Today's walk report: 110622

 Here we are, November 2022. While for the most part I'm enjoying the cooler weather, this despite central heating being inoperative and not within my budget to repair, I also feel a sense of utter bewilderment as to where the year has gone. Wasn't it just recently January? Then there was that whole f'n with the clocks thing again last night. You know, the analog stuff you didn't change before bedtime keeps messing with your head, especially as you first wake up? This morning I had one LED clock, my bedroom clock, that absolutely refused to let me change the time in accordance to PST. Both the hour and minute buttons were unresponsive... thing is it worked just a couple of days ago. So...

I replaced it with a much more modern clock radio. This one has a cassette player. Whatever those are.

Despite my struggles with clocks, the spacetime continuum and developments in physics that suggest the non-existence of time is an open possibility, I did get out, on time, this morning for a walk. Included in the walk were some moments frozen in time with the aid of a digital single-lens reflex camera and the flexibility of my right index finger.

Docken joined me on the phone. The phone is said to be "smart" and has a clock that changes without my intervention, in accordance to silly things humans do with time, because silly humans programmed it to do so. Thank you, Docken. Thank you, silly humans.

Here are some pictures.

I went looking for the male Calypte anna hummingbird known as Dusty in part because I always do but also because I didn't see him last week. At least I didn't get a positive ID. This is not Dusty. Dusty may have flown the coop.

"The only constant in life is change" ~ Heraclitus.

This male Calypte anna was darting all around me for some time but he wouldn't stay perched for more than a few seconds and inflight shots were hard due to complex backgrounds. There was one short period where he stopped to preen, however, lighting was less than optimal.

I did the same loop I've been doing for awhile and there were ancient car worshipers coming en masse but it was a little light on interesting cars within viewfinder range. Again, generally I just walk and click for the cars. Best I can figure, this is a 1969, Renault Caravelle convertible.

I went back to the garden, sat on a bench, spoke with Docken and kept my eye on Dusty's principal territory for several minutes, still no Dusty so I headed for my car to drive up the hill. No stairs today. To be honest, it wasn't much of a walk but I've been engaged in lots of very physical yard work lately and I need to recuperate. Plus, I've been making some effort at doing more weekday walking. Besides, why am I making excuses, I don't even know you. Tell me who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)

I believe this is the same male (pretty sure on gender) red-tailed hawk that was featured along with its mate (kinda sure on that too-- a female, on this same branch) in last week's walk report.

I kept thinking he was going to take off and I needed to be prepared.

But then he didn't.

and once he did, I wasn't ready.

Canada geese. Time flies.

That's about all I have time for today. See you real soon, relatively speaking.

Today's walk report: 103022

 Waiting man, this morning was about waiting. Waiting to fall asleep after waking in the middle of the night. Waiting for the dreams to fade away and leave me alone. Rinse and repeat. Waiting for daylight. Waiting for coffee to take effect. Waiting to feed cats. Waiting for groceries to be delivered. Waiting for the phone to charge enough so I could talk with Docken while walking (thanks Doc). Why wasn't the phone charged after being on a charger all night? Another mystery from Apple's secret laboratory but I think I'll have to wait before I can get a new phone. Anyway, everything came together and by 8:00 AM I was ready to head out. 

Here's Stan, he had already finished his breakfast. This is unusual, him hanging on the patio watching me through the the windows. I opened the door to talk with him and then took some pictures. Did he want to come in? What was he waiting for? Stan and I have grown closer lately and while he spends more time here and with me, I still can't touch him. Arms length is his usual limit. Winter coat, handsome lad.

There wasn't much to report. It was really quiet at the local botanical garden. I didn't even see male Calypte anna hummingbird, Dusty. Unless this was Dusty, this shot was taken well within his realm but I neither got a good look nor was I able to observe his behavior.

I left the garden rather quickly. I thought perhaps I'd loop back around but I didn't know I was close to becoming completely distracted from any routine.

The ancient car worshipers were back. In fact, there were a lot of people in the parking lot, mostly observers it seemed. Mostly non-classic cars blocking the classic cars in the lot. Maybe it's always that way, I was about an hour later than usual. I don't explore these events, I pretty much walk, click and am on my way.

Apparently this is a Chevy Nomad but it appears as though the guy took off the labels. Google Lens is helping me on ID's today. I have no patience for Id'ing cars. Aren't you supposed to keep the labels on, isn't that part of the deal?

