Photos / Sounds
What
Bejuco Prieto (Callaeum macropterum)Observer
dvalovDescription
Common, abundant and widespread in the valley; blooming and fruiting profusely in sandy, gravelly rocky arroyo bottom.
Photos / Sounds
What
Narrowleaf Sandpaper Plant (Petalonyx linearis)Observer
dvalovDescription
Common, scattered in the valley mostly in the arroyo bed but also in disturbed road cuts. Herbage very scabrous.
Photos / Sounds
Observer
dvalovDescription
Large tree in bloom and also full of leaves. Branches spinose at tips and lacking spines but broom-like above, and those below and in middle arcuate and drooping. Bark furrowed, brown on trunk and only green on smaller branches which are lanate. Banner yellow-white tinged; leaves pinnate, the leaflets c. 4-7 mm L; pod brown, mostly flattened.
Photos / Sounds
What
Red Willow (Salix bonplandiana)Observer
dvalovDescription
Abundant all along the water at edge of the pools and stream; slender shrub-tree, some to 5 m H; just starting to bloom. Leaves glabrous, margins entire, striking gray below.
Photos / Sounds
What
Palmer's Jackass-Clover (Cleomella palmeri)Observer
dvalovDescription
Many plants, most with flowers and fruit, in sandy area above the salt flats. Most plants observed had a mix of trifoliate and single leaves.
Photos / Sounds
What
Leucosyris crispaObserver
dvalovDescription
Many plants, most with flowers and fruit, in sandy area above the salt flats. Herbaceous and viscid above (with strong odor), woody below.
Photos / Sounds
What
Newberry's Velvet-Mallow (Horsfordia newberryi)Observer
dvalovDescription
Fls yellow, leaves thick, velvety
Photos / Sounds
What
Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus)Observer
dvalovDescription
Resident(s) in the abandoned palm orchard, heard from at least October to May. Today seen first perching on top of a bare-topped palm trunk lower under the canopy. When I disturbed it inadvertently, it flew up onto a Washingtonia robusta frond where it perched while I was able to watch and video it.
Photos / Sounds
What
Californian Potter Wasp (Pachodynerus californicus)Observer
dvalovDescription
Black with pale yellow stripes; ca. 1 cm long abdomen-thorax. Unable to see entire body as positioned. Appeared to be working on a lump of mud on the rock underhang of a large boulder in the river stream at about 1 m above the water on E facing side. Lump can be seen below the wasp. Nearby several other mud cells
appearing more like tiny pitchers.
Photos / Sounds
What
Subfamily EnnominaeObserver
dvalovDescription
On screen door; climbed onto my thumb. Flew away after I was able to take photos.
Photos / Sounds
What
Baja California Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus zosteromus)Observer
dvalovDescription
Unlike the previous specimen small brown lizard rescued from the cat (https://mexico.inaturalist.org/observations/208381651), this lizard had a pale belly that lacked any blue, yellow or orange coloration. Base of tail to nostrils c. 8-9 cm and 1.5-2 cm at widest point. Most scales of body and tail clearly mucronate and the lizard felt slightly prickly when held.
Photos / Sounds
What
Embaphion depressumObserver
dvalovDescription
Beetle ca. 1.5 cm L; sandy soil of well-vegetated rear dune system
Photos / Sounds
What
Desert Trumpet (Eriogonum inflatum)Observer
dvalovDescription
Growing in a what appears to be an old marine deposit in a disturbed quarry site.
Photos / Sounds
What
Apricot Mallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua)Observer
dvalovDescription
Suffretescent; note petals lacking claws, large deshiscent portion of the carpal, and leaves with yellowish pubescence superior surface and gray/white on inferior surface.
Photos / Sounds
What
Desert Trumpet (Eriogonum inflatum)Observer
dvalovDescription
On slope of arroyo bank; soil in this particular pocket apears to be limestone (chunky, crumbly yellowish soil) with volcanic rocks loosely embedded. Little vegetation and what there is is almost exclusively this taxon and Hofmeisteria fasciculata.
Photos / Sounds
What
Mexican Oregano (Lippia palmeri)Observer
dvalovDescription
Uncommon and occasional along the arroyos in this immediate area; in partial shade of Palo Blanco (Lysiloma candidum).
Photos / Sounds
What
Colubrina viridisObserver
dvalovDescription
Leaf shape and size variable as can be seen; newer branches with leaves singular and alternate; older branches with short shoots with whorled leaves; stipules often present and firm; bark gray-brown, peeling to expose redder tissue beneath.
