California Palms and a Hummingbird

Costa's Hummingbird - female

Today,we were finally able to hike the Palm Canyon Trail. This trail has some endemic California fan palms, which are growing mostly near the creek that runs down this canyon. The literature refers to the area with the palms as a palm oasis.

We walked 25 minutes before coming to running water in the creek, and then soon afterwards, we saw the palms. Since we hadn't started on the trail until 3PM, we knew we only had a little over an hour to go in and come back out before it started getting dark (and cold). 

When we were almost out of the canyon, we saw the Costa's hummingbird on some shrubs with pink tubular flowers. She stayed long enough for me to photograph her, and also take a short video, which I haven't been able to download from my camera yet. I will post a link to that when I get it on You Tube. It's not much to look at, though, she just moves her head one way and another for a minute or two.

Here are some photos of the canyon:

Definitely an oasis!

Here is a link to the YouTube of two hummingbirds we saw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsDfsOrX7nQ