I seen a Oregon garter snake, but it evaded me and in the stir I stumbled across this guy. I'm not entirely sure if this is the Oregon Alligator lizard, but based on description and range maps I believe it to be accurate. If anything it would be a hybridization.
A small snake along the trail. A few other visitors had found it and were trying to figure out what it was, so unfortunately it was a bit riled up when I came along. I suspect brown snake? Advised that they give it a little space since it seemed agitated and everyone headed down the trail, so hopefully the little guy is alright
albino (edit: leucistic) coot
Usually we get sea lions inland during the winter, usually they stay in the waterways at the end of Eight Mile road. but this one actually decided to venture right behind my house hehehe. It was incredible to see this far inland. Sorry I couldn't get any better photos. The sea lion kept splashing and playing around and wasn't surfaced long enough to get any decent pictures.
Bird in the Harris Millis fine dining facility?
Are they as lucky as clovers?
Photo 1:
Well Dang!
I'd been eagerly watching my owl box since an owl visited it for one day in mid October. Only squirrels had occupied it since. At dusk yesterday I got excited when I saw a face with white on it which would rule out a squirrel. Grabbed my camera, turned on the flash since it was so dark. Dang it, that is not an owl either. Has to be a pretty small possum to get in that opening.
Photo 2:
Taking The Slow Elevator Down
When the interloper saw me, it sank out of sight in slow motion, was hilarious to watch. I made all kinds of interesting and coaxing sounds but it refused to look out again. This morning no sign of it. Back to hoping that someday a screech owl couple will move in & raise babies.
My dog kept barking, barking nonstop at her kibble bag in our garage. When I went to check inside there was a juvenile opossum at the bottom of the bag who looked like it had feasted all night and into the next day. We gently tipped the bag over and the opossum eventually lumbered out into the woody part of the backyard between our neighbors house and ours where it usually resides. My dog wasn't happy we had to get her a fresh bag of kibble in case the opossum had gone pee in the bag during its post-binge food coma.
Original social media post here:
https://www.facebook.com/734261965/posts/10157698603491966/
Very excited to get this lifer! Heard first and then seen hopping up in the shrubs. So happy I got a nice look at this beautiful bird!
We puzzled over this juvenile crab molt because it was so large for its juvenile coloration. The Cancer productus (Red Rock Crab) I find of this size have all turned solid reddish, so I wondered if it could possibly be Romaleon antennarius. The underside is heavily speckled. One photo shows the crab in a friend's hand for scale.
Juvenile, about the size of a dime.
Wee lil' plants, fully aquatic, growing in apparently eutrophied water, being let out from either Raging Waters, or from the Puddingstone Dam, in the San Jose Hills range. Coin used for scale is a US quarter dollar (¢25 piece), 24.26 mm, 0.955 inch in diameter.
A green chiton attached to a half crab. We observed this alien looking commensal beast while undertaking an intertidal survey on the reefs off Hawera. It made us jump when we first turned over the rock.
A Southeast Farallon endemic
On the left.
Avian version of this photo.
"hey guys that tree looks a bit sus"
. 。 • ゚ 。
. . . 。 。 .
. 。 ඞ 。 . •
• Sequoia was not the impostor. 。 .
。 ゚ . .
, . . . 。
Funny story...
On 17 June 2020 (Durham, North Carolina, USA), there had been a heavy rain in the early morning and it was unseasonably cool afterward. I was taking my dog on a walk when he grabbed something off the ground but spat it out. I was surprised to see it was a chilled, but living, dragonfly, and not one I recognized. I captured it for some studio shots, including some on vegetation in a yard. It later flew off.
Two-striped Forceptail - Aphylla williamsoni (female, body length = 75 mm, wingspan about 95 mm)
bugguide.net/node/view/28713
Records I see on BugGuide, and the range map in Beaton, Dragonflies and Damselflies of the Southeast (Univ. of Georgia Press, 2007) indicate it is mostly a Coastal Plain species. This was in the lower Piedmont. In honor of my companion's prowess, I designate the collection technique as the Detain Odonata Gently (DOG) method. Photo of the apparatus is included with this observation!
Viewed from the basement window. Deerald seems to have decided this was a great place to snooze overnight. It couldn't see me, so I managed to get a few great shots of just how much I need to wash these windows.
Not so common WHITE RAVEN, ie. leucistic. Never seen one before! Was scavenging with several other members of the flock [congress]. And yes, it hopped and gawked like a Raven. Very rare find!
Kayaking in the Broughton Archipelago. My Westcoast marine life knowledge is limited so I'm hoping someone can identify this creature. Approx 5' in length. Squid of some sort?
Rocky outcrop by a Gentoo penguin colony, on a warm sunny day.
This was so awesome to witness.
Found hiding in the bark of pine tree.
Caught red-hoofed in the garden and does not care, what a smug bastard
All hail the g l o w f r o g
Spotted near the waterfowl pond
La Lagunita el Cipres, Ensenada
Not a Glaucous...too small. Probably a Leucistic something.
Is it a fish? Is it a slug? Is it a fishy anemone? I do not have a clue what this is!
It is about 30mm long and there were a few of them in the sand - outgoing tide nearly on the turn. Most were buried and only the "fan fin" was showing.
Resting on the wet sand, when the sand collapsed it arched it's face upwards (2nd and third photos) and seem to spawn capsule from somewhere - there are 2 floating in the 4th pic.
Totally hypnotic, by the time my sister-in-law and I carried on the brother had walked 2kms away from us!
Possibly the same individual as in https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/34054384 but I can't be sure. There were two flying about at the same time.
As many as 10 were on the bird bath at one time.They seem to be daily visitors.
This bird is a particularly good mimic. Some recognizable renditions in this recording: Killdeer, Blue Jay, Northern Cardinal, Great Crested Flycatcher, Tufted Titmouse (several times, as one was singing nearby), Eastern Towhee, Carolina Wren, Red-Bellied Woodpecker, and my favorite at about 1:45, the wingbeat of a Mourning Dove that flew past him (you can hear both the dove and his rendition of it).