Category: California Natives – Fauna

Hesperapis in the Desert

Searching for Bees in Hellhole Canyon I started visited Anza-Borrego Desert State Park with my husband around three years ago. Ever since that first visit, we feel a pull to return to the Park in late November and again around February or March. I think about the sky in Anza-Borrego as a deliquescent expanse that… Continue reading Hesperapis in the Desert

Mesa Peak Motorway

Photo of a Hedgerow Hairstreak butterfly. A light brown butterfly with subtle greenish blue coloring at inner wing margins and on body.
Hedgerow Hairstreak
Photo of a Cephalosmia, a subgenus of a the genus Osmia (Mason Bees)
Cephalosmia
Photo of a Ligated Furrow Bee
Ligated Furrow Bee
Photo of a Cephalosmia, an entirely black bee in the Osmia genus
Cephalosmia
Photo of the shrub Wooly Blue Curls. Felted green leaves and blue, long-necked flowers with long stamens protruding from each flower.
Wooly Blue Curls
A hummingbird that is primarily gray (in the photo) but around the neck a ruby red collar of feathers is visible.
Anna’s Hummingbird
A butterfly with a small "tails" at the outer margin of the A tawny brown color of the lower wings and a faded orange in the upper wings. Rows of white ribbon patterns at the outer margin of ventral wings and black dashes, dots on the same. Body is a light blue to white.
Tailed Copper
Photo of a Cephalosmia, an entirely black bee in the Osmia genus
Cephalosmia
A native California shrub with long, red tubular flowers and long stamens.
Heartleaf Keckiella
A medium-sized yellow flower that is composite in form with a center disc of florets and outer ray petals extending outward from the disc.
Slender Sunflower
An orange butterfly with white and black markings
American Lady
A black bee with grey eyes hairs bordering the thorax and a striped white/black abdomen
Pending ID
A black bumble bee with yellow hairs on its face and the front part of the thorax. The bee also has a stripe of yellow hair at its fifth abdominal segment
Yellow-faced Bumble Bee
A black bee with horizontal, wide white stripes across its abdomen. Eyes are black. Hairs on the sides of the abdomen and back legs are yellow due to pollen collection.
Wide-striped Sweat Bee
A large Wooly Blue Curls shrub. About five feet hight by five feet wide.
Wooly Blue Curls

Now that the rocket’s red glare is done, is our flag still there? Today’s journey in search of life included a long hike, my favorite playlist and lots of time searching for and focusing on the small ones. In the wilderness I feel free of the monsters. I turned off the music and waded among… Continue reading Mesa Peak Motorway

Yellow-faced Bumble Bee

The Yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, is common in coastal southern California. The bumble bee featured in the first two photographs might have been a recently emerged queen based upon her large size and the date. I photographed her on March 25, and again on April 3, 2024. On those dates she visited a large… Continue reading Yellow-faced Bumble Bee

Black-tailed Bumble Bee

Where I live the Black-tailed Bumble Bee is usually the first species I see in January or February, depending on local conditions. On a walk last winter I stopped by a small community park near my house. The date was February 15, 2024. The park has a few native plant cultivars, including three manzanita shrubs.… Continue reading Black-tailed Bumble Bee