Western Amethyst Laccaria

Posted on May 30, 2025 by tspuckler

While exploring Mount Hamilton in Central California, I had a truly fun fungi find. While lifting a piece of corrugated metal in search of snakes, this purple organism caught my eye. Its habitat is pine forests, it seems to especially prefer living under Douglas Firs.

This species can be recognized by its deep purple cap, thick purple gills, and its long, shaggy to grooved stem, as well as by their white spores. The color of this mushroom, except the gills, fades fast as it loses moisture. In fact, unless you find this fungus when very fresh, often the only purple you see on it is in the gills.

Fungi like this mushroom play a vital role in ecosystems by acting as decomposers, nutrient cyclers, and mutualists. They break down organic matter, release essential nutrients, and form beneficial relationships with plants and other organisms.

This was a neat and unexpected find on my California trip.

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Western Gray Squirrel

Posted on May 23, 2025 by tspuckler

I sometimes see this creature while hiking through wooded areas in California. I often see it in small groups of animals, rather than individuals. The Western Gray Squirrel is the largest tree squirrel native to the Pacific Northwest.

They are steel gray on the back, with contrasting white on the belly and throat, resulting in the name, “Silver Gray Squirrel” in some parts of their range. They are distinguished by their very long and bushy tails that are primarily gray with white-frosted outer edges.

These mammals are forest dwellers. Time on the ground is spent foraging, but they prefer to travel distances from tree to tree. They are strictly diurnal, and feed mainly on seeds and nuts, particularly pine seeds and acorns, though they will also take berries, fungus and insects.

When on alert, they will spread their tails lavishly, creating an umbrella effect that shields them and possibly provides cover from overhead predators. They are scatter-hoarders making numerous caches of food when it is abundant, and thus contribute to the seed dispersion of their food trees.

Like other tree squirrels, the Western Gray Squirrel has hypermobile joints, which means their ankles can rotate 180 degrees. This allows squirrels to descend trees head first. They can also use their rear claws to hold on to the tree trunk in this position, leaving their front paws free to eat.

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Field Chickweed

Posted on May 16, 2025 by tspuckler

Some places where I search for reptiles and amphibians in California are blanketed with this small white wildflower.

Field Chickweed is a spring-blooming matted or clumped perennial herb that pops up in a variety of open sunny habitats. It grows throughout North America, but is infrequent in the Southeast.

This herbaceous perennial plant grows to 3–10 inches tall, forming leafy stems that often branch near the base. Pairs of opposite leaves occur along the stems.

Individual flowers are about 1/3″ inches across and sport five white petals. The nectar and pollen of the flowers attract primarily bees, including little Carpenter Bees, Cuckoo Bees, and Mason Bees.

The seeds of Field Chickweed are eaten by many small rodents, including the Deer Mouse, Meadow Jumping Mouse, House Mouse, and Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel.

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Western Boxelder Bug

Posted on May 9, 2025 by tspuckler

This interesting insect is native to much of North America and occurs from British Columbia, Canada, south to California and east to Nevada, Utah and Texas. It can be found wherever its principle host Boxelder, occurs.

The adult Western Boxelder Bug is around 1/2 inch long, and about a third that in width. Its topside is grayish-black and has several reddish lines running across it. Its prominent red veins on its wings are a good way to differentiate it from the Common Boxelder Bug.

The Boxelder is a small to medium sized tree that is the most widely distributed of the North American Maples. Boxelder Bugs generally confine their feeding to seeds or fruits and, other than reducing the quantity of viable seed or damaging fruits, they do not injure their host plants.

During certain times of the year boxelder bugs cluster together in large groups while sunning themselves on warm surfaces (rocks, shrubs, trees, and man-made structures) near their host tree.

Belonging to an order of insects known as Hemiptera, all Hemiptera have piercing-sucking mouthparts and outer wings that are half-leathery and half membranous, which is the origin of the order name meaning “half-wing.” Most insects in this order are plant feeders.

Western Boxelder Bugs survive the Winter as adults in protected places around home landscapes and inside unheated parts of buildings. They sometimes become active outdoors during warm sunny days in late Winter. But their active season doesn’t really begin until temperatures regularly reach 70 degrees and their host trees begin having leaves.

