Excellent exuvia (photo quiz answer) & spring haps (bugs, lizards, birds & cats)

So, ANSWER TO THE Phriday Photo Quiz, which asked what this is:

It's a robber fly (Asilidae) pupa exuvia.

Most likely subfamily Laphriinae.

Got the answer from the ever-on-target Ted C. MacRae 

(of beetlesinthebush.wordpress.com & @tcmacrae on the twit).

He's a ROCK star! =)

I LOVE robber flies--they're like the fighter pilots of the bug world.

Found this one last week resting on our gutter.

If you've never seen them in action, it is NO JOKE

when a robber fly is on the hunt. Wow.

According to the California Robber Flies page,

California is where robber flies have speciated LIKE MAD:

386 species in California, 170 endemics (only found in CA).

The author describes California as "the nuclear blast zone of robber diversity."

For much better photos of these impressive & diverse animals,

check out their Robber Fly home page. So cool.

WINNERS of PHRIDAY PHOTO QUIZ

As ever, there were MANY great guesses,

many guessing cicada and sundry other inverts.

Thank you to EVERYONE for your thoughts & words.

I always learn from you. =)

1. Most Precise & Accurate: Ted C MacRae

for

NAILING it via twitter

(which was great 'cause I didn't know, yet).

HE is the one who suggested robber fly

AND the subfamily (via twitter) & it's CLEARLY a match.

2. Accurate Yet Adorably Vague: Sarah

for

"some sort of bug-related empty shell thingy."

Exactly what I thought! =)

3. Most Profound: Imperfect & Tense

for

"Or possibly the personification of the spirit of a small rooster."

Deep thinker, that one...

4. Best Pun: Susannah Anderson

for

"Just another crazy BCer after doing the winter challenge."

Presumably they are shells of their former selves, after voluntary flash-freezing.

Other Spring Bio Haps

Found this beauty embedded in a carrot flower.

Spied her in my Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada.

At the SAME time, I got the answer from Andy Warren (@AndyBugGuy)

who is SO generous with his bug IDs for hapless bug enthusiasts such as moi.

A female dimorphic flower longhorn beetle (Anastrangalia laetifica).

The males are all black, so this is clearly a female.

Speaking of lady bugs, here's a ladybird beetle (a.k.a. ladybug) pupa post-rain:

turning into an adult, right there on the iris blade.

It's about as big as my pinky nail.

Zooming in I noticed a little TINY guy on the back, left spot:

I love how the scale of nature keeps going up or down,

whether or not we can perceive or comprehend it.

Is my garden dead?

This turkey vulture cast a wary eye over my garden this weekend...

These birds are already big.

Wingspan is between 5' 7" and 5' 10".

Then they do this, and freak my hen out completely.

VERY Dracula in its silent, dark power... =)

But, really, it's just sunning itself on a cool morning.

Watching the Watchers

Every now & then, when I see this:

or this

I follow their gaze to see what they're staring at.

And sometimes am rewarded by things like this:

An apparently preggers (gravid) female greater brown skink (Plestiodon "gilberti" gilberti),

so sayeth California herps

and the laudable Hugh of Rock Paper Lizard fame.

Man knows his herps.

A real treat to see her, and gladly my hen didn't spy her.

I've seen a hen-killed skink before, and it's not pretty. =(

It SERIOUSLY takes a village to figure out what just a FEW of the things living here are.

THANK YOU to all who help ID stuff,

or just share an appreciation for the myriad things

that live on this amazing planet.

=)

xoxobb

Photo Quiz Phriday Answer, Genius Steepers & NEW Photo Quiz...

Photo Quiz Phriday Answer

So many great guesses re: WHAT the heck I was doing here:

I was NOT weighing a stool-for-tiny-people (it's actually a pitfall trap lid/shade).

I was weighing a lizard, which was in a little plastic bag,

which SPINS AROUND in the breeze when held by a Pesola spring scale

'cause lizards weigh ALMOST NOTHING.

SO, I was holding the lid to block the wind so I could weigh that pup accurately.

POWER NERDERY!! =)

This was all part of the reptile & amphibian inventory,
as designed & implemented by the fabulous Dr. Robert Fisher & all his peeps, at USGS.
Such a great group, the USGS Western Ecological Research Center's San Diego Field Station.
The TINY Cabrillo NM was super lucky to be able to team up w/them.

