matthewl's Favorites

I'm hazarding a guess that this is Cr. gaylussacia as opposed to Cr. Douglassii (the two species CalFlora shows in the area) based on the shorter thorn-length, although it is difficult to see the photos. Please feel free to weigh in.

This is one of the best nature observations I've been fortunate to see. On a night of extremely heavy rain 40 of these newts were seen. This one's eye shine was first spotted from about 30 feet away, but a closer salamander originally caught my attention. The first animal, typical of the species, did not stay still even for a moment so I moved on to this one further down the trail. I hadn't original put it together, but this animal had not moved at all, because it was struggling to pull this earthworm from the ground! I watched it for a few minutes until if finally pulled the worm from the ground and then it sauntered off into the night.