Today's walk report: 092814, this weekend.

Saturday 092714 and Sunday 092814.

Wow! It actually felt like fall, as far as fall goes in SoCal. Saturday's high was 77º and today we crept under that with a high of 76.7º. But wait! Here's what's predicted for next weekend...

So that sucks.

Onto Saturday...

"Look behind you..."

The weather.

 This monarch greeted me upon entering the garden. There were two, both of them were frequently fluttering so close I thought they'd land on me.

I followed above and north to one of the four very sad sequoia trees.

I made a quick loop around, just to check things out.

Chocolate daisy, Berlandiera lyrata.

Sago palm.

I also spotted my new green lynx spider friend. WARNING... I will probably follow this insect through the cycle I'm expecting here. Web, some fattening up on other insects, a nest and babies hatching. This will take awhile, perhaps well into December.

I'm almost full circle and about to deliver a kiss to my girl, Docken but I couldn't pass this up.

Sciurus niger, aka, fox squirrel, munching palo verde tree seedpods.

Close-up crop.

The kiss is done... but never forgotten.

Back to butterflies. This is the best looking skipper butterfly I think I've ever seen.

Checkered skipper butterfly, Pyrgus communis.

 Last, another round with Danaus plexippus, a male monarch.

Today...

Tiny yellow flowers and big yellow water lilies but the butterflies were once again the stars of the day.

The checkered skipper returns again...

Closer...

Closest.

 I was surprised to get 80 shots off of this Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, with a close up lens. The front of my 70-300 mm lens is only a few inches away yet the butterfly was unperturbed.

 The pièce de résistance, the mating ritual of Leptotes marina, aka, the blue marine butterfly. These shots were over the course of 1:15 seconds. I got about 50 shots off using a Canon EF70-300 mm f/4-5.6 IS USM at 180 mm and a Canon 500D close up lens. It was a stunning spectacle.

The female makes her presence known, flashing her wings.

The approach. The male is on your left.

The flurry... (sorry about the lack of focus, this was a little tough with the limited dof of the lens combo.

After the interlude she's left alone...

"Are you looking at me?"

About 10 minutes later, I believe this is the same female and I believe she's laying eggs.

On the way home, this little fellow caught my eye. This is a gray hairstreak butterfly, Strymon melinus. Like most butterflies in the family Lycaenidae, the gray hairstreak has a false head on the hind wings to distract predators and protect the head/body from fatal attack. For me, it attracted my attention.

So long and thanks for joining the walk!

Today's walk report: 083013

Preparing for a sunset.

Frequently before I leave the house I'll look outside the small west facing window next to my a/c unit to see what the sky looks like. Either that or I'll take a quick cruise out to the driveway and do the same. This is to get an idea of what sort of sunset to expect and decide on what I want to bring along lens-wise. I've mentioned before that I don't like to carry much on the walk. If it's going to be a picture taking walk I usually take the camera, over my shoulder using a BlackRapid RS-7 strap, my Canon 70-300mm telephoto and put my Canon 500D closeup attachment in my pants pocket. It's OK, it's in a plastic case. But I'll also consider carrying a Canon 60mm macro or a 18-55mm stock lens. Whichever one going along in a small zippered case which Velcros onto the belt that holds my pants up. If it's the 18-55mm that usually means I expect a nice sunset. Not that all sunsets aren't wonderful but some are better than others.

Today I took the 18-55mm lens.

It was 93º and 38% humidity out the door. It wasn't comfortable. The botanical garden is 1.85 km into the walk and when I go to the garden I like to slow down and look for pictures. Not today. I got to the garden, stopped and said out loud... fuck this.

I did get a somewhat unique photo op with a brown carpenter bee however. I took 125 shots with the 500D of this one in flight. It was basically hovering in one spot. Now, a variance of just a few cm means the difference between focus and no focus so it still wasn't an easy shot and when I say one spot what I really mean is an area of about 45 square cm (18"). Nevertheless, I got a moment or two in.

Onto the sunset...

The beginning.

The ending...

and from the "other side"--that would be facing east.

Today's walk report: 082513

When does walking actually become a walk, as in, I'm going for a walk?

For some people getting up from the couch and going into the kitchen, then back again, is a walk. I was trying to qualify or quantify if I was going for a walk this morning at 11:30 or not. Here's the deal, I needed to go to Home Depot and pick up an all-in-one toilet repair kit, then stumbled on a couple of good plant deals in the nursery there. I had decided before leaving I would take my camera either for pictures at the nursery (it helps me plan some things in the garden here for one) and/or stop by the college campus and go to the botanical garden on the way home. I chose to do the latter.

So I could park in the shade I went to covered parking which is up on a hill well above the center of campus. The center of campus being where the garden is. For a bird that's about 390 meters. I, however, took the steps. I also covered a few to several laps inside the garden itself. The garden is about 95x75 meters. Here's what I stopped to take pictures of during my "laps" in the garden.

The Cloudless Sulphur or Cloudless Giant Sulphur (Phoebis sennae). Last week when I did an afternoon walk this was the first little critter I saw. Likewise same this time. However, today it didn't disappear so quick and I finally got some pictures.

Marine Blue (Leptotes marina) on some variety of Callistemon (bottlebrush). There were several flying about this bush and I finally saw what I've determined was a male but I couldn't find one landing and staying still for a wee moment.

one more...

Than I happened upon this lovely couple.

Mom left but dad was hanging out, keeping an eye on me.

Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum). The male holds the female by the neck with its anal clasper while copulation takes place, it can last up to 30 minutes. Notice the heart shape. Romantic, no?

Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis), perhaps calling attention to his anal clasper?

Cereus sp. cactus flower. I need to try and be a little artsy from time to time. By the way, I had these confused  with the San Pedro cactus (Trichocereus Pachanoi) flowers awhile back, they grow right next to each other. I'll probably fix that later.

My red-tailed friend letting me know it's not far away. I see some downy young feathers often. This bird is growing up. My guess is by winter it will be fully adult.

I was still debating if I should officially consider this excursion as a "walk," until I looked up at the steps back to the car.

End of walk one. Start of walk # 2.

This is right at the 1.2 km mark, 3/4 of a mile in and pushing 6:30 PM. This is one of those shots I'll take just in case there's nothing else up the road.

and there wasn't much. I took some pictures indicating the school was ready for "fall" quarter starting tomorrow. I made the mistake of walking the campus 1st day of fall two years ago. It's totally chaotic. Today it's signs like this, everywhere. L.A. County Sheriff's will be everywhere too. It's their big opportunity to "shine."

Bees loving the cereus sp. cactus, end of day. I know that bats are big pollinators of these and other cactus at night and I usually see bats around dusk. I'd like to camp out, maybe bring a lawn chair sometime and see if I can catch any of that.

Yesterday I mentioned "losing" this green lynx spider (I think that's a right ID) right before I had the opportunity to go from my Canon 60mm marcro to the 70-300mm with a 500D close-up attachment. Well, it was right there again today and this time I was ready.

On the lighter side...

Thanks again for coming along on my walks today!