It's a joke. So far, this looks to only be Saturday, August 24th's walk report since I haven't even looked at my pictures from today, Sunday, August 25th. Today was a late start, a short walk and a dismal event on the photo front. Saturday, I walked into the local botanical garden and was immediately taken aback by how much of it was either dead or seriously dying back. So my first thought was... why not take pictures of dead stuff?
Starting off with the first dead stuff I saw entering the garden.
Rose hips, Rosa californica, the California wildrose, or California rose.
Pseudognaphalium californicum (California Everlasting).
Salvia leucophylla, purple sage or gray sage.
Salvia apiana, the Californian white sage, bee sage, or sacred sage.
Eriogonum fasciculatum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common names California buckwheat and flat-topped buckwheat.
Onto the living.
This is the male Calypte anna hummingbird I've been calling Not Dusty. I decided to change his name to Dusty Jr. I'm reasonably certain, based on observation, my experience with this garden and having seen a few generations of "regulars," especially for this hummingbird habitat, that this is most probably the offspring of the famous male Anna's hummingbird, Dusty. I also thought that Not Dusty was sort of demeaning in a way. The flowers are Red Mountain Sage (Salvia darcyi).
The moon, pretty dead, geologically active they say, I say poppycock! Waning gibbous phase is between a full moon and a half moon.
And onto my walk...
The goats. In the past I have approached the goats and it seemed they didn't want to have anything to do with my presence. This time, I would swear, they saw me and came running. Maybe I look like someone who provides for them, although it's apparent they take pretty good care of themselves. I'm on the road to the western edge of the campus. I'll be back.
Donkey #2. This donkey is typically pretty far off from me. You can see it under the pepper trees in the picture above. When I first started visiting this campus again in 2010 I first met the burros inside their pen and they were together. For the past several years I always see them in areas separated by fencing.
Donkey #1. This is about as close as I've been able to get in a long time.
Red-tailed hawk.
Turkey vulture. The turkey vulture is the most widespread of the New World vultures. This vulture is looking for something dead.
Nearing the end of the road and about to turn around. I decided to give it a go and attempted a panorama of the mourning doves hanging out.
Heading back. This is the same red-tailed hawk as shown above.
Where did everybody go?
Back to the goats. I picked favorites. These are my two favorites.
A young western fence lizard. This is my dirt!
Sunday, August 25th (today)
Again, it was a relatively short walk with very few pictures taken.
A mourning dove on a tower to some of the instruments at the weather station.
Monarch butterfly on a rose bush. I had walked up, down and side to side on the Braille Trail and not one picture.
I did a quick circle inside the botanical garden and then decided to head beck to my car. Here's Dusty Jr. high up in the Caesalpinia cacalaco tree.
Bonus shots! A giant swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) in the backyard on Saturday. Currently I have very little room to navigate for photos in the backyard so I take whatever I can get. The flowers are Tithonia rotundafolia.
Bring out your dead!
August is always a tough month, especially when temperatures have reached the heights yours have. But I have my fair share of toasted plants even closer to the coast. Over the years, I've learned to appreciate dried plant material. I have a vase full of the stuff by our front door and another, smaller one in the living room. Your goats are interesting, although they look like their coats have been tie-died.
ReplyDeleteGreat variety. Great pics. The clarity of the pics of Dusty Jr. ( I dig the name change—those ARE big hummingbird shoes to fill ) is awesome. Also really liked the various salvia pics. Toodles
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