Favorite Nature Photos of 2021

January 6, 2022 By Linda Richards

With Covid discouraging many gatherings, nature drew us, both at preserves and in our yard, which has been landscaped for maximum habitat value. Here are my 2021 favorites!

Note: Click here for my favorite videos the last year

Our Mammalian Friends

The first sighting of a coyote

… hunting gophers

… at Oakmont Park in Redlands CA

Coyotes are another good rodent hunter

Gorgeous bobcat in Wildlands Preserve in Yucaipa CA

…. also not afraid of us, bobcats are great rodent predators

Foxes on our wildcamera, no doubt looking for rodents

opossum!

A healthy raccoon family

we kept finding rabbit droppings on the cushion

We wondered why an adult rabbit kept visiting our front yard, and then our plants were getting eaten by these little ones

Our Avian Friends…

The more our California native plants mature, the more insects they attract and the more bird life in our yard. If you want birds – plant native plants local to your area. For more info click here.

Mostly from our yard:

A Red-tailed hawk has moved into our yard to hunt, here on our neighbor’s cypress

Bluebirds on the cypress

our native pigeon, Band-tailed pigeons

…. close-up

Our resident male Anna’s hummingbird named ‘Sweetie’

Goldfinches eating our California fuchsia seeds

Bewick’s wrens nested in one of our containers

…. we loved watching them catch insect after insect

One of their fledglings

Begging mockingbird fledgling

…. getting berries from our Nevin’s Barberry, a rare native plant

… and feeding its young

The juvenile refused to feed itself, here begging for berries

Our sycamore spear continues to attract so many birds, here our wintering robins

… getting scared off by…

… a cedar waxwing

phoebe, flycatcher?

We love Morro Bay CA and its estuary

White pelicans & cormorants

Snowy plovers!

a healthy wild turkey population

A bird favorite — Phainopeplas — attracted to our yard with all our berries

Phainopepla Male – notice the red eye

The female – notice the red eye!

In the deserts they survive on mistletoe berries

Our Vital Bugs

Without insects we would not have many insect-pollinated plants and crops, nor birds (since nearly all birds depend on insects to feed their young.

a native bee – mason bee? – flying into our bee box to lay eggs

A native fly – a hoverfly or syrphid fly, notice the big eyes

A native bumblebee on Pride of Madeira

A monarch chrysalis in our yard about to emerge from its chrysalis

A sign that our predatory insects, likely the tachnid fly, predated this monarch as it was going into its chrysalis

Sometimes they hit the butterfly larvae as it’s starting its chrysalis stage, before it’s hardened

Size comparison – here is a European bee

… and here is a tiny native bee, the cuckoo bee, on the same toyon flowers

A native bee (bees have 2 sets of wings), an important pollinator

Birds like this Bewic’ks wren require hundreds of insects a day to feed their young

And lastly, can’t forget our reptiles

Click here for an article on Dr. Hayes’ excellent talk on snakes

A Southern Pacific rattlesnake at Wildwood Canyon Preserve

Dr. William Hayes gave a great online class on rattlesnakes and other snakes in our area

One of our many lizards