North Campus: L.A.'s Urban Nature

Killer Legs: Crab Spider Wins Prize with Eight!

2012-02-29T14:42:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, February 26, Museum Educator Anna Holden, and myself took some families out to the North Campus to collect spiders! The spiders were collected so they can be identified and preserved as part of our ongoing L.A. Spider Survey. They will also be added to our ever-growing North Campus species list.

Briana Burrows and Anna Holden

(looks like they really like collecting spiders too)

All told, we collected 17 spiders (not bad for a newly planted habitat) many of which were very small and non-descript – think tiny brown specks almost indistinguishable from a piece of dirt (did I mention these children have amazing eyesight?). However, there was one spider that stood out from the crowd. She was large, and yellow, and had oh such lovely legs! Let me introduce you to the Whitebanded Crab Spider, Misumenoides formosipes (her species name is derived from the Latin formosus = beautiful and pes = foot or leg).

Female Whitebanded Crab Spider

This group of spiders is so named for their crab-like appearance and movement. They are adept at quickly moving sideways, backwards, and forwards. This quick movement is only infrequently observed by us humans, as they are "sit and wait" predators. This means they sit very still on a flower and wait for pollinators to visit, and then, quick as a flash, they'll attack and subdue their prey. Also of note, they can change color! Watch out chameleons, these eight-legged lovelies also have the ability to better blend in with their surroundings. Although it has to be said that they can't deviate greatly from their original color and the process takes a few days to complete.

The beautiful specimen we found on Sunday was a female. The sexes are very easy to distinguish as the males are a lot smaller and much less rotund. She was collected on the bright yellow, sunflower-like flowers of Encelia californica, commonly known as bush sunflower. Next time you are in the North Campus, check out the bush sunflowers planted atop the living wall. Who knew so much drama could be unfolding on each and every flower?

Crab spider versus European Honey Bee

(It was a tie, the honey bee flew away)

Thanks to Karen Ewald for taking the spider collecting picture.

First Clouded Sulphur Butterfly Pupa in North Campus

2012-02-23T15:22:00.001-08:00

Last week, Jany Alvarez, one of the Museum's Guest Relations staff, was sitting at the bus stop adjacent to the North Campus. While she was waiting for her bus, she saw an interesting sight—a caterpillar crawling along the sidewalk! Thinking that the caterpillar would be better off on a plant than on the cement, she picked the caterpillar up and placed it carefully on a Dudleya plant on the Living Wall.

Later that day, another Guest Relations staffer watched the caterpillar pupate! By the time word travelled to me, the pupa looked like this:

Yellow pupa on Dudleya

When I came into work on Tuesday morning, the pupa had changed color! I took more pictures and went back to my office to identify it.

Close up of pupa. Note the small horn-like structure

The pupa belongs to a butterfly regularly seen in and around Los Angeles, the Cloudless Sulphur, Phoebis sennae. The Cloudless Sulphur belongs to the Pieridae butterfly family, which includes White, Sulphur, and Orange-tip butterflies. The most common butterfly in this family is the Cabbage White, which flies year round in our area and is a pest on vegetables such as cabbage, kale, and broccoli. In contrast the caterpillar of the Cloudless Sulphur feeds on cassia plants (genus Senna) and is often seen in our local deserts where the two California native species in this genus grow naturally. The altered nature of Los Angeles is such that non-native cassias are now common all over our area. They've been planted in various places like your neighbor's backyard, your local park, and even in the North Campus. The bus stop where Jany found the Cloudless Sulphur caterpillar is only 20 feet away from a few feathery cassias, Senna artemisioides, which were recently planted in the North Campus!

I guess our premise for developing habitat around the Museum is correct—plant it and they will come!

Male Cloudless Sulphur from our Entomology Collection

American Goldfinches Find Feeders and Get Counted

2012-02-17T14:17:00.000-08:00

American Goldfinches, Spinus tristis, have found our bird feeders! Flocks of them have been visiting the nyger seed feeders that the Museum's live animal caretakers fill on an almost daily basis.

American Goldfinch (upper left) and

Lesser Goldfinch (lower right) feeding on nyger seed

Like most finches, American Goldfinches are primarily seed eaters, making them some of the most readily-attracted birds to feeding stations. They are fond of the small seeds of grasses and annual plants, especially a type of thistle seed called nyger. Within 24 hours of putting up our first nyger feeders, we recorded both American Goldfinches and the very closely related Lesser Goldfinch, Spinus psaltria. Of the two species, Americans are slightly larger and more numerous, but are usually only present in Exposition Park from October to April. Thanks to Museum ornithologist, Kimball Garrett's hard work (uploading his regular Exposition Park bird lists), you can explore the seasonality of birds around the Museum. Check out the seasonal abundance charts in eBird; you'll find the goldfinches at the very bottom of the chart.

In the spring when American Goldfinches leave the park, they often head over to nearby streambottoms to nest. Some do travel a bit further afield, heading all the way to northern California or beyond. In contrast the Lesser Goldfinches can be found hanging around the park year-round. We haven't yet documented any nesting here, but now we have planted the North Campus, we hope to observe some soon.

In an effort to record the birds at our feeders and in the newly planted areas of the North Campus, this year we are participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). So this morning at 10 am Kimball tromped around the Museum's grounds and counted all the birds he could find. This is what he recorded:

1 Western Gull
1 Rock Pigeon
1 Mourning Dove
3 Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
4 Allen's Hummingbird (one female nest building)
1 Northern (Red-shafted) Flicker
2 Black Phoebe
3 American Crow
10 Bushtit
6 Yellow-rumped (Audubon's) Warbler
20 House Finch
13 American Goldfinch
15 House Sparrow

Kimball Garrett and Briana Burrows checking out the finches

Kimball Garrett is one diligent bird list maker!

Feeders and seed are generously donated to us by Wildbirds Unlimited in Torrance, CA

Blooming Agaves

2012-02-10T16:17:00.000-08:00

More plant news from the North Campus. Recently some of our blue lotus agaves, Agave ceslii 'Nova', have begun to bloom. This is an impressive sight as these plants send forth long spikes, (between four and six feet long), that look a lot like giant asparagus stalks. This type of agave is monocarpic, meaning that it only flowers once, and this particular selection happens to flower at a relatively young age compared to other species. Incidentally, the genus is commonly called century plant because it can take decades for them to flower. The entire stand of this agave (approximately eight plants) is flowering at the same time, because they were all propagated from the same tissue culture, which is a common nursery practice for certain landscape plants. Although flowering signals the end of the plant's lifespan, we can expect to enjoy the flowers and fruits for the next several months!

Agaves reaching up to the floss silk tree

There are over 300 species of agave in the world, with 100 species native to North America. This large array of species includes well known agaves such as the tequila or blue agave, Agave tequilana, and the sisal or hemp agave, A. sisalana. Other species are also farmed to produce agave nectar, which is sweeter than sugar and honey.

The blue lotus agaves we have planted are native to Mexico and are becoming more common in the nursery trade. As with all agaves, the flower stalks possess literally hundreds if not thousands of individual blossoms, which are visited by many kinds of pollinators. The flowers will be a pale yellow color and will hopefully attract the numerous Anna's and Allen's hummingbirds that are already resident in Exposition Park. Unlike other agave species, the ones planted on the North Campus will not attract mammalian nocturnal pollinators, aka bats, which is a shame since we will be very soon putting up a bat box (more on that to come later)!

Four stately stalks!

Stop by the North Campus and check them out today! They are close to the Dueling Dinos on the North side of the Car Pak along Exposition Boulevard.

First Baby Oaks Sprout Up in the North Campus

2012-02-02T14:51:00.000-08:00

The North Campus is the proud parent of some baby oak trees!

Baby coast live oak sheltered by wall

Carol Bornstein, our new Director of the North Campus Gardens, discovered a couple of oak saplings on one of her recent outdoor forays. The babies are coast live oaks, Quercus agrifolia, of which we recently planted several trees. We've also planted another species of oak, the Engelmann oak, Quercus engelmanni (we planted only three of this species). Both species reside in the section of the garden called the urban wilderness which is composed of several kinds of California native trees and shrubs.

This might be the mother oak!

Oak trees provide amazing habitat value, and this is the main reason we planted them. By putting in such a sizable stand of oaks we're hoping our created wilderness will provide habitat for a whole slough of organisms rarely, if ever, seen before in Exposition Park. In just one oak tree it would be easy to find hundreds of species of associated plants and animals and thousands of individuals (think how many birds, ants, or squirrels you find in an oak tree). One species that has already shown up with our oaks, is a tiny insect called a whitefly.

Crown whitefly nymphs on oak leaf

(each nymph is only 1 millimeter long)

It was once again thanks to Carol, who was out inspecting our lovely oaks, that we discovered these small insects. At first we thought they might be a scale insect, but Brian Brown, the Museum's Curator of Entomology, identified them as crown whiteflies, Aleuroplatus coronata. As adults these small white homopterous insects (group of insects consisting of aphids, cicadas, scales, etc) fly around to find a suitable location to lay their eggs. For the crown whiteflies their plant of choice is oak. What you see in the image above are the nymphs (immature forms) of the whitefly, they have no wings but are covered with white waxy secretions that make them look like little crowns. The nymphs feed on the leaf's juices by piercing and inserting their mouthparts into the leaf. They can cause damage to the plant's health if their numbers are high enough, and they can also transmit disease organisms from one tree to another (not unlike mosquitos transmit malaria).

