I haven't had much experience herping SoCal, but man... from my experience, it aint easy getting close to those fringe toes. I've only had a few encounters and couldn't get close for even good camcorder footage. Nice shot!That owl vs raven is Definity epic
Nice job capturing the in-flight brawl. I saw an odd encounter earlier this year, where a hawk was chasing a crow and another crow was chasing the hawk, screaming at it, trying to save the other crow from becoming a meal. I never seen anything like it... And it was emotional because you could literally hear the terror in the crow's (the one chasing the hawk) voice. Like it was scared for the other crow's life! Amazing...I don't know muck about scorpions, but I think narrow pinchers are a way to distinguish a species you shouldn't handle (just a heads up). I actually found a little reddish one like that on my first desert trip with my ex girlfriend, in that same lava habitat. We just dropped down into San Berdino-ish territory for a day and flipped some of the abandoned houses out there. I think I flipped it, if I remember correctly... But anyways, I've got a good scorpion story.
On that same trip, we found 6 or 7 desert hairy scorps (also 1 dune scorpion) which I had never seen before. I brought back the biggest one (which was full size, as big as they get) for a pet. I had handled plenty of the different forest and valley scorpions, west of the sierras. Never anything that big, not even a petstore species. So, I google how your supposed to pick them up and if a desert hairy is a harmful bite and all that... it seemed really aggressive every time I attempted to go after it in the tank. (You're supposed to grab them by the tail, like the person in your photo....) So, I'm thinking I better grab him from behind real fast and as close to the stinger as possible... To avoid any maneuverability.
As soon as I grab it... It shoots a stream of venom... like a goddam squirt gun... right back at me... hitting me in the cheek and nose (right near my eye)
I mean, I literally had liquid drops splattered a half inch from my eyeball. Nearly a half a cap of bottled waters worth.
I haven't touched one since