Today's walk report: Ongoing Alerts

 Yes, indeed California is under ongoing weather alerts. I generally look forward to rain but after over 26" of precipitation so far for the season, I'm not looking forward to the potential of another 2+ inches coming my way on Tuesday. Putting that aside for now... today is an absolutely beautiful day in the neighborhood. Here are some pictures from today's walk.

Of course there was male Calypte anna hummingbird, Dusty. Yesterday he was the only hummingbird I saw, which is pretty weird. This trip I saw several. It was about 5-6º warmer for today's walk and it was also a lot less gloomy. Maybe they were happy to see some blue skies?

Besides just milling about I did 2 laps on the 1/2 mile plus "loop" I frequently reference. Time-wise I walked for about 80 minutes and I enjoyed Docken's company on the phone along the way.

Also of note, there were a lot of desert cottontails (Sylvilagus audubonii) milling about. A serious boom in the bunny population. I'm glad they're not at my house but I kind of don't think it's going to be too long before they'll show up.

The star of the show today was this Cooper's hawk (Accipiter cooperii). I lucked out with this bird sticking around and letting me get relatively close. It wasn't until someone walking some 35 feet behind me and talking to the person next to her loud enough to wake the dead, that it got spooked and flew off.

The ancient car worshipers were out again however there were few people and fewer cars.

This is a De Tomaso Pantera, I believe it's a 1974 model. I got a ride in one of these once from a classmate in High School. A friend and I were on an off-campus run for the cross-country team and a former teammate was driving by and offered us a ride back to campus. The run was ridiculously long so we were happy to take him up on his offer.

Nearby was this 2020 Ferrari 812 Superfast. Not to be confused with the 2022 Ferrari 812 SuperDuperfast.

Also nearby, only way up... Does anyone recognize this pair of red-tailed hawks? Note the damage on the left wing of the larger female. Red-tailed hawks are monogamous and generally mate for life.

Up on the hilltop, not much to report. I am however finding more ways around some of the fenced off sections of the campus so I can get some walking in. Here we have the famous "Elephant Mountain" and the Santa Susana Mountains, respectively.

I wish that I could really tell you
All the things that happened to me
And all that I have seen.
A world full of people their hearts full of joy,
Cities of light with no fear of war,
And thousands of creatures with happier lives,
And dreams of a future with meaning and no need to hide.

Today's walk report: After the storm and before the rain

 It's been raining, a lot. California is kind of a mess from snow and rain. In my stomping ground we're up to 26.06" of rain for the season. For comparison last season (2021-2022) we had, 12.24" and for the 2020-2021 season we had just a mere 5.38". There's more on the way too. This coming Tuesday could bring a couple more inches here. I would not be surprised to see 30" by the end of the season. Nevertheless, much of California remains inside of an ongoing drought.

Anyway, I was very glad to see there was going to be a break today so I could get outside and walk. Have I mentioned before that walking is the best therapy for a number of my aches and pains? Well it is and today I really needed it. Here are some pictures from the excursion.

Once again Docken joined me on the phone. Thank you Dockie.

Mourning dove (Zenaida macroura). The tree is a desert-willow (Chilopsis linearis).

The ever-present male Calypte anna hummingbird AKA, "Dusty." I saw no other hummingbirds today, which is quite odd. His shrub is Caesalpinia gilliesii.

The desert cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii).

Shortly into what I call "my loop", the part of the walk that takes me north, then west and I loop back to the garden (it's short, just a little over 1/2 a mile) I ran into about a dozen Canada geese, 6 on each side of me. I was only about 8' away from the closet one and when it let out what I assumed was an alert about the large human with a camera, Docken thought it was a car horn it was so loud. We hear Canada geese all of the time but it's a little different when you're just a few feet away.

Up the hill, it was very quiet and it started to rain a little. I did some walking but didn't hang out long. This common raven flew past as I was in pursuit of a red-tailed hawk, once again up on a lamppost.

I was too late on the hawk.

I decided to drive down to the other side of the hill and just as I committed the car to going down the single lane I saw this across the street. I put the car in reverse and made my way to a place where I could stop and get out. I lost a bunch of time in so doing. I have not seen an American kestrel for several years now. The American kestrel, also called the sparrow hawk, is the smallest and most common falcon in North America but they seemed to have vanished from here. I believe the last time I photographed one was in 2015. Too bad the lighting today left a lot to be desired.

