I have finished a new short film about the San Francisco Alligator Lizard, a local subspecies of the Northern Alligator lizard that I see regularly near Glen Park Reservoir. It’s a unique, snake-like lizard that people often miss because of its shyness and incredible agility. Beneath the scrub lies a hidden world that few people notice. This unusual lizard looks like a snake with legs, staying close to the ground and moving silently through the undergrowth. It waits patiently in the shadows,...

This "comma" that I found in a small creek is actually a rare leech, Helobdella farmeri. What comes to mind when you look at the picture above? Maybe you think it looks like a comma-the punctuation mark we all know too well. Well, that's exactly what some of my fellow teen volunteers at Stulsaft Park thought when I flipped over a rock in Ojo de Agua Creek in Woodside. They had no idea that what they were looking at was actually a rare endemic freshwater jawed leech, Helobdella farmeri....

Most people hiking in Glen Park pass by rocks without pausing to flip them over and photograph what may be living underneath. Many people who are hiking there are birders - looking up above at Red Tailed Hawks or listening to the calls of Great Horned Owls. Some people are simply enjoying the scenery for no particular reason. But when I visit O'Shaughnessy Reservoir, a relatively undisturbed patch of scrubland next to Glen Park, you'll often find me flipping over rocks in the grass in search...