Go check out your local oaks and see what animals live on them!

Unusual Bird Sighting: Common Yellowthroat

2012-01-27T15:22:00.000-08:00

Sam Easterson has caught a relatively unusual occurrence on camera. On New Year's day Sam's camera trap discovered a Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) skulking behind one of our sheds (I should add that this is the same shed the opossums have a den underneath). It is relatively unusual only because of the season, this is only the third time a Common Yellowthroat has been sighted here in winter!

New Year's day sighting of female Common Yellowthroat

According to Kimball Garrett, our Ornithology Collections Manager, the Common Yellowthroat is a widespread North American wood-warbler, breeding in marshes and wet meadows and scrublands over most of the continent. In Exposition Park, Kimball usually observes yellowthroats in the Rose Garden, where the dense beds of roses provide good places to hide. Of course we hope that as the vegetation in the North Campus becomes established we'll begin to find them here too.

Same bird caught on camera 14 days later

All told Kimball has spotted the Common Yellowthroat 66 times in Exposition Park since he began surveying the area in 1984. Sixty-two of those sightings occurred during the bird's fall migration, between 27 August and 2 December. Kimball has also recorded two additional sightings during the bird's spring migration in April. Prior to this year's winter sighting, Kimball has observed the yellowthroat twice in mid-winter – on 27 January 2010 and 6 January 2011. This is why it was a bit of a surprise when Sam's camera trap recorded the visit of a female Common Yellowthroat earlier this month. According to Kimball, "modern technology is clearly better than an old human field ornithologist in keeping track of more secretive birds!" Regardless of the mode of sighting this record is good news. It suggests that the plantings in the North Campus will provide an important habitat that is lacking in the urban core. We are planting dense low vegetation that is the domain of wrens, Geothlypis warblers, various sparrows and other bird species that are rarely seen in your common urban park that is dominated by trees and lawns.

Thanks Kimball for your detailed bird records and natural history information of the Common Yellowthroat!

Aphid Eating Flower Fly Found in North Campus

2012-01-20T14:04:00.000-08:00

There are over 150,000 species of flies in the world! Most visitors who come to the Museum can name only a few of these flies (house fly, horse fly, or mosquito for examples) and many hold the belief that we would be better off without flies in our world. On Wednesday, January 18, we found a fly that I am sure will help you realize that all flies can't be cast as "bad" characters — I introduce the humble aphid eating flower fly, Eupeodes volucris.

Female Eupeodes volucris

Photo taken by Jerry Friedman

Why do people like these flies and not others? This isn't an easy question to answer, but I'll have a go... First of all, these flies eat aphids and as any gardener will tell you, aphids are a serious garden pest. Secondly, they belong to a family of flies known as “flower flies” so called for their proclivity to visit flowers and suck down nectar. Thereby they play a role in pollination. Finally, if you look closely at these small flies you'll see why a lot of geeky people, like myself, think they are quite beautiful. Not only are they brightly colored and highly patterned, when their eyes catch the sunlight just right they have an iridescent sheen! Although I might add that E. volucris isn't as flashy as its close relative, the aptly named stripe-eyed flower fly, Eristalinus taeniops, also a native to the Los Angeles area.

Stripe-eyed flower fly

Photo courtesy of What's That Bug website

How does a fly eat an aphid? It is actually the larval stage of the fly, or maggot that chows down on aphids. Much like immature ladybugs they trawl through a sea of aphids on a plant and chomp any that get in their way! Though they don't have quite the same look as a ladybug!

Flower fly maggots eating oleander aphids

Photo courtesy of What's That Bug website

To find out more our local flower flies, swing by the Museum gift shop to get a copy of our latest entomological publication, Flower Flies of Los Angeles County.

Thanks to Brian Brown and Jim Hogue for supplying fly information and identifying the fly specimen.

Walking Sticks Mysteriously Appear in Museum

2012-01-05T13:21:00.000-08:00

Last Friday two Indian walking sticks, Carausius morosus, mysteriously showed up inside the Museum! They didn't escape from the Insect Zoo (we've never kept this species of walking stick before), and we haven't been able to find out exactly how they got here. What we do know is that the insects were discovered after a visitor felt one "fall" on his arm, and then promptly reported it to a staff person.

One of the Indian walking sticks found in the Museum!

Indian walking sticks, a.k.a. laboratory walking sticks, are one of the most common walking sticks around. They are often kept as pets and classroom teaching tools, and their eggs can even be purchased on eBay for fish food! Surprisingly these insects have recently established themselves in our area through inadvertent or purposeful introductions. How does one inadvertently introduces stick insects into the environment?

Indian walking sticks can reproduce parthenogenetically, that is without sexual reproduction. Therefore females can produce eggs regardless of the presence of males. The eggs are very small, about 3mm in length, and look a lot like tiny stones. Female sticks lay their eggs by dropping them directly to the ground, where they accumulate in the leaf litter. When they are in captivity, fecal material, partially chewed leaves, and eggs accumulate very quickly at the bottom of walking stick enclosures. To keep the insects clean and safe it is important for owners to clean this material out on a regular basis. For the untrained stick keeper, it is very easy to inadvertently discard eggs. Often this will be directly into the trash, or maybe even into the backyard compost pile. Paired with purposeful introductions, "I can't keep this pet anymore, I'm sure it will be better outside," is it any wonder that these insects have established themselves in numerous areas around Los Angeles?

Indian walking stick eggs

(photo courtesy of Dr. Arakelian)

According to Dr. Gevorak Arakelian, Senior Biologist in the L.A. County Department of Agricultural Commissioner, Indian walking sticks have recently been downgraded from a B rating to a C rating. This means that they aren't viewed as serious pests that need to be eradicated. However, for gardeners and the nursery industry these insects can still be troublesome. They eat a wide variety of landscape plants including rose, bramble, camelia, hibiscus, geranium, oak, and English ivy (the list goes on). Next time you find mysterious chew marks on your rose bush, take a closer look and see if you can find a walking stick hiding nearby.

For more information check out Dr. Arakelian's Indian walking stick fact sheet.

Opossums Love Tin Foil!

2011-12-28T13:41:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, Sam Easterson followed a trail of tin foil and discovered the den of a Virginia opossum, Didelphis virginiana, underneath one of the Museum's storage sheds. Since then he set up camera traps around the den to see what was going on. This is what we found...

A night of tin foil escapades.
What on Earth are they doing with all the tin foil? Tin foil hats to ward off alien thought control maybe?

All kidding aside, it seems that this opossum has extracted a tasty morsel from inside the shiny package and is taking it down into the den.

Afternoon stroll?

The next day, one of the opossums emerges for a late afternoon jaunt in the park, and takes a peek at the camera trap!

Running away from Museum security!
Can you see the flash light?

Doing the Chores

Finally, we caught lots of images of the opossums collecting leaves with their tails! Their prehensile tails are a great tool for grasping small objects and are sometimes used for hanging upside down in trees. Though the notion that they sleep hanging upside down is a myth, their tails are not strong enough to hold them upside down for an entire night.

Wait, there's more tin foil!

What is in store for 2012? Sam's got a few tricks up his sleeve, which I'm not willing to reveal just yet. Suffice it to say that we're all hoping there will be babies in the spring!

Happy 2012!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

2011-12-23T12:33:00.000-08:00

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas the North Campus gave to me...

Twelve skippers skipping

Eleven pill bugs pillaging

Ten fritillaries a-feeding

Nine gulls a-diving (dumpster diving that is)

Eight mantids a-milking

Seven caterpillars a-crawling

Six ladybugs a-laying

Five phorid (fly) wings

Four calling crows

Three French hummingbirds

Two turtle fox squirrels

And an oak gall in an oak tree!

Wishing you a happy holiday season!

First Raccoon Recorded in North Campus

2011-12-16T13:46:00.000-08:00

Last week, while I was away in Costa Rica finding amazing bugs of all varieties, Sam's camera trap discovered a new species of mammal for our North Campus list!

Raccoon found under bridge in North Campus

Opossums, squirrels, dogs, and cats have all been spotted in the North Campus since we planted the space, but until recently we had only suspected that raccoons were part of that mix too. Raccoons, Procyon lotor, are common urban mammals often found in the urban core. These nocturnal mammals are notorious for destroying new lawns as they try to reach the tasty grubs and other insects that come to the surface after heavy watering. They are clever little creatures and will neatly roll up the new turf to get to the tasty invertebrate morsels they are craving. Another pestiferous trait is their proclivity for dumpster diving. They can often be heard in the middle of the night knocking over trash cans and tearing into trash bags, looking for leftovers and other edible waste. Of course, the raccoons are not dumb; they want an easy meal! They'll bypass all the aforementioned nonsense if there's easily available free food—a.k.a. Fido's pet chow!

Raccoon stealing Amy's pet chow!

About a month ago, I met Amy at the Green Festival at the Los Angeles Convention Center. I had a raccoon pelt with me which prompted her to tell me about the raccoons that vist her front yard every night in downtown Long Beach to eat her pet's food. One night Amy decided she would try and foil the raccoons and put the pet chow in a sealed rolling container. However, the raccoons weren't having their free dinner taken away. They actually figured out how to open the container (even rolling it down the stairs) and gorged on the hidden food!

Something's been searching for bugs!

Luckily there's no pet chow to be had in the North Campus, but they're obviously finding plenty of food here. I'm pretty sure the raccoons are responsible for the many small divets I've seen in the mulch, as this is where the grubs and other insects are hiding. Mmmmmm tasty!

