That’s a handsome one - I’ve only rarely seen that level of turquoise dorsal spotting. Apparently it is more common in some populations than others.
The whole family out in the back yard. The little guys are almost big enough to jump the fence now.
So idyllic!
That is just so cool!
j
Saw the first smooth newt in my garden ever! Did not take picture, but it was a juvenile (~6 cm long, brown, probably a female) which indicates that they reproduce very close. I hope the grass snakes rather eat the frogs (there are hundreds now!) and give the newt a chance to survive and reproduce next year.
So, we finally got some decent rain, and the grass in the park is almost fluorescent. Young buck posed for me:
The Great Prince of the Forest!
We don’t see many big racks around here for some reason.
Tee-tiny ribbon snake on our back porch. After I took his picture, I scooped him up and put him back in the yard, but don’t think he went easily! This little one has the heart of a cobra. 
The wife and I went to the Montrose Bird Sanctuary this weekend and we saw a northern parula. This was a lifer for me so it was exciting to see. I also saw some cedar waxwings; they’re fairly common, I think, but I don’t see them too often and at one point they were my white whale. I also saw warblers (I couldn’t tell what kind and Merlin didn’t ID them), a ruby-throated hummingbird, two chickadees mating, another chickadee happily munching on a tent caterpillar, and a Cooper’s hawk trying to find something to eat.
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Wayyyyy out in a field, I saw across a couple of coyotes chasing each other around a stack of hay bales, then around a farm lift like a couple of excited puppies just let off the leash at the dog park 
. It was cute - I don’t usually see them in a playful mood.
Many wee birds…an oak titmouse iconically in an oak, which I always appreciate (it’s a coast live oak if the leaves don’t look particularly oaky to some of you Easterners).
Plus many in the fennel, which is attracting the usual bumper crop of aphids…a nice savannah sparrow with its little yellow eyebrow:
An early Fall migrant yellow warbler (female, highly likely):
Many bushtits moving in flocks, a couple of which tried to metaphorically crawl into my lap in their gluttony. Male:
Female:
Great pics, @Tamerlane. Where did you see these?
Las Gallinas. It’s fairly to very birdy pretty much year-round because of the marshy element.
You got a bunch of little cuties!
Hornets!!! We have loads of yellow jackets and bald faced hornets this time of year. It makes eating outside on the patio almost impossible. Our German shepherd is constantly snapping at them. I’m surprised he hasn’t been stung or maybe he has inside his mouth and he just doesn’t care. I have a PeeGee hydrangea bush that is in full bloom. It is swarming with honey bees, bumble bees, hornets, wasps, sweet bees, hoverflies and who know what. The bush looks as though it’s vibrating there are so many buzzing insects on it.
Hummer in the Million Bells:
Spent the last couple of mornings in the hills. Pretty foggy/overcast much of the time, so my poor camera occasionally struggled, but still fun.
Shot this guy awkwardly out the window of my car. He was just nonchalantly cruising down the side of the road in the park as I was driving in the second morning:
Another filthy mammal. Fox squirrels are not native to CA, but they have completely taken over this area from the cities to the nearby parks. Still, I liked watching him eat berries:
Lots of fall migrants - fair smattering of warblers, a couple of grosbeaks, several Swainson’s thrushes, tons of warbling vireos and one western tanager (female):
A fluffy red-shouldered hawk deep in the woods:
Also deep in the woods, a pygmy nuthatch which I haven’t seen in many years. They always make me think of some other kind of nuthatch crossed with a mouse:
Plus a good haul of woodpeckers. Didn’t get any good shots of the multiple flickers, but managed a few others. One hairy woodpecker:
Many acorn woodpeckers:
Many downy woodpeckers:
I went out to take a photo of the full moon. Since it rose just after the sun set, I hoped to get a nice landscape shot. While I was waiting, this Red-tailed hawk perched on a post close by:
Then, this fluffy-tailed fox came up to me. I had to yell at him to scare him away:
I made a big miscalculation on the time of moonrise. The Needles mountains were much higher than I thought, even though I was across the valley partway up a mountain myself. So, instead of rising at 7:38, it didn’t rise until well after 8pm. By that point it was far too dark to get any landscape in the photo, so I just took some close-ups:
Trick of the light or was it actually this dark? If so I assume it will be a dark morph adult, which I never run into in my neck of the woods. Absolutely smashing-looking juvenile with that dark chocolate against white.
That’s what it looked like.
Wow! They’re all so great, but I like the fox best.
This is my dog Jack, trying to make friends with a deer. The deer’s not ready yet.
