Favoritos de kyle_eaton_photography

I found this female Western Black Widow dead on her back outside the backdoor of Hedco Hall. She has a line of silk running from her spinnerets to her tangle of legs and also away from her body, with something tan tangled in it.

The building is surrounded by a line of insecticide, which may have caused her death. I've previously found another female near an exterior door after seeing her inside, so I believe that both were killed and removed by janitors.

This Orbweaver has been living on a chair in our backyard for over 4 months. In the day time it curls up between beams of the chair, and at night it remakes its web.

Photo 3 shows the spiderweb. Most of these photos were darkened (they came out a bit overexposed) and sharpened.

I previously posted this Spider from 2 months earlier at this link: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145303514

I still can’t tell a sharp-shinned from a Cooper’s with confidence. Merlin called the first photo a sharp-shinned, and the second and third a Cooper’s. My first impression was it was a Cooper’s, so that’s what I’m going to go with!

We found this jaw bone underneath a Raven nest (which was atop a telephone pole). Collected for better photos, which I'll add after cleaning it.
Image 2 shows it as we found it. Image 3 shows a measurement.

Upon cleaning at home, each of the back teeth split in half when removed.
Image 7 shows its location.

This sunbathing lizard let me get very close without reacting, though it was alive.

Photos 1, 3, & 5 were edited to have lower exposure to bring down blown out parts. Photo 6 is unedited.

Sam is the only other one who saw this Lizard, thanks for sticking in the back of the pack with me.

Observed a camera-shy California Ground Squirrel rush toward the safety of the shrub, directly to where a Desert Cottontail was sitting causing the Desert Cottontail to leap straight up into the air allowing the California Ground Squirrel to pass underneath (image 2).

Small, somewhat spherical gall wasp nests growing on immature Oak tree (a Coast Live Oak I believe). The surrounding mature Oaks appear to all be Coast Live oaks.
Each gall is about 1.5mm long.
6th image shows that they're not detectable from the bottom of the leaf they're on. Lifer for me.

Odd growth on tree branch. I've found this kind of growth exclusively on bare Coast Live Oak Branches. This one was under a Coast Live Oak, shown in the last image.
Whatever it is, it's hard. Brought it inside (it was right outside), so I can get macro shots if they'll help.

This was one of multiple Hoppers on this bush in the Lewis Hall atrium (6 Hoppers total, 5 of another species).

Photo 1 is in Flash White Balance while the rest of the photos are in Auto White Balance as they were shot. Flash was used.

I photographed this Hopper with my Canon EOS 80D and 35mm macro lens. My settings were: 1/250 seconds, f/9, ISO100, EXP0, natural lighting + built-in flash.

This egg case was right beside the main trail and showed clear signs of human tampering. The basal plate aperture had been prized open and all of the fluffy flocculent silk packing (along with the spiderlings) had been removed. I took the empty cocoon home and experimented with creating a continuous thread by unwrapping the outer covering. Someone familiar with the use of a drop spindle would be able to make a large quantity of good quality silk thread.