopter had sat in that spot for the duration of the walk. I later made the mistake of checking out the news and I found the story. I only read a headline and it was too heartbreaking to talk about but it reinforced my earlier sorrow.
And on that happy note, here's to a better tomorrow.
I just got around to looking at photos from yesterday. I don't think this is the same red-tailed hawk as the one I photographed on Saturday. Unfortunately I didn't get them from the same side profile. If this is a different bird I'm gonna assume they are siblings. Both birds are definitely young. This bird was directly across the road from the one yesterday. Approximately 50’ (15.24 m) apart. Young fledglings frequently spend time together and Red-tailed hawks tend to keep the same territory their whole life, although it can be close to 10 square miles in size. I'm going to keep an eye on this. I also suspect I know who their parents are. That would be the pair from April 6th in this post.
Compare?
There was a walk this morning a pretty decent one at that. I had an old golden retriever make friends with me and people seemed friendlier too. No pictures but plenty of music. Let's see, there was this...
65º to 72º, a pleasant 2.75 mile walk. Here are some pictures taken along the way.
Always being greeted in the garden by a little bunny (desert cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii)).
This is male Calypte anna hummingbird, Not Dusty. The tree is Caesalpinia cacalaco.
After a quick lap through the garden I began walking in earnest. I really felt a need to walk but I put the brakes on for this red-tailed hawk. I'm reasonably certain this is the same bird I took pictures of in this post.
The gang's all here! The sheep heading off on its own on your right. I could not figure out what was going on there. I thought, can that possibly be a dog? I didn't realize until I got home and looked at pictures full size that a few of the sheep had been recently sheared.
The captivating eyes of a pigeon. Pigeons have an impressive 340º view without moving their head. Try sneaking up on a pigeon, you'll see, they'll catch you every time,
Cassin's kingbird.
Heading back to my car I had already decided to walk a loop around the top of the hill.
Meanwhile, who's this wingnut?
Up on the hill.
You've captured my heart.
All the beauty that we see It's all there for us You and me And only with you can I see what it all means Yeah, all the beauty that we see It's surrounding us You and me Now I'm with you I can see what it all means
Bruce Soord - What It All Means (taken from the album Luminescence). It appears to be the only song from the album that I can't find on YouTube. Such is life.
Okay, I didn't actually go over the hills and far away. In fact, I avoided any hills and stayed pretty close by. The song just happened to pop into my head while I was trying to come up with a title. It was a decent walk though, all things considered. The total walk was 2.3 miles. On Thursday I finally got back to exceeding three miles with a neighborhood walk which ultimately took me into the local botanical garden. It's been a challenge so... good for me. That walk was 3.3 miles.
To make sure I would be ahead of high temps I was on the nearby college campus a little after 6 AM and 64º. Yesterday's high was 104.6º and I was having none of that. This includes getting this post done. Current temperature with just a fan blowing on me in my office is 82º. Current temp outdoors is 87.4º. This room will start to catch up and the dedicated AC unit is horribly disruptive when one is listening to music. So, without further ado, here are some pictures from today.
Arrival, shortly post sunrise.
Onto the garden. This is the male Calypte anna hummingbird I call Not Dusty. I'm relatively certain that Not Dusty is the offspring of the male Calypte anna hummingbird known as Dusty. Neither one of them would know that unless there's some sort of instinctual mechanism I'm totally unaware of. I have seen Not Dusty a number of times over the past few weeks but he wasn't staying put long enough to pose for pictures. On June 23rd there was another male anna's hanging out, I have not seen that bird since. This post somewhat summarizes the story of Dusty and Not Dusty.
From this point I started walking but I planned to revisit the garden on the way back to my car because when I walked here on Thursday, July 18th, the bumblebees I photographed last week were back on the same flowers they were collecting pollen from that day. Since it was still early and a bit on the cool side for bee activity I figured my odds would improve if I came back closer to the time I saw them on Thursday which was 6:50 AM. Meanwhile...
One of my burro friends. I didn't spot the other one but then again, I didn't look too hard. This one was close enough that she (I think) was quite aware of my presence.
