Weekend walk report and backyard butterflies

 Pictures from this weekend's walks, Saturday, August 17th and Sunday (today), August 18th.

Saturday, August 17th

I covered much of the accessible campus this day, roughly 2.6 miles on the walk. I started with the Braille Trail arboretum side, then I wandered over to the botanical garden. From there I just sort of meandered around the lower campus until I drove up the hill and added about .6 miles circling the hilltop. It was not a very exciting day for taking pictures and weather-wise it was gray and gloomy, developing into hot and humid.

Amaryllis belladonna, the Jersey lily, belladonna-lily, naked-lady-lily, or March lily.

I'm glad I wasn't here for this eucalyptus tree falling. It also took out a big chunk of the neighboring pine tree. I wonder if it made a sound.

The no ID trees I reported on in my July 13th post. The flowers have bloomed. The trees are Franklinia alatamaha, commonly called the Franklin tree. They are native to the Altamaha River valley in the state of Georgia. It has been extinct in the wild since the early 19th century, but survives as a cultivated ornamental tree (thank you Wikipedia).

On my way to the botanical garden... and here I am. Male Calypte anna hummingbird, Not Dusty, spent some time with me and we had a nice conversation.

See, he's talking to me.

California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum).

Here's a focus stack image I took of that same plant on June 29th, 2014. It was the first time I tried to do a focus stack across the the top of a large object.

Here's an idea of what the weather looked like, except it was much more dismal looking. Photo editing software has cut through quite a bit of haze.

Sunday (today), August 18th

Where there's smoke... I don't know where the fire was (is?) but it was really smoky outside of my house before I left and once I was at the local college campus, well, it was smoky there too. Enough so I decided to do a short walk of about 1.5 miles. That probably wasn't a great idea either.

Now, this is a Jr. College, meaning the students attending, for the most part are between the ages of 18 and 20. That puts the DOB for the younger students around 2006. The first iPhone came out in 2007. What do you think these kids think of this? How effectively do you think they could operate it? For one they'd have to remember a phone number other than their own. $.50 anywhere in the U.S.

 This is the same red-tailed hawk I photographed on July 27th. Does this sky look smoky?

The ancient car worshipers were cruising into the parking lot they use just next to the sidewalk I take for my western-end campus loop. From a distance I saw this woman talking to some gentleman on the sidewalk with what I assumed was a dog on a leash. I generally avoid stuff like this so I moved over to the opposite side of the street. Then I noticed it wasn't a dog at all but rather a beautiful Savannah cat. I excused myself asked the lady if it was okay if I took a picture.

That kitty was the loudest cat I've ever heard and it was really talkative. A little too big for my kitty companion taste.

Here are a couple of backyard butterflies from August 15th, the Gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) and from August 18th , the giant swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes).