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LinkedInPosts Tagged: California
Yes, Hawks Eat Insects
Ever watched a red-shouldered hawk on a hunt? They eat a variety of prey, including small mammals, birds, snakes, lizards, fish, crayfish, insects and worms, according to the California Raptor Center (CRC), a research center that's part of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. The...
Red-shouldered hawk devouring what appears to be a praying mantis. It caught the insect in the Vacaville Museum and then perched on a telephone line to eat it. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis distinguished professor emerita Diane Ullman of the Department of Entomology and Nematology and Gale Okumura, Department of Design faculty emerita, in front of "A Bird's Eye View." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Halloween Surprise: A Migratory Monarch
It's beginning to look a lot like...Halloween. If you haven't noticed, stores are gearing up for Halloween with assorted ghosts, goblins and ghouls for you. We remember Halloween 2023 when a female migratory monarch fluttered into our pollinator garden. She checked out the milkweed (we...
A migrating monarch butterfly stops on Halloween, Oct. 31 to sip nectar from a milkweed in a Vacaville garden. She was on her way to an overwintering site in coastal California. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The female monarch spreads her wings. She stopped in Vacaville on Halloween 2023 for some flight fuel while on her way to an overwintering site in coastal California. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Buds, Butterflies and Books...
It's delightful to see a child browsing through an insect book. And it's double delightful with twins! Such was the case at the Vacaville Museum Guild's recent Children's Party when two-year-old twins Ford and Wyatt Devine were thumbing through "The Story of the...
A children's book on the California state insect, the dogface butterfly, draws the interest of twins Ford and Wyatt Devine, 2, of Vacaville.The book was displayed at the Vacaville Museum Guild's Children's Party. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Honey of a Bee
Is there a doctor in the house? Is there a doctor in the courtyard? Is there a doctor in the honey bee costume? Yes! That was the scene at the Vacaville Museum Guild's Annual Children's Party, held Thursday morning, Aug. 8 in the museum courtyard on Buck Avenue. The event, open...
Hear that buzz? The Honey Bee (Dr. George Stock) enters the courtyard. With him are Vacaville Museum Guild members Georganne Gebers (right) of Vacaville, and Sharon Walters of Dixon. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Children expressed excitement as they circled The Honey Bee. In the back is a cutout banner of a California dogface butterfly, the state insect, from the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Little Eloise Vieira loved The Honey Bee. In back is Vacaville Museum Guild member is bee assistant Sharon Walters. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Solano County Sheriff's Department, Vacaville Police Department and California Highway Patrol all participated in the Museum Guild's Children's Party. The Honey Bee took time out to pose with several of the officers. From left are CHP Officer Mike Barday, Sheriff Sgt. Rex Hawkins, and CHP Officer Erica Tatum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Honey Bee poses with "Queen Bee" Ettamarie Peterson of Petaluma, who displayed her bee observation hive at the event. At right is a costumed McGruff the Crime Dog from the Vacaville Police Department. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Honey Bee gets acquainted with Stanley, a 20-year-old donkey brought to the party by Tina Currie of the Vaca Valley Grange. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Can You Name California's State Insect?
Can you name California's state insect? Did you know that California has a state insect? It does. Is it the honey bee? No. Is it the lady beetle (ladybug)? No. Bumble bee? No. It's the California dogface butterfly (Zerene eurydice), an insect found only in California. The...
Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology, holds a drawer of California dogface butterfly specimens. The butterfly is California's state insect. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A 35-page children's book, "The Story of the Dogface Butterfly," is authored by UC Davis doctoral alumna Fran Keller, a professor at Folsom Lake College and a Bohart research scientist.
