Favoritos de andreacala

And THIS is why there were no birds around at daylight....This baby was up on my deck, in the tree with the bird feeders!!
When I first looked out I didn't even see her...(at daylight!), on my 2nd lookout I finally spotted her & couldn't believe my eyes...The last photos actually were the first & show how easily it is to miss seeing these innocent looking beauties. She kept looking at me as much to say, I'm being good...why the concern....Hmmm...well....you ARE an owl..

Continuing observation...Two Species Together. Project.
I really don't know what's going on with these two....or if they are they same two, however I have seen both the Spotted & Blue Spotted here together, more than once this summer! Sorry for the blotches...it was raining & I didn't see the rain drops on the lens until afterwards...

Partly cloudy day in the low 70’s F. ID cue is the chocolate brown top side color. By location this should be the elusive subspecies Fumosum. AKA the Santa Monica Mountains Hairstreak butterfly. Coast Live Oak host plants with new leaf growth growing in the area. I think I saw a female on one of the oak trees. When disturbed it flew up to the top of the tree canopy.

This rabbit appeared from cover near the track to the lookout, then made its way down the slope (in the open) until it finally arrived a bit of scrub near the cliff edge. It ignored the gannets, and they ignored it, with just the one exception in the photo here. Mostly it poked around as it went, but occasionally got startled and ran a short distance. At the destination it started feeding at the patch of grass. This gannet gave it a curious look and the rabbit stayed still in "hiding" mode, then carried on nibbling grass.

1cy
Molested twice. First, by Vanellus vanellus and then by Circus aeruginosus

I can't introduce more than one interation. Here both:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/136485463
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/136485468

Cracked open this gall today that I collected in January (maybe earlier!) and had kept in a ziplock. I expected to find dessicated pupae inside since I had taken the moistened towel out weeks ago fearing mold. I think it's safe to say these aren't inquilines since all six or so I extracted (and have in alcohol) were within the expected egg cases and are identical, but who knows. Imagine my surprise when each of them started moving (barely) once their case was cracked open. Original host was Q agrifolia.

I was very surprised to find what appeared to be two very different colonies of ants just a few inches apart. These ants were quite large and the entrance to their colony was rectangular hole dug at an angle into the soil (bottom of photo 4).

Nearby (top of photo 4) were among the smallest ants I've ever seen and the entrance to their colony was in the center of a ring of soil.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/110527188