hooded ladies' tresses
Spiranthes romanzoffiana
Orchidaceae

Now that we've been orchid hunting for the endangered Yadon's piperia at several locations, we seem to be spotting different orchids left and right. Please note, I use the word 'hunting' to reference 'looking,' not 'killing.' In my estimation our local native orchids are not terribly showy and are fairly small, i.e. little single-stem shoots that rarely reach 18 inches tall with no apparent leaves. I'm guessing I've hiked past Spiranthes before at Fort Ord and never paid much attention to them before now. It's an odd phenomena of human attention; you're oblivious to the fact you're oblivious. I've hiked with people who simply don't see butterflies... at all, even after I point them out. There's a Hymenoptera in the second pic, but I'm feeling a little lazy to sort through a search of "all black bee" right now.

ps 08/22/10 - For other Spiranthes, check out these posts from Blue Jay Barrens in OH and Orchids, Nature and My Outdoor Life in the UK.

coast horned lizard ~ 08/04/10 ~ Fort Ord

juvenile coast horned lizard
Phrynosoma blainvillii

It was love at first sight! I'm usually not this effusive, but these juvenile horned lizards were so tiny and flat-out cute. As CA Herps states (linked in the scientific name above), the Coast horned lizards have two rows of fringed scales on the sides. Apparently, they can shoot blood from their eyes. I'm glad they didn't do that when I picked them up, because I would have felt awful for handling them. To get the spotted belly picture above, I did the "stroke the throat" trick to make it lay still. With the last picture above, it's easy to see why they are so difficult to find. Before now, I've only ever seen 1 adult male at Pinnacles 5 years ago.

ps 08/07/10 - Janet, a regular commenter on Nature ID with several blogs, has posted one of the pictures above on her tumblr account. I'm glad she let me know.

elegant piperia ~ 08/04/10 ~ Skyline Forest Drive

unknown orchid
Orchidaceae

We checked on this, but it's still not enough in bloom to ID. Will check again later, if the deer haven't eaten it. I noticed many of the asparagus looking shoots from July 25, 2010 at Skyline had been browsed upon to the nub.

ps 07/23/11 - For an updated ID on this orchid, check out my August 27, 2010 elegant piperia post.

seacliff buckwheat ~ 08/01/10 ~ Hopkins

best guess seacliff buckwheat

best guess Eriogonum parvifolium
Polygonaceae

I can't tell you how many times I've walked past this and wondered what it was. The pink pom-pom flowers are whimsical. Often it's buzzing with visiting bees and flies. Considering there are 266 records of Eriogonum in Calflora, I'm making my best guess as to species. What struck me for ID were the narrow leaves and bush-like appearance. It's along the Rec Trail, but I'm including this post under Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station for location 'x.' The reason being is that there's a section of the trail in front of Hopkins that looks to me like someone, many years ago, decided to plant various CA natives, even ones that would not necessarily be naturally found in this spot. Those tall smoke stacks in the upper right of the last photo are fake; they're part of Monterey Bay Aquarium's nod to its historical cannery location.

ps 03/29/13 - Evan Moor Educational Publishers contacted me for use of these three photos above in a unit that talks about the El Segundo blue butterfly.  I declined their permissions request, and I gave the following explanation for my refusal:

"While I'd love to get a little extra cash for my photographs, I'm afraid I cannot let you use mine for the purposes of illustrating the El Segundo blue.  I'm a stickler for accuracy on websites and educational materials.

Here's why my specific photographs will not be appropriate for your use:
1) I state in my blog post that I was making a best guess as to species.
2) Even if my pictures are indeed the specific Eriogonum out of a possible 250+!!! found in CA, I've seen variations in plants depending on location.  My Rec Trail ones may indeed look different than those found near the LA airport sites, but I can't be sure since I've not been down there.
3) The El Segundo blue has an extremely short flight period when the sea cliff buckwheat is in peak bloom in June.  My pictures were taken August 1 long after the flowers have aged to deep bright pink.  By August I suspect this blue butterfly is in the late caterpillar instar stages. 

My suggestions to you is find photographs actually from SoCal, preferably taken on the same day as ones with the El Segundo blue butterfly in them, such as http://sittingknitting.blogspot.com/2008/06/el-segundo-blue.html.  Or if you'd like, I could ask some of my CNPS contacts for pictures.  I used to be an entomologist, a science content editor, and a rights and permissions coordinator, so I feel for you as you search for publishable photographs."