Alligator lizard with several ticks behind its ear.
The first switchback on the Wild Rye Trail seems to be a favorite place for rattlesnakes to take the morning sun.
Several whiptails were actively walking about the lookout area on top of the hill in Foothills Park.
A nesting female at the local nursery. In a Cut-leaf maple with a sold sign on it. The buyer is having them hold the tree until the chicks have fledged.
The only woodrat I've ever seen in the flesh
Fascinating creature. Longer than the bees working the same grove.
Fascinating creature. Very small; when rolled up it would have fit comfortably on a fingernail. Bright coloring. Red mark on either side of body. At first I thought it was dead, but it was just being quiet hoping I would go away.
Not great pictures.
I know this is something really obvious. But I'm really not yet smart when it comes to plants.
Different individuals, I can tell. But are they different sexes? Ages? Species? Subspecies? Or, just Variable, as their very/vary name says?
Second picture is a close-up of the leaves on this stalk flowering plant.
This is the same slime mold I've looked at in previous weeks. Today I went back with Leslie Flint, and she both pulled off the remnants of the one atop the log, and also noted a larger mass of slime mold below.
This piece of lichen had fallen off of a nearby lichen-laden rock. The first shot is from below, the second (unfortunately out-of-focus) is from above.
We were hiking at the right hour to see the soap plant bloom! We even saw one open right before our very eyes! We watched a large bee pollinate it.
This time I was hiking with Leslie Flint, so I feel more secure in *our* ID
