An alligator lizard’s tail can be twice as long as its body. This one’s, sadly, was not.
Elgaria multicarinata
Tag: ojai valley
at the lake
the lion creeps tonight
white ledge peak
Haliaeetus leucocephalus
We have a pair of nesting bald eagles at the local lake, and I caught a glimpse of them the other day. Very exciting! They don’t have a webcam, but they do have a Facebook page.
oak view
Y. and I walked our dogs to the Santa Ana bridge, then stopped on the way back to sketch the view.
dogwalkers
bryophytes
And then there were the bryophytes.
i’m lichen it
I went for a hike and got completely distracted by dual organisms consisting of a fungus and an alga or a cyanobacterium. Look! So many pretty colours!
Paeonia californica
This peony is endemic to southwestern California (USA) and northernmost Baja California (Mexico). It grows on dry hillsides in the coastal sage scrub and chaparral communities of the coastal mountains.
The plant dies back in the summer, and tolerates little or no water while dormant. It puts forth its compound leaves after a good winter rain, which this year happened in mid-November. So we’re seeing the flowers already, before the end of the year. Nice!
hashiworks 