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Brown Turban Snail

Posted on May 2, 2025 by tspuckler

While tidepooling on the California coast, I came across a few of these cool mollusks. This species occurs in the Pacific Ocean from Oregon to Santa Barbara Islands, California.

With its smooth, conical shell, a brown turban snail looks like a “foot” wearing a large hat. The shell, usually covered with red algae, is orange or bright brown.

This herbivore is common in the low intertidal and shallow subtidal areas, and is most commonly found on kelp, upon which it feeds. When an individual dies, the shell is often rapidly utilized by hermit crabs, which use the hard shells to protect their soft abdomen. If you see a brown turban shell rapidly moving across the reef, it is occupied by a hermit crab.

If a Brown Turban Snail is dislodged from an irregular rock bottom, it can readily right itself, but on a gravel bottom it uses pebbles as a tool. It picks up pebbles with the front of its foot and transfers them to the back part of its foot. This changes the snail’s center of gravity, enabling it to roll over and right itself.

Like other snails and slugs, to feed it uses a radula (belt-like organ with numerous teeth on it) to rasp away the surface layer of tissue on blades of kelp and other algae.

Italian chefs serve these snails cooked in oil and served in their shell. They are removed and eaten with a pin. Brown Turban Snails are important prey species for predators including Sea Otters, Octopuses, Rock Crabs, and Sea Stars. They are able to sense chemicals that are released from some predators and flee towards shore in response.

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Woolly Sculpin

Posted on April 25, 2025 by tspuckler

I’ve caught a few examples of this cool fish when tidepooling in the San Francisco Area. It gets the common name “woolly” from the abundant hairlike filaments present on its head and alongside its dorsal fin. This common tidepool creature has a lifespan of 6 to 8 years.

The Woolly Sculpin has an elongated, tapering body with a large, depressed, flattened, and wide head. They are speckled and mottled and come in a wide variety of colors, including green, greenish-black, and brown; some also have reddish tinges.

This is a demersal (lives and feeds on or near the bottom of seas or lakes) species that is found within sand, gravel, small rocks, and bedrock and in intertidal areas among algae beds at depths up to 60 feet. They are ambush predators that lie in wait for prey and are active 24 hours a day.

This fish’s diet includes mainly crustaceans (especially amphipods), as well as fish eggs and larvae, polychaetes, and mollusks. Most of its food items are light-colored or clear, suggesting that these are easiest for the fish to see against the dark background of its habitat.

The Woolly Sculpin can change its colors to match its background. It can also breathe air through its skin, allowing it to survive out of the water for up to 24 hours. Its most significant predators are Great Blue Herons and other shore birds, as well as larger fish and crabs.

It was fun encountering this neat fish and seeing the range of its many colors and patterns.

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Hopkin’s Rose Nudibranch

Posted on April 18, 2025 by tspuckler

While doing some San Francisco Area tidepooling, we came across a few examples of this colorful creature. This pink nudibranch brightens local tide pools. Nudibranchs, also called sea slugs, are sea snails without a shell.

This stunning creature is named for its vibrant, rosy-pink coloration, which it gets from its diet of pink encrusting bryozoans, just like flamingos get their flamboyant pink hue from the shrimp they eat. The Hopkin’s Rose Nudibranch is found in the intertidal zone, where it can be seen on rocks, pilings, and other hard surfaces.

It is most common in the warmer waters of Southern California, but its range extends from Northern Baja California, Mexico, to the lower Oregon coast. Historically, it was rare to see Hopkin’s rose nudibranchs north of San Francisco, but in recent years they have become more common in southern Oregon.

Many nudibranchs wear bright colors that may warn predators that they taste bitter or foul. Usually the only animals that eat nudibranchs are other nudibranchs. The name “nudibranch” means “naked gill,” and the feathery gills of these animals take many fancy forms.

The species grows to be about an inch long and is nearly weightless. Like other marine gastropods, this nudibranch has a flat, muscular “foot” along the ventral or bottom side of its body that it uses to crawl along the substrate.

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Black Prickleback

Posted on April 11, 2025 by tspuckler

I caught this super cool creature while tidepooling on the California Coast. The Black Prickleback has an elongated eel-like body and is dark reddish brown to black in color with a pale head.

The head is small with two distinctive dark bands radiating from each eye. It has a long dorsal fin that runs into its tail fin giving the illusion of having a full-body fin. It grows to about a foot in length.

