Today's walk report: 011219

After the storm. Part II.
We had more rain! Another .71". YIPPEE!

It was a little dark shooting pictures but here a few.

The garden, on the whole, is looking much more alive.

Male Selasphorus sasin, Rusty G. Alpha, was hanging out.

A little more sunshine...

This might be male Calypte anna, Brad. We haven't seen Brad since 12/9/18 so I'd need to study some older photos a little and think about it some more. He was in the right spot but I have some doubts. Also, Anna's hummingbirds don't seem to hold onto their territory as much as Allen's do.

Sunshine.

Moon glow.

and cloudy skies, with more to come.

Today's walk report: 010619

Happy New Year!

There would have been a walk report on New Year's Day however, the car broke down. I know, weird huh? Pretty sucky way to start the year too. But on January 1st the plan was to drive in proximity to our botanical garden hang and then see how much we felt like walking once we got there. This is a solution when you're dealing with periodic aches and pains. As it turned out we walked 2.3 miles to pick up the car from the auto repair shop on January 2nd to make up for the day before, at least on the level of exercise. Nope, nothing to take pictures of in Reseda. That's where the auto shop is... Do I need to explain everything?

Today, no need for a car and the walk was splendid. We had .80 inches of rain last night and today we have beautiful clean blue skies with lots of  stratus, cumulus, and stratocumulus clouds floating about.

Picture taking was weak but here are a few...

This is not Rusty. This is one of two male Allen's hummingbirds that are local to our home.

These two red-tailed hawks were photographed from the garden. Camera data reports that they were 291 meters away. When I see a pair of Buteo jamaicensis like this I usually assume they are mates. From the camera the lower hawk on the left looked much smaller then the one on the right. Now I'm not so sure there's much of a difference in size. Anyway, one of the few ways one can tell the difference between a male and a female is that the female can be up to 25% larger than the male.

Rusty was around but he didn't feel like doing any close-ups today.

Once the flowers start opening on this Eucalyptus torquata (Coral gum) tree Rusty is going to be all over it.

Some sort of agave flowering. Note the rain drops still clinging on. This image was taken 9 hours after the rain stopped +/- 10 minutes.

The same female Caypte anna hummingbird as seen in the last walk report and a couple of others. She was once again being courted by a male engaging in what is referred to as a display dive. It's a pretty amazing event.

Here he is above her, about 20 yards away, waiting for another round of dives.

Eucalyptus, Moon Lagoon, also getting ready to bloom in a big way.

Thanks for coming along! See you real soon!!
PS, Docken, I love you!

Today's walk report: 122818

The usual suspects.

Today's walk report: 122618

The day after Christmas.

What a beautiful day! We drove and walked today not wanting to push our luck with some recent aches and pains. And we did fine. Thank you.

It was more of the same today. Male Selasphorus sasin hummingbird, Rusty G. Alpha was in fine form chasing intruders from his territory. Every time we saw him chasing I could not get a good glimpse of the intruder. So I followed and found it was a female Calypte anna (Anna's hummingbird) which seemed to be pretty darn persistent about going back into Rusty's hood.

Here was Rusty, all over the place...

and here was the intruder. First, where she took off to after being chased...

and then back to Rusty's base.

A female Anna's hummingbird is larger than an Allen's and I believe she was able to out maneuver the smaller bird. Time for some research. Needless to say she wasn't especially perturbed about returning to his turf.

We decided to take the stairs to the top pf the hill to see if red-tailed hawks might be hanging around again today. We got two! I don't believe either hawk were the one we photographed yesterday.

But first... we heard the sirens down below and then we saw smoke. This was a lot closer to home than I imagined too.

The hawks were about 50 meters west.

You've got to click the pictures and see the larger versions. Don't be looking at this on your phone either. Thank you.

Two trees east there was this mourning dove, who was ousted from its perch when one of the hawks decided to fly over.

Today's walk report: 122518-Merry-Christmas

Merry Christmas, 2018!

This is two walk reports in one. Aren't you excited?

Last night, Christmas Eve, we went for a walk in the neighborhood just south of us wherein lies the famous Candy Cane Lane. In our youth this was a much bigger deal than it is of late but it was still very nice. The streets get packed with cars and certainly some of the people living along the 3 blocks long and 4 blocks wide area don't especially appreciate all the commotion. Approximately 60% of the homes didn't decorate and it's my recollection that at least 85% participated in some fashion back in the 60s-70s. We walked about 1/2 of the territory, a little over 2 miles. I brought along a crappy old point and shoot camera, so just a few pics to prove we were there.

Today, Christmas Day, it was back to the local botanical garden and elsewhere on the college campus where it resides.

As soon as we entered he garden we were met with a flurry of American bushtits (Psaltriparus minimus) catching insects on a cape honeysuckle bush.

 In a couple of previous reports I have stated that this hummingbird was an immature, male Anna's (Calypte anna). My bad, today it was being swooned by an adult male and it is indeed a female.

Male Allen's hummingbird, Rusty G. Alpha was also hanging out.

Next we moved up topside of the campus, overlooking the San Fernando Valley and Docken spotted this red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis).

Once he departed, we did too.

Today's walk report: 122318

It was very quiet in the garden today and unfortunately hardly a creature was stirring... but I did manage to get a couple of pictures at least enough to show we were there.

Our favorite male Allen's hummingbird, Rusty G. Alpha was around but wasn't being especially accommodating on the photo-op side. I don't want to hurt his feelings but soon we will have grevillea/Allen's hummingbird photo potential in our own backyard. We've had a male Allen's here for years and my wonderful sister gave us a beautiful grevillea 'Peaches and Cream' as a Christmas gift.

This young male Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna) was profiled in my walk report from December 16th but he was being highly evasive today.

Here's our old friend Grumpy bird in what might be his grumpy bird home. California towhees typically build their nests in shrubs. They even like poison oak. This is a dead Calothamnus quadrifidus bush (Common Net Bush), which, for me anyway, really seems to suit Grumpy bird.