A Fall Day in the Cuyamacas

It was a HOT day today - a good 10 degrees warmer than it should be at this time of year.

The Baccharis sarothroides that we planted to anchor the slopes around the house bloom every year at this time, and are covered in nectar-lovers. Being an especially warm day, they were out in force.

Honey bees are the most numerous, but tarantula hawks of at least three species are visiting also. Pepsis thisbe seemed to be the most common visitor to the milkweed earlier in the season. But now Pepsis mildei, often in groups of females, and Pepsis chrysothemis with its bright red wings are showing up too.

A large female Pepsis mildei. This is the only species of Pepsis in our area with orange antennae (in both sexes). This one was at least 40 mm long - one of the larger individuals. We saw a tarantula wandering the landscape around dusk, so the Pepsis have everything they need right here!

SO much nectar (and so little time)!

Later in the afternoon, I paid a quick visit to Paso Picacho campground and vicinity in the state park (Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, to be precise).

Honey Bees were the most common visitors to some of the last "fresh" Ericameria parishii, near the beginning of the Stonewall Peak trail. I saw a Pepsis mildei female and what appeared to be Pepsis thisbe on the same bush also.

A dinner-plate-sized shelf fungus, seemingly growing out of the ground. There were dead, burned tree stumps in the area though (some with more of this fungus), so I suspect there was some wood under this big specimen. Stonewall Peak trail.

Snowberry is "berrying". Azalea Glen trail.

Signs of cooler times to come soon.

What IS this?? (Answer at the end of the post)

An ultra-pubescent plant along the Azalea Glen trail. To be determined.

The fuzzy-leaved plant, with sunlight seeping through...

The mystery "mountain range" is the edge of an acorn cup!

Who's Visiting the Goldenbush?

Around this time of year, the "Goldenbush" (Ericameria parishii) is blooming in Cuyamaca Woods and plenty of other mountain locations. This large, flower-covered shrub attracts lots of pollinators, so today I decided to take a drive into the Laguna Mountains and see what might be visiting the Goldenbush.

There were a few isolated bushes here and there along the Sunrise Highway as I drove south, and then I hit the jackpot - an area just to the east of the road loaded with flowering Goldenbushes.

The most common pollinator by far were honey bees. A good sign for them, anyway, although not too exciting. It took a little looking to find native species, and none were numerous.

A typical "Goldenbush". Thanks to Aaron Schusteff for helping with the identification of this shrub.

Close-up of the flowers. They are a vivid "gold" when fresh.

A native bee visitor. To be determined.

An ambush bug (Phymata pacifica), beautifully camouflaged. I almost overlooked it myself!

Pepsis sp. (possibly P. pallidolimbata?). This is a male, with long, straight antennae.

Flashback to Some "Old" Utah Herps

Posting the recently-seen Utah herps reminded me of the ones Gary and I saw five years ago, on our first Grand Staircase Escalante trip. On that trip, we camped in the Cottonwood Creek area for several days, and then drove north to the town of Escalante, then south again on Hole-in-the-Rock Road. Then we paid another visit to Grand Staircase two years ago, in 2013, and made a day trip down Hole-in-the-Rock Road, notorious for how long it is (around 55 miles) and how unpleasant it can be to drive on (washboard that can jar fillings out - or feel like it - after a while).

On those trips we saw the Orange-headed Spiny Lizard, Sceloperus magister cephaloflavus, which is confined to northern Arizona and southern Utah. This is an impressive looking reptile, as the photos hopefully convey.

Sceloperus magister cephaloflavus, Cottonwood Creek, Grand Staircase Escalante, 2010. The first one seen and photographed.

The landscape in Cottonwood Creek. A nice place to camp, but as the days passed, the wind, flies and heat all seemed to be increasing, so in the end we were glad to leave and head north.

Sceloperus magister, showing more orange on its sides and less on the head! This was one of several that we saw on our 2013 trip, which focused on the Burr Trail (we camped at the west end of Long Canyon, as we did this year). These lizards were not seen at that spot though - instead they were in a side canyon off Hole-in-the-Rock Road (Coyote Gulch), which we did a day hike in. This male's blue belly is partially visible here.

Male showing off, trying to convince us he wasn't scared (they took off with slightly closer approaches, of course).

An orange-headed one, in a shady protected area.

Sceloperus graciosus, the sagebrush lizard that we saw so many of this year. This one was quite fearless, and was like a "greeter" at the Information Center for the Grand Staircase in the town of Escalante.

Another S. graciosus at the information center.

This was a herp that we did NOT see frequently (I think this was the only one). This is probably the Northern Tree Lizard, Urosaurus ornatus wrighti, also off Hole-in-the-Wall Road (in Coyote Gulch). 

A view of the landscape near Hole-in-the-Rock Road, from 2010. This is near Dance Hall Rock (and our camp is barely visible as a black dot - the truck, and a gray dot - the tent).

A Diversion to Southern Utah, Part 1: Reptiles (of Primarily the Lizard-Sort)

Gary and I took our semi-regular trip to southern Utah this July (later than usual, with hopes that some monsoonal rain might have brought out new and different things than we have seen in June in the past).

