027 Birds, Bees and Bayside

We walked along a favorite trail today, with a twist - first we walked up the street where house entrances and driveways are, then doubled back along the bay, where we are able to see (from the path) what they can see from inside their homes, or from their back yards.

We have a surprising mix of flowers and other plants, architecture, and animals today.

Lots of bright flowers!

And colorful birds too!

A friend of ours lived for decades in this big wooden home.

So much competition between flowers - size, shape, color, alluring items "Choose me, Mr. Bee"

"Come to me, Mrs Hummingbird"

"Come to us!" they sing in chorus, "Yellow is mellow!"

Whoa! That's a bright bird. It must have gotten the yellow memo...

With a colorful orange/green competitor amidst the pink/purple flowers.

Remember this windvane, we will see it from the bayside too.

Could be the south of France -- if you've ever been there, do you agree?

I can see the road doesn't continue, but I wonder if the sign is referring to the Rivian, given the company's inability to stop the red ink in their books.

Now the sun has gotten warmer, the dew is OFF the roses, and we turn a corner and continue towards the bay.

We pass a flock of Birds of Paradise flowers.

Please join us for part 2.

We continue walking, now on the trail and looking back eastward at the San Diego Yacht Club across the calm but rippling cove.

Looking west.

I spot our first reptile of the day. Let's call it Lizard #1

An attention & warmth-seeking cormorant stretches his wings for us.

Lizard #2 is a cool customer, keeping an eye on us over his shoulder

Lizard #3 wasn't cautious enough -- and lost his tail because of it.

This was a great first photo of this Hummingbird #2 (we saw #1 in the previous section of our report).

When you want to find hummingbirds you look up. They prefer to perch at the top of any bush or tree. And they don't mind sharing with other birds who are no threat to a healthy hummingbird.

As I have learned in previous walks here, the hummers are curious and will follow me for 100 yards or so in either direction on the trail, stopping on whatever tree is handy.

This sad stuffed dog was high in a tree overlooking the trail. I think someone has a thing about stranding stuffed animals, as we saw 3-4 of them today.

Real herons nesting in the giant pine trees.

Scowling down at us!

Possum

Two ducks lifting up at once, and my camera wasn't quite fast enough but I like the shot anyway.

Ducks can be masters of all they survey. Fly, swim or walk they can board any boat, vault over any fence, etc.

Good-looking too.

This plant is called Pride of Madeira. I wonder if the owner of this house said "Have some madeira, my dear"?

Shore birds looking for a meal.

A Fox perhaps?

This is a crane, but I don't know its official name.

As I looked up at the crane lifting material onto the roof I spied another hummer, #3

Once again, perched up high on a thin shoot.

There's the windvane I mentioned earlier on the road side report.

This is Lizard #2 again. As we were returning on the trail, he leapt off the rocks, ran across the grass towards us, changed his mind and ran back. I've never seen this kind of behavior.

He jumped at least 18 inches up onto the rock wall again.

California Poppy, our state flower.

This bee's rear legs were heavily laden with pollen.

We don't know what type of flower this is, but we both liked it.

Looking East at the San Diego Yacht Club.

Looking SouthWest at the SouthWest Yacht Club

Lizard #4 is another type -- that's 3 different species in one walk.

We walked out on one of the docks and took this picture of the homes. You can see the crane at upper right.

Here's looking in the other direction at the homes.

As I was reviewing my photos I couldn't remember why I took this one of the lantana flowers - they're not remarkable.

Aha, that's why. I was trying to catch that butterfly in the middle. Can you see it? I barely did.

But it proved to be most cooperative and basked in the sun while I took its picture. My wife says it's old, it's wings are worn-out and it may die soon. Sorry, butterfly.