Behind me is 1 arm of a 3-armed Fisher trapping array.


Genius Steepers

I know this may sound lame, but ALL THE GUESSES WIN!!
They were SO fun & funny &/or accurate.

STEEPERS IN THEIR OWN GENIUS
(w/hyperlinks to their blogs, if they have one)

John Beetham for:
"It looks like you're weighing a stool."

(bb: I 100% look like I'm weighing a stool + bonus points for unintentional wildlife doo-doo pun)

Imperfect and Tense for:
"Are you wondering who has stolen the majority of your vehicle,
as you've been left holding just the steering wheel and column shift?"

(bb: Great imagination & more likely than you might imagine
+ bonus points for British English vocab lesson)

Cindy for:
"You are weighing a land mine (craftily disguised as stool by Navy wonks) to see if it is still active
before you start stomping through the coastal scrub looking for orange-throated whiptail.

(bb: She clearly is READING MY SOUL as this is SO close to what my life was like back then--
working in a Navy bunker & crawling through the CSS* looking for Cnemis**)

sclancy for:

"Calibrating your portable sundial"

(bb: SUPER imaginative + I-wish-I'd-thought-of-that-then)

Diana Studer for:

"hmm, can't be weighing 'cos you're holding it with your other hand.

Reading something off a gauge? Temperature?"

(bb: She's SO close, I AM weighing it, AND the scale is a gauge.)

Thanks everyone!! You cannot know how much your answers amuse & impress me. =)

NEW PHRIDAY PHOTO QUIZ

This one is SUPER HARD, if you're going for accurate,

but could be fun if you're going for creative.

This pup was sticking out of an old stump by the garden.

It's about 2 cm tall.

I had to ask around 'cause I had NO idea.

But, now I know, and I'm psyched about it.

The reward for inspired/accurate guesses is

MARINATING in the MAGNIFICENCE of your own MIND.

xoxoxobb

*CSS = coastal sage scrub

**Cnemis = verbal shorthand for Cnemidophorus hyperythrus, a.k.a. orange-throated whiptail lizard, NOW called Aspidoscelis hyperythra, so says the EVER FABULOUS & useful CaliforniaHerps.com.

We have a WINNER! =) Phriday Photo Quiz answer...

Hugh nailed it. Nice work! Ding Ding Ding Ding!

And Cindy had Point Reyes among her guesses,

so she was there, too. Well done!

Both winners have tasty blogs, so I recommend clicking on those links... 

Point Reyes National Seashore is where I took my friend.

As we were driving toward the lighthouse,

through what seemed to be interminable miles of dairy farms,

I got a little nervous.

Am I the worst tour guide ever? He's seen cows before.

I didn't remember that many cows.

Then we arrived.

And the park redeemed itself. =)

Sandstone sculptures to die for.

This particular piece freaked my camera out. The above is adjusted.

Anyhow, so THAT is the answer. Point Reyes National Seashore.

And the price of admission to this amazing place?

$0.00.

It's FREE.

The beautiful coastal sage scrub, local (tiny) deer, and the Pacific.

THAT is an example of something that makes me

quite happy to pay my federal taxes. AWEsome.

So, there ya go.

Happy weekend!!

And thank you to ALL participants,

and congratulations to the glorious winners.

xoxoxoxo

bb

photo quiz answer... and winners!

 

Olivia V. Ambrogio got it in 20 seconds,
then Jennifer Bowen Yoga figured it out.

Nice work, ladies!!! HONK! HONK! HONK!

And many thanks to all the commenters and guessers.
Y'all are fabulous. =)

Yup, they're all reflections.
So, I posted them upside down.
Here they are in their original orientation.

That was some crazy still water. NICE!!

It was near Mirror Lake, but we were on the
other side of the "lake" than most people visit.

So nice.

=) xo

fungal fun with Photo Quiz Phriday: bb guesses species, too!

Quiz answer, Part 1

So, GREAT guesses, EVERYONE. Very creative. =)

Dan Maxwell was on the right track right away (fungal leanings).
Then Cindy NAILED it:
"a puffball with a particularly elegant color"

YUP! =) DING! DING! DING!

Yes, guessers, it was a fungal thang that I photographed
and fell in love with its textures; the humble puffball.