Just about at the end of the road and preparing to turn around, I spotted these three mourning doves. I'm gonna assume they were on the edge of the road because nooks and crannies have captured seeds blowing in the wind. Mourning doves are granivores. They aren't interested in consuming insects. Almost their entire diet consists of grains, seeds, weeds and herbs.
Back to the garden and oh, look... This time I counted for sure. There were four bumblebees in exactly the same place as last week and on Thursday morning. 6:58 AM. What timing. Maybe it looks like a bunch of the same from last week but I'm telling ya, I don't see bumblebees very often so for me it's pretty exciting. Life's simple pleasures.
Finally, here are a couple of shots with the phone from Thursday. The bees were too hard to capture.
Two different events, two photo ops today, fulfilling recent desires. First, on my way into the local college campus where I typically engage in weekend walks, there was a red-tailed hawk high up on the rusty old fencing that runs along the first base side foul line and right field. On June 23rd I took a very distant photo of a bird so I could get a better idea of what it was. I had been longing for some bird of prey photo opportunities and just had not been seeing any. I made that photo part of "Win a fabulous No-Prize by identifying this bird!" Well, that bird was a red-tailed hawk.
Here's the Buteo jamaicensis that was patiently waiting for a baseball game or, more likely, for some rodent to run out into center field. Please don't mind a certain level of redundancy. I took a lot of pictures today (1,073) and I didn't want to be overly choosy.
I moved inside, right long the first base line.
Are you looking at me?
Right about this moment a mockingbird flew in and perched itself about 6' feet from the hawk. I tried to zoom out to get them together in a shot but the mockingbird decided it best be on it's way. I've seen mockingbirds taunt red-tailed hawks on multiple occasions. They go after ravens too.
The hawk only seemed a bit quizzical.
I decided to go across the street and visit the horticulture area of the campus which includes the mostly defunct "braille trail."
The sunflowers were being picked for seeds by a small group of very young lesser goldfinches (Spinus psaltria).
Coreopsis.
Some type of Echinacea hybrid.
Gaillardia x grandiflora. It was really this vivid.
Scabiosa atropurpurea or pincushion flower.
Heliotropium arborescens.
Acanthus mollis, commonly known as bear's breeches, sea dock, bear's foot plant, sea holly, gator plant or oyster plant.
I wandered around the braille trail quite a bit but didn't see anything particularly new or exciting so I thought I'd provide a better idea of how the trail was originally designed in the early 1970s. Ropes led visitors to these informational plaques which were in both English and braille.
This "cork" oak tree was cut just a few feet above the plaque.
I don't want to know who or why someone had been walking around barefoot and with what appears to have been a rather large dog.
Monarch butterfly on Vinca major, common names are bigleaf periwinkle, large periwinkle, greater periwinkle and blue periwinkle
On my way back out I noticed several of these trees had recently been planted. I have no ID. This is a reminder for me to go back and check those fruits once they have opened. Any guesses?
I went back to my car and decided to move it to the other side of the parking lot, closer to the botanical garden. Normally I'd simply walk but there was a baseball game scheduled and I thought it best not to take up any of their parking space.
Onto the garden.
I've mentioned this before. There are so many rabbits this year. I also see them approaching closer to my own neighborhood. I'm not very excited about bunnies in my backyard, as cute as they may be. The desert cottontail, also known as Audubon's cottontail.
Is this mom? She was nearby and she seemed to be watching.
The big excitement and what I meant by getting what I wanted. Bumblebees! I mentioned this just yesterday that I had wanted to "get a hover shot" the other day. And also wrote, "Next time." Well next time was today and it's the first time ever, I saw more than one bumblebee in one spot. There were at least three but perhaps four. I generally follow one bee for as long as I can so I don't go nuts. These are Bombus californicus, the California bumble bee. The plant is Salvia uliginosa, the bog sage. I stayed with them for a long time and I'm gonna post a bunch of images because I can.
Right when I turned to leave I spotted this dude. The flame skimmer or firecracker skimmer (Libellula saturata) is a common dragonfly of the family Libellulidae, native to western North America.
Bee Sting and despite my polite yet long term intrusion, I didn't even. This is the entire album but it should start at Bee Sting.
