Western fence lizard (or Blue belly)

I caught this male blue belly (Sceloporus occidentalis) sunning on a rotting Oak log at the entrance to the Escondido Canyon Park trail.  The role of the blue coloration along the belly has long been believed to be for communication: (1) to tell females you're parasite-free, and/or (2) to recognize & contest other males of the same species!  Here's a great paper by Olsson et al. 2013.

Mirador/ Look-out at Deininger National Park

I finally got a chance to visit Walter Thilo Deininger National Park.  This is an important park (732ha), as its the only protected area in El Salvador assigned to the preservation of Tropical Dry Forest - which itself is a fascinating mosaic of two habitat types: deciduous forest (which is leafless during the dry season) & gallery forest (which retains its leaves all year round).

This video is a 360 degree panoramic of deciduous & gallery forest, juxtaposed against a massive landscape of cultivars (including plantains & sugar cane).  Also, if you look carefully, you can see the Pacific Ocean in the background!

Yellow-eared bat

I caught this amazing male yellow-eared bat (Vampyressa sp.) in my in-law's backyard!  It was a pretty exciting night, this was my time mist-netting in Zaragoza (La Libertad), El Salvador.  I couldn't ID the species; there are no field-keys for El Salvador - but that's also true for many other Central American countries.  Here's a great paper by Hernández-Dávila et al. 2012.

Botta's pocket gopher

We were just starting our hike at Solstice Canyon (Malibu, California), when we stopped to look at a couple of Acorn Woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) & almost stepped on the home of this fantastic Botta's (or Valley) Pocket Gopher (Thomomys bottae).  

Solstice is very popular, so you can hear chit-chatting as people walk by us (without noticing the gopher!).  Once in a while you can even make out the knocking from the Acorn Woodpeckers!