Piranhas Found in L.A.!

2011-12-06T10:11:00.000-08:00

Piranhas are the stuff of B-movies, sensationalized nature television, and the tropical rainforest. Most would think they have little bearing on life here in L.A., however as I learned last week, this is not the case.

Taxidermied Red Piranha, Pygocentrus nattereri

"lips" removed to accentuate teeth

Piranhas are here in L.A.! They are sometimes confiscated from pet stores and, on occasion, they are even found in our waterways. The Museum's Ichthyology collection houses over 30 confiscated piranha, and at least one that was caught in the "wild." According to the collections record, this Red Piranha (see below) was netted from "Simi Valley Public Golf Course, Lake B." It was collected on April 28, 1988 and measured 275mm (almost 10 1/2 inches)! Most interestingly the capture method box of the record states that that the "fish was in distress." I wonder if the piranha would ever have been discovered had it not been in distress?

Before any of us decide to never go fishing for our wayward golf balls with our bare hands again, I have some happy news. Even in the Amazon basin, where Red Piranhas are native, humans are extremely unlikely to be injured by them, let alone die. The image of a school of piranha stripping all flesh from a whole cow or indeed a whole human, isn't much more than a sensationalized Hollywood gimmick (think James Bond's You Only Live Twice). This is because Red Piranha are actually scavengers preferring to eat dead, not living flesh. So next time you're fishing for your golf ball in the water trap, be safe in the knowledge that you're much more likely to get bitten by your neighbor's dog!

The Simi Valley Golf course piranha

Other piranha collected in L.A. come to the Museum directly from the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG). CDFG staff often patrol pet stores and upon finding illegal creatures will confiscate them under California Law Title 14 Section 671. The fish are promptly brought to the Museum for identification and sometimes for permanent storage, though they may be taken briefly into a court of law as evidence! In May 2002, the Museum received 16 Red Piranha specimens confiscated from one pet store alone!

Red Piranha confiscated from pet store

I wonder if we'll ever find a piranha in the North Campus pond?

Scat: Owls and Opossums Oh My!

2011-11-29T15:44:00.000-08:00

Mystery abounds in the North Campus, for who's been leaving scat under the footbridge? I discovered a vast array (about 10 pieces) of scat while I was searching for fungi a few weeks ago, and of course I snapped some pictures to try and identify our most recent visitor.

Who does this scat belong to?

My gut told me the scat belonged to either a Virginia Opossum, Didelphis virginiana, or a Raccoon, Procyon lotor. To get a definitive answer I did two things. Firstly, I sent this picture to Jim Dines, the Museum's Mammology Collections Manager. Secondly, I put Sam Easterson on the project to set up a camera trap.

Almost caught in the act!

The trap that Sam put up over the Thanksgiving Holiday recorded at least one, if not two Virginia Opossums under the bridge! Although, we didn't capture footage of an opossum in the act so to speak, I am pretty confident we've discovered our scat provider! In concurrence was Jim, "You're right that it's probably opossum. They can have such varied diet that their scat can be hard to identify."

On the subject of scat, I have one last thing to show you! Unlike the Virginia Opossum, the Burrowing Owl, Athene cunicularia, we saw last week was caught in the act!

Aside from an in-depth view of owl bowel evacuation, this footage shows how Burrowing Owls are adept at standing on one leg. This isn't a circus trick, it actually allows the bird to keep the other leg warm in the feathers and only allow precious warmth to be lost from one leg at a time!

Thanksgiving for Mushrooms!

2011-11-23T11:49:00.000-08:00

We're never going to spot a Wild Turkey in the North Campus, but I still wanted to post something related to the Thanksgiving holiday this week. Ah ha! Mushrooms, I thought. Not the Campbell's soup kind, but real honest-to-goodness wild mushrooms—like the ones that are popping up all over L.A. after our recent autumnal rains.

In preparation for this blog post I went out searching for mushrooms in the North Campus. What I found was this:

Unidentified little brown mushroom (LBM)

Not being a mycologist, I had no idea what this small non-descript brown mushroom was, so I took it to the experts. Last night, the L.A. Mycological Society (LAMS) held their monthly meeting at the Museum. The meeting is a place for all things fungi—there's a lecture (last night's touched on the insect zombification powers of some fungi!), mushroom show and tell, and of course snacks.

During the mushroom show and tell, I politely asked a LAMS member to identify my mushroom. Not missing a beat he told me it was an LBM. A what? A little brown mushroom! He continued to explain that there are hundreds of species of small brown mushrooms, and it was impossible to identify my mushroom without a much more in depth process. I almost left disappointed, but then I took a gander at the other mushrooms people had found throughout Los Angeles.

An array of mushrooms found on a mushroom foray

Earthstar, Geastrum spp. and

Western Destroying Angel, Amanita ocreata (small white mushroom)

Jack O'lantern, Omphalotus olivascens

This musrhoom actually glows in the dark!

Massive puffball mushrooom

Wow, what diversity! In the coming months I am working with the LAMS to do a formal survey of fungi in the North Campus. This survey will generate a species list for the site. Apparently there are almost 400 species of mushrooms and other fungi in Southern California, I wonder how many we'll find in the Museum's backyard?

First Owl Recorded in North Campus

2011-11-18T13:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday ,we recorded the first owl in the North Campus. This adorable Burrowing Owl, Athene cunicularia, was observed perching on the footbridge surveying the patrons in the Museum Cafe. However, this is not the first time a Burrowing Owl has been recorded at the Museum. A few years ago, a Burrowing Owl actually roosted in a T. rex skull that was stored on our fourth floor patio. According to Kimball Garrett, the Museum's Ornithology Collections Manager, "these owls are migrants that are coming in from more northerly or interior breeding areas – the breeding population in Los Angeles Basin is gone, or virtually so."

Coincidentally, yesterday was also the date of Kimball's annual bird walk in Exposition Park. Between 8:10 and 9:45 am the group recorded 27 species of birds including the second ever record of a Wilson's Snipe, Gallinago delicata, for the park. Not that I registered that the brown blur flying away from me was a Snipe, let alone a bird, but I took Kimball's word for it!

Looking at American Goldfinches on the Museum Feeders

(photo courtesy of Brenda Rees)

Here's the entire list including numbers of individuals seen:

Merlin (Falco columbarius) 1

Wilson's Snipe (Gallinago delicata) 1

Western Gull (Larus occidentalis) 6

Rock Pigeon (Columba livia) 8

Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) 22

Yellow-chevroned Parakeet (Brotogeris chiriri) 4

Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna) 3

Allen's Hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin) 4

Nuttall's Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii) 1

Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans) 5

American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) 10

Common Raven (Corvus corax) 1

Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) 20

Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) 1

Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana) 7

American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 6

Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) 4

European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) 8

Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) 20

Orange-crowned Warbler (Oreothlypis celata) 1

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) (Setophaga coronata auduboni) 20

Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) 1

Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina) 1

House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) 10

Lesser Goldfinch (Spinus psaltria) 1

American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) 20

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) 10

Other notable sightings:

Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) 2

Eastern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger) 5

Korean Air Airbus A380 1 (It seems Kimball is adept at identifying aircraft also!)

Niña de la Tierra: Children of the Earth

2011-11-09T13:16:00.000-08:00

No it's not the title of a horror film, Children of the Earth is actually one of the many common names for Stenopelmatus fuscus. Other names lovingly given to this insect are Jerusalem Cricket, Potato Bug, Skull Insect, and my personal favorite, Devil's Baby!

Earlier this week Sam Easterson found one in his front yard and captured this picture and footage.

Are you Looking at Me?

These crickets are very common in Los Angeles. Consequently, my colleague Brian Brown, the Museum's Curator of Entomology, and I get calls about them all the time. I most often get calls after heavy rains, when these crickets come up from the depths of their soily abodes. They are stellar diggers (Check out their fossorial front legs, modified for digging) and live most of the summer months deep underground to escape the heat. Aside from their enlarged digging legs, their most obvious feature is their highly-domed head, which gives them an alien-like look. To continue the alien theme, these large heads contains multiple "brains!" To be scientifically correct they are actually cerebral ganglia, or masses of nerve tissue, which control the action of the chewing mouthparts, eyes, and antennae. Maybe I should propose a new name for this cricket, Alien's Devil Child?

Praying Mantis

2011-11-04T13:12:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I saw my first praying mantis in the North Campus! I was walking back from lunch at USC and there she was right in front of me on the path.

Female Mediterranean Mantid, Iris oratoria, running for cover

I knew she was a female because of her enlarged abdomen, males have much narrower abdomens and also longer wings. As I got really close to her to capture this picture, she went into her defensive posture. She reared up on her hind legs, extended her raptorial (modified for capturing prey) front legs, and flashed her brightly patterned black and yellow hind wings. She stayed in this posture for about 15 seconds and then ran for cover in the plantings. Hopefully she'll lay an egg case and we'll have baby mantids in the spring!

Mediterranean Mantid defensive posture

(image courtesy of What's That Bug website)

Happy Halloween: Bats!

2011-10-31T16:01:00.000-07:00

To help celebrate Halloween here are some bats!

The Big Brown Bat, Eptesicus fuscus, is the most common bat in our area. They are easily seen at dusk flying around parks and water sources as they search for their insect food. We're putting up a bat box in the North Campus in hopes that some of these bats will move in.

