Today's walk report: Walk-Dawn Walk

I made a decision last night that I would put myself together early, get out the door before 6:00, drive to my starting point (1/2 mile from home), and go for a walk at the local college campus. I'm almost always up before dawn, but getting prepared and motivated to go for a walk that early is another matter. As it turned out, I was awake at 2:15! The bathroom wasn't calling me, Lucy was sound asleep next to my shin bones, so I can't blame her, and for the life of me, as much as I wanted to, I simply could not get back to sleep. Of course, as it was approaching 5:00 or so (I stopped looking at the clock around 3:30) and getting closer to the time I should've been thinking about stuff to do before leaving the house... I dozed. I ended up sleeping about 4 hours in round one, plus I threw in a 30-minute nap. I was parking for my walk at 6:08. Sunrise was at 6:04. The temperature ranged from 65º to 68º F, with relative humidity hovering between 76% to 78%. It was the most comfortable I've been out walking in somewhere near forever. Over the past two weeks, we've been in triple digits 9 days. Over the past 30 days, it was triple digits for 14 days. The highest temp was 108º F on Friday, July 31st. 

Here are some photos I took on today's walk. I was out and about for precisely one hour and covered 2.09 miles.

Early enough to see some Night Blooming Cereus, (Cereus peruvianus) with flowers still open. 

 

Hollyleaf Cherry (Prunus ilicifolia), a native California evergreen shrub. The fruit is edible but something likes chewing at the leaves more than the fruit.

 These are the female cones of Oriental arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis).

 This is a Madagascar Periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus), specifically a variety resembling 'Bright Eyes' which features white petals with a distinct red center.

 Coreopsis verticillata 'Creme Brulee', a variety of threadleaf tickseed.

 
This is a Hebe, a genus of evergreen flowering shrubs native to New Zealand. 

 Salvia farinacea and a carpenter bee. The common name "carpenter bee" derives from their nesting behavior; nearly all species burrow into hard plant material such as dead wood or bamboo.

 Lesser goldfinch (Spinus psaltria). There must've been 25-30 birds in a flock. I don't believe I've ever seen that many congregating together. They weren't especially cooperative on the photo front.

 However, there was also a flock of Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) in the mix. When I first approached everyone scattered and I was pretty far away. Bushtits are very social and are often seen moving quickly in small flocks through shrubs and trees. I have but a few good pictures of a Psaltriparus minimus. This isn't one of them.

 This is a a California Towhee (Melozone crissalis), more commonly known as a "grumpy bird." I rarely see them up this high.

 The above were all in or near the campus arboretum, I walked from there to the botanical garden.

Grevillea 'Moonlight'.
 

More Cereus peruvianus. There were lots of flowers but unfortunately most of them were cluttered with dead organic matter from above, mixed with spider webbing. I walked into a lot of spider webbing this morning.

 I wasn't going to post this photo. I did not shove the Cooper's hawk feather into that post. I'm posting though because Google AI kept arguing that this was not a Cooper's hawk feather at all but rather a moth. Saying nonsense like, "The resemblance to a Cooper's hawk feather is absolutely brilliant, but this image is actually a famous piece of wildlife photography showcasing a living insect in its natural resting pose.The insect is a Barred Lappet Moth (Porela subfasciata), a species native to Australia that survives daytime predators by perfectly evolving to look exactly like a discarded bird feather." I had to crop in on the feather for Google to "see" what it actually was.

 Some Ancient Car Worshipers were out early, preparing to worship each other's cars.

This is a Shelby Cobra replica. I couldn't get an ID on the other car. I'm pretty sure these guys are talking about cars.

 This is an Austin Healey 3000, probably 1960.

 A 1961 Ford Ranchero. 

 What do you think they might be talking about now? The Star Wars themed Dodge Charger is affectionately known as "Dodge Vader."
 

That's it. I did my regular "short," there's nothing to take pictures of so why sweat it, loop and headed back to my car.

Dawn, by Mahavishnu Orchestra