Today's walk report: Hawk O'clock

 Saturday, October 10th

It was a crazy night for sleep. Among other events, I was awoken at 12:45 a.m. I heard the Los Angeles Police Department over a loudspeaker yelling something. I'm not sure what it was, but I was certain it wasn't instructions for me to come out with my hands up. I picked up my iPad off the side of the bed and checked the front of the house camera. Nothing there. Then I heard the LAPD helicopter circling. I got up, did a shortcut through the bathroom to the front door, looked outside, and nothing again. Junimoon joined me in the front hallway, and we proceeded through the living room, heading for the kitchen. Out the gable clerestory windows looking east from the living room and kitchen, I could see the wide ellipse the helicopter was taking. It was between two blocks and almost one mile south of me. They had the Nightsun spotlight lighting everything below by a couple of blocks. It was mostly the noise that was irritating. I went back to bed. Lucy barely glanced at me with a "what's up?" look, and I decided not to close the window because the room was just starting to cool down, and I didn’t think it would matter a whole lot for the noise. Whatever the story, it fortunately ended at 1:04, and I went into a heavy dream cycle. 

The Lucy alarm went off at 2:30 and again at 4:30. Her snooze button is located somewhere between her stomach and the hypothalamus at the base of her little kitty brain. I was in a disoriented, confused, slow-to-respond state of operation but somehow managed to direct Lucy's attention to a small pile of Blue Buffalo, Chicken and Liver, Bursts--treats on her gray hoodie at her corner of the mattress. A few minutes later, I heard the crunching sound of success. This is not an endorsement of the Blue Buffalo product line, however. General Mills, if you're listening, let's talk. 

"Stock photo" of Lucy on her hoodie, her 19th B-day, April, 2025.

Each step of the way last night, I went deep into my REM Cinematic Universe. I have always had wildly vivid dreams, but lately they have been off the charts. I was up shortly before 6:00, on autopilot, heading through the kitchen and into my office with a mug of Java to take my morning meds. I've learned it's best to navigate the house and take pills in my office as opposed to having them conveniently bedside, where five minutes later the question might arise... did you take your pills? You didn't take the blue one, did you? 

I entered my morning reboot sequence while caffeine and acetaminophen did their thing and started making decisions about preparing for a morning walk. Ultimately, I drove the 1/2 mile to my launch pad and was out of the car walking, camera at my hip, at 8:19. Finally, a day where there was no rush to get out early, with a cruising temperature of 66º.  

Here are a few pictures taken along the way.

One of two weather panos, this one taken at the campus arboretum

 Angel's trumpets (Brugmansia). I thought about rearranging a flower or two but the extreme toxicity of these plants had me deciding otherwise. 

 I know, don't say anything. I keep taking pictures of this Coreopsis verticillata plant but I'm amazed that it ALWAYS has flowers and nobody is deadheading it. 

The second weather pano, taken inside the botanical garden. 

 
 I'm officially calling this red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) my first hawk of autumn. Red-tailed hawks in this Valley split into two distinct groups during the summer. The adults stay exactly where they are as permanent residents, while the juveniles and young adults engage in a "reverse migration," heading hundreds of miles north. The young red-tailed will do this until they are about four years old, when they are mature enough to claim a permanent mate and territory back home. They do this because of fewer summertime resources, and so they don't have to compete with older, more aggressive adults. Once autumn arrives, they return to Southern California. During extreme heat waves here, the permanent adult population practically vanishes from sight because they go into a behavioral "lockdown" to survive the heat, compressing all of their activity into the coolest parts of the day.

I believe that blur of a bird passing nearby is a Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota).

 Yes, I spent a few minutes with the hawk. 

 The walk was about 2.6 miles. It was 73º toward the end. The only issue with getting out later on a Saturday was the high number of students choosing to go to school and cramping my style. On Saturday! The nerve! Currently, it's almost 1:30, and there's a 41% chance of showers at 2:00. Early this morning, when I checked hourly weather for tomorrow morning, most of the a.m. was showing showers and scattered showers; that's now "few showers" from 3-5 a.m. So I'll play it by precipitation tomorrow morning on another photo walk. Monday, October 12th, is showing the greatest probability of showers from midnight to past noon. We shall see.

Is it any wonder I'm not crazy?
Is it any wonder I'm sane at all?

Is it any wonder? I've got too much time on my hands
It's tickin' away with my sanity