The Hoary Bat, Lasiurus cinereus, is another species often found in L.A. This specimen was collected at the Museum on the cafe patio a few years ago.

Last but not least here's the ghost-like Pallid Bat, Antrozous pallidus. Even though this species of bat is rarely found in the urban core, it is found in the desert regions surrounding Los Angeles. Unlike the Big Brown Bats these bats capture their food on the ground! They locate their prey by finding a perch and listening for insect footsteps (note the massive ears). When the right vibrations are heard they swoop down catch the unsuspecting insect and return to the perch to devour it!

Thanks to Jim Dines, the Museum's Mammology Collections Manager, for allowing me to photograph these awesome creatures!

Dirty Work: Dead Birds, Skulls, and Macerating Flesh

2011-10-27T16:16:00.000-07:00

Today a small group of volunteers showed up at the Museum to gut, skin, flense, and macerate birds (flensing is the process of stripping an animal of its skin). It isn't because Halloween is next Monday; they actually do this every week.

Kimball Garrett, Ornithology Collections Manager, runs this unique volunteer program and supervises all gutting, skinning, and skeletonizing. Dead birds are acquired by the Museum through salvage on a regular basis and this group does the very dirty work of turning the limp lifeless carcasses into scientifically useful specimens that will live in the Museum's collection.

This Loggerhead Shrike, Lanius ludovicianus, has just been gutted and had the carcass removed. Next it will be stuffed with cotton, mounted on a small wooden dowel, and labeled.

These are leftover bits and pieces from the Loggerhead Shrike. Kimball and the volunteers call this snarge. The lab's centerpiece is the snarge bucket with the bits and pieces of the various birds prepared that day.

Bacterial maceration jars!

Not all birds that come into the lab are made into study skins; some are kept for their skeletons. After the majority of the flesh has been removed by the volunteers, the remaining carcass is placed in a jar of water. Naturally occurring bacteria remove the leftover flesh and leave clean bones behind. This process takes a few weeks to a few months and gives the lab a very distinct aroma!

Harpy Eagle skull after bacterial maceration

Thanks to Kimball and his volunteers for letting me take pictures in the lab!

Today on the North Campus

2011-10-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

I went out for a walk around the North Campus today and this is what I saw:

They are filling the pond to make sure there aren't any leaks and that the waterfall cascade is level.

Underneath the pedestrian footbridge is the best spot for mushrooms. I think this is a morel, Morchella esculenta. I am consulting with some mushroom experts to see if they can make a positive identification.

Apparently the Monarch caterpillar I found two weeks ago made its pupal case on a wall. I just love how green they are!

Flesh Flies and CSI!

2011-10-20T15:32:00.000-07:00

Since it's October I decided to focus the rest of this month's posts on Halloween inspired themes. Wracking my brains for topics, I realized something I saw last week in the basement would fit the bill nicely. Flesh flies!

Generally the Live Animal Program doesn't keep flesh flies but Shawna Joplin, Coordinator of Animal Care and Education, brought them in as a new food source for our spiders in the Spider Pavilion (open through November 6). The species we are keeping are grey flesh flies, Sarcaphaga bullata, which get shipped to us a pupa. After about a week and a half the adult flies emerge from the puparium and are ready for us to release into the pavilion.

Grey flesh fly pupae

Our adult flesh flies feeding on banana

Flesh fly emerging from its puparium

Contrary to their common name, adult flesh flies don't feed solely on flesh. In fact they just as often eat nectar and other sugary items such as rotting fruit. All flesh flies in the family Sarcophagidae are larviparous, which means they incubate eggs internally and then seemingly give birth to live young, or maggots. It is the place of "birth" that gives these flies their common name—they are deposited on any available dead flesh! In fact these flies are some of the first visitors to roadkill, discarded innards, and even murder victims. Putting these flies to work, forensic entomologists have painstakingly studied their lifecycle, so they can assist Crime Scene Investigators in determining time of death. Because they rapidly discover a body and their development times are predictable under particular environmental conditions, the time of death can be calculated by counting back the days from the life stage of the flies found living on the body.

Next time you feel like seeing these maggots in person, just do what some of our Adventures in Nature campers have done—put out a piece of store-bought liver and wait for the maggots to show up! WARNING: This is smelly, messy work! Lots of other species of flies, beetles, and other creatures are likely to show up too. Are you prepared?

Happy Early Halloween!

North Campus Monarchs

2011-10-13T15:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon myself and number of other staff members braved the heat to continue our survey of North Campus insects. On the heels of last week's Gulf Fritillary discovery, I found the site's first Monarch butterfly caterpillar, Danaus plexippus!

Monarch butterfly caterpillar

As soon as I saw the caterpillar I knew it was a Monarch: There isn't another caterpillar in our area with such yellow, black, and white banding. Also, the caterpillar was found on a narrow-leaved milkweed plant, Asclepias fascicularis, which is one of the food plants of this well-known species.

Based on its size, this caterpillar is in the second to last caterpillar stage (4th instar). Over the coming weeks it will molt to the last and final stage (5th instar), and then turn into a chrysalis. In time for its fall migration, the adult Monarch will emerge and make its way to an overwintering site somewhere along the coast.

In the coming years I hope to tag and track the adult Monarchs that emerge in the North Campus, so we can determine the exact location(s) of our Monarchs' overwintering site(s). Tagging Monarchs is an easy process that in no way hurts the butterflies. The adults are collected with a net and then carefully held while a small sticker (approximately 2% of the butterflies weight) is attached to the hind wing of the butterfly. The butterfly is then released and flies onto its overwintering site. When the Monarchs dies the following spring (after mating) the tags are hopefully retrieved and we can answer the question, where do our North Campus Monarchs overwinter?

Demonstrating how to handle a Monarch for tagging

First Caterpillar Record for North Campus!

2011-10-05T14:30:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks I have been spoiled with bloggable stories, but this week I needed inspiration. I took a stroll out to the North Campus to see what I could find, and was excited to happen upon the first North Campus caterpillar.

The caterpillar I found was in the last and final "J stage" of its larval lifecycle, just about to pupate.

Easily recognizable, Gulf Fritillary caterpillars are striped and spiny.

24 hours later the caterpillar had metamorphosed into the pupal stage, aka chrysalis.

If you look close, you can see the developing wings.

This pupa is a Gulf Fritillary butterfly, Agraulis vanillae, native to Mexico and the southeastern United States where its passion vine food plants are also native. However, this species is now very common to our region because of all the passion vines that have been planted in yards, parks, and also in the North Campus! The species of passion vine I found the caterpillar on was Passiflora 'Lavendar Lady' cultivar, which is a cross between P. amethystina and P. caerula.

Typical alien-looking flower of passion vine, 'Lavender Lady' cultivar.

If you want to encourage these butterflies in your own yard, try planting a few passion vines of your own. Here is a list of the other passion vines we plan on planting in the North Campus:

Passiflora edulis
Passiflora caerulea
Passiflora alatocaerulas

Men's Restroom in Long Beach is Voted Best Spider Collecting Site

2011-09-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks myself and Shawna Joplin, Museum Coordinator of Animal Care and Education, have been madly working to get the Spider Pavilion ready by collecting hundreds of spiders for display. This involved a trip to the swamps of New Orleans to collect the largest orb weavers in North America and also multiple collecting trips around Los Angeles for our local spider species.

Cajun Swamp Adventure

The spiders Shawna and I collected in New Orleans are golden silk spiders, Nephila clavipes, also known as banana spiders because of their banana-ish abdomen. These spiders are common in and around swampy areas and are easy to spot on their large—up to 3 feed in diameter!—golden webs (especially if you flash a bright light on them at night). Collecting them was a breeze after Zack Lemann (aka the Bug Chef from Audubon Insectarium) showed us how. All you need are small Tupperware containers, an ice pick, paper towels, a spray bottle filled with water, and a geeky headlamp! Armed with our paper towel lined containers and our trusty headlamps we set off towards the alligator infested waters looking for spiders. We didn't have to go far, the place was teeming with orb weavers. In one tree I counted 20 spiders on their webs! Thankfully, it only took us an hour and a half to collect 60 spiders. Here are some pictures of the collecting trip.

Nephila clavipes in her web on a shipping container

Me carefully collecting spiders, you don't want to squash their legs!

After collecting we got to catch frogs in the swamp!

Loitering in Parks
Although collecting spiders in our local area isn't nearly as fun as a trip to the Bayou, it inevitably still ends up being an adventure! There are lots of locations for good spider collecting around L.A., but so far we have found the best collecting site to be a men's restroom in Long Beach. Yes it's true, Shawna and I were loitering outside of a park restroom armed with a really long stick. Why the stick? No it is not for protection, it is actually a spider collecting device for those hard-to-reach web-builders. Here are some pictures from our collecting trips around Los Angeles.

Shawna collecting spiders at park restrooms

Unidentified Neoscona orb weaver at Long Beach site

Silver garden orb weaver, Argiope argentata, at Bolsa Chica

Bird Crashes into Museum Building and Dies For Science

2011-09-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

Soras, Porzana carolina, seem to be really poor fliers. So much so that last week one flew into the side of the Museum and killed itself. This brings the Exposition Park Bird List, maintained by Kimball Garrett, our Ornithology Collection Manager, up to 167 species. "But wait," I hear you crying, "what about bird number 166?" In my previous post New Bird For North Campus List, it clearly stated that the Rufous Hummingbird was species 165. No I didn't forget to tell you about bird 166, and no Kimball didn't miscount, funnily enough bird 166 was documented the same exact day the Sora died. Bird 166 is in fact a Swainson's Hawk, Buteo swainsoni, that Kimball saw migrating overhead.

