Favoritos de rupertclayton

Thank you @avlok for the description of hairiness on the under side of leaves in A. bullata. The leaves are crumpled/blistery on the underside but very stiff. That is why I thought bullata could fit. Thanks again 🤞private farm, obscuration requested

I looked out the window and saw 2 hummingbirds fighting (?*) on the ground. It looked like one had already lost and was motionless. I opened the door to get pictures and the “victor” moved off a couple feet but eventually went back to picking on the downed one. I’d left my door open and my indoor cat (never caught anything other than an moth or two), dashed out to investigate. She got the downed bird in her mouth, and as I was kicking at her to drop it, that bird woke up and flew off! So, here was a time when a cat saved a bird (even though inadvertently).

*Update: After viewing the clips from the doorbell cam, my husband things the flying bird was trying to protect the fallen bird. This went on from about 6:30 am to 7:30 am. He is combining the clips to make one whole movie. I will try to post it to YouTube when he is finished.

Here is the YouTube video with clips from the doorbell cam. Look close to see the unusual interaction between the two birds (one flying and one prone); and see how the prone birds comes back to it’s senses and flies off at the end after my cat mouthed it for a second.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pTdAWcs4rg

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro Co., New Mexico, USA.

Don't know if the Snow Goose was killed or scavenged. A Golden Eagle was feeding on the carcass, and might have been scared off by me before this Bald Eagle (who was circling above) took it over. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/477627

Collected gall from Ceanothus verrucosus on 4/11/21.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/73583630

Gall cut open to find larvae inside on 4/21/21 and placed in container with a cup of soil.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/74768171

7 midges emerged today.

[Photos submitted as part of a botanical survey for Rocks Ranch/ Santa Cruz Land Trust]

The very low-lying stature of these plants (with their flowers on short pedicels seeming to arise from beneath ground level) gives rise to the specific epithet terrestris (= "of the ground").

Note that within the tubular, violet-limbed corolla there is an outer whorl of three pearlescent staminodes (= modified stamens, lacking anthers) which exceed in length the inner whorl of three true (anther-equipped) stamens. The staminodes are slightly incurved along their longitudinal edges, and have a small apical emargination with a smaller yet central tooth. The stamens have their pale-yellow anthers reflexed at the tip, and (similar to the staminodes) sport an apical notch with a small, central dentate lobe (easier to discern in the 2nd photo).

Perhaps the placement of the staminodes promotes an outcome where insect visitors seeking nectar at the bottom of the corolla tube will more likely rub their bodies against the anthers, and so more consistently pick up pollen? I'm presuming the flowers are protandrous (i.e. have the male anthers maturing before the female stigmas become receptive). When the male phase of flowering (wherein the anthers release their pollen) comes to an end, it would be interesting to see if the style then further elongates and positions of the staminodes and anthers slowly move away from the central axis of the flower (i.e. if herkogamy occurs)... so as to then make contact between a pollen-carrying insect visitor's body and the stigmas more likely during the later female phase of flowering?

I went outside to go for a walk, picked up one of my boots, and started to put it on. They're almost too small, so I had to do some wiggling to get my foot in. I often don’t wear socks in my shoes, which I think was a good thing in this case. My foot was most of the way in when it touched something furry. I froze, trying to figure out what it was. It didn’t move either. Then I yanked my foot back out and looked inside, and there was a little rodent in there! I pinched the top of the boot shut before it could escape, then called to my mom that I needed my camera right now and I probably shouldn’t come in the house because I was holding a boot with a rat in it. She brought my camera out and I took some adorable pictures before it ran back into the toe. Then I dumped it out and it ran away.

I found a female with full of eggs in her tummy( last photo) I followed her for a while. After she met a male, she started to come close to him then shook her tail, he shook his tail back, swam together for a while and shaking each other, mating. He was next to her and fertilized eggs with his semen(?) then egg transferred to his mouth.
She left after mating...