Table Mountain, South Yuba River State Park, and Sierra Valley in early Spring!

We have had some unusually HOT weather these past two weeks, with temps in the 80's! The lush green grasses have been quickly turning brown, so we knew we'd better get to Table Mountain before it dried up! Last Monday my friends Nancy, Patti, Mike, and I drove up there to see what was blooming! 

North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve is a flat topped butte, next to the town of Oroville, Ca. The top of it is capped by an ancient lava flow. It is one of the few places in California that has never been impacted by agriculture. Some cattle are allowed to graze there in the wet months, but apparently cause little impact on the native wildflowers.

North Table Mountain became an ecological reserve in 1993, when Francis Carmichael, a local rancher, sold 3,315 acres of it to the State of California, to be managed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Now it is open to the public. Land passes are required, and can be purchased online at https://www.ca.wildlifelicense.com/internetsales.

The majority of the "tabletop" had dried up already, but there were lots of wildflowers bordering all the small flowing creeks! We spent the day following these creeks and "botanizing" along the way! 

Butter and Eggs/Johnny Tuck - Rusty Popcorn Flowers - White-tipped Clover

Tryphysaria eriantha - Plagiobothrys nothofulvus -Trifolium variegatum

These flowers were found in both the dry and wet/damp areas. The Rusty Popcorn Flowers have bright yellow centers when they first bloom, which fade to white as the plant ages.

One of the many creeks on the top of North Table Mountain

The sky was overcast and lovely, and fresh cool breezes came and went while we hiked. Since there weren't thousands of wildflowers in bloom, we found some plants we hadn't noticed before!  Always a delight for us amateur botanists!

Hartweg's Doll Lily/Inside Out Lily - Table Mountain Meadowfoam

Odontostomum hartwegii - Limnanthes douglasii ssp. nivea

Mike and Patti had never seen the Inside Out Lilies before, and Nancy and I hadn't seen them on Table Mountain before! It turns out that they are the only species in their genus, and are found only in California!!! Wow! 

  

Table Mountain Meadowfoam was a growing in the dry as well as the wet/damp areas, and was a familiar plant to all of us. I love the thin, clear, converging lines on their petals.

Bent-stem/Dudley's Monkeyflowers - Erythranthe geniculata 

There was a long beautiful bank of basalt columns along one creek, that were encrusted in a gorgeous, colorful variety of lichens! Growing in small niches on these columns, were Bent-stem/Dudley's Monkeyflowers that we weren't familiar with, as well as some Pipevines that we didn't know grew on Table Mountain!! So exciting!!! 

Bent-stem/Dudley's Monkeyflowers - Erythranthe geniculata 

I couldn't get enough photos of the Monkeyflowers on the 

lichened columns! Such beauty! We lingered there for quite some time among the ancient basalt columns!

Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars on Pipevines

Battus philenor hirsuta - Aristolochia californica

Patti spotted a huge patch of Pipevine across the creek and in the sun that had lots and lots of the Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars on it!! We scrambled up the rocks and checked them out. Not surprisingly we didn't see any Pipevines in bloom, as they bloom in February, but we only saw one seed pod! Maybe they didn't bloom much this year, or the flowers dried up in the heat???

Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars - Battus philenor hirsuta

We had been seeing Pipevine Swallowtail Butterflies all day, sipping nectar from all the wildflowers. They weren't in large clusters or groups, but they were flitting around the whole reserve! I wondered why they weren't getting eating by birds. It turns out that they are inedible to predators, because they ingest toxic aristolochic acids from their Pipevine host plant when they are caterpillars. These acids stay in their bodies even when they pupate into adults!

Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars on Pipevines

Battus philenor hirsuta - Aristolochia californica

After Pipevine Swallowtail Butterflies mate, the female lays her eggs (which also contain toxic acids) on the underside of Pipevine leaves. When the caterpillars first hatch, they stay together in small groups and feed on Pipevine leaves. When they grow larger they head out on their own to feed and pupate. It takes approximately one week for an adult to develop and emerge from it's chrysalis. The adults usually live for a month, feeding on wildflower nectar.

How fun it was to watch these colorful caterpillars eating away at the Pipevine leaves! Enjoy!

Savannah Sparrow - Passerculus sandwichensis

 We didn't see a lot of birds, but we heard them in the tree filled canyons. I did manage to photograph this lone Savannah Sparrow! These sparrows spend the winter in the southern U.S. or down in Mexico. They breed across the U.S. and up into northern Canada and Alaska. Right now some of them are back on Table Mountain to breed and raise their young! 

