cwbrown's Favorites

I initially thought this was a courtship flight gone wrong, but based on plumage & insight from a more knowledgeable birder (see below), it's more likely that these were two subadults that were sparring. They apparently hit the power lines directly above where we were standing. The second photo shows their clasped talons, so we assumed that they hit the power lines as they were spiraling towards the ground. Not a love story. Observed with grasshopper biologist @dawood.

This is the second of 2 turtles seen in Tecolote Creek. The larger turtle was reported in inaturalist.org/observations/5565551. The smaller turtle's plastron was estimated to be 15 cm. The smaller turtle followed the larger within 0.5 meters. They swam in a meandering path for at least 30 meters. The smaller turtle is presumed to be a male following a female for breeding.

I had not realized that a turtle would follow a turtle of a different species. So now I am adding a third (my last) photo taken during my observation.

We watched this lizard stalk and hunt down several butterflies (California Patch Chlosyne californica) in about 30 minutes. It would very slowly and methodically move its way towards a cluster of butterflies and subtly pick one off at a time. You can see this happening in the second photo.

Sign at site indicated endangered western arroyo desert toad. This seems like a description of 3 separate species. Could not find one species with this name. Toads were crawling towards water. Very camouflaged in soil.