NOTE: location is approximate, and the GPS coordinates are not precise. This is a very rare species and should be treated as such. It should be considered highly endangered, despite its entire range being within the designated Eagle Cap Wilderness area, global warming and the resultant climate change being an existential threat to its survival, which is likely dependent on sufficient, reliable, and well-timed snowmelt.

Lyre being eaten by a striped racer. I will create a separate observation for the striped racer, located here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/112218400 . Photo & observation by Bruce Pavalon

My mirror failed to fully retract on one shot (I think), making a false "ground" right where it should be for a chaparral yucca. This (hespero)yucca also afforded me a glimpse of two yucca moths! Previously observed. (add links)

McCabe’s “White Star” in its natural habitat.

Looking forward to the formal description of this species.
Till then, reference is: Fremontia VOL. 45, NO. 3, PG. 25, November 2017

https://www.cnps.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/V45_N3_Islands_Fremontia-English_FINAL_web.pdf

The consensus among people I've talked to so far is that this is most likely a hybrid or the offspring of a hybrid between Masticophis flagellum ruddocki and Masticophis lateralis lateralis. That being said, I'm interested to see if anyone thinks otherwise. Anyone know of other Masticophis hybrid records besides taeniatus x lateralis?

@meandthealiens and I found this snake in treeless desert habitat (more suitable for M. f. ruddocki).

Hawk flying withsnake. Could have been from anywhere in the local area, didn't see him catch it. 2 Hawks were calling out long before I saw this. Were in the trees on the property, flying to different trees an I walked in the area.

Found by Sophie Cameron. Appeared to be drinking from the creek (photo 3 is as found). I was hopeful that my adventures in this canyon would be rewarded with one of these secretive snakes, but I never thought I would actually see one. I was out of my mind when I saw it and was more excited to find this guy than any other snake I have ever found. Was very bitey, and bit me and Sophie several times. At one point, it latched onto Sophie's shirt and held on, even chewing into the shirt like it was prey. One of my all time favorite wildlife encounters by far!!!

Photo 1:
Oliver Woke Up About 6 pm Yesterday
I'd been watching for him. Once he woke up, he sat in the opening for over an hour, just looking out. I was sitting in a chair with my camera. We gazed at each other as it got darker. I gave up and went inside at 6:45 when the mosquitoes were feasting on me. I was hoping he would come out as I've never seen the whole bird. Didn't happen. You can see where the squirrels have chewed the wooden nest box.
Photo 2:
Oliver Watches The Squirrel Below Him
There was a squirrel scampering around below the nest box looking for a place to bury a pecan. Apparently Oliver found this quite interesting. A cardinal spotted the owl and loudly sounded the alarm but Oliver just ignored it. When I went in at 6:45 it was quite dark in my backyard & Oliver was still content to just stay in the opening, chillin.

While photographing water birds from the south side of the Glendale Narrows River Walk, I came across this attractive snake, curled up along the edge of the bike path, dozing on the warm asphalt. Before leaving, I chased it off the busy bikeway so it wouldn't get crushed.

Lifer! Found with 6 hours left in the year, this snake continued my streak to get me at least 1 snake a month for the whole year.

This was the last snake I expected to see because I thought they’d all be brumating this time of year, but maybe it was flooded out of its brumation spot by all the rain we had.

All around one of the most exciting herp finds I’ve had, though I had to rush for photos to get to a New Years party

Rescued this Redhead today. It had a fishhook in its bill / face, and the fishing line it was attached to was frozen into the ice and the bird was trapped. Captured the bird, broke the fishing line, and then, with a friend, cut the fishhook in half and removed it from the duck's bill / face. It seemed vigorous and healthy. When we released it, it flew away strong and fast. Good deed done.

The location and observation date is intentionally obscured, since this is the only location we've seen this species at San Jacinto Mountain. There were only ten plants seen; this observation, and the following eight, show nine of those plants.

These plants were first spotted by James Dillane in 2007. Dave Stith relocated them in on this trip in 2011.

These are almost surely the same plants as in Jaeger's 1921 voucher from "Tahquitz Ridge - desert side - 9000 feet elevation" (which has an erroneous elevation, since the highest point on Tahquitz Ridge is 8792 feet).

Jaeger's voucher was originally determined as "D. abramsii" by Reid Moran, who cites this voucher as "D. abramsii" in his 1951 Dudleya monograph.

That voucher was redetermined as "D. cymosa aff. ssp. pumila" in 1988. Nakai wrote:

Moran (1951) listed two populations of D. abramsii from the San Jacinto Mountains, one from near Kenworthy [Munz 5788 (POM)] and the other from Taquitz (sic) Ridge, 9000 ft (2770 m) [Jaeger in 1921 (POM)]. The population near Kenworthy is D. abramsii, but differs from typical D. abramsii by lacking the characteristic red striations along the petal midrib.

 

The specimen from Tahquitz Ridge differs considerably from the Kenworthy population in its comparatively broad, oblong to ovate leaves and short floral stem. It resembles no specimens of D. abramsii that I have studied.

...

The status of these populations is uncertain until more material can be studied, but it appears they are not D. abramsii.

Some measurements I made in the field:

rosette width is 3.5 cm.

leaf length x width: 30 x 11; 17 x 5; 12 x 6 mm for the largest leaves. Hence the leaf length is 12 to 30 mm; the leaf width is 5 to 11 mm; and the ratio of width to length is 0.29 to 0.50.

peduncle length is 2.5 to 4.0 cm.

these plants have 1 deg infl branches that are branched zero to one times, although one of the plants in this series of posts might be branched two times.

the # of flowers on each ultimate infl branch is 3 to 4.

pedicel length. This was very hard to measure in the field. I measured the longest at 7 mm, and my pix show some at 4 mm.

i measured just one flower, with sepals of 3.5 mm and petals of 10 mm.

Summary of all my measurements compared to D. abramsii and D. cymosa:

• 2 fit only D. cymosa (both key characteristics)
• 1 favors D. cymosa.
• 1 fits only D. abramsii.
• 2 favor D. abramsii.
• 2 don't fit either taxon.