Western Lynx Spider

Oxyopes scalaris on my Rose of Sharon. Here's a cropped version of the picture someone else (at the link) took. You can see this guy's crazy eyeballs better than in my pic. I know: the face looks totally fake, right?!

"Teddy Bear" Bee

This male Xylocopa varipuncta a.k.a. Valley Carpenter Bee immediately caught my attention because of his large size, bright color, and zipping about behavior. He kept circling the Mexican Sage (for a long time!) without ever landing and without ever slowing down or hovering in place, which is apparently what the males of this species typically do (according to BugGuide). That flight pattern made him really hard to photograph. Eventually, I went with manual focus and just snapped away, hoping to get lucky. I have about 350 pictures that look like these,

but I'm pretty happy with a few shots. (The headache this critter unintentionally gave me, I'm not as happy about. I think my face is still partially paralyzed in squint position!)

BIig Deal for Our Little 'Hood (LAPD 'Copter)

We live in, like, the boring-est neighborhood ever. Which I mean in the most positive way. (Hey, it's why we're willing to add the extra ten or fifteen minutes to our commute!) There practically no riffraff, rubbish, ballyhoo, hoopla, or what-not. One can truly feel the calm, the peace — one can just relax, gaze at the mountains, go for a hike, grab a bite, shop the farmers' market, and just mind one's own business most of the time. Which I do not take for granted, especially after living in Baltimore for six years. 

Not to diss Charm City. It's just that crime abounds there. (As do drugs and STDs.) The map below shows various events that took place during the last two months. Our former neighborhood, Hampden/Wyman Park, which we loved (and still love) for lots of valid reasons, is right there where you see a lot of blue guys (thefts) and a red bulls-eye (shooting theft). (And that's now that the area is all gentrified and hip. When we lived there, it was perhaps transitional or as some say, "in renaissance.")

Map with Baltimore, MD crimes (4/9 to 6/9/2012) from crimebaltimore.com.

Below is the crime map I could find for our current neighborhood. It's not a perfect equivalent of the Balto. map, but the visual contrast still reflects the truth. That's us, and this is our annual crime index. (There's more info. at the source site, though they try to get you to subscribe.)

Map with crime annual crime rate info. for La Crescenta from http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/.

So, that's what I mean when I say boring in the best way. The reason I say this is that when there is police activity nowadays, it's a big deal for our little 'hood. Today when this LAPD helicopter kept circling low over our house, we're like, "Gee whiz, honey, what could possibly be going on?" My first (humorous) thought was that the police had heard about our Robber Fly situation.

The last time we had a whirly-bird involved disturbance of this caliber was on March 7 when the nearby Toyota dealership found a World War II hand grenade in a trade-in car. The L.A. County Sherrif's Department Bomb Squad came out, as did all the local news 'copters, but it turned out that the grenade was inert.

Our biggest "breaking news" events in 2012 have revolved around wildlife hijinks — such as the culinary exploits of a big-ole black bear.

This bear, affectionately nicknamed Meatball, was eventually tranquilized and relocated to a spot deeper into the L.A. National Forest. I should also mention that some folks referred to the bear as Glen Bearian, and he had his own Twitter account, as this national (!) TV news story (wittily and/or cheezily) reports.

Our favorite part of the drama was this bear's (hilariously) surprising a clueless texter (is there any other kind?) one day while a local news helicopter filmed:

Ha! Ha!

Who knows what today's situation may have been. I'll update when/if I find out.

Mystax is Back (Robber Fly Sips House Fly)

A Robber Fly has a fuzzy mustache (the mystax) designed to protect its face from prey.

You can totally see that this Robber Fly is using its proboscis to suck out liquified fly innards while perched all pretty on a Rose of Sharon leaf. (Cool info. on Robber Flies in my previous Robber Fly post.)

Just a couple of days ago, I saw a Robber Fly who was briefly stuck in some spider webs near the ground among pointy succulents. A small Alligator Lizard made some quick, careful lunges after it, but the fly freed itself before the lizard made a meal of it. (I have to admit I was rooting for the lizard.)

Left: Robber Fly in Web (Lizard Barely Visible). Right: Defeated Alligator Lizard.

Hi-ho the Derry-o, a Mantis in the Palm

Taking pictures of palm tree seeds, which I think look really cool but of which I didn't get a picture I really like (example below), I was lucky enough to spot a little tan Praying Mantis (above). The mantis had already spotted me, cocking its head to look me right in the eye. He (or she) was about 2/3 to 3/4 of an inch, not as small the tiny green nymph I spotted last June, but it was a treat to see him (or her) nevertheless.

I adore mantises and consider them both beneficial and lucky. I'd like to think that this guy (or gal) is a descendant of the ones I introduced to the yard a few years ago via store-bought egg casings. Maybe that's the case!

A neat fact about mantises: Their "praying" limbs are called "raptorial legs" because they grab and hold their prey with them. Reh! It makes sense that some folks substitute "preying mantis" for "praying mantis" because this creature more hard-core predator than holy contemplator. (Although who am I to say that mantises aren't being ultra-reverent while chowing down on their victims?!)

P.S. Apparently "prey"/"pray" substitutions are called EGGCORNs in linguistics! How awesome is that term?!

"Katydid! Katydidn't!''

Did Katy do it or not? That is the question.

According to Animal Planet, this bug's name comes from the male's mating call, "Katydid! Katydidn't!'' which "is produced by rubbing a scraper on one forewing against the toothed edge of the other forewing." My katydid was silent. I only noticed it when it hopped from leaf to leaf while I was watering the Rose of Sharon. (This plant has a remarkable array of inhabitants!)

Katydids are pretty harmless vegetarians, and I guess this isn't a "true" katydid because those live east of the Rockies. This is cool: "The insects hear through organs, called tympana, located on the forelegs."

(All info. from Animal Planet. I'll update this post once I've done more research about this particular type of bug.)

Raven Hassles Hawk (& Vice Versa)

At first it was hard to see what all the noise was about, but by the sound of it, a Raven was definitely involved. (Both birds are in the center of this picture.)

When they rose up over the hillside, we could see that the Raven was totally going after the Red-Tailed Hawk. (Only they know who started it.) The Raven chased the Hawk all over the place.

Once the Hawk turned the tables, the Raven coasted off, nonchalant as can be. The end.

Violet's 13th Birthday

The white tufts of hair that emanate from the bottoms of Violet's paws grow longer with age.
They have now officially entered the "streamers" phase of development.

Our little chimp celebrated her 13th birthday today by doing what she does pretty much every day, chowing down on kibble at Deukmejian. (She won't eat her kibble at home, probably as insurance that we won't forget to take her to the park.) She's still wobbly, but there are still at least a few bucking broncos left in her.

We look forward to many more pounces, bounces, barks, kisses, and sniffs from Violet. (Her nose and mouth are clearly still fully functional, even if those little kidneys, pancreas, and legs are on the blink!)

More about Violet.