Today's walk report: 112413

You know what I like about football?
It makes Sunday walks even more peaceful than they are without it.

Painted lady looking both bedraggled and plump. Maybe she's just looking for that spot to lay her eggs so she can say goodbye. Adult Vanessa cardui butterflies only live for two weeks.

I went to check on the green lynx spider (no, still no babies--I'm actually starting to worry for a spider) and while I had the close up attachment still on I saw this hoverfly on the Mexican bush sage just in front of me. I figure the spider is getting rather boring at this point so...

Aperture at f13 trying to compensate for the short DOF with the close-up attachment, not quite fast enough on the shutter though for this shot but I was sort of impressed to see how long the hoverfly's legs actually are.

The young falcon again, mentioned here, today on the other side of the street from top of the hill so I went over there and it got spooked on my approach...

I couldn't get focus quick enough in flight as it flew to where I was and where I usually see it. I will continue in my effort to get a good shot someday.

Yesterday I mentioned some geese getting past me before I got a shot off. Today I saw this small flock coming well in advance.

Today's walk report: 110213

In a hurry...

To get this done tonight so I can eat, relax and watch a movie.

Not a lot of action today. If I take a picture of a squirrel it's pretty dismal. It just seemed so quiet out and this guy was sitting there like, take my picture... so OK.

Lots of post-Halloween pumpkins left in the patch. I suspect they will stay there and get turned back into the soil. Maybe some will hit the "farm store" which is right behind this field for Thanksgiving. If I had a lion or perhaps a tiger I might have thought about nabbing one. (Thanks, D.O. for that link.)

Hey Nineteen.

I'm not sure if they were following, chasing or perhaps it was merely circumstance but these cowbirds flew behind this Peregrine falcon for quite some distance including a wide turn away from me. The falcon was certainly outnumbered. I've also seen crows act aggressively toward Red-tailed hawks on a few occasions during my walks.

Today's walk report: 062613

This is so hot...

As summer settles in my walk time becomes more and more dependent on outside temperature than hour of the day. I prefer to walk when the thermometer reads 85º F (29.4º C) or less. I would much rather walk in a torrential downpour than in 100º + weather. I live in the San Fernando Valley (you know like, Encino, the Galleria, it's so bitchen) and it gets really hot here. I'm actually a few miles north west of Encino--but we pretty much share the same heat. It's not like Phoenix, Arizona hot but it can be pretty miserable. Triple digits will be common. 115º+ is not unheard of.

The only really positive thing I can say about this kind of weather and how it effects my walks is, waiting for cooler climes gets me out at the right time to catch some nice sunsets. Temps can stay way up there well into October and as we progress into fall the setting sun is often quite spectacular.

Today I walked out the door about 7:15 PM or 89.6º F. I turned the A/C on before I left and really appreciated it when I got home. Sunset today was no more than an orange glow behind the Santa Susana Mountains so no pics but I thought I'd post some from last year instead.

This is kind of random, I'm really just hoping to get this done rather quickly tonight.

That's a peregrine falcon in the tree there.  That's a rare bird in these parts.

Usually it's a pair of crows in this location. Trust me, the other one was nearby. I would see these same two crows everyday at sunset.

See? Would I lie to you?

Sometimes I'm already heading home. I often have 2nd thoughts about not having waited out the sunset from up on the hill but then I had special responsibilities at home which took precedence last year. Tonight I had a vivid recollection of my mother passing away the last km of my walk--almost a tunnel vision movie playing out in front of me. I'm coming up on 4 months since she left, some of the memory could fade a bit faster if it would. This is very close to where I was when that happened today.

 If the sunset is lighting up the sky in a big way I often shoot the other direction for shots I call, the other side of sunset (in other words, east.)

Panorama shot silhouetting the Santa Susana Mountains.

The Warner Center, Woodland Hills, CA.

Many times there have been wonderful sunsets and I don't have the best choice of lenses. This shot 70mm and was a 16:9 crop from 3:2.

That "texture" you see in the clouds remains consistent across multiple image over the course of about 15 minutes. I have to assume it was winds, or perhaps some crazy virga effect. I saw it too so it wasn't my camera. This shot was taken 100613.

 
 Want a closer look? Here you go...

Now let's look north, 8 minutes later...

A week earlier... I wonder what the bird on the barbed wire is thinking. I see a lot of animals watching the sunset and just have to believe there's something going on. Some magic.