The caterpillars seemed to be dead, as you can see in the second picture where I've breached the tent.
Could easily find on several species of 'live oaks' throughout the park.
Dark green leaves, with annoying walnuts that fall on my dads truck and leave forest green-black spots on the windshield.
Shooting out the car window.
Shooting out the car window.
This bird showed up in my neighborhood in early January, and I've been stalking it ever since. It spends a lot of time on the very top of one of the taller neighborhood trees, and I wouldn't have given it a second glance were it not being divebombed by a pair of crows one afternoon. Twice now I've seen this bird dining on a mouse or small bird such as a sparrow, and whenever it flies near any of the other neighborhood trees, every bird in the tree scatters.
The missile-like trajectory of its flight, its size (smaller than a crow, bigger than a kestrel), its diet, and its banded tail lead me to believe it might be a merlin, but if anyone else could back me up on that, it would be much appreciated.
The common name I heard first was Ground Iris.
I'm not totally sure about this one.
I saw this guy sitting on a bush and tried to approach it slowly to to get a good shot, but of course it was watching me the whole time and took off.
16" DBH 35' tall planted Aug 1980
Well, it has rhizines, but it seems way more orange than the ones we saw on buckeye later in the day. I believe this was on an oak twig.
Sorrediate margins, black underside with brown margins. Growing on a mossy rock, which is apparently not right for this species, but I can't find a better match.
Backlit branches, that is. Probably Flavoparmelia caperata, but I didn't record any info about the lower surface, so I can't really be sure. I beliebe the tree was an oak, possibly valley oak, but not sure.
Can't say I'm feeling good about Cladonia ID or the focus here, but I liked the mosses.