Sora, Porzana carolina, ready to be prepped in the bird lab

Sora study skin after being prepped and accessioned into the collection

Soras are secretive yet fairly common birds in the rail family. They live most of their lives in the dense vegetation of freshwater or brackish marshes, and are usually thought to be reluctant flyers. However, in the spring and fall they take to the wing, some individuals migrating up to hundreds of miles. During these times they are often found after colliding with various built objects such as communication towers, wires, and buildings– just like the one we found in the loading dock!

Swainson's Hawk, Buteo swainsoni, surveying the land

(note this is not the individual documented for our bird list)

As with Soras, Swainson's Hawks aren't very visible in the urban core of Los Angeles. However, they can easily be seen migrating along the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains during their fall and spring migrations. The individual Kimball spotted over the Museum was on its way south to its overwintering site. Although we don't know where this individual will stop, we do know it will be somewhere between western Mexico and Argentina.

Thanks to Kimball for providing natural history information and pictures of the birds and also to Michael Wilson and Jerome Brown for finding the dead Sora!

Vaux's Swifts and Ghetto Birds

2011-09-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

This past Monday a few of us embarked on a real urban nature adventure. We traversed the city streets of Los Angeles to witness one of the coolest nature spectacles I have ever seen in downtown Los Angeles, 6,500 Vaux's Swifts, Chaetura vauxi, spiraling into an old building shaft!

Ghetto bird and swifts share L.A.'s skyline alike!

According to Kimball Garrett, NHM's Ornithology Collections Manager, these swifts stop in L.A. during their spring and fall migrations to and from their breeding grounds in the Pacific Northwest and their overwintering sites in Mexico and Central America. While in L.A. they gorge themselves during the day on flying insects found in areas such as the L.A. river and Griffith Park, and roost at night in various shafts and chimneys around the city.

In recent years the roost of choice for thousands of these birds is the Chester Williams building, on the northeast corner of Broadway and 5th Street, near Pershing Square. The parking structure next door to this building is where myself and a few other Museum staffers found ourselves at 6:00pm on Monday evening.

At approximately 7:30 the swirling masses of swifts began entering the shaft. Although it is impossible to count every individual, Kimball was able to estimate the number of birds entering the roost site. They enter the shaft at a remarkably constant rate of about 10 birds per second. We watched birds enter the roost for about 11 minutes (660 seconds), yielding a rough estimate of about 6,500 birds.

Thanks Kimball!

Vaux's Swifts spiraling into the Chester building's shaft

Of course Sam Easterson was one of our party, he managed to capture this footage of the swifts entering their roost.

As a final note, its not all easy living for the swifts. Common Ravens, Corvus corax, have learnt to hang out at the shaft opening and prey on individuals entering their roost site. I managed to catch a picture of this Raven flying away with its dinner!

Paper Wasps Sting Museum Taxidermist!

2011-09-12T16:51:00.000-07:00

When Tim Bovard, the Museum's taxidermist, told me about getting stung by wasps on the fourth floor patio, I had to investigate, especially since I sometimes eat lunch up there. During a much needed afternoon break from my computer, I went in search of the offenders.

What I found on my afternoon foray were some large and impressive nests, definitely worthy of a blog entry. So of course I asked Sam if he would take pictures for me, and I went to work identifying them.

Common paper wasp nest, Polistes exclamans

The species living on our patio are Common Paper Wasps, Polistes exclamans, which have a widespread distribution through much of the southern United States. These insects construct a papery nest from fibers they gather off dead wood or plant stems. Next time you see a paper wasp on a wooden fence realize it might be chewing off tiny pieces of wood which they will mix with their own saliva to make paper! The nests are umbrella shaped and generally built under eaves or porches, or in similarly sheltered locations. Unlike yellowjackets and hornets, paper wasp nests are not enclosed in a papery shell, which give a really good view into the individual cells.

A view into a brood chamber, can you see the larva?

Sam was also able to get some great video footage of the wasps at work. In an effort to provide the best video documentation ever, Sam nearly sustained a few stings himself. Luckily the wasps went for the video camera instead!

Dog's Vomit in the North Campus!

2011-09-01T16:57:00.000-07:00

Why would I write about finding dog's vomit in the North Campus? Because it is, contrary to what you might think, an awesome type of fungus, a slime mold!

Slime molds are a type of non-gilled fungi that often appear on mulch. What I find really interesting about them is their unique lifecycle! Most of their lives, slime molds are hidden in rotten logs or buried in leaf litter. However, when it's time to reproduce, they have to move to an appropriate site for spore dispersal. To do this they propel themselves over considerable distances (well considerable for a fungus), up to three feet for Fulgio septica, aka dog's vomit. Unfortunately, this usually happens at night when it is cool and moist, so I've never seen it happen in person. Watch out for a time-lapse video if I can convince Sam Easterson to spend a night in the North Campus.

Here are some images of the different stages of dog's vomit we found in the North Campus.

Relatively fresh slime mold, only just starting to put forth spores

Older slime mold, now you can see the black spores

Slime mold after fruiting

While we were out and about Sam and I found more fungus. Check out these pics of unidentified fungus. Drop me a line if you know what they are!

Bug Wars: Spider Attacks Grasshopper and Disappears Down Black Hole

2011-08-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

This week I have renamed Sam (NHM's media producer for Nature Lab) Spider-Man! He's been out and about carefully sticking a mechanic's device into spider homes, so visitors to our Spider Pavilion can get a view into spider lives, like never before.

Funnel web spider, family Agelenidae

Why you may ask? It's all in an effort to offer something new and interesting to Spider Pavilion visitors, and to test out ideas we have for media content in our upcoming Nature Lab exhibit. So Sam has been trekking around hillsides in the Santa Monica Mountains trying to find inhabited funnel webs.

Some hillsides are better than others. The best ones are covered with hundreds of webs, like miniature spider cities. When Sam finds a good web for filming he sets up his equipment and gently probes into the funnel to see if anyone's home. He's using a borescope, an optical device used by mechanics to inspect hard to see parts of engines. Sam has also been setting up HD camera traps above the funnels to catch spiders in the act.

Sam using the Borescope

Check out this bug war: Spider versus Grasshopper!

To see more of the hidden lives of spiders visit our Spider Pavilion, opening September 25.

Gecko Hunting!

2011-08-16T09:58:00.000-07:00

Instead of spending a cozy night in, reading Biology of Spiders (did I mention we're opening our Spider Pavilion at the end of September?), I went to Chatsworth on a gecko hunt!

At 8:30pm I parked on a dark street to meet up with a bunch of other lizard geeks (or Herpers, as they much prefer to be called). Among the party was my Museum colleague, Leslie Gordon (a self-proclaimed lizard lady and manager of our live vertebrate program), and Dr. Bobby Espinoza, Cal State Northridge's professor and researcher in the Laboratory of Integrative and Comparative Herpetology.

Mediterranean House Gecko, Hemidactylus turcicus, trying to hide in a crack

We were here in deepest, darkest suburbia, looking for Mediterranean House Geckos (MHG), an introduced species of lizard from, you guessed it, the Mediterranean. As mentioned in an earlier post this is the first population of these lizards found in Los Angeles, and a boon to Bobby for his research. We were collecting the lizards so Bobby could sprint them down a racetrack! Seriously, Bobby is looking at temperature dependent performance in multiple gecko species. This will be the first batch of MHGs that Bobby has sent down the track. In total we collected 14 individuals. I wonder how they'll fare on the track?

Here are some pictures from our adventure:

Herpers looking high and low

Me showing off my awesome headlamp and geckos!

Bobby and one of his students counting lizards

Waiter There's a Wasp in my Fig!

2011-08-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we had the second round of our North Campus insect survey. Fifteen Museum staff tromped around the North Campus to see what insectuous wonders we could collect. Although we found some notably large specimens, the largest being a 3-inch bird grasshopper (Schistocerca sp.), the most interesting find was actually something a lot smaller. Much, much smaller in fact: a minute fig wasp about 2 millimeters in length!

Female Fig Wasp, Pleistodontes sp.

Fig wasps belong to the wasp family Agaonidae and as their name implies, they have a life history intricately linked with fig trees, family Moraceae. In fact fig trees can not produce figs without the wasps, and the wasps can't reproduce without the figs! The way this mutually beneficial relationship works is quite astonishing, especially if you take a journey to the core of a ripening fig!

Journey to the Center of the Fig

It all starts when a mature female fig wasp enters the synconium (an immature fig if you will) through its natural opening, called the ostiole. This sounds really easy when you think how small these wasps are, but nature has not made it easy on the fig wasp, as the opening is actually too small for the adult wasp to enter without damaging herself. It's so small that the fig wasp often loses her wings and much of her antennae as she struggles through the opening. To enable passage through the ostiole, the underside of her head is also equipped with spines that help to get a grip as she's going through the hole (see image above).

Once inside the synconium she passes over the fig's female flowers and inadvertently deposits pollen from the male flowers of her original host tree. She then deposits her eggs in the cavity. Her business being done, she dies. The Pleistodontes fig wasp we found is, interestingly, not a pollinator of edible figs. Instead, it is a pollinator of ornamental figs which can be found in backyards and parks across Los Angeles.