This is a Thunderbird. This car is really old and yet it's a year younger than I am. You know, where can we shop for after market parts?

I had this in here before. Still dunno make and model, again, what happened to the labels? What happened to the door handles?

 This car I had never heard of before. Google Lens gave me a positive ID. This is a Bizzarrini Strada (5300 GT Strada). Designed by ex-Ferrari chief engineer Giotto Bizzarrini in 1963. The Strada was launched by his company in 1964. Production was from 1964–1968. 133 cars were built. This is the kind of car I would have liked when I was about 12.

This is a 2022 Mclaren 765LT. What's with the scratches and dings? I don't see that on the vintage cars. MSRP is about $382,500. Jeezus, dude, take care of your toys.

Cruising away from there and thinking I was going back to the garden I was met with a surprise. Docken caught me through the phone agasp and bewildered. A little bit of back story... This college campus was established in 1947, originally as an agricultural school. The initial focus was crop cultivation and animal husbandry. I grew up with this school as a both a hideaway and a hangout. I have serious history with this campus, I mean, my mother used to buy eggs, milk and butter from a little farm store on this campus when I was barely as tall as the counter inside. I had been telling Docken for months about the classic mid-century modern library we both were fond of being fenced off and construction taking place. We both thought, the building is classic, surely they were working on a restoration. Nope... all gone. The bastards!

I borrowed this picture from someone named  Stephanie Asher on Flickr and modified it slightly in an effort to show off the architecture. This was taken in 2006. Docken found the image, I couldn't find any others.

The vertical piece on the right side of the image was a small elevator mostly for handicapped access. 

In late 2012 or early 2013 a new libray/learning center was established on campus. It took them forever to build. That's when I first started wondering about the fate of the old library. I took these pictures in March of 2013 and September of 2013, respectively.

One thing that came out of wanting to see the wreaking grounds of the old library... I walked the stairs. The famous stairs only to be rivaled by Tianmen Mountain in China. I walked around the top of the hill after visiting the Fine Arts, outdoor art gallery. Clearly there's something I don't understand about the nature of the project, so I'll leave it at that.

Canada geese, I'm on my way around the top of the hill, back to my car and headed home. Thanks for coming along.

 

Today's walk report: 102322

A late afternoon jaunt with Docken on the phone for company. Thank you, Docken.

Last night I was sure I would be going out close to sunrise. Somewhere around 4:40 AM I decided that was not happening. So here it is, shortly after 7:00 PM, past my dinner time so let's get to some photos from the walk. 

Did you see yesterday's post? Yesterday's post was fun and informative. Well, it was for me. Today there was a focus on common ravens. It's going to be an internalized debate for me for some time but no, these are ravens and I'll throw in a red-tailed hawk for good luck. But first...

The Agave americana in the local botanical garden finally got chopped down. It was looking rather precarious for some time. This ground squirrel didn't seem too bothered. 

Activity in the garden was pretty quiet so I took the long way back to my car so I could drive up and check things out at the top of the hill. Along the way I spotted this birdhouse. This is right across from the school gymnasium. A curious student project, no doubt?

Before I go on and referring back to yesterday's post about cats which are birds, crows and ravens, etc. I pulled this image to further explain because at first glance, especially with birds 100 yards (or whatever) away, the tail feathers don't always make things obvious--crow vs raven. I got this image from the Corvid Research blog. 

Here are all of the ravens I was watching together. I now believe that these might be two pairs of “teenagers.”

and here are some pairings of the ravens in flight. They were all close to each other throughout my visit but they weren't all always in my camera view.

Nearby, there were four mourning doves.

What were the doves doing? Well, they seemed to be watching the ravens and the ravens were putting on quite a grand aerial show.

Especially these two.

Things got a little hectic when a red-tailed hawk showed up.

Let's just say neither species cared to share airspace.

 
After a short while the ravens took off together and the hawk disappeared from camera range. I decided I should add a little distance too and walked some more. Coming back to the parking lot I noticed another red-tailed. I'm pretty sure this is a female and I'm also fairly certain she's carrying an egg or two.

Down below humans were gathering for some sort of Halloween extravaganza.

Frightening!

Once again, I will leave you with a song. Thanks for coming along.