Took my students on a field trip this week to one of my university’s nature preserves. We were mostly looking for signs of Sudden Oak Death on trees, but also managed to find some other really cool things. I’ll combine some photos from both days (I have multiple classes, so came out on two days).

The star of the show was this newt, which I’m calling a Taricha granulosa, or rough-skinned newt (I don’t think torosa are found this far south very often?), but I also loved the southern alligator lizard (Elgaria multicarinata), the trillium, the Pacific chorus frog (Pseudacris regilla), and the western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis), and whatever sort of gorgeous fungus that might happen to be.