Today's walk report: 010314

Looking out the wrong window.

If I think it might be an especially good walk day for shooting a sunset I either look out a small west facing window from where I'm sitting or better yet I get off my butt and walk outside to confirm the sky. The reasons for checking are, deciding what lenses I'm going to carry and also what time I want to leave. Well, I didn't look out that window nor did I go outside. I looked out the window directly in front of me. That window faces north, northeast. I did however leave at a time to catch the sunset around the 6.5 km mark from the top of the hill. The down side of leaving late to time my location to the setting sun is it means poor light for the rest of the walk. Plus it was partly cloudy, that's what made me think it might be a nice sunset for pics.

As soon as I got a clear view looking west I realized I wasn't going to catch a beautiful sunset, in fact it appeared as though I wasn't going to get much of one at all. There was a marine layer out to the west and it only got closer and denser as the walk proceeded.

I've said before, if I'm taking a picture of a squirrel it's a sorry picture taking day.

This is a terrible picture but I wasn't going to slow down so I could focus manually. I just wanted to point out that it was feeding time for the horses, this guy obviously knew that and was perhaps thinking somebody was a little late. He'd pick up that food bucket and swing it around a bit and then throw it down, seemingly frustrated, only to do it again moments later. When I got to the gate leading into the equestrian unit a girl was pulling up to unlock it and go in. I asked her if she was feeding the horses. It turns out she was going in to feed the horses up above in the barn. Anyway, I let her know about this guy's frustration and she said he'll be like that 5 minutes after he's fed too. I commented that I've known plenty of people who have done the same. I'm going to guess it takes a fair amount of time for a horse's brain to get the message its stomach is full and even then such a message probably doesn't matter much.

Top of the hill and yes, I was right... forget about the sunset. There was this guy again and I barely got this shot off. The shadows in this image were cranked way up (lightened) in Photoshop so I could confirm the bird and so you could see too. By this time it was no-go on the sunset and pretty poor lighting for much else photo-wise. I wrote about correcting the ID on this bird just the other day and I ended up correcting that again since. This is not a merlin (Falco columbarius), it's a prairie falcon (Falco mexicanus). Merlins are smaller, not much larger than a American kestral.

Same 8.79 km, still a bit of a struggle today but I pushed myself through the midway point and I felt great coming home.

Today's walk report: 122813

From my front door and beyond.

It was another one of those walks where I felt had I left earlier I could have spent a lot more time walking. I felt GREAT! Initially my plan was to leave about 2:30 but I didn't get out until 3:13. I woke up this morning with an eyestrain headache and by 1:30 it was nagging at me so much I decided to lie down on the couch, close my eyes and listen to music. Same thing that happened on 121613 but for different reasons, as soon as the stereo lost wireless I was out. I don't know if this is a bandwidth issue or Pandora just likes to cut you off sometimes to see if you're still there. Whatever the case, once the music was gone me and the cat on top of me were both sound asleep. I figure there was 40 minutes of music and 30 of nap time. As my mom would always say, well, you must've needed it.

2/3 a cup of coffee, 1/2 a liter of water and a rare ibuprofen later, I grabbed iPod and camera and was out the door. The headache was still haunting me but it would disappear about 1 km into the walk.

I'm starting to see some activity already from some of the wildflower seed I laid down in October and why not? The seedlings probably think spring is already here, we had a high of 84º yesterday and it topped out at 76º today. Hardly what most people would call winter weather.

Outside my door...

Sweet Alyssum (Lobularia maritima)

and I believe this is Alyssum Purple Royal Carpet (Lobularia maritima). Those seeds went down late last year and I never saw anything.

Oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare), it seems odd to me that this is only manifesting in one small area so far but I know little about the secret life of plants.

Onto the campus...

Merely an exercise in manually focusing.

Cooper's hawk having delusions of grandeur?

I continue to find it challenging to get a nice close-up of an American Kestral. My camera data here says I was 10.9 meters away which actually would be the closest I've gotten BUT I don't want to be looking so directly up, I'd like a nicer pose, I want better lighting and I'd like to capture the bird on something more "natural" than a lamppost.

These are the two crows I've mentioned before. These birds have known me for 3 years now. Crows in the wild can easily live into their 20s. This was where I'd almost always find them at the top of the hill close to sunset but lately there have been birds of prey hanging out in this same location. From this spot I walk a circle on the top of the hill. It's about 800 meters.

