Today's walk report: 071015

Catching up... again.

For the most part it's been too hot for walks within a time frame for capturing under decent light, so while there has been plenty of walking there's been little picture taking. Here's what I've got from the last several weeks...

053015...

Male mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) in an olive tree

Immature rufous hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus)

Tagetes lemmonii

A red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) rests near a water lily

Flame Skimmer (Libellula saturata) dorsal view

and ventral view

060615...

Checkered grass skipper on Salvia Microphylla

Another round with Crassula perforata

A southwestern fence lizard

Drying pods on some agave

Tagetes lemmonii

 061115...

Female Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna)

A pair of red-tailed hawks squawking up a storm 

 Red-tailed hawk in flight #1

and #2 still squawking

The BIG story, despite it lacking as a photo offering. Frankly I was too in awe to get much in the way of photos, besides most of the action would have had me shooting into hopes and prayers. Let's face it butterflies in flight are a tough subject.

This is a pair of monarch butterflies mating. The show before this landing was spectacular. The pair first circled above me, inches apart from each other, like a small butterfly tornado flying upward as much as 30 feet. But that wasn't dramatic enough--they then coupled IN FLIGHT, flew as one and landed in this bush. Next they took flight linked together for a hop to another part of the bush less than 2 meters from my camera and remained conjoined for close to two minutes. Finally they flew off as one once again over the bush and out of view. It was one of the most beautiful courtships I've ever seen!

062715...

Another agave soon to blossom

This is some seriously chomped upon cacti. I'm going to assume this was done by a hare but whatever it was, how it got past all of those spines is amazing.

A female rufous hanging out

Lesser goldfinch in Salvia uliginosa

This was a another first, the American bullfrog affectionately known as Kevin, mostly above water and in the open, catching the day's end on a rock. We've seen Kevin before both here and here.

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We're just about home and I spotted this wacky flying little butterfly. About the size of a dime it was too small and its flight too erratic to see just how pretty it was. Finally it landed and I had just enough time to get a close-up lens onto a 70-300 mm zoom.

Dainty sulphur butterfly (Nathalis iole)

070515...

Female  Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis)

Female rufous hummingbird

Another Female rufous hummingbird

and the same bird in a different location, probably checking me out

That's all for now... check back soon and remember, comments are usually welcomed while corrections on flora and fauna IDs are most appreciated.

Today's walk report: 081813

Double header.

In the A.M., iCal tells me I get the Dodgers vs. the Phillies game at 10:30 so I hustled to do some stuff all for naught, the Dodgers' calendar was wrong, no game on local TV.  So I said wtf, it's only 94º outside, why not go for a walk?

This is how I felt right at this point, only about .5 km into the walk. It's okay, it got better even though by the end of the 2 hours excursion it was 98º and pretty darn humid.

Buckeye (Junonia coenia). Between chasing butterflies and waiting for dragonflies to land I was siding with the dragonflies.

This was a four image focus stack. Flame Skimmer (Libellula saturata).
(Anyone bumping into my stuff here--please comment to correct IDs if you believe they aren't right.)

Hide and seek.

Peek a boo!

Red eared slider turtle kicking it in the lily pads.

Family: Skimmers - Libellulidae, no ID. The Flame Skimmer above was rather aggressive about chasing this guy away and for my best photo op I had the wrong lens.

Female common bluetail damselfly (Ischnura heterosticta)

again...

and again...

Water lilies are always closed by the time I usually get to the pond, late afternoon.

It was getting really hot. I had walked over to a vending machine for a beverage and came back to this guy.

Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) on lantana. I had both a male and a female on this lantana. The female is somewhat larger than the male, other than that I think you need to be really close to tell the difference.

 again (this might be the female)...

Same dragonfly as before almost an hour later. This one was pretty much hanging out for me.

Then there was a 2nd walk, out the door shortly after 6 P.M., a mere 87º.

A shell of his former self...

Green fruit beetles, doing what they do. My understanding is they only go for overly ripe fruit and are therefore not a agricultural threat. This is not a before and after, these are two sets of beetles.

Turkey vulture, moon.

Cloud parade.

These birds and I were all waiting for the sunset. This was about 20 minutes to go.

and finally...
(that's a lens flare off to the left, I'm still on planet earth.)