Western Meadowlark - Sturnella neglecta

We also saw and heard several Western Meadowlarks! They are quite camouflaged when seen from the back. From the front, they have a beautiful golden-yellow breast and throat! Such beauty! They have probably flown up from California's Central Valley, to breed and raise their young on North Table Mountain.

The following information about Western Meadowlarks is from Cornell's website at https://birdsoftheworld.org.

"Female locates nest in pasture, prairie, or other grassland habitat; rarely in cultivated fields. Well concealed, on ground, often in shallow depression and usually in fairly dense vegetation. Nest constructed of coarse dried grasses, stems of forbs, or fine bark, more or less interwoven with and attached to surrounding vegetation and lined with finer grasses. Usually partially arched or roofed, with conspicuous runway extending from the nest entrance. Construction variable, from completely open nests without runways to nests with complete roofs and elaborate entrance tunnels, sometimes several feet long."

Western Meadowlarks usually lay 4-5 eggs in a nest. Eggs hatch within 12-13 days. Young birds fledge when approximately 21 days old.

Ravine Falls

We also made it to Ravine Falls that still had some thin streams of water falling. It sounded lovely in the cool, shaded ravine!

Canyon Delphinium - Purple Owl's Clover

Delphinium nudicaule - Castilleja exserta ssp exserta

Just above the waterfall, there is a shaded slope where bright red Canyon Delphiniums usually bloom. This year they weren't on their usual slope, but we spotted some a bit farther away on a really steep slope. Mike tried to climb down to them but it was TOO steep! I managed to peak at them with my telephoto lens. Such Beauty! Another treat was this unusual double-blossomed Purple Owl's Clover that formed a heart!

We reluctantly left Table Mountain in the late afternoon, with hopes to possibly visit again in the near future!

South Yuba River 

During the recent hot weather, my husband and I met our friend, Suzanne, at South Yuba River State Park. We were curious to see what flowers had bloomed since we were there three weeks ago. We didn't see a many of flowers, just a scattering of a variety of species, but it had definitely leafed-out and gotten a lot greener!

South Yuba River and springtime Blue Oaks 

The river was also a gorgeous green, and was fuller and faster than last time!

  Orange Sulphur - Silver Bush Lupine  - Pipevine Swallowtail on Hairy Vetch

 Colias eurytheme - Lupinus albifrons - Battus philenor hirsuta - Vicia villosa

There were LOTS of Pipevine Swallowtail Butterflies feeding on flower nectar, as well as a few Orange Sulphur Butterflies!

Western Rattlesnake - Crotalus oreganus

It was definitely reptile weather, but we were still surprised to come across a Western Rattlesnake alongside the trail!!! WOW! It had 12 "buttons" at the end of its tail, which indicated that had been around a while. It didn't have the same markings of the rattlesnakes I have seen in my neighbor hood. The one's I've seen locally  have lots of blotchy brown patches on their white body! This one has thin white bands on a brown body!  We watched for a few minutes before it disappeared in the trailside grasses! How cool!

The following information is from the website at Mount Diablo Interpretive Association, https://www.mdia.org/articles/northern-pacific-rattlesnake.

"In late summer to early fall, we enter the birthing season for snakes. Rattlesnakes are one of the few live-bearing snakes (opposed to egg-lying). Mother rattlesnakes can give birth to 7-15 young who actually stay with her for the first couple of weeks. The young are distinctly patterned replicas of the adult except they initially have a single button on their tail. They will not get a second rattle until they shed their skin for the first time, generally within a few weeks. Rattlesnakes get a new rattle every time they shed and may shed three to four times in the same year. Therefore, the number of rattles does not tell the age of the snake. Secondly, as the snakes age, rattles will commonly break off."

In the past two days, we got 3.70" of rain!!! This should make the wildflowers bloom more down in the foothills. Hopefully we'll be back soon to enjoy a continued bloom! 

A week ago my husband and I, along with our friends Mary, Mike, and Patti, traveled over to Sierra Valley to hear a lecture on ungulates at the Feather River Land Trust Visitor Center!  We drove out to the Steel Bridge before the lecture to see what birds had recently arrived!

Greater Yellowlegs - Tringa melanoleuca

Greater Yellowlegs migrate through Sierra Valley to their breeding grounds in the swampy, muskeg habitats of central Canada and southern Alaska. They spend their winters as close as northern Mexico or as far south as southern Chile! While in Sierra Valley they feed on small aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates, small fish, frogs, and occasionally seeds or berries. We only saw this lone adult.

Cinnamon Teal (male - female) - Spatula cyanoptera

The Cinnamon Teal breeds in freshwater or brackish wetlands in the northwestern half of the U.S., not in the prairie-pothole region of Canada. The males are gorgeously colored. The female isn't, which is a good strategy if you want to be undetected while on a nest. These Teals are known to stay year-round in California's Central Valley, or they could also migrate to breeding grounds in the western half of the U.S., including Sierra Valley! 