I've seen them around our property before, but never purple.
Typically they are brown in the inside, grey/white/tan on the outside.

Here's the 2 that Bear pointed out to me:

In the next shot, it's the same guy as the one above,
but it's SUPER purple. Muppet purple.

I'm thinking it's taken with a flash,
so that explains the apparent color change??
Thoughts?

So, what species is this, biobabbler?
Quiz answer Part 2

I start flipping through Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora
(expert and SO funny--the book is a delight).

Pawing through pages of puffballs, I spy a black & white photo...
"mature specimen in which the outer layer
of the peridium (spore case) is disintegrating." (p.687)
oooh, yes. Very promising.

Next sentence:
"The purplish color of the mature spores is the
most distinctive characteristic of this species."

Oh, yeah, baby!

So, I conclude that the beauty above is
Calvatia cyathiformis, purple-spored puffball.

Sweet.
Thanks for helping me learn, Noble Readers.

And thanks so much to
Mylee, Dan, Sean, Elephant's Eye, and Cindy,
for your participation. You bring me delight. =)
xobb

Winner of the Great Bean Pile Guessing Game,

 

which is staged here,

is Laura K, of the lovely blog, Forest Walk Art!!

She guessed that this bean pile weighed in at 5.5 lbs.

It weighed 4.75 lbs, in fact.

May I just say that, upon re-examining her blog, she's not only got great shots of nature, but a whole page dedicated to MISSPELLED SIGNS?!? Oh, my. The word nerd in me is all atwitter.

So, thank you to ALL who participated, the charming, the brave, and the 100% female guessers:

Laura K (of course), Lynda (living the adventurous life in S. African wilds), and Sue (who, poor thing, is garden-veggie poor this year, though she is garden-deer rich).

=)

xoxoxo

bb

Phriday Photo quiz answer + extra Yosemite bits

 
Waiting in line to get into the park, saw this guy trotting toward me so thought well, MAYBE I can get my camera out in time. I flung the lens cap off with one hand, and pointed the camera at him (no time for looking through viewer). Then he was gone. Can't believe he's actually in the frame.

Apparently if someone makes like they're going to feed him, he'll put on a begging show. I wonder if he tap dances?

In case you didn't know, feeding wildlife is never a good idea for the animal (for lots of reasons), and frequently one can tell which animals are fed human food because they look so much less healthy than their 100% wild cohorts. Seriously, you can tell from yards and yards away.

Anyhow, I got into the valley, got onto the bike, and riding toward Happy Isles, saw this on my left, adjacent to the campground.

And I thought, hey, this might be good fodder for a photo quiz.

View downstream at Happy Isles bridge; Basket Dome is da big rock.

Biking to the Ahwahnee to meet Bear for brunch:

Then, the view to your right (east) as you pedal down this path:

That's part of Royal Arches on the left,

and Half Dome on the right.

Biking in Yosemite = HEAVEN.

Nice job to the ladies with the correct answers to the Phriday Photo Quiz. Their "guesses" are in the comments on that post. biobabbler isn't quite her usual loquacious self, of late, so that'll have to do for now.

Hope everyone is well, and is able to maintain a reasonable temperature.

xobb

Overdue quiz answer...

 
This is the tomato pic/quiz I posted a few weeks ago:

I got precisely ONE guess, a VERY good one, from Kyna of the always amusing Crystal Coast Gardener blog. Her guess was Black Krim, a variety from eastern Europe/Ukraine that's very similar. In FACT, among the tomato plants I bought yesterday WAS a Black Krim, which I'm very excited about.

For being the sole brave soul re: guessing, we say:

Yay, Kyna!!! Woo-hoo!

However, yesterday I did NOT find the variety pictured above, which I hope I can remedy as they are the MOST exquisitely tasty tomato I've EVER had.

And I am NOT a tomato person.

It's the Cherokee purple tomato, allegedly originally from a Cherokee Indian who shared the seeds that eventually were developed commercially.

I posted it 'cause tho' one seed catalog described its yield as "somewhat stingy," and I agree, and it seems prone to cracking (tho' I'm NOT good at even watering), it produces the most richly flavored tomato I've ever had.

And the inside is SO BEAUTIFUL! CRAZY colors.