The monsoons had delivered a couple weeks previously, and the vegetation was quite lush and green in most of the places we visited. And insect and other animal life was pretty abundant. We drove to the Ponderosa Grove Campground just north of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park (in Kane County) for the first night, then spent two nights on the west end of Long Canyon in the Grand Staircase Escalante NM next (the same spot we stayed in two years earlier), then spent the last three nights at Canyonlands National Park, at the Squaw Flat Campground (something new for us).

This installment will cover some of the scaly ones we saw. Many of the lizards in this region of the southwest are a bit different from the common ones we see in southern California, although there is certainly some overlap of species.

Sceloperus graciosus, the Common Sagebrush Lizard. They DID seem pretty common - definitely the species we saw most frequently on the trip. This one was at the Ponderosa Grove Campground. It posed for its picture very cooperatively (as did most of the others we encountered on the trip). 

Another S. graciosus. This one was the most beautifully-colored one we saw. It was also at the Ponderosa Grove Campground.

The "lizard of the trip" (I would say). Gambelia wizlizenii (the Long-nosed Leopard Lizard). We saw two of these spectacular creatures, both on walks at Canyonlands, near the Squaw Flat Campground. Gary spotted both of them.

Another sagebrush lizard, blending fairly well with the never-ending Utah red-rock landscape. Canyonlands NP.

A pair of side-blotched lizards on a rock on our walk back to camp at Canyonlands (on the first morning).

I'm guessing these are Plateau Side-blotched Lizards (Uta stansburiana uniformis). This was one of the pair shown above.

The other member of the pair shown above. Slightly different markings.

A slender-looking side-blotched - showing off the blotch! Only after looking at the photo later did I see all the missing digits on the right forefoot.

Western Whiptail, Aspidoscelis tigris. This bold lizard was rummaging around in the Datura which was abundant in our campsite. We watched it as it found a prey item of some sort and then saw that it was a nice sphingid caterpillar (something I would have liked photographing!).  The lizard kept partially-swallowing the caterpillar, crunching down on it over and over, and eventually it went down the hatch. This was the only photo I got that had some decent resolution, but this episode reminded me of the alligator lizard that ate the HUGE sphinx moth caterpillar on our Datura at home a few years back. 

Our caterpillar-eater. Luckily the cat is mostly water...

This snake zoomed past when we were exploring the ephemeral pools with shrimp in them at Canyonlands. My best guess is Coluber taeniatus, the Striped Whipsnake.

Lesser Earless Lizard, Holbrookia maculata, probably H. maculata campi, the Plateau Earless Lizard. This hot little guy was not in Utah, actually. It was seen in a sagebrush area north of Flagstaff, Arizona about two weeks later (on my Arizona trip).

Look Up!

On June 30th, a nice almost-full moon rose over the trees to the east, with some delicate clouds dressing it up a bit.

Venus and Jupiter still hovered to the west, and I thought I'd finally take a shot of them. For fun, I also did an eight minute long exposure of the two planets, letting them streak a bit.

It was truly full the next night, but to my eyes, it looks pretty round in outline here.

Venus (the larger one) and Jupiter.

"Planet-streak"

This high ISO image of the Milky Way was not taken this year - I took it in July of 2012. I may experiment with these night sky images a bit more this summer.

Some Arthropods Seen in the Past Weeks

We are fully in the midst of the warm season here in Cuyamaca Woods, and the small ectotherms are out in force.

I have done some black lighting on my patio, something I do every year, on and off, and various organisms are out and about, visiting the many flowers that the late rain helped sustain.

A couple of these cicadas emerged on our property in late June. They are probably in the genus Okanagana, but I have not figured out the species yet. It is a new one for me.

Smooth harvester ants, Veromessor andrei (NOT Pogonomyrmex as I thought earlier), which have several nests right in the middle of our areas of activity. They are quiet during most of the heat of the day, but then become active in late afternoon, busily carrying food to their nests. Thanks to Derek Uhey for identification of these ants.

Centrodera spurca, a common species in late June and early July here.

This huge Prionus lecontei has been one of the few Prionus sp. individuals that have come to the light at night this season. Usually there are far more Prionus californicus. 

A large tarantula, lighter brown than I'm used to seeing, which visited the patio on June 28.

Something new - water boatmen in the ground-level bird bath! Very small - less than 10 mm long. They were gone the next day (presumably had flown on to greener pastures).

Acmaeodera connexa on thistle.

The ultra-common Acmaeodera hepburni, on an odd plant choice (as they usually prefer flowers!).

Brothylus gemmulatus pair. Making more Brothylus gemmulatus....

Galerita lecontei, apparently the only species of Galerita in southern California. A sharp-looking individual!

Hippodamia convergens, enjoying the flowers of late May.

This was one of the largest Polycaon stouti that I've seen - well over 20 mm.

"The Big Guy". Prionus lecontei portrait. The trick to distinguish this species from the more common P. californicus is the 13 antennal segments (as opposed to 12 in P. californicus).

Schistocerca nitens, a colorful morph of the Gray Bird Grasshopper. On the driveway, June 4.

A harvestman, which I think is the "common" one hereabouts, but I still do not know which species.

Mama wolf spider with babies (on her abdomen), on Sandy Creek Road.

Pepsis sp. (maybe P. pallidolimbata?). On my milkweed that I grew from seeds a few years back. The tarantula hawks have been loving this milkweed plant this year. I will try to harvest more milkweed seeds from a couple different species this year, and grow them from seeds next spring (to create my dream "milkweed garden").