I planned to hike Hondo Canyon in Topanga State Park, but the creek was swollen with last night’s rain and I didn’t fancy getting wet. So I explored in the other direction on the Backbone Trail, and was rewarded with my first currant flowers of the season.
The tarantula hawk is one of the largest parasitoid wasps, using its sting to paralyze its tarantula prey before dragging it to a brood nest as living food. A single egg is laid on the spider, hatching to a larva which eats the still-living host. They are found on all continents except Antarctica.
Tarantula hawk wasps are relatively docile and rarely sting humans without provocation. However, the sting is among the most painful of all insects’, though the intense pain only lasts about five minutes. In terms of scale, the wasp’s sting is rated near the top of the Schmidt sting pain index, second only to that of the bullet ant, and is described by Schmidt as “blinding, fierce, and shockingly electric”.
Dudleya is a relatively obscure genus of succulents. Species come in multiple divergent sizes and forms, though most readily hybridise. Ten species are on the California state list of threatened or endangered plants.
Poached plants are often shipped to East Asia, especially South Korea. In Sept 2021, California state law AB 223 was signed, making it illegal to harvest any Dudleya species in CA without a permit or landowner permission, and establishing penalties for individuals convicted of doing so. This was the first CA law specifically drafted to protect plants from poaching.
Two of the most successful weeds here at our place are mustard and mallow, which are quick to germinate after the first winter rains. There’s already a thick crop emerging on the sward, though unfortunately that area is used by the dog for relieving herself, so we won’t be harvesting any of those leaves for the soup pot.
From a session by Jean Mackay on different approaches to nature journalling, offered at Wild Wonder 2022. I really love her work and aspire to make pages as beautiful as hers.
If you see a coin in a fountain, it might be a penny. If you see a coin in a stream, it might be a water-penny beetle larva.
I spotted my first Say’s Phoebe yesterday morning. Such a pretty belly!
Tree crickets, though quite small, have a loud call that is sometimes mistaken for a cicada or tree frog. They cleverly amplify their trill by positioning themselves in a hole chewed in a leaf, with their tegmina aligned with the surface of the leaf. The leaf then acts as a speaker by significantly increasing the area from which the sound radiates. This is the same principle used by the speaker in your stereo.
Nature is amazing 🤩.
hashiworks 