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Gopher snake inside a cliff-swallow nest high on the exterior wall of the Lucy Evans Baylands Interpretative Center in Palo Alto, CA. This was an impressive climbing feat. A ranger says they see this predation most years.

The first time I had ever seen this, i videoed the entire event as well from entry to exit. It was as if this species swims all the time. I sent it to a frogmouth expert and she had never seen that before. The bird chose to swim and flew away very easily after its swim. There appeared to be no explanation for the bird swimming as it was not particularly hot or anything unusual.

Densely crowded sessile cylindrical to clavate (club-shaped) sporangia, 1.5 mm tall. Peridium delicate but persistent in most sporangia, iridescent with golden, blue and purple reflections. Capillitium attached along full length of the columella which reaches to the apex of the sporotheca. Columella brittle, light brown with a woody appearance. Spores brown in mass, paler by transmitted light, coarsely warted, 10-13 um.
Collected from severely decayed eucalypt log in wet eucalypt forest.
Identification determined by Dr Gabriel Moreno.