On the way back I spotted this red-tailed hawk half way up the hill. I pulled the emergency brake, hopped out of the car and took a couple of quick shots even though the lighting was awful.

And so ended my little adventure for the day.

I felt the coldness of my winter
I never thought it would ever go...

Today's walk report: Orienteering

 Yeah, I never heard of it before either. According to Wikipedia, Orienteering is a group of sports that require navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain whilst moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a specially prepared orienteering map, which they use to find control points. Call me a curmudgeon but for me it was a bunch of people running around, cramping my style.

I was puzzled when I found one of these in the garden...

I had already seen an unusual amount of people running around in a fashion that seemed to indicate a certain level of confusion. I finally asked two young women, "can you tell me, briefly, what's going on?" One of them responded they were "Orienteering." That wasn't very helpful, then she said it was for their school. Equally, not helpful. Apparently you stick some sort of device attached to your finger in that little hole and it sends DNA information or something to China. 

Basically I was doing what I could to avoid them and it was difficult. I'm guessing there were at least a few hundred participants. Kids were bused in.

Before and after...

Male Calypte anna hummingbird Dusty was hanging out.

Male Allen's hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin).

 Up to the hilltop was my great escape...

This pair of red-tailed hawks have appeared on this blog at least a few times. The female is the one with the damaged left wing, second shot. She's the larger of the two but that's hard to tell here. Actually both birds are looking a little battle-scarred.

A common raven.

 This turkey vulture was flying so close overhead I found it challenging to get it fully inside the frame. This first image is probably the best shot I've gotten of a turkey vulture in flight.

The blurry spots are birds of a more normal size, sparrow-sized.

After circling over my head a few times the turkey vulture headed for a field below where three other turkey vultures had already found some carrion. They weren't too happy about the interruption either.

I didn't watch the whole affair but I believe the intruder was chased off.

That's all I've got. My thanks to Docken for hanging on the phone with me and for tolerating my bitching about the Orienteering. She said, it sounds "military." Sure enough according to Wikipedia...

The history of orienteering begins in the late 19th century in Sweden. The actual term "orientering" (the original Swedish name for orienteering, lit. "orientation") was first used in 1886 at the Swedish Military Academy Karlberg and meant the crossing of unknown land with the aid of a map and a compass. In Sweden, orienteering grew from military training in land navigation into a competitive sport for military officers, then for civilians. The name is derived from a word root meaning to find the direction or location. The first civilian orienteering competition open to the public was held in Norway in 1897, when Norway was still a part of the Swedish union.

Navigate this...
King Crimson - Sailors Tale

 

Today's walk report: 030423

 54ºF and mostly cloudy, it was a fine morning for a walk. Docken joined in on the phone, thanks Dockie.

Male Calypte anna hummingbird, "Dusty" was a lot more reliable than he was last week and I don't know, I might be making this up but I think he was happy to see me.

I left the garden to get some walking in and suddenly heard bird chatter that I thought was going to be feral parrots but it turned out to be three acorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus). I've never seen, or at least I've never taken pictures of an acorn woodpecker before and I was pretty excited about it. However a family was rapidly approaching from my rear and their little girl felt some compulsion to scream her infantile head off. Kids screaming. presumably for fun, is a phenomena that I've seen (heard) on the rise since the late 1990s. I'm talking blood-curdling shrieks. I've gone so far as to look for case studies on this and have come up with nothing. It's both boys and girls by the way. Anyway, besides it being obvious I was taking pictures, I put my right index finger up to my lips for the mother unit of the child. To no avail. The kid screamed some more and I never got to the other side of the palm tree in hopes of better light and sharper images before the birds were frightened away.

I looped back around to the garden and visited Dusty again.

Then I decided to take my car up the hill since I saw red-tailed hawks and common ravens off in the distance.

This red-tailed hawk greeted me from this lamppost on my way to park the car.

Across the road I noticed a pair of common ravens that seemed pretty intent on watching where the hawk might decide to take off to.

When the hawk took off so did the ravens.

Once across the parking lot and into this eucalyptus tree the ravens went their own way.

I did a lap in the parking lot (1/4 mile) and as I headed back to my car I noticed the Los Angeles Fire Department had a training session down below. This is a frequent occurrence on this campus. I would not do well up on that ladder.

 Then there was the flight of the psychedelic owl.

Moments ago I created my own AI psychedelic owl.

 Where the raven flies there's jeopardy.