A little coprophagy in the last shots
with feather barb still in jaws
Pma3 Burwood Bush postmortem 2005
I'm not sure what these two were scavenging on (along with a tiny fly). Polyphylla larva??
Three individuals observed: 1 small juvenile (not photographed) and two presumed gravid females, one in each photo
Tail slapped when it dove to get away. I am not 100% sure it isnt a Muskrat, but the tail slap makes me pretty sure it was a beaver
This female, and four other adult midges were reared from several 5-10 mm tubular galls, 2-3 mm in diameter, on Salvia mellifera leaf edges, stems, and petioles.
The plant material was collected on February 11, 2024, and the approximately 2 mm long midges were photographed in 70% isopropanol on April 9th, 2024.
Collected for rearing. Two exuviae in this first photo.
landed on the rock where a young hiker was already residing on. Condor ended up perching alongside the individual for roughly 30-40 minutes
First birth of the year from this colony!
This post is for ID'ing the wasp pictured, who appears to parasitizing the midge Rhopalomyia californica
Twig photos are from 3 separate twigs. Likewise for the inflorescence photos.
Being Eaten by a GREG
At least 10 flying
Putting lower level ID in the hopes of attracting an expert here. Unfortunately, the only photo I have of this stunning butterfly! All neon green-yellow and black striped wings. In understory of some palms and pines. Hopefully identifiable with the bigfoot-quality photo!
I think that this is a Chihuahuan Eastern Meadowlark (S. lilianae). First photo shows light cheek and no yellow on the malar. 2nd photo shows strongly contrasting crown stripes, but cheek looks dark. Made no noise and I didn't see the tail spread as it landed after flying off from this perch ...Letting the iNaturalist community have their say.
Photo 1: abaxial leaf.
Plenty of stomates and hairs.
Photo 2: adaxial leaf at same magnification as Photo 1.
0 stomates & very sparse hairs.
Here is the path I followed on Jepson (Keybase CW) to get to glandulosa:
Sorry I did not bring my good camera for the black glandular hairs but you should be able to make them out.
https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=49170
Also looks a great deal like the photos on page xx of David Stryer's "Flora of Fort Ord" (2019), his "key:"
Burl present [???]
Note that the leaf petioles are more than 5mm
Comments/disputes welcome as always!
Photos:
All photos of leaves, twigs, & inflorescences are from different twigs i.e. in an attempt to sample variation within the same plant.
Some type of ornamental plant that must have been planted a while ago but has since become a “naturalized” shrub along the edge of FONM. Looks most similar to R. alaternus, open to ideas
All twig and inflorescence photos are from different twigs. Same with the leaf photos.
A manzanita a day is supposed to keep the doctor away, but...
As usual the Jepson Key fails on Fort Ord...
resulting in Arctostaphylos tomentosa daciticola
At 4-5 meters tall, this one was as tall as our Toro Manzanitas or taller, ruling out A. crustacea?
Burl below and above.
Old stem bark persistent, gray, and shedding, not smooth.
Leaf surfaces differing in color and hairiness.
Twig hair not glandular.
Twig hair short and long bristles
iNat can only come up with Arbutus
David Styer's guide puts it at A. crustacea crinita which at least is found here but he mentions "shrubby growth habit" which rules this one out. I guess I am going to go with a record tall A. crustacea crustacea
Rhopalomyia is just a placeholder. I have no idea what this is except that I think it is an undescribed gall on Eriophyllum confertiflorum
They look suspiciously like flower buds, but in photo #3 you can see the typical budding terminal inflorescence of E. confertiflorum. The galls were half way down the stem where it gets woody. The observation of the host plant is here https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/115409217