So, beauty and taste.

Who could resist?

Not bb.

xoxo

P.S. Photos of goodies I bought for the garden yesterday coming soon-ish, including a list of what lovelies I picked and crammed into the little red wagon the nursery provided. In the mean time, I REALLY need to get digging!!!

P.P.S. Allowing a little more time before I post the answer to yesterday's random, botanical quiz, so feel free! =)

Phriday photo quiz answer

 

"Anonymous" was right.

This...

is the windshield of our Honda on a cold morning, last week.

On that day, I also took this shot:

which I also liked.

=)

bb

oh, yeah, answer to Phriday photo quiz(es)... =)

  

So, the birds with the long beaks curving slightly upward, and pink at the base, are marbled godwits, Limosa fedoa. The birdies with the cool dark stripes across their eyes, head, and downward pointing bill ("decurved") are one of my favorites, whimbrels, Numenius phaeopus. LOVE these guys, and seeing them last week brought me back to my shorebird monitoring days.

And love the pretty black sand that La Jolla Shores has, making the coolest patterns. Yum.

These are the marvelous birds called black skimmers, Rynchops niger. A long-time huge favorite of mine. I've read that they are the only bird species with a longer lower bill than upper (mandible, really), but I thought I'd learned a while back that it was hinged differently than all other birds.

From the folks at cornell: "Uniquely shaped bill long and laterally compressed (knife-like), with the lower mandible extending 2–3 cm beyond the upper, which is hinged and can be freely elevated and clamped shut."

Reading further, this another unusual feature (apparently unique among birds, AGAIN), is their eyes. "Relatively large pupil which constricts to a narrow vertical slit, a unique feature among birds; possibly an adaptation to protect the retina from bright light or to enhance vision for nocturnal feeding."

And their wings are so dark and long and sleek. AWEsome.

Regardless, if you see them hunting, it's tooo cool. They fly low over the water, their lower mandible in the water, and they use their sense of touch to detect when a fish is hit, then WHAM, the upper bill slams down, and a meal is had. Apparently they can fish at any time, including dawn, dusk, and at night, 'cause of their use of touch vs. mostly visual cues to find food. AWEsome birds.

And they, like terns, almost always sit so everyone is facing the same direction. Adorable. Super social, chatty creatures, and I didn't get to see them every day in SD, so it was always a treat.

So, there ya have it, the answers.

THANKS TO EVERYONE for your guesses! Nice work!!

xo biobabbler

Yes, Mojave in a rain storm

 

That is what's "weird" about the photograph. You guys were SUPER super close, but not exactly there. Plus, I figured I'd give more people a chance to try.

I have a strange record of being around rain in deserts.

Anyhow, thanks SO much for playing!

More pics soon + one right now.

 The trail to Illilouette Fall, which is where I actually went vs. Yosemite valley.

Incidentally, if you don't know (given what the page I link to says, which is "falls"), the convention is that if there is ONE drop off with water pouring out of it, it's a fall, not "falls." Hence my singular name that conflicts with the site I linked to. =) It's a judgment call (since I'm no expert) but I only saw one main drop off.

Learned that fall v. falls thing, literally, from a Yosemite Park Ranger handbook. =) Well, a binder, really, full of great factoids required for interpretive rangers to know about that amazing place.

I have a huge pile of words to make up today, so gonna be some fierce typing clacking from this kitchen table. Hope you guys get out and have some cool adventures!

xobb

P.S. still feeding the "wild grape" native yeast starter I started, when, Sunday? Will do that in one post, later.

Phriday photo quiz answers

 

The plant is Eriogonum inflatum, as Cindy said (in comments). I didn't post her guess RIGHT away so other folks could look and guess, but she nailed it immediately. Nice work, Cindy! HONK HONK!

I just could NOT believe the colors it had while I was there. Joshua Tree NP version of fall colors. Wow!

Second, bonus photo quiz got many VERY interesting and amusing guesses (including community service!), but that photo means I have field work this week. Specifically, work that will be near a construction site, so I have to wear that vest so cars and/or giant beeping equipment backing up doesn't flatten me in a Warner-Brothers-cartoon-like fashion. Or in any other fashion....

It also signals to onlookers that I am authorized to be climbing over hill and dale--in this case to look for bird nests and/or western pond turtles.

The looks you get from passing cars if you're hiking all over near a busy road. Truckers and construction workers (who have also hiked all over in orange vests) seem most friendly re: Honk Honk as they pass by. They see anyone doing that (male, female, indeterminate) and they honk hello. Pretty cute, actually. =)


That's all for now.

Biobabbler, frankly, is still wiped out from the weekend.

Went to Bridge School Benefit Concert (one review) in Mountain View with friends (Bear was home, sick), and got rained on maybe 1/2 the time we were sitting in the grass seating area (cheap seats we live for). And it was a wee bit cold.

Amazing performers, and Pearl Jam was especially great. If you ever see Eddie Vedder live (with band or no) you will "get" why he's so successful.

I've seen a few people at these concerts who have this sort of magical quality that sends them up into some other plane of existence than the rest of the world. Sarah McLaughlin was like that, Chris Martin from Coldplay was, too. And EV is especially tight with Neil Young, and Neil and his wife Pegi put this whole concert (and the Bridge School!) together, so I expect it's particularly meaningful for EV to be there. When they introduced him, they called him the ultimate veteran of this concert series--he's a frequent flier, for sure.

I also have to say Elvis Costello's voice sounded really great. I wonder if it's due in part to the big, thick scarf he had wrapped all around his neck, so his vocal chords were nice and warm, thank you. Maybe his wife (Diana Krall) taught him that.

ANYhow, that night I did my yoga after the concert, from 1:59 a.m. to 2:25 a.m. I am a morning person, but not THAT end of morning, so I still have some sleeping to catch up on, I think. =)

However, the yoga did ensure I went to bed feeling amazing, which is sort of shocking after sitting for 7 hours in the cold/rain.

xobiobabbler

alright, answer to 2 week-old photo quiz....

 

This is a sugar pine. I'm kind of surprised no one got it. It's very tall, has a pretty distinctive wacky branch shape, and grows in Yosemite. Not abundantly apparent in THIS shot is the fact that they grow HUGE cones which hang from the end of their branches.

Anyhow, was describing this tree (with basically no hints) and my aunt guessed it; she IS, however, a Cal Poly grad, and general nature nut.

=)

Anyhow, apparently it was a stumper (no pun intended). Pardon.

I may be on the road starting at the end of this week for a while, and may be very busy, so might not post, then.

I DO still have some decent pics from recent travel to post, and I'll try to figure out a Phriday photo quiz phor y'all.

xobiobabbler

P.S. I WILL be taking pictures at this place, so may be more fun photos next week!

Answer to Phriday photo quiz #8

  
As correctly guessed by skepticalmoth (Ding ding! We have a winner! woo-hoo!), it is the Point Bonita Lighthouse, in Golden Gate National Recreation Area (NPS). For a little more detail on it from the perspective of lighthouse enthusiasts, check this out.

This place has the MOST amazing breeze, and the landscape couldn't be any more dramatic. You may see flotillas of pelicans cruising BELOW you along the cliffs. I have a friend who used to work in the visitor's center there and he'd seen SO many species of whale cruising by I was GREEN with envy.

If you are in the bay area on a hot day and need to cool off and chill out, that is a GREAT place to go.

And they have the coolest escaped kale and other plants clinging to the cliffs.

 Very botanically and aesthetically interesting, and if I remember, very nice lichen as well.

And this is also where I took one of my favorite pictures.

biobabbler

Phriday photo quiz #6 solved!

 
By MObugs (honk honk!). Nice job. She got "gopher snake" and "Pituophis" and I merely added catenifer catenifer (based on where I found it).

Sweet. So, yes, it was a Pacific gopher snake in the grass. Found it lying along a widllife fence (which kept it out of danger-yay!), all stretched out. I'm guessing the fence material (what the grasshoppers are on in Mumday), being black, was both warm and a little out of the wind (cool, windy day), so was appealing to this poikilotherm.

Anyhow, leaned over fence to take it's picture and it started moving, and showing me and the nearby work crew folks whom I grabbed it's lovely self. LONG snake!! The stake it's by is at least 4' long (tho' granted not entirely in pic).

I love this picture. It works for me on so many levels. =)

And zee mystery photo is above. Isn't it just like being there?

Snaky says, "Yessssssssssssee ya!"

biobabbler