Once pollinated, the fig fruit begins to develop, consuming the wasp's dead body in the process. The eggs hatch and the larvae consume small parts of the developing fig. After the larva eat enough fig, they pupate and finally emerge as adult male and female wasps. The wingless male wasps have only two functions to perform in their short lives—to mate and to escape! Finding a mate inside the fig isn't too difficult for the male wasp as all of his sisters are stuck inside the fig with him (remember how small the ostiole opening is). After he mates with at least one of his siblings (or offspring from another wasp), he begins digging a tunnel to exit the fig. This tunnel is the escape route that the female wasp uses to exit the fig, but not before she picks up pollen from the male flowers. This pollen will eventually pollinate the developing fig she visits to lay her own eggs in, and thus the life cycles of both fig and fig wasp continue.

All I can say is WOW! Nature is weird, wonderful, and so cool!

Thanks to entomology curator Brian Brown for identifying and photographing the wasp.

Feral Parrots

2011-07-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen a wild parrot in L.A.? Like many other North American cities, Los Angeles has a healthy population of many species of parrots, the most commonly seen of these species in Exposition Park is the Yellow-chevroned Parakeet, Brotogeris chirri.

Jail Break!
People like to keep parrots as pets. To satisfy this demand, literally hundreds of thousands of parrots have been imported legally (and untold numbers illegally) into the United States over the past 50 plus years. In some cases this demand has lead to demonstrable drains on natural populations and even endangerment of some species. Inevitably, imported birds escape or are released, and over the decades enough free-flying parrots have survived to establish breeding populations in the U.S.A., particularly in metropolitan areas of south Florida and Southern California.

Time to Get Liquored Up

If you’ve never seen a feral parrot around L.A. you might start looking for them in trees. At this time of year the parrots can be seen feeding on blossoms and nectar in flowering coral trees in the genus Erythrina (see picture above). This behavior is not unique to feral parrots as coral trees also appear in their native range. However other food sources they exploit in this region, such as Eucalyptus, are not found in their native range which is another example of adaptation to our altered L.A. landscape.

Yellow-chevroned Parakeets feeding on coral tree nectar

Yellow-chevroned Parakeets are native to Brazil and adjacent areas, and were introduced to L.A. earlier this century. No one knows exactly how the introduction happened, but we do know it was from parrots that were imported here for the pet trade.

Is This Your Dog?

2011-07-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

Sam moved the camera trap last week. We wanted to see what else we might find in the North Campus. Here's what we found.

I guess the Opossum was like the rest of us totally unaffected by Carmageddon!

How did this dog get into the North Campus at 9:02 on a Sunday morning, when all the gates are locked until 9:30?

Dinosaurs Open Part of North Campus!

2011-07-14T16:52:00.000-07:00

Unless you're living in a cave somewhere (no offense to the troglobites out there), you've heard that we're opening a new Dinosaur Hall next week. In anticipation of this meteoric occassion all Museum staff were invited to preview the hall, which began with a jaunt through the soon to be open sections of the North Campus (car park, transition garden, entrance plaza, and footbridge). Even though these areas of the North Campus were only recently planted, we're already noticing wildlife visiting, including a ladybug that landed on me during the preview and another cat caught on camera trap!

Lost Ladybugs?
The ladybug that landed on me during the staff preview was a Multicolored Asian Ladybug, Harmonia axyridis. It's an introduced species from Japan, which has become very common in our area. This is the first ladybug of its kind that I've found in the North Campus, which brings the total for North Campus to seven species. I wonder what ladybug species number eight will be!

Multicolored Asian Ladybug, Harmonia axyridis

Curious Cats
After finding the ladybug on Thursday, Sam and I went out to the North Campus to set up our trusty camera trap. We weren't expecting to find much of anything over the weekend, but we wanted to give it a try. Sam scaled the living wall and installed the trap around the base of a palo verde tree.

Here's some footage of what we found!

Its another domestic cat, Felis catus. Incidentally, we can be sure that this cat is a different individual than the one caught on camera three weeks ago. The first cat had a lot more white markings. This is cat number two for Expo Park! As for what the bright, white, floating thing is, we're not sure. Maybe a leaf, or a caterpillar even?

Dumpster Diving Gulls

2011-07-08T16:37:00.000-07:00

It never fails. Every year we have the same problem with dumpster divers. No it's not the hipster artist looking for obscure objects for his next sculpture, and it isn't the local freegan looking for her next luncheon. It's actually Western Gulls, Larus occidentalis.

Here's an image I captured on my way back from lunch on my smartphone.

It follows the same routine every weekday. Soon after the field trippers have exited the building they descend to the lawns and eat their lunches. About this time the gulls appear in a massive flock, like a reenactment of Hitchcock's, The Birds. The gulls around here are not as aggressive as others I've seen on my high school campus in the Inland Empire, or those at Seaworld that literally snatch burgers out of patrons' hands! Instead the gulls of Exposition Park wait for our school children to "finish" their packed lunches and put them in the trash. Soon after the gulls go to work on the overflowing trash cans. Garbage is strewn left, right, and center as the gulls are looking for a tasty morsel. All those half eaten sandwhiches, leftover lunchables, and wayward McDonald's French fries, are consumed and the packaging is left behind as an unsightly reminder of the carnage.

The Western gull’s willingness to consider our trash its treasure illustrates a common trait of urban animals. Creatures who are able to thrive once their native habitats have been altered by humans do so in large part because they are adaptable. While bears and mountain lions have been pushed to the fringes of the city, animals that make the most of what is around them become successful urbanites. If you’re willing to eat trash—a plentiful commodity in urban settings—you’ve got a lot more options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

Have you seen any wildlife dumpster divers in your neighborhood?

Camera Trapping

2011-06-23T16:20:00.000-07:00

Last week Sam got an awesome package in the mail, our new camera trap! On Monday afternoon he set it up behind the Butterfly Pavilion to see if it worked. We were also curious to see if we'd capture any interesting images. Boy were we in for a surprise!

Night 1: Monday pm-Tuesday am

Our first cat tail caught on camera! We've known for a long time about the feral cats, Felis catus, that live in Exposition Park, but we weren't expecting to capture one of them on camera so quickly.

Just over an hour later this Opossum, Didelphis virginiana, sidled into view. Again we knew they were around as we'd seen their tracks in the mud.

Night 2: Wednesday pm-Thursday am

When Sam showed me this picture, I was blown away! I definitely wasn't expecting the trap to capture a juvenile Cooper's Hawk, Accipiter cooperii, in this space. I am very curious to know why it landed here, was it chasing a rat or a mouse, or did it just feel like posing?

I'm pretty sure this is the same cat as in the first image. If it is the same cat, it obviously goes on the prowl after dark. Maybe we'll have to move the camera trap to the bird feeders next time.

Here's another view of an Opossum. We can't be sure if it is the same one, or if there's a family that lives in the park. There's a possibility that there's a den under the shed. I think we'll have to investigate.

Squirrel Stew

2011-06-15T16:46:00.000-07:00

What's For Dinner (and the Unintended Consequences of Every Introduction)?

The Eastern fox squirrel, Sciurus niger, was imported to Southern California in 1904 by veterans of the Civil War and Spanish American War, at the time living at the Veterans Home in West Los Angeles. The war veterans mostly came from the southern US (e.g., Tennessee, Kentucky) and kept as caged pets tree squirrel native to their home states. Perhaps it is apocryphal, but I've heard that the squirrels weren't just pets, they were also used in that old-time favorite—squirrel stew!

Whatever the reason for keeping the squirrels, eventually an overzealous hospital administrator noticed that they were being fed table scraps and, deeming this illicit provisioning a misuse of government support, turned the squirrels loose. The fox squirrels did quite well in their new habitat and it wasn’t long before they spread throughout the region.

Today we find Eastern fox squirrels from Oxnard to Ontario and from Santa Clarita to south Orange County. As their range has expanded, the fox squirrel has increasingly come into contact with the Western gray squirrel, the native tree squirrel that lives in the foothills and mountains of Los Angeles. Biologists are very interested in studying the ecological effects of these two species as they come into contact, including possible displacement or hybridization.

Here in Exposition Park we have a large and feisty population of these squirrels. At lunchtime they can often be seen wrestling French fries and sandwiches out of field trippers' hands. Here's some footage Sam Easterson captured of one of them eating lunch crumbs off the sidewalk.

In addition to this footage Sam is trying to capture some non-traditional footage for our new Nature Lab exhibit. We're hoping to show you nature like you've never seen it before, and Sam thinks this peanut cam might help! He says, "I like the idea of the squirrel shooting footage. Maybe he/she will take the peanut up a tree or even bury it underground." Whatever happens, I'll be sure to keep you all in the loop as we try out the peanut cam.

Sam's prototype peanut cam!

Thanks Jim Dines, Mammalogy Collections Manager, for all the Eastern fox squirrel facts!

We're Building a Pond

2011-06-09T12:30:00.000-07:00

This morning I got to work and did my usual cursory look out of the office window. This is what I saw:

Breaking ground on the pond

I know a hole in the ground doesn't get many people excited, but it definitely made my day. Working with the North Campus design team, we spent many months designing a pond that could increase the biodiversity of the North Campus and be a fun and engaging place for visitors. The pond will be teeming with wildlife such as fish, freshwater invertebrates, visiting birds, and hopefully a colony of Western Pond Turtles, Actinemys marmota. Here is a rendering created by Mia Lehrer + Associates, so you can get a sense of what the pond might look like.