Cinnamon Teal (male) - Spatula cyanoptera

The male Cinnamon Teal is so brilliant in its rusty-read mating colors! Even its eyes are red! The transition from the eclipse phase back to their mating colors begins in the fall and ends in early winter.

Mallard (female) - Song Sparrow

Anas platyrhynchos - Melospiza melodia

At the Steel Bridge, Mary spotted this female Mallard on a nest! The male was sitting down in the long grasses near the nest. Mallards are primarily seasonally monogamous. Nests are made on the ground in the cover of grasses etc., near marshes, ponds, or agricultural areas, where 1-13 eggs are laid.

Mallards usually nest on the ground, and will lay 1-13 eggs per clutch. Only the female hen will incubate and care for the young. The ducklings hatch within 28 days. They are born precocial with downy feathers and open eyes. They usually leave the nest within 24 hours of hatching, and start feeding immediately!

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Song Sparrows spend the winter in the lower elevations. They are mainly fruit and seed eaters but supplement their diet with a variety of invertebrates including spiders, snails, and even earthworms!

Marsh Wren (adult) - Cistothorus palustris

Their nests are initially made by lashing upright tules together with sedges and grasses, and then constructing a basket shaped nest "hanging" between them, with a short tunnel-like entrance on top.

The following information on Marsh Wren's is from Cornell's website birdsoftheworld.org.

"If female approaches male's territory, he flies toward her and, with tail cocked over his head, delivers rapid volley of songs. If she enters his territory, he flies toward his courting center (where his nests are under construction), and she sometimes follows. Escorted by the male, the female then visits and often enters several nests in succession. During this courtship, male does little singing but much displaying, often leading females from one nest to another, “nervously” bowing with tail held high, commonly touching back of his head. By destroying nearby nests, wrens undoubtedly reduce competition for food, both intra-and interspecifically, in immediate area around their own nests."

Sunset colors in Sierra Valley

After the talk at the Visitor Center, we had a lovely picnic outside with a fabulous view of Sierra Valley. The sunset colors were accompanied by the loud calls of Sandhill Cranes! We didn't see the cranes, but loved hearing them! We'll be back soon, to see what new birds have arrived for the summer!

What's blooming locally? What's happening on the river?

Check back in two weeks, on Sunday, April 19th, 

for the answers to these questions and more!

.

Your questions and comments are always appreciated! Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com. Thanks!

It's Springtime!

Spring Green!

We've had nothing but sunny weather since that snowstorm came through two weeks ago!!! All the snow is now gone, and the temperatures have been in the 60's!!! What an extreme change! It has changed from a black and white palette to a palette with a multitude of greens! It's a gorgeous time to be outside!!!

Western Polypody Ferns and Dendroalsia Moss

Polypodium hesperium - Dendroalsia albietina

Ferns, mosses and lichens thrive when the weather is moist and cool! 

The North Yuba River

The North Yuba River has incredible clarity and color at this time of year. The water is too cold for algae to grow and the sediments have settled since the last high water of two weeks ago. 

Common Mergansers (females) - Mergus merganser

The Common Mergansers are starting to return to the North Yuba River! They've spent the winter down in the Central Valley of California. They are a beautifully striking contrast to the green river!

Stout-beaked Toothwort - Grand Hound's Tongue - Western Rue Anemone

Cardamine pachystigma - Adelinia grandis  - Enemione occidentale

In the shady damp areas of my neighborhood, the flowers pictured above are in full bloom! Every year I look forward to seeing these early bloomers!

White-leaf Manzanita - Arctostaphylos viscida

The White-leaf Manzanita has been in bloom for a month or more, along Highway 49 in a few sunny areas near our neighborhood!

 Two Bushtits (males) - Psaltriparus minimus

Bushtits are tiny little birds, only 4.5" long including their tails! They usually live year-round in flocks of 10-40 birds. Their winters are spent in the foothills or coastal areas. They feed on tiny insects and spiders, scale insects, caterpillars, beetles, wasps, and ants! They were feasting on some unknown insects on the recently blossomed fruit trees!

 Bushtits (female - male) - Psaltriparus minimus

I couldn't identify the tiny birds in the above flowering tree, but I had my suspicions that they were Bushtits. However, I had a memory that Bushtits had a white eye-ring, and these didn't. I looked them up in the field guide and realized that only the females have white eye-rings, males don't! So the ones I saw were male Bushtits! How cool!

Bushtits and nest (female - male) - Psaltriparus minimus

