California sister: 

Species of butterfly that is often unpalatable to predators. They are found around oak trees since they lay their eggs on oak leaves

Tarantula: 

A male, who left his burrow for the last time of his life, in search of a female

Gopher Snake: 

A non-venomous snake that is often mistaken for a rattlesnake

Black Widow spider: 

These spiders carry latrotoxin in their venom, which can cause muscle pain, abdominal cramps, sweating, fast heartrate, and muscle cramps (syndrome called lactrodectism).

Western Rattlesnake

This is a young rattlesnake. It's a common misconception that young rattlesnakes are more dangerous than adult; this is not true, but baby rattlesnakes are harder to spot than adults because of their size.

Yellow Faced Bee

The most common bee species on the West Coast. Unlike the Western bumble bee that is experiencing population decline, the yellow faced bee seems to be outcompeting other bees and maintaining populations, likely due to their early emergence in spring relative to other bees. 

Western Toad

This species is native to the area and are often found on the side of the road (like this one). Females can lay up to 17,000 eggs at a time!

Wild pig

Feral pigs in the area are invasive species, thought to be descendants of farmed pigs from Jeremiah Morgan in 1857. Morgan was a prolific pig farmer in the Morgan Territory region who let his pigs free-roam and feed off the land.  This wild pig was caught on a trail camera, as they seem to run fast as soon as they hear us.

Coyote

Coyotes are common in the area and one of the predators we try to keep out. This coyote was caught on our trail camera at our spring. They are known to predate on goats, dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons (everything we have at ORAP).  Average size of a coyote is about 20 to 40 lb.

Sierran Treetrog

The Sierran chorus frog (Sierran Treefrog) can change colors over hours/weeks to help them blend into the background. This frog may have been looking for a place to lay its eggs in water before we pulled it out of the swimming pool. 

Mt. Diablo Fairy Lantern

The Mt. Diablo Fairy Lantern is a rare, native Californian flower that blooms for about 2 weeks in May. It is considered in the category "fairly endangered", so we are excited to see patches of it growing at Oak Rock Animal Preserve.

Western Forest Scorpion

This species is mainly found in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we found this one under a rock. This is a female, as it was carrying an eggsack on its back.