Weekend walk report: Well, sort of

 By sort of I mean I walked both Saturday, February 22nd and Sunday (today) February 23rd but I only brought my camera along on Saturday and I wasn't motivated by any subject matter to pull my phone out of my pocket this morning. I'm not inclined to take pictures with a phone, any phone, I fundamentally hate phones. So, while I might have something to say about today's walk (and it was ultimately a very pleasant walk) the following photos are all from Saturday. Both walks included the company of Docken over the phone. Thank you Docken.

 Saturday, February 22nd 

I mentioned last Sunday that I would be revisiting the Eremophila racemosa shrub in my local botanical garden as long as it was flowering because the thing is an amazing magnet for hummingbirds so that's what I did.

These images are displayed in the order in which they were taken.

Male Calypte anna hummingbird in the "rest stop" eucalyptus tree directly behind the Eremophila racemosa.

This is the first female Calypte anna I've been able to capture over the past few weeks.

Another female, this time a Selasphorus sasin, AKA, Allen's hummingbird. She was across the path on a Chilopsis linearis (Desert Willow).

This male Anna's hummingbird heard the same thing I did and was being very attentive checking the sky and surroundings.

 I changed my position by a step and he kept looking.

A moment later the threat revealed itself. While the possibility of a red-tailed hawk catching a hummingbird has got to be slim to none, they simply are not quick or agile enough to catch small birds aware of their presence, it's the hummingbird's nature not to throw caution to the wind. The pine tree the hawk screeched from is about 50 yards (45.72 meters) from the hummingbird's perch in the eucalyptus tree. I was a little slow in getting a shot off.

 You can relax now, dude.

 A male Selasphorus sasin. This bird was outnumbered and outsized by Anna's hummingbirds. Nevertheless it was darting around spending much of his energy trying to chase others away. I was bending at the knees here. My right knee hasn't been especially inclined for handling such a position lately.

Meanwhile, this male Anna's seemed to be contemplating something...

While I saw the approach, I had no idea I got this shot. The disappointment in not getting both birds in focus is palpable. The bird on the left is a female Allen's hummingbird.

A reasonably long walk ensued. Nothing else grabbed me on the photo front so I chose instead to engage in conversation with Docken and set a goal for the western edge of the campus and back. The entire walk was 3.22 miles.

When I got home my feral buddy Vit the cat was waiting patiently for some grub.

Sunday, February 23rd

I had guessed today's walk was about 2.5 miles. I just measured it and turns out it was 2.7 which was a lot better than I thought I was going to do at the start. Without a bunch of whiny complaining (already delivered over the phone--my apologies, Doc) the first 1/2 mile or so was widespread polyarthralgia torture. Yeah, don't worry, I just learned that word myself. But I think I commented to Docken just a little beyond that position that I was feeling a lot better and at the 3/4 mile mark, my original goal before turning around for home, the difference was amazing so I continued on to the aforementioned botanical garden, got to the bench in front of the Eremophila bush, chatted some more with Docken and then took off for home. Thanks again to Docken because having her to talk to really helped with the mission. 

Meanwhile, I would like to dedicate this song to... well, you know what? Why don't you take your pick, there are so many people to choose from.

 

Weekend walk report: Department of Redundancy Department

 That's right, you heard right, I decided to go for a sure thing this weekend and revisit the Eremophila racemosa shrub I found brimming with hummingbird activity last Sunday. I planned on a lot of sameness in the photo department but here's the deal... My local botanical garden has been seriously lacking in flowers for months now and along with the floral barrenness I have been truly missing opportunities to photograph hummingbirds. So I spent much of photographic part of this weekend's walks hanging around said bush again while hummingbirds darted about.

Here are some pictures taken on my walks for Saturday, February 15th and Sunday (today) February 16th.

 Saturday, February 15th

Over the phone I had Docken's company along the way. Thank you Docken!

My greeter as I entered the garden area. This tree squirrel simply stood in this spot and watched me come in along the sidewalk. 

Now to be perfectly honest, even though I had plans to visit the Eremophila shrub I think I may have gotten distracted by my other pursuit which was to look for mushrooms to take closeup images of. After the recent rains and seeing these growing out of a crack in my backyard patio on Friday I was certain there would be mushrooms growing everywhere.

I searched high and low but mostly low, covering a little over 2.5 miles and did not see a single mushroom. However, along the way...

Canada geese.

 And a couple of red-tailed hawks.

 There were so many places I thought I'd see mushrooms in a vast array of wood chips and also in cow chips but nothing. So I headed back to the botanical garden to visit the showy Eremophila bush. Just like last week hummingbirds were all over it. These should be in the order in which they were taken.

These next two were taken within a fraction of a second of one another. I couldn't decide which one I liked best and to keep within the theme of redundancy, well, here ya go.

There were three male Calypte anna hummingbirds and two female or immature Selasphorus sasin  (Allen's) hummingbirds. The Allen's hummingbirds despite their smaller size were especially aggressive which also made photo captures difficult. But wait... more to follow.

 Sunday (today), February 16th

Once again thanks to Docken for joining me over the phone. Heading toward the local college campus there were some chalk messages on the sidewalk along the way. 

This was one of several planters for trees on the curbside of the sidewalk, separating the sidewalk from the adjacent street. I think these were mostly myrtle trees that were never maintained so, of course, they died. Someone had something to say about that (remember, you can click to make images larger).

One of the supports for a tree gone absent ("Tree Wanted").

 

 

Another important message.

 

 And one more thing to think about.

 

 Onto the garden and some more redundancy. But first, despite a certain new redundancy, I was able to finally capture one of the Selasphorus sasin hummingbirds. I'm pretty sure this is a female but it could be an immature male.

 

There were two Allen's hummingbirds and I'm pretty sure there were four male Anna's (hmm, can we thank our old friend Dusty for some of this?)

 This is a Cooper's hawk and he's in the eucalyptus tree that's right behind the Eremophila bush. Needless to say, all of the hummingbirds left the area during its presence. 

A couple of minutes after the hawk flew off the show was back.

 
The previously mentioned eucalyptus tree was sometimes used as a rest stop.

 I also wanted to show a few of the flowers closeup. Note the fuzzy material that almost looks like small tufts of cotton. I couldn't find examples of this online so I'm not sure what to make of it but it looks like great material for nest building and it got on more than a beak or two. Maybe it helps carry seed from the flowers?

 

That's it but I'll probably go back next weekend too. As long as there are flowers remaining on that bush it's a hummingbird magnet.