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

 

Today's butterflies

 During some overdue yard work I paused for these two butterflies. 

The first is a red admiral (Vanessa atalanta). I was disappointed with my photos. The butterfly was much more impressive when I watched it in real time. When it first presented itself to me, before I hurried inside the house to grab my camera, it appeared magnificent with its wings spread wide. I wasn't offered another opportunity in such a position. 
 

 I felt more fortunate when this Gulf fritillary (Dione vanillae) arrived on the same butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii). 

 
I’ve been missing opportunities to capture butterfly photos around the house, primarily because I haven’t taken advantage of them or actively sought them out. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this experience today was simply my decision to make the effort. 

Meanwhile, little Junimoon was watching me through the dirty windows.

 Eat That Question

 

Weekend walk report: Slim pickings

 Another weekend of walkin' and talkin' with Docken, getting caught up on all of the terrible problems in the world. You know, as a coping mechanism. It's truly comforting to know that while the world burns, the most pressing debates are often self-serving and completely insane. So, just trying to do the right thing by laughing at it all. Thank you, Doc.

Meanwhile, there continues to be slim pickings on the photo front or perhaps I'm not looking hard enough and being patient enough to let images come to me. I'll look into that. Here are a few photos taken this weekend. 

I tried to get this turkey vulture in between the out of focus foreground trees. It wasn't happening.

 Cistanthe grandiflora - pink rock purslane.

 Some type of Cordyline.

I believe this is a female monarch butterfly. It's not pristine. Its wings are tattered and faded--a map of every near-miss and every long, exhausting mile of its journey. It’s carrying the visible evidence of struggle. Yet, there it is. It doesn't pause to reflect on a perfect past or to worry about its fragile future. It simply focuses on the task at hand--finding nectar. The nectar is your purpose, your next little goal, the simple joy of the moment. It doesn’t matter how broken or worn you feel; the important work—sipping life’s sweetness and moving forward—is still there for you. Even if all you can do is a slow, tough flap, that single effort gets you to the next flower, making sure you both survive and keep creating something beautiful along the way.

This is a mourning dove feather. Not a white dove but a feather from your average mourning dove, just like Sally, Twigs and their offspring. 
On October 11, I did a post showing two feathers and asked for readers to guess what birds they belonged to. I didn't get much of a response but that's fine by me. The first feather was also from a mourning dove and the second one was from a red-tailed hawk. My assumption, a young hawk's breast feather.

 
Hopes, dreams, hopes dreaming that all our sorrow's gone 
Forever