View of pond facing the Age of Mammals exhibit

Bee Hotel California

2011-06-07T15:52:00.000-07:00

Bee Hotels

We here at the Museum really like bees, so much so that we are building them a hotel! This hotel will contain over 200 deluxe suites for native bees. We've specifically designed the hotel to accomodate various solitary bees found in L.A. We'll keep you posted as we see what moves in. Thanks to exhibit fabricator, Jerome Brown, the hotels are nearly ready to be put out in the Butterfly Pavilion yard.

Cedar log with pre-drilled bee holes

Swarm!

It seems that other bees have heard how luxurious our accomodations are and stopped by to check them out! Last Friday we got reports of a European honey bee, Apis mellifera, mass in one of the Magnolia trees on the west side of the Museum. Brent "the Bug Guy" Karner, went to check it out and took this picture below, thanks Brent!

Honey bees, Apis mellifera

This mass of bees is called a swarm and likely contains over 1,000 bees! Swarming is a natural part of a honey bee colony lifecycle and provides the colony with a means of reproducing. This is the season for seeing swarms, as colonies have increased in size and no longer comfortably fit in their nests. In preparation for this big move, the old queen lays eggs that will turn into new queens and she takes off with about half of the colony to find new a new home. If you come across a honey bee swarm, don't worry, since they are all adults with no nest to defend, they are not quick to sting.

I Love My Job

2011-06-01T12:05:00.000-07:00

So I get back to work yesterday morning after the long weekend, and this is what I find on my desk!

Yes, that is indeed a dead lizard and a peanut can full of mushrooms! To be more precise it is an Alligator Lizard, Elgaria multicarinata, and shaggy parasol mushrooms, Chlorophyllum rhacodes. I am not sure exactly how they turned up on my desk, but in this line of work it's pretty common for people to drop off interesting things for you to identify.

This is especially true when you start to survey urban biodiversity through citizen science projects like Lost Lizards of Los Angeles (LLOLA). Myself and a number of other Museum staffers frequently return to our desks to discover dead lizard specimens. However, don't be compelled to follow suit. It is much more valuable to the project to follow the instructions and submit only your lizard photographs. Check out the LLOLA website for instructions on how to participate.

Hummingbirds: Born to be Sword Swallowers!

2011-05-26T12:52:00.001-07:00

We've got more bird babies at the Page Museum (you know the one at the La Brea Tar Pits)! We were informed about an Allen's Hummingbird, Selasphorus sasin, nest in the atrium about two weeks ago, and jammed over to scope out the scene. When we arrived we found two tiny eggs in a beautifully crafted nest, suspended about ten feet up in one of the plants.

This past weekend Sam Easterson captured the footage below. I really like the way you can see the nest stretch as the nestlings move around. This is because the nest is partially constructed from spider webs! When constructing the nest, the female hummingbird collects materials such as plant fibers, moss, lichen, and small bits of bark or leaves. She also collects the spider silk for its elasticity. As the nestlings hatch and grow the nest can stretch with them! Check out the video to see it and then be wowed with feeding time. The first time I watched this footage, I couldn't help thinking about a sword swallowing circus act. Enjoy!

The Birds, the Bees, and the Fecal Sacs

2011-05-26T12:52:00.000-07:00

I know you've seen a lot of still images from the Black Phoebe, Sayornis nigricans, nest, but I just had to share this footage. Honestly, it is too good not to post.

At the beginning of the video you'll see one of the adults (hard to tell if it's the mom or dad, they both help to care for the nestlings) feeding a European Honey Bee, Apis mellifera, to one of the young. This in and of itself is pretty awesome to see, but it gets even better! Remember the Bushtit post? I told you all about how some species of birds produce fecal sacs, to make it easier to keep the nest clean and disease free. Well, Black Phoebes also produce fecal sacs, and this video gives you an insight to this behavior. I'll let you judge for yourself whether you think it's gross, cool, or just plain interesting.

Construction Site Images

2011-05-18T17:21:00.000-07:00

Jesse asked to see some images of the construction site. Here you go.

Footbridge construction as of a few weeks ago

Site view from the exhibit technicians' office

Living Wall up close

Thanks Cordell Corporation for the Living Wall shot!

Eggs Hatch in Black Phoebe Nest

2011-05-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick nest update for the Black Phoebes, the babies have hatched! Sam was able to catch these images of the action.

Mom on the nest

Clamoring for food

Done with food, not clamoring anymore...

Lizards Galore

2011-05-13T14:56:00.000-07:00

It has been a week of lizard happenings at NHM! We've had a confirmed sighting of another Western Fence Lizard in Exposition Park, we're installing underground lizard tubes in the North Campus, and over the weekend we held our first Lost Lizard Spotting field trip.

Lizarding at Malibu Creek

This past Saturday morning a group of NHM staffers, and our good friend Dr. Bobby Espinoza, from Cal State University Northridge, led the first ever Lost Lizard field trip. Malibu Creek turned out to be the perfect location for this event and the group of kids and their families had a great time catching and identifying lizards. We found a number of species including Western Fence Lizards (Sceloporus occidentalis), Side-blotched Lizards (Uta stansburiana), and Western Whiptails (Aspidoscelis tigris). Hopefully the trip inspired all the participants to become Lost Lizard Citizen Scientists. If you're interested, find out more at the Museum's Lost Lizard site.

Western Fence Lizard, Sceloporus occidentalis

Bobby showing proper lizard handling technique

The Lizard Underground

Meanwhile, in the North Campus, we are getting ready to install an Underground system. Unlike London's tube system, this system of tubes is designed for lizards and not humans. They are being installed in the Living Wall, in the hopes that when lizards move into the North Campus, they'll have lots of good spots for hiding, nesting, and escaping from predators like Raccoons.

Model lizard tubes at the San Diego Zoo

Why Did the Lizard Cross Exposition Boulevard?

To get to the North Campus, or at least this is what we hope will happen in the future. Last week our fearless Bug Guy, Brent Karner, was walking back from a lunch outing, and saw a lizard on the curb! As he got closer he identified the lizard as a Western Fence, Sceloporus occidentalis. This is the third lizard record for Exposition Park in the recent past, the first two occurring over a year ago at our Exposition Park Herp Survey. Stay tuned for photographic documentation as Brent sends me the picture he took with his not-so-smartphone.

Black Phoebes Build Nest

2011-05-06T14:15:00.000-07:00

More Nest Surveillance

This week we found another active bird nest! This nest belongs to a pair of Black Phoebes, Sayornis nigricans, and is built under the eaves of the Rose Garden maintenance shed. Once again this find is thanks to Kimball Garrett, who noticed the nest Monday morning on one of his regular Expo Park bird surveys.

Footage of the phoebe landing on her nest

Naughty Neighbors

This is the second nest Kimball has found in this location this year, but it is a site that has been used by phoebes in past years. Unfortunately, this year's first nest was disturbed by unknown causes, but it is possible that a squirrel is to blame. Eastern Fox Squirrels, Sciurus niger, are very common in Expo Park, and they are known nest predators. When they locate a nest they will eat any eggs or young birds they find. We'll never know for sure if a squirrel is to blame for the first nests' failure, but fortunately the phoebes persevered and built a second nest.

Eastern Fox Squirrel on top of the Butterfly Pavilion

Better Luck This Time

Until today we were not sure if the new nest contained any eggs. This morning Kimball and I went out with a mirror and now we can confirm there are four eggs!

Kimball checks out the nest

The mirror reveals four eggs in the clutch

Now that we know there are eggs, we are going to regularly monitor the nest. I'll keep you posted as the eggs are incubated, they hatch and then the immature birds develop. If we are lucky, we'll be able to document the entire process.

Bushtits Move In

2011-04-29T16:18:00.000-07:00

New Neighbors

A pair of Bushtits, Psaltriparus minimus, just built their nest in the live oak tree behind the Butterfly Pavilion. Kimball Garrett, our resident bird expert, found the nest this Monday and promptly sent me an e-mail detailing the nest's location. As soon as I got into work on Tuesday morning, I headed out to the Butterfly Pavilion to check it out.

Adult Bushtit, Psaltriparus minimus

Nest Hunt

Thankfully Kimball had given clear instructions to find the nest, as it was very well hidden in the oak foliage. The effort was well worth it, as it was one of the coolest nests I've ever seen in the wild. As the picture below shows their nests are woven from dry plant material and hang from branches of the tree. They are small and dainty, this one measures about seven inches from top to bottom. The small opening at the top of the nest, which is only about an inch in diameter, is just big enough for the adults to enter and exit.

Bushtit entering nest

Bushtit Behavior

After spending a good portion of my morning watching the nest, I realized I had to blog about it. But what is a blog without images, or even better some actual video footage. I ran up to my colleague, Sam Easterson's office to see if he could get some for me. Sam recorded the nest for about an hour, and we captured some interesting behaviors, including removal of fecal sacs! A fecal sac is clean, tough membrane that encloses the excrement of young birds. Not all birds produce fecal sacs, but for those that do sacs are usually produced directly after each feeding and promplty removed by the adult to maintain a clean nest interior.

Bushtit cleaning nest

Sam Easterson is a video naturalist and also our new Media Producer for the North Campus and Nature Lab exhibits. He's really into implanting cameras into natural environments, and is best known for his animal borne imaging work.

