Weekend walk report: Toy Drive

 The event was this...

 

Motor4Toys claims to be the "world's largest automotive toy drive" and a huge annual event. I was certainly impressed. My walks were Saturday, December 6th and Sunday, December 7th. The images for the toy drive on Saturday represented dozens of people in preparation for the event on Sunday. I knew nothing about any of this before I got to the college campus. All images are in the order in which they were taken.

I decided I would like this tree for my Christmas tree. I would also like to have that rock for Christmas.

 Cooper's hawk (Astur cooperii) was reclassified from the genus Accipiter to the genus Astur as a result of a major taxonomic revision published in 2024. Amazing eyes.

 The toy drive. As I was approaching I was in bright light and pretty far away, while this was all in shadows. I mentioned to Docken over the phone (thank you Doc for joining me) that I thought I was walking into a movie filming.

There were, perhaps, 1,000 bikes and trikes.

 Meanwhile, I was a little slow on this. Two ravens trying to chase off a red-tailed hawk. This is not a rare event.

 
Sunday, December 7th (today).

A scrub jay on top of the weather station's instruments, proudly holding an acorn.

 
For the most part I avoided the crowd. It was a remarkable event. The lines of large plastic bags were items distributed from yesterday's piles of boxes. Each bag appeared to contain at least a dozen toys.

 There are the ancient cars too and their worshipers.

 A 1985 Backdraft Cobra replica is a modern, high-quality replica of the classic AC Cobra, built by Backdraft Racing, a company that started in 2001.

This is a custom Humvee, I have no idea how that can manage any bumps in the road. Apparently it has a 10” air suspension lift but even so, this vehicle is low to the ground.

America.

I call this picture, "James Rebar." Oddly enough, last week I thought there was a bird atop one of the rods and that it would make an interesting close-up shot but it turned out to be some sort of label. There's one here though. I totally missed seeing it until I got home. Can you find the bird?

Joni Mitchell - Shiny Toys
 

 

Thanksgiving weekend walk report

 That's right, you read it right, a Thanksgiving four day weekend walk report extravaganza.

I'd like to thank Docken for joining me and putting up with me over the phone all four days. Here are some photos that were taken along the way.

Thanksgiving Day, 112725.

Red-tailed hawk. 

 Senna bicapsularis 'Buttercream.'

 The sky (it was a great day for looking up).

Speaking of looking up, L.A. County Fire. Phone conversations cease when these are flying overhead.

 Tecoma stans 'Orange Jubilee'.

 112825

Monarch butterflies were the stars of the holiday weekend. The flowers are Salvia farinacea. 

Monarch on a rose bush.

 112925

Monarch on Verbena bonariensis.

 Datura wrightii, commonly known as sacred datura, is a poisonous perennial plant species and ornamental flower of the family Solanaceae native to the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It is sometimes used as a hallucinogen due to its psychoactive alkaloids.This is not advisable, this is a very dangerous plant. All parts are poisonous, containing toxic alkaloids. Livestock and people have been fatally poisoned by ingesting the plant and seeds.

 Monarch on narrow-leaf milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis). Narrow-leaf milkweed is native to Southern California and thrives in the region's climate.

 Monarch on lantana.

 Gaura lindheimeri, also known by common names such as white gaura, butterfly gaura, or Lindheimer's beeblossom. 

 Red-tailed hawk on the backstop for the campus baseball field. Tennis courts are directly on the other side and tennis balls have forever been embedded in the chain link fencing. 

 Cyperus papyrus.

 Myriophyllum aquaticum.

I believe this is an immature White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys).

 Apparently a gopher found the one hole broken in the sidewalk.

 113025 (today, Sunday)

Iresine herbstii, or Herbst's bloodleaf, is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae that is native to Brazil. Some call this plant the chicken gizzard plant and beefsteak plant. Neither of which is very attractive.

 Back to the monarch butterflies. Each day female and male monarchs were doing their aerial mating dances, pretty much impossible for me to capture on camera. The actual mating though? That was another story today.

He took flight with her, probably trying to get away from the annoying human with the camera.

 The West Coast lady (Vanessa annabella) is one of three North American species of brush-footed butterflies known colloquially as the "painted ladies." This butterfly was eventually chased off by one of the monarchs.

 December is coming. Is it cold where you are? It's getting colder here...

Were we ever colder on that day? 
A million miles away 
It seemed from all of eternity, yeah