A LIVING FIELD GUIDE
learn the land you’re standing on.
The trails, native plants, and wildlife of the Santa Clarita Valley — documented in the field, one observation at a time, by a self-taught naturalist who's spent years learning this landscape up close.
Now in the field
What's blooming, flying, and moving right now
BLOOMING
California Buckwheat
Eriogonum fasciculatum
Peak bloom across every south-facing slope. Stand next to one and count the insect species - it's the busiest plant in the SCV valley right now.
FLYING
Great Ash Sphinx
Sphinx chersis
Hawk moths working the evening primrose at dusk. Watch.
DEVELOPING
Oak Galls
Cynipidae on Quercus
Cynipid wasp galls are swelling on local oaks. Some of SCV's least-documented insects are inside them.
WATCH FOR
Tarantula Hawks
Pepsis spp.
Big, blue-black, orange-winged, and unmistakable - patrolling milkweed and buckwheat through the heat of the day.