pdurr's Journal

Over the weekend I went on a nature walk in Laguna Park in Sebastopol. That day, 2/2, was the first day of rain that Sebastopol had experienced in a long time. Unfortunately there was little out to view besides leafless plants. The first thing I saw while walking into the park was a dead animal, I think that it is a rat, but I tried not to get too close. I also saw a small green plant growing in clumps on the ground that someone identified as possibly from the Carrot Family. I was ready to give up on finding another Taxa in the park, until my boyfriend spotted a log laying underneath a circle of trees with a large fungus growing up it.

On Monday, February 10th, I went on a hike in Redwood Regional Forest where I found some interesting species. First I found a burrowing spider of some sort. I was unable to snap a picture of the spider itself, because it ran away, but I got a picture of its web burrowed into the hillside. I had never seen a spider doing this before, and the entire hillside was covered with these webs. I also observed lots of ferns, and took one picture of one, but was unable to ID it to its specific species. I saw a large California Banana Slug that seemed to enjoy the rain we had just received. I also viewed some beautiful fungi growing onto a downed log, but was unable to identify it.

At this point, I was having a hard time finding any other taxa of interest, UNTIL I pulled my leg up to lean it on a tree and tie my shoe, and saw that it was covered in lady bugs! Then I realized it was not just this tree that was covered in lady bugs, but the entire side of the path for a good 1000 yards!! There were thousands of them all piled onto each other moving about. I am very curious as to what was going on there. I thought they might have been mating or it may have been a feeding frenzy. Either way, it was the most amazing interaction with the Coccinellidae I have ever had.