This fish prefers to live in rocky terrain with algae cover. It can be found under rocks and gravel; smaller examples are commonly found in tidepools. They are capable of breathing air and can be out of water for up to a day. When not submerged under water, they keep moist by burrowing under seaweed and wet rocks.

The Black Prickleback is found mostly on coastlines from the Gulf of Alaska to southern California, where it consumes green and red algae, crustaceans, polychaetes, snails and surfgrass.

Spawning takes places from February to April off the west coast of the United States and from April to mid-May off the coast of British Columbia. Females lay 700 to 4000 eggs under rocks or other protected areas. The eggs are deposited one by one and fertilized by the male. They are then shaped into spherical clusters by the mother and father. The father then guards the eggs until they hatch.

Pricklebacks belong a family of elongate fishes found in the cool northern oceans, with most species in the northern Pacific. In most species, all the dorsal rays are strong, sharp spines – which is the source of the common name “Prickleback.”

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Gumboot Chiton

Posted on April 4, 2025 by tspuckler

While tidepooling in California, I came across this fine creature. Also known as the Giant Western Fiery Chiton or the Giant Pacific Chiton, it is the largest of the chitons, growing to 14 inches and capable of reaching a weight of more than 4 pounds.

This creature is found along the shores of the northern Pacific Ocean from Central California to Alaska. It inhabits the lower intertidal and subtidal zones of rocky coastlines.

The Gumboot Chiton’s appearance has led some tidepoolers to refer to it, fondly, as the “Wandering Meatloaf.” The name “Gumboot Chiton” seems to derive from a resemblance to part of a rubber Wellington boot or “gum rubber” boot.

Chitons are mollusks that have eight armored plates running in a flexible line down their back. Unlike most chitons, the Gumboot’s plates are completely hidden by its leathery upper skin that usually is reddish-brown or brown, but occasionally is orange in color.

Chitons have long arrays of fine teeth that are partially made of magnetite, making them hard enough to scrape algae off rocks. The Gumboot Chiton’s underside is orange or yellow and consists mostly of a large foot similar to that of other mollusks such as snails or slugs, with gills found in grooves running along the outer edge of the foot.

The Gumboot Chiton has a lifespan of more than 40 years.

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Monterey Ensatina

Posted on March 28, 2025 by tspuckler

This was a neat “ghost” version of what usually is a brightly colored amphibian. This is a type of lungless salamander that conducts respiration through its skin and the tissues lining its mouth. Being lungless requires it to live in damp environments and to move about only during times of high humidity.

The young develop in an egg and hatch directly into a tiny terrestrial salamander with the same body form as an adult. (They do not hatch in the water and begin their lives as tiny swimming larvae breathing through gills like some other types of salamanders.)

When it feels severely threatened by a predator, an Ensatina may detach its tail from its body to distract the predator. The tail moves back and forth on the ground to attract the predator while the Ensatina slowly crawls away to safety. The tail can be re-grown. The tail also contains a high density of poison glands. When disturbed, an Ensatina will stand tall in a stiff-legged defensive posture with its back swayed and the tail raised up while it secretes a milky white substance from the tail, swaying from side to side.

Monterey Ensatinas eat a wide variety of invertebrates. They expel their relatively long, sticky tongues to capture the prey and pull it back into their mouth where it is crushed and killed, and then swallowed. Typically feeding is done using sit-and-wait ambush tactics, but sometimes Ensatinas will slowly stalk their prey.

This creature inhabits moist, shaded evergreen and deciduous forests and oak woodlands, mixed grassland, and chaparral. It often find it under rocks, logs, other debris, especially bark that has peeled off and fallen beside logs and trees.

Ensatinas have several subspecies. They have been described as a “ring species” in the mountains surrounding the Californian Central Valley. The complex population of subspecies forms a horseshoe-shape around the mountains.

Finding this neat amphibian was definitely a herping highlight of my visit to southern California.

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Tim Spuckler's Blog

Reptile Ramblings and More

Western Amethyst Laccaria

Western Gray Squirrel

Field Chickweed

Western Boxelder Bug

Brown Turban Snail

Woolly Sculpin

Hopkin’s Rose Nudibranch

Black Prickleback

Gumboot Chiton

Monterey Ensatina