North Campus Insect Survey

2011-04-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

Survey Fun

As mentioned in an earlier post New Fly for North Campus, we've been trapping insects on the North Campus for a while now. This week however, is a milestone for NHM as we held our first quarterly insect survey. Our aim was to go after the insects that our Malaise trap wasn't sampling, like large flying insects such as crane flies and bumble bees and ground dwelling insects like earwigs and beetles. Since this was our first time and the site is still an active construction zone, we limited participation to NHM staff and partners. As the specimens get prepared and sorted, I'll keep you all up to date on the species we identify.

Brent "the bug guy" Karner demonstrates proper use of a

beating sheet to our USC partners.

Brian Brown showing off his aspirator (aka pooter) skills.

Look closely, I swear there's an insect there!

A common insect, but nonetheless an impressive catch.

Female carpenter bee in the genus Xylocopa

Special thanks to Cordell Corporation for allowing us to access the site.

North Campus Pill Bugs

2011-04-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

Finding Pill Bugs

I always knew we'd find pill bugs in the North Campus, but until recently I didn't know what species, or that they'd have such an interesting story.

In the North Campus there are two species of terrestrial isopods, what we at the Museum call pill bugs and their relatives. The Common Pill Bug (aka roly poly), Armadillidium vulgare, rolls up into a tight little ball when disturbed. We also find a closely related species, the Common Rough Woodlouse, Porcellio scaber, a more agile creature. In North America most of the people I've talked to refer to both as pill bugs, whereas in England, where I grew up, we called them all woodlice! Regardless of what one calls them, they both share a similar story of how they come to live in North America.

Common Pill Bug, Armadillidium vulgare

Common Rough Woodlouse, Porcellio scaber

An Introduction

Both the Common Pill Bug and the Common Rough Woodlouse are originally from Southern Europe and Northern Africa. Before Europeans arrived on this continent neither of them lived here. Both species are associates of plants, living in soil and leaf litter and have hitched rides from Europe to the U.S. with a little help from us. One possible explanation is the imporation of plants and associated soil, that began steadily streaming into ports-of-call as the continent was settled. A more interesting, and might I say apocryphal story, unfolds if we look to the high seas.

Image courtesy of the Library of Congress

Two if by Sea

In the days of wayfaring seamen and wooden ships, soil and boulders were used as ballast, to ensure a properly balanced vessel. This earthen ballast would be discarded when it was time to fill the holds with precious cargo and booty. It is not so much of a stretch to think that in some instances surviving creatures, eggs, seeds, and more managed to colonize the shores of these new lands. Whatever the mode of their introduction, it is clear that they were introduced more than once and in multiple locations. Today these creatures are widespread throughout the world and are a very common site in L.A.'s parks, backyards, and Museum grounds alike!

Special thanks to Dr. Regina Wetzer, Director of the Marine Biodiversity Center, for identification.

New Fly for North Campus

2011-04-05T16:47:00.000-07:00

Insect Trapping

To better understand the insect diversity of the North Campus, we've started surveying the insect fauna on the construction site. A few months ago, Dr. Brian Brown, the Museum's Curator of Entomology, set up a Malaise trap. This type of trap is commonly used by entomologists to capture small flying insects, and so far we've collected hundreds! One of the coolest (at least in Brian's opinion, and now mine too) is the Boatman Fly.

Dr. Brian Brown setting up a Malaise trap in his backyard

(yes Entomologists take their work home with them too!)

The Boatman Fly, Pogonortalis doclea, is a small (1/4 inch) fly originally from Australia. It was first recorded in California in 1963, and to date has not been recorded in any other state. These flies are quite striking in appearance with their brightly colored eyes and highly patterned wings. Males of the species are often seen walking over leaves waving their wings in display, which look very much like a person rowing a boat, hence the name.

Boatman Fly, Pogonortalis doclea

New Bird For North Campus List

2011-04-01T12:09:00.000-07:00

165 and Counting...

Earlier this week, Kimball Garrett, NHM Ornithology Collections Manager, spotted a not-so-common sight, a pair of Rufous Hummingbirds, Selasphorus rufus, in the Rose Garden. This hummingbird species is now number 165 on Kimball's Exposition Park Checklist. Over the last 28 years, Kimball has been keeping track of all the birds he sees in Exposition Park, even those that are just doing a fly-over!

Male Rufous Hummingbird

An Annual Migration

Most of the year Rufous Hummingbirds cannot be found in our region, but in March and April they are often seen passing through. Every year this bird makes an over 3,000 mile migration from its overwintering grounds in Mexico to the Pacific Northwest. It is easily confused with one of our local hummingbirds, the Allen's Hummingbird, and so is often missed in species counts (maybe that's why it has only just made it onto Kimball's checklist). Males of both species have red-brown markings on their sides and tails, but only the Rufous Hummingbird also has them on its back. If you have a hummingbird feeder in your yard, keep your eyes open for this hummingbird stopping by to fuel up!

North Campus Interactives

2011-03-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

Inter-whats? Interactives are what we at the Museum call cool gizmos and hands-on experiences in exhibits. We are planning to have some really great outdoor interactives in the North Campus. Right now we are getting ready to test prototypes in the Butterfly Pavilion yard. I'll post more about them when the Pavilion goes live on April 8, but as a teaser, check out this article posted on LA County Board of Supervisor, Zev Yaroslavsky's website.

This is the first round prototype of our proposed Butterfly Counter. Stay tuned for the version that visitors will try out in the Butterfly Pavilion.

Ladybug Central

2011-03-22T15:08:00.000-07:00

New Ladybug Record For North Campus

On a recent jaunt around the Museum I found a new ladybug record for the North Campus. Yes, I do get paid to walk around outside and look for insects (awesome job)! I also get paid to keep track of all the creatures we find out there and make sure they are added to our ever expanding North Campus species list. Including this new record, we have found seven different species of ladybugs in the North Campus!

This is Adalia bipunctata, also known as the Two-spotted Ladybug. One of the many things I love about ladybugs is they are so aptly named! Just refer to our Lost Ladybug Field Guide for Los Angeles and you'll find fantastically named species such as the Seven-spotted Ladybug, the Convergent Ladybug, and my favorite, the Twice-stabbed Ladybug (all of which have been found in the North Campus)! This two-spotted ladybug, was found on a bush, recently emerged from its pupa, and then I snapped its picture.

Maybe you have Two-spotted Ladybugs in your neighborhood, or what about another species that hasn't been recorded in Los Angeles yet? Check out our Lost Ladybug website for easy to follow instructions, so you can help me track ladybugs in L.A.

New Trees for Transition Garden

2011-03-16T08:47:00.000-07:00

This week we have been planting trees in the Transition Garden.

Before I launch into an animated discussion on the individual plants we've chosen for the space, let me give you a basic primer on what the Transition Garden is all about. Firstly, this is the space that ramps you up from the lower level of our new Car Park to the Entrance Plaza where you'll get your tickets. It is a nice gentle slope, so it will be easy for people of all abilities to make their way into the North Campus. It is also a stepped garden on a fairly severe slope. With these points in mind Mia Lehrer + Associates (ML+A) had to design a garden that would function physically, biologically, and thematically (we wanted more than just a random selection of plants). Thanks to ML+A this garden tells a great story.

The Story of Plant Introductions in Los Angeles

The plants that exist in L.A. today are a mixed and varied bunch, a real representation of our altered nature. They have been brought here purposefully and sometimes accidentally. As one enters the ramp from the lower deck of the Car Park you'll encounter plants introduced to L.A. over the last 200 years. So far we have California Pepper Trees, Schinus molle, from Peru; iconic Los Angeles palms, Washingtonia robusta, from northwestern Mexico; Olive trees, Olea europaea, from the Mediterranean basin; Citrus species from Asia including Eureka lemon and oranges; and finally Red Ironbark Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus sideroxylon, from Down Under. Check out this picture to see the progress!

Photo by Cordell Corporation

Community Science (aka Citizen Science)

2011-03-09T13:41:00.000-08:00

If you read the previous post, you already know the basic idea of the North Campus. Now let's talk more about citizen science. We have three citizen science projects, what we like to call Community Science, that anyone can participate in. They are the Los Angeles Spider Survey, Lost Lizards of Los Angeles (aka LLOLA), and the Lost Ladybug Project which we host in partnership with Cornell University. All these projects help us collect data about what's living here in L.A. today. For instance, recently a LLOLA participant found a new lizard lounging in the Chatsworth area of L.A. Now when I say this lizard was lounging, I'm serious, they hang out by porch lights and wait for flying insects to be attracted. When a moth, or some other unsuspecting insect flies in, the lizard pounces and gobbles up the delicious treat. These Mediterranean House Geckos had never been found in L.A. County before, so it was a new record for science, and discovered by a tween no less!

Immature Mediterranean House Gecko, found by LLOLA participant Reese Bernstein and family.

What is the North Campus?

2011-02-28T17:04:00.000-08:00

We're taking the Museum outside! A new outdoor nature area is sprouting up around the Natural History Museum, bringing a fun and interactive park and habitat area right into the heart of the city. Think of it as the city's new backyard, filled with a range of garden environments and interactive opportunities for visitors of all ages to watch birds and search for bugs, stroll along a creek, ramble through a grove of trees, and gaze at butterflies and bees in a new Pollinator Garden.

For more details about the North Campus project check out our website.

To get you as excited as I am, here's a rendering of the pond by North Campus landscape designers Mia Lehrer + Associates