When I came back to the crow's spot look who I found. I now believe this is a Prairie falcon (Falco mexicanus) but as always I welcome corrections, anyway, the crows were nowhere to be seen. Although I will also point out crows do not seem to be especially intimidated by hawks. See one challenge I probably diverted here.

Today's walk report: 111713

Wake the kids, violent animal behavior coming up.

But first...

I'm only posting a shot of this sage again because I posted the other day and didn't have the name. I knew the Bezerkeley nickname but still wasn't finding it on Google. Also it balances out the squirrel shots coming up.

 Salvia Microphylla 'Bezerkeley'

 This is the Mexican bush sage I mentioned yesterday. I've been trying to get a shot of the only hummingbird I've seen in the garden last few days feeding on this sage to no avail. Why? Because it would be a nice shot,  I cleared some "Bog sage," Salvia uliginosa from in front of it and, most importantly, there's a bench right in front. It's nice sometimes just to sit and take pictures. Anyway, it didn't happen. The hummingbird simply wouldn't come forward.

That would be this guy, Selasphorus rufus. By the way, I've tried cloning this sage before and I'm going to try again come spring. It does so much better than any other Mexican bush sage I've ever seen. This bird DOES like it, just not when I'm close enough for a decent photo.

Onto the kill. This surprised me because you don't typically see hawks ground level especially in streets or parking lots. I was also pretty far away when I 1st spotted the bird and it wasn't until I looked through the lens that I saw what was going on.

I was down a small dirt incline on the sidewalk below this parking area so I thought I'd at least try to step up into the lot. Mr. hawk was too pleased with my approach. By the way, I'm assuming this is the mister. I've posted this same hawk before. It's the largest of the 3 hawks I know of on the campus. I'm pretty sure they are family.

He reacts to my movement and I'm amazed that he can carry the squirrel in flight. That's also a pretty good sized squirrel.

Across the parking lot and the access road below to this spot is about 45 meters away. Yes, I measured it. I did that on Google Earth moments ago.

He is still rather perturbed by this guy with a camera and takes flight to the speed limit sign several feet away.

If you look carefully you'll see a little tuft of squirrel fur on his beak.

I'm starting to feel a little guilty now about interrupting dinner but want to take a few quick seconds and get a close up of the kill.

Aside from the blood he looks almost happy. No one's going to question my getting the gender right here.

The hawk moved to a tree just above the squirrel and watched me as I proceeded up the hill.

This young falcon is also becoming a regular sunset viewer up top of the hill. One of these days I'll get a good picture of it.

Looking Southwest, sunset and Venus.

Interesting condensation trail. Or for the conspiracy theory whack-jobs, a chemtrail. Yes, the government is trying to poison us all... please hurry and leave the country, OK?

According to camera data this was 291 meters away. With the naked eye I was thinking wtf is that?!?

Apparently this kid on the cross country course saw it coming down too.

Squirrel Nests

Did you know that squirrels build nests? Well they do. I missed out on getting a photo or video of this so you'll just have to imagine. Yesterday I was out on my daily late afternoon walk, most of this occurs at the local Jr. college. There is one point about midway on the average walk, 2.7 miles or so in, where I pass a men's room on the campus. Sometimes I find this to my advantage. Yesterday as I'm approaching the bathroom I see what looks to be a very odd white animal with a long white tail. As I get closer I realize it's a squirrel and this little critter has just robbed the bathroom of a paper toilet seat protective cover (yes, it was clean) and about 6 feet of toilet paper. He scurried into a tree-like manicured bush well before I was in camera range and I wasn't inclined to poke around too much and upset him.

If you look carefully, toward the bottom center of the image you'll see he also has himself a tennis ball. I call him a he merely out of convenience, the only way to distinguish a male from a female squirrel is to hold them upside down and look. Besides, he was in the men's room.

About a mile before this spot (or a couple miles later depending on which way I'm going) there are several Sweetgum trees. The sweetgums are on the property of the elementary school I attended in the 1960s. It's hard to see the squirrels nests amongst the leaves but once fall finishes it's job they become quite apparent. You will frequently find more nests, also called dreys, where there are squirrels than squirrels themselves because if a nest gets infested with fleas or other parasites they will leave and build elsewhere. Squirrels are actually rather clean and rarely carry rabies.

 

Squirrel Joke

An owl and a squirrel are sitting in a tree, watching a farmer go by. The owl turns to the squirrel and says nothing, because owls can't talk.

The owl then eats the squirrel because it's a bird of prey.

(People who majored in sciences find that joke funny.)