This may be the first record for western Fresno County in the San Joaquin Desert. There is a Fresno County record in the California Moth Specimen Database from Kaiser Pass (~9200' in the Sierra Nevada). Last year I also found the species in similar habitat in eastern San Benito County. There are other records west of the San Joaquin Valley in Del Puerto Canyon, Mt. Hamilton, and Mt. Diablo. This individual is in very fresh condition and has by far the lightest forewing overscaling I've ever seen.
Such strange antlers!
I saw one similar to this last season and reported it to the park authorities:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/149359558
Here's the response I got from Natural Resource Program (SCC Parks):
"Deer can have misshaped antlers for several reasons: trauma to the antler growth points, trauma to other parts of the body, hormone imbalances, genetics, and disease. It is difficult to know what the cause is without blood testing. I am not aware of any current outbreaks of concern in the Bay Area's deer populations, but I have forwarded your photos onto CA Fish and Wildlife just in case. They monitor disease and the overall health of dee populations in California."
Here's the response I got from a CAFW wildlife biologist on 5/17/23:
"These bucks have peruke (look it up on the Internet) most likely due to some dysfunction or lack of production of testosterone. No cause for concern about spread of diseases and is best just to let them live out their lives. This condition is not rare."
References:
(Los Cochas Ridge Trail)
About 40 egg capsules or cysts attached to a submerged twig in vernal pool. About 3-4 mm, in rows, slightly soft with small dark marks (openings?) on each. Third photo shows what might be an opened one?
Adult Lepidurus packardi, copepods and other vernal pool life present (past the time for adult fairy shrimp). @aidona @aidonakakouros @merav
It looks like Witches’ Broom but it’s on Toyon. I’ve seen this elsewhere @norikonbu @nancyasquith . I saw it on Toyons at Waterdog Lake I think? Will have to check. I can’t find other references. There was a lot on this particular tree.
On Peltigera. Sciaridae is a placeholder until a further determination can be made. There are lots of presumed mines on soil-substrate Peltigera in the area, seemingly only on wetted portions of the thalli. Edit: last two photos of a larva that came out of a lower (to the ground), inner portion of thallus.
Southern banded newt eaten by Great Egret (Ardea alba)
טריטון הפסים ניצוד על ידי לבנית גדולה
Oak Gall Wasp (tentatively Feron sp.) collected as a gall on Engelmann Oak on 2/18/23 at Santa Ysabel Preserve by @madily. See discussion here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/149459575
Two batches of photos:
1) Live adult photos are of the live wasp, taken through the Ziploc plastic and then photoshopped. Too afraid I'll lose it if I do anything else for now.
2) Wasp died in the Ziploc 3/5/2023. Dead adult photos taken with Olympus TG-6 and added to this observation the same day. Will ship specimen to @megachile for better photography.
Possibilities: In the bag @madily gave me to deliver to the Norcal oak gall fans, I have two Englemanns twigs. The first has a single 'Feron' gall, which is still attached to the underside of its leaf and appears to have an exit hole at the top (which may have been there already, eg, an empty gall). The second twig has a leaf with both an Andricus reticulatus and a Feron gall, next to each other. This was iNatted en situ: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/149766861 That Feron gall has since fallen off the leaf and does not appear to have an exit hole. The Andricus reticulatus gall does have an exit hole now, but that may have been there before.
Therefore... this adult could be 1) the Feron sp. inducer, 2) a parasitoid wasp; or 3) or Andricus reticulatus. Or something else that hitchhiked on the twigs, but that seems unlikely. There may be other possibilities as well!
A non-exhaustive search for online photos of adult Andricus reticulatus came up empty. Does anyone have one?
Diplolepis cf. ashmeadi. INaturalist unfortunately doesn't recognize this taxon. On Rosa nutkana.
I found this bucket floating in the water cistern and turned it over. It was covered with newt egg balls! I took a bunch of pictures then put the bucket back where I found it.
Mystery gall from Coast Live Oak. See in situ observation here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/148539706
Sorry - I was using the inches side of the ruler. I wasn't thinking.
California newts breeding in an old water cistern.
@merav, I saw at least 4 newts in this water cistern. I was told by Midpen that newts wouldn't breed in artificial environments like this, but I've seen mating pairs and eggs in this cistern every season for the past 5 years. I wish the mitigation team would build more of these so the newts wouldn't have to cross the road to breed.
The cistern has about 2 ft. of water in the bottom. I wonder how long before the water evaporates and I wonder if the babies have time to develop before that happens?
The following pictures were taken at the cistern. I'm going to obscure the location to protect the newts, but I'll be happy to give you directions.
So tiny! Under a board with winter ants. Tiny brown potato moving around caught my eye. Oddly did not get a photo with the ants.
Last photo shows springtail for scale(!).
A few small ones were recently washed ashore. Maybe one every 10 metres. Sail direction is right.
Imaged in my aquarium. The hydroid structures are so amazing. The hydroids were covered in brown particles, I think these are the juvenile medusa waiting to bud.
~1-2cm across
Several in this location, with egg spirals nearby. Second photo shows variations in color and speckling.
@nancyasquith @graysquirrel @merav Any idea what might be causing these clusters?
cache tree, old snag of a giant dead valley oak
Somewhere during a brief stop, ant trail pops out of one side of the road.
The trail is well organised, while each individual is seeing carrying dead termites.
Someone said the ants are returning from a night raid of a nest, and those are the spoils of war.
The trail is visibly finite, unlike typical trails I've encountered.
And the ants, feeling threatened as I closed in with my device, make a light humming and move rhythmically in response.
This is one of the most interesting thing I've witnessed in the natural world.
@merav Excellent ant-mimic spider! The locals with me said "this big ant bites really hard." And it fooled the iNat AI too, which suggested genus Diacamma (an ant genus).