this one lives in a cave (really just a crack)
Buzinda.
Leucistic bird. There were 2 with the same coloration.
A very unusual and Kool small bird on the barbed wire fence along the West side of N Staten Island Road.
A partially leucistic male House Finch; the eyes appeared to be dark colored rather than pinkish. I was only able to get one good photo before the small flock of male House Finches flew further out into the field and landed in the green grass where I couldn't find the white-headed male again. We all agreed in our vehicle that this was the Bird-of-the-Day for this location (Staten Island).
Dark morph. Saw it soaked and washed up, so I gently carried it to dry sand. Watched it for hours and it appeared very weak. After the sun set I decided to take the little guy to a local rescue. Hopefully there, the dude can regain strength.
It's probably not HPAI, and it's likely something like starvation, or plastic intake. Hopefully the little guy will be able to get fattened up at the rescue and rereleased soon.
The culmination of my hiking and birding efforts in SoCal in June 1974 was the discovery of a nesting pair of Spotted Owls in Trabuco Canyon. A day after the initial discovery, I invited raptor bander Pete Bloom to accompany me back to the spot to attempt to band the birds. Pete was successful at capturing and banding both adults and the single fledgling. Here is some documentation of that effort, including a John Denver-ish image of me at the time with the fledgling and Pete Bloom holding one of the adults. I also include an image of the canyon as it looked that day where Pete set up the small trap to capture the owls.
Catching kelp flies, bathing, etc
Observed and photographed by Fabian Gonzalez. This appears to be an un-described species. Hairs on petals do not match those of Viola atropurpurea, which very rarely has yellow flowers. The plant seems more similar in the shape of the rosettes and hairs on petals to Viola skottsbergiana, a plant with white petals and similar markings on the lower petals.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144898411
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/182534758
Seems to match this observation found a short distance to the south on Nevado de Longaví.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/77911856
In 10th photo, Nevado de Longaví, can be seen in the distance.
Growing at an altitude of 2980 m.
The population consists of thousands of plants that are all consistently yellow or yellow-orange colored.
Other yellow flowered species in the Section Sempervivum include V. auricolor, which has smaller, more loosely arranged rosettes, and larger flowers compared to the size of the rosettes. It grows far to the south of this location.
Viola coronifera has yellow flowers that are arranged at a different angle on the rosettes.
Observación y fotos por Fabian Gonzalez.
Parece que es una especie desconocida. Los pelos de los pétalos son diferentes de los de Viola atropurpurea. Es mas parecido en la forma de las rosetas y en los pelos de los pétalos a Viola skottsbergiana, que tiene pétalos blancos con manchas parecidas.
Vea:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144898411
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/182534758
Parece bastante parecido a esa observación del Nevado de Longaví, que está unos 30 kilometros al sur:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/77911856
Crece a una altura de 2980 msnm.
Otras violas de la sección Sempervivum con flores amarillas incluye Viola auricolor, que tiene rosetas mas pequeñas, con hojas no tan apretadas, y flores mas grandes en comparación al tamaño de las rosetas. Esa especie ocurre muy al sur.
Viola coronifera, que ocurre mas cerca al sur, tiene flores amarillas que salen en angulo diferente en las rosetas en comparación a esa especie.
A pair of river otters approached this unsuspecting cormorant, grabbed it, dragged it underwater, and eventually killed it.
wonder how old these plants are
hunting a California Towhee
Will revisit.
somtimes being one of the first flowers up, sucks.
Plant not cushion-forming; flowers white; inflorescence axis glabrous (mostly); hairs on basal leaves 8–12-rayed on abaxial surface. From large population which is mostly on limestone/marble, with some plants on adjacent red metamorphics (like this one!).
North Ridge Independence Peak. Shaded chute.
fruits slightly twisted and not as long and thin as D. lonchocarpa, abaxial leaf surfaces with less than 8 rayed hairs.
sepals not persistant ruling out D. californica
inflorescence not bracted and basal leaves not fully ciliate like D. cana
This marten was likely up at 10,900ft/3300m to hunt pikas, but when I stumbled along it became very curious about me. I was able to snap photos for about 8 minutes, then moved on to photograph the flock of rosy finches that was half dosing off while observing the marten. I wasn't able to observe any predation, but may have heard a couple distant screams.
This is very likely Elegant Tern. BTW- I uploaded this as 4K curious to see if Ultra High Resolution makes recognition easier for the AI. Nah! I guess learning does. There is probably not a really high bar for resolution - Other than for the humans who do the ID. I did this picture because I think I have the top view of the wings of this individual as well...A reference of sorts.
Only one plant. Many dead. Horses everywhere, probably feral. Either way they're grazing everything down to shit. Could use some pumas here.
The first time I had ever seen this, i videoed the entire event as well from entry to exit. It was as if this species swims all the time. I sent it to a frogmouth expert and she had never seen that before. The bird chose to swim and flew away very easily after its swim. There appeared to be no explanation for the bird swimming as it was not particularly hot or anything unusual.
2 came up the trail towards me, one paused for a few seconds before joining the other in the undergrowth
DP3 - tons of photos of Snowshoe Hare from this location, so here are a few fun ones. No evidence of White-tailed Jackrabbit, though Orr used photos from this location as representative habitat.
With treasured tennis ball - washed several times, etc :-) I can only imagine the dog owner's face when the gull stole it!