Did you hear about the fossil they just found in South America?
It’s like a Brazilian years old.
you old fossil
Month: January 2024
Backbone #5
The Backbone adventure proceeds apace. Five sections down, eight to go. This section is particularly enjoyable, with spectacular rock formations and awesome views. And, at this time of year, lots of fungi!
Sitta canadensis
The bird bath camera continues to bring us surprises. While it’s a little tedious scrolling through the many, many house finch captures, it’s worth it when we see a new arrival. The red-breasted nuthatch is another winter visitor to our region. Like other nuthatches, these move quickly over trunks and branches probing for food in crevices and under flakes of bark. They creep up, down, and sideways without regard for which way is up. Such fun to see this one at the bath.
time shelter
Book group meetings are one of my monthly highlights, and I enjoy spending a few hours afterwards trying to distill our conversation into a page of sketch notes.
for a four year old
Not being in the habit of creating of preschooler-pleasing art, I turned to AI for design inspiration on this one. I think my prompt was “Cute juvenile unicorn sunshine flowers”. It did the trick; Miss Four loved it.
PSA: Niamh rhymes with leave.
Catharus guttatus
Seen on the wildlife camera, a new-to-us visitor enjoying a drink and a splash. We are in the winter range of the Hermit Thrush, and very happy to welcome this one to our garden, as they rarely visit backyards. I haven’t heard its lovely, melancholy song, but I’m keeping my ears open.
smmnjc meetup
Lovely meetup of the Santa Monica Mountains Nature Journal Club today at Temescal. The cherry on top was seeing my first Townsend’s warbler. I realise that it looks like the bird is the answer to the “Big chomps by whom?” question, but the two are unrelated.
Pulchriphyllium pulchrifolium
What a beauty! In fact, the scientific name translates as “Beautiful foliage, beautiful leaf”. There are 80+ extant species in the Phylliidae family, ranging from as far east as the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, throughout the Australasian region, to as far west as Fiji in the Southern Pacific. They are some of the most remarkably camouflaged mimics in the animal kingdom. A leaf insect doesn’t just look like its habitat; when it walks, it rocks back and forth, mimicking a real leaf being blown by the wind. And its eggs look like seeds. Amazing.
Russula cremoricolor
I was sketching this hefty orange mushroom when a guy came along the trail and told me it was a Russula species, probably Russula cremoricolor. He’d taken a little nibble from it when he had passed earlier. Allegedly, for this genus, if it doesn’t taste spicy, it’s edible. I didn’t try it myself.
At the end of the hike, there he was again at the trailhead, sitting in a camp chair by his car, enjoying a snack. He pulled out a big bag of chanterelles that he had gathered on the trail, and offered me a couple to bring home, which I gladly did. He offered advice on how to clean and cook them, which I’m about to do now. Mmmmmmushrooms.
Pygoscelis adeliae
The Adélie penguin is a truly Antarctic creature—one of only four penguin species to nest on the continent itself. During the breeding season, they need bare, rocky ground on which to build their rough nests of stones. Two eggs are laid; these are incubated for 32 to 34 days by the parents taking turns (shifts typically last for 12 days).
The birds live most of their lives on sea ice, far from land. Adélie penguins living in the Ross Sea region migrate an average of about 13,000 kilometres (8,100 mi) each year as they follow the sun from their breeding colonies to winter foraging grounds and back again.
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