I love seeing lizards and salamanders whenever I'm out in nature! I love the orange color of this one that seems to glow as well as the eyes that I think are really cool looking!
Yellow-eyed Ensatina (Ensatina eschscholtzii xanthoptica)
Redwood Regional Park
Oakland, CA
01-17-12
I had previously incorrectly identified this charming little one as a California newt (Taricha torosa) when I posted it, but have since changed the description.
Thank you to Ken-ichi for the correct ID, to scott.simono for concurring with him, and to Isa and Jessica from the EBRPD for vefifying the ID. =)
Explore #341, January 18, 2012 (Thank you Rita for letting me know).
EBRPD facebook photo of the day, January 19, 2012
© Sally Rae Kimmel. All Rights Reserved. Please contact me if you would like to use any of my photographs. All of my photographs are copyright protected. They are not to be used in any way, in whole or in part, copied, reproduced, downloaded, distributed and/or used in any form of media, publication or print including on the internet without my express written permission. This applies to all of my photos, whether or not this notice appears in the description, and whether or not there is a copyright or watermark on the photo itself.
Tags: Redwood Redwood Regional Park East Bay Regional Park Oakland, CA Yellow-eyed Ensatina Ensatina Ensatina eschscholtzii xanthoptica salamander
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My favorite capture of the day: Two Large Marble (Euchloe ausonides) butterflies on a Wild Radish (Raphanus sativus) wildflower blossom
In spite of their name, they're actually small butterflies that are only about 1 1/2 inches long. They're mostly a creamy white color on top, but as you can see, they're a mossy marbled pattern under their hind wings.
I hadn't photographed one of these before, so I was excited to get two in one photo, especially since I hadn't seen one land. My hours of patience out there finally paid off when two started fluttering together and I kept watching them and saw them land from a distance. I kept my eyes on where I saw them land. It was hard to spot where they were at first and then I saw them. It was windy too, but I was able to capture them together on a Wild Radish blossom in spite of the wind. I felt like I found a great treasure. =)
Briones Regional Park
Lafayette, CA
04-14-12
0229
© Sally Rae Kimmel. All Rights Reserved. Please contact me if you would like to use any of my photographs. All of my photographs are copyright protected. They are not to be used in any way, in whole or in part, copied, reproduced, downloaded, distributed and/or used in any form of media, publication or print including on the internet without my express written permission. This applies to all of my photos, whether or not this notice appears in the description, and whether or not there is a copyright or watermark on the photo itself.
Flickr Explore #363, April 16, 2012
Tags: Large Marble Euchloe ausonides butterflies butterfly mating butterflies Briones Briones Regional Park East Bay Regional Park Lafayette, CA
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Overwintering Monarch butterfly on yellow flower
Ardenwood Historic Farm
Fremont, CA
01-13-12
I approached slowly hoping that one of the overwintering monarch butterflies would be on one of these flowers, (yellow preferred, but I would have been happy if it was on an orange one too!), but didn't want to get my hopes up. I was lucky (on this Friday the 13th) and there was one on my first choice of flowers! Now to get some shots before it flew away. It was 70 degrees and this was the only one on any flower there that I saw while I was there, so the butterflies that were away from the clusters (and there weren't many) were moving very quickly. I had hoped with the heat that there would be more flying around, but to my surprise, there weren't. I was so happy to get some shots of this beauty (some look like they've had a tough journey with torn wings, but not this one) before I got too close and it flew away, but I got the take off (see the last photo in the series below), so I was happy! =)
© Sally Rae Kimmel. All Rights Reserved. Please contact me if you would like to use any of my photographs. All of my photographs are copyright protected. They are not to be used in any way, in whole or in part, copied, reproduced, downloaded, distributed and/or used in any form of media, publication or print including on the internet without my express written permission. This applies to all of my photos, whether or not this notice appears in the description, and whether or not there is a copyright or watermark on the photo itself.
Tags: Ardenwood Ardenwood Historic Farm East Bay Regional Park Fremont, CA monarch monarch butterfly butterfly butterflies overwintering monarch butterfly butterfly on flower
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Rare Leucistic Anna's Hummingbird
UCSC Arboretum
Santa Cruz, CA
Sept. 2016
taken in the Australian Garden on 09-10-16.
Feeding on Swamp Bottlebrush (Beaufortia sparsa; Myrtaceae; Myrtle Family; southwest of Western Australia)
Yay! I finally got a "red, green and white" shot for my Christmas cards! =) Unless I get a better one, it will be a version of one of these two shots that I took yesterday!
I've been trying to get a "Christmassy" photo of "Snowy" for two months now and yesterday when I saw that the bottlebrush tree that he had been sitting in last weekend had some blooms on it this weekend, I was ecstatic!!
And one blossom on the bottom would be perfect for what I wanted and not be "cluttered' like the others would be if he would go to that one and I could get a good shot of him feeding at it!
There were lots of photographers getting great shots of him on the banksia while I watched this little tree and after 2 hours, he still hadn't fed on it. I told the other photographers that I was waiting for my "Christmas shot", so some of them came over by me and finally he went to the blossoms and to the one I wanted him to go to (Yay!) Myself and another photographer standing by me got shots of him at this blossom! It was the only time in the 4 hours that I waited there that he fed on this one! I tried again today for 6 hours and he went near it for about one second before chasing after another hummer in his territory! I wish I would've asked the other photographer what his name was or if he had a website, because it would've been fun to see his besides on the back of his camera! =)
© Sally Rae Kimmel. All Rights Reserved. Please contact me if you would like to use any of my photographs. All of my photographs are copyright protected. They are not to be used in any way, in whole or in part, copied, reproduced, downloaded, distributed and/or used in any form of media, publication or print including on the internet without my express written permission. This applies to all of my photos, whether or not this notice appears in the description, and whether or not there is a copyright or watermark on the photo itself.
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Overwintering Ladybugs
Redwood Regional Park
Oakland, CA
01-17-12
Up in the hills in Oakland, CA, in Redwood Regional Park, (one of the East Bay Regional Parks), ladybugs overwinter and it is truly an amazing sight to see! In one area of the park, the dried up thistles were covered with them and they looked like they were tiny red berries. This photo is a close-up shot of just one of the many thistles that were covered with them. This was my first time seeing them and it was an awesome experience for me. I took several photos of them and hope to get out again to take more before they disperse. I feel so fortunate to live in the Bay area and have access to so many beautiful places and wildlife.
© Sally Rae Kimmel. All Rights Reserved. Please contact me if you would like to use any of my photographs. All of my photographs are copyright protected. They are not to be used in any way, in whole or in part, copied, reproduced, downloaded, distributed and/or used in any form of media, publication or print including on the internet without my express written permission. This applies to all of my photos, whether or not this notice appears in the description, and whether or not there is a copyright or watermark on the photo itself.
Tags: Redwood Redwood Regional Park East Bay Regional Park Oakland, CA ladybug ladybugs overwintering ladybugs
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