Today's walk report: 101514, last weekend

Busy with other "stuff," last weekend's walks and picture taking took a back seat but here's what I've got...

Saturday, 101114.

Blue-eyed Darner (Aeshna multicolor, syn. Rhionaeschna multicolor).

A wild rose.

Vanessa cardui aka, Painted Lady, or the Cosmopolitan.

Vanessa cardui on lantana.

Another Blue-eyed Darner.

Sunday, 101214.

A small tribute to the southwestern fence lizard. Things are finally cooling down in SoCal and that'll mean goodbye to the lizards for awhile.

Some species of Banksia, plant family Proteaceae.

Common Buckeye butterfly, Junonia coenia. With its wings closed at 1.5 meters amongst the wood chips and dirt the butterfly seemed to disappear every time I pulled the camera away. This butterfly REALLY blends in well.

The red-eared slider turtles, like the lizards, will disappear soon too. Red-eared sliders brumate over the winter at the bottom of ponds or shallow lakes; they become inactive, generally, in October, when temperatures fall below 10 °C (50 °F).

So ends our tail, er, tale this week... Stay tuned for more and thanks for coming along on our walk.

Today's walk report: 012514

From gloom to bloom.

Yesterday I mentioned the weather was gray and dismal and not the good kind of gray and dismal which brings rain, just dreary. Today was much different. I knew before I left the house that a detour to a vantage point for the sunset would be in order and I equipped myself accordingly (I brought a 2nd lens.)

Before getting to that...

Okay, it's a boring western fence lizard and not even a very good photo but here's the deal... It's January 25th! It's winter or it's supposed to be. These critters should be hibernating. I saw two.

Maybe a yellow rumped warbler, close enough anyway. It kept hopping around inside this bush and was a little aggravating to get a picture of.

Same bird, different angle. This is why the ID thing is hard.

The other day I took a photo of male Anna's hummingbird #1 from the back and called it a butt shot. Here's #1 again and a real butt shot.

Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui).

One of my donkey friends. The donkeys seem to get a much better deal than the horses do. At least they get to roam some of the time.

Finally, sunset. I did a shortcut to the cross country course because I thought I was getting late. It turned out I had plenty of time. Anyway because of that I'll guesstimate the walk at 8 km. It was a really pleasant walk with a killer album list-- U.K. (Danger Money), Steely Dan (Katy Lied), Led Zeppelin (I) and Brand X (Masques.) Thanks for coming along.

Today's walk report: 052413

Turtle eggs...

Mostly pics.... So tired.

Revisiting the straw flowers. This is a 9 image focus stack.

Another Southwestern fence lizard. Male I believe.

Female Anna's hummingbird. I have not seen many Anna's hummingbirds since March. It's been mostly Allen's hummingbirds. This is a reversal of last year as I recall.

One more, same Anna's.



Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) on Agave americana, commonly known as the century plant.

Just a few of the 1,000s of flowers on the Agave ocahui stalk. The entire stalk is about 3m tall. These plants are monocarpic, once agaves flower they die and it typically takes years for them to flower.

I'm pretty sure this is the same red-tailed hawk I've taken pictures of twice before.

 

Taking off after something in the distance....

So I went to look and see what it was... some trouble with the eyesight or merely a practice run?

Then back up to another lamppost. When she (I just feel that it's a she) left this post she flew past me ridiculously close, around about my elbows. I have a very out of focus photo to prove it.

Meanwhile, this dove was watching on.

I spent most of the time watching this turtle (red-eared slider) laying her eggs. I observed 3 eggs come out and it seemed like a real serious effort. I was about 6' away. The oddest part to me was how far she was from the pond, it was easily 40 yards (36.57 m) and this ground is like rock. She's actually on the edge of a path for the garden and only about 10' away from a classroom door. Looking at everything between the pond and where she chose, it seemed about the worst place to me. But hey, I'm not a turtle. The mulch you see she must have kicked over from about a foot or so in front of her. It was pretty interesting to watch. Certainly more so than it will be here.