Rarely see these guys at Pillar Point - this one was huge!
I know the guy on the right is Hermissenda crassicornis... what about the one on the left? These two were definitely interacting with one another.
Okay nudibranch people... ID this little orange guy for me! Triopha maculata?
At the Cal Academy with Gretchen LeBuhn learning about the Great Sunflower Project.
We were walking down this trail to the beach and saw a raven fly by with a mouse-like critter dangling from its bill. 25 feet or so later we come across two very scared (or at least, so it seemed) tiny voles (or mice?) huddling together in the middle of the trail.
We literally watched this bird die... it was in the ocean, obviously weak (it couldn't keep its head out of the water), and we saw it go belly-up, and then wash ashore.
My guess is that it was overloaded with Acanthocephalon parasites, but I didn't dissect it right there on the beach to be sure. :)
Today was "Sunday Streets San Francisco" along the Great Highway. This hawk pounced on a mouse in the median and soon had a huge audience watching it. It seemed mostly unperturbed, until someone ringing their bicycle bell came barreling through, causing the hawk to lift up and drop its mouse.
Very cool tendril-like moss on an old stone bridge.
Looks like some sort of maidenhair fern? I think the plant with the smaller leaves might be a younger version- looks like it comes up in fiddlehead form, like a fern. But let me know if these are actually two separate species!
