patsimpson2000's Favorites

Weak flier, observed about four hovering in and out of large stack of dead cattail leaves along the San Diego River flowing out of Kumeyaay Lake. About the size of a common buckeye with a distinctive black & white wing pattern and bottom section of abdomen was a fuzzy/feathered orange. None of them would land & pose for me.

It is unusual to see pollinators at Vinca flowers, so I started snapping photos of this native bee. It was not gathering pollen or nectar--but cutting petals for its nest. (Such smooth cuts!) Note: The order of these photos is last to first.

A Western Yellowjacket (Vespula pensylvanica) intervened shortly after the Bee Assassin caught the bee, successfully removing the abdomen for itself. If anyone has a suggestion of how to tag or annotate that, please comment below.

This individual split into two observations, because it was observed preying on two different species.
REF: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/130029299

Timeline:
09:46:14 bee captured by Bee Assassin
09:48:12 Yellowjacket is latched on to bee
09:49:40 Yellowjacket has separated bee abdomen from thorax

In late 2019, I finally started seeing fence lizards in my backyard after living here for almost 10 yrs. I just needed to remove a bunch of thick non-native vegetation that the previous owners had planted, and be vigilant about keeping cats out (which is really tough). The cat thing is a real problem around here for herps and birds. Luckily my failing retaining wall provides lots of cracks for the lizards to hide in. I'm seeing all age classes now, which is pretty cool (to me anyways).