Hummingbird (Anna's) bathing in a small garden pond at 7pm on 5/7/13.
Brown-spotted Bush-cricket (Tessellana tessellata), Oakland, Alameda County, California - 2 July 2012. Found inside a building, chilled, photographed and released. This is an introduced species native to Europe. ID confirmed by David Ferguson from images on Bug Guide.
Not too sure what this is.
Unfortunately, every year about this time I see dead night heron chicks at their roost next to the post office. This year either the city has been on top of cleaning things up or there just was less dead chicks. Which could be a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe it was an abundant year for the night herons and there was plenty to bring home or maybe not as many eggs were laid this year because of till times. Either way I am glad to see less causalities this year.
non-native
I've been seeing these digger bees for years now, but last Friday I was finally able to take a halfway decent photo. Conditions are apparently just right for this bee at the corner of the Admissions & Records office at Peralta Community College District. There a small path of sand is exposed and provides an excellent place for their burrows.
The line old redwood of the east bay hills
very very slender stems and florets; lemma hairy in age; awns less than 30 mm long and about 0.1 mm wide
