billrod9's Favorites

At this location during April in past years, this species visits a small patch of Camissoniopsis bistorta. This small female bee landed nearby and sat still long enough for a photo. I usually see males here.

Pink, fuzzy fruitbody oozing red droplets,
Dentate underside,
Darker, tapering stipe,
Rosecomb,
White UV,
Mild play dough odor,
Growing off trail under evergreen Huckleberry,
Near sitka spruce/hemlock

Two were chasing each other around my Salvia at dusk, presumably looking for a place to sleep. Finally one settled down long enough to choose a spot and clamp onto it with its mandibles. I haven’t seen this species in my native plant garden all season.

This immature Neotropic Cormorant has been present in this section of the Los Angeles River since at least early September, 2022. It was only about 2/3 the size of the nearby Double-crested Cormorants with a proportionately longer tail, shorter bill, and grey-brown lores.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a good dorsal shot of this spider, but its fairly large size, deep reddish-orange coloration, round abdomen, and epigynal structure are all consistent with A. trifolium.

Mating attempt (?) at entrance to nest tunnel. This was on north side of largest nest aggregation. Last week there were no nests on the footpath that intersects the two sections or on the north side of the path. This week more nests had been built in both those places, in addition to the larger section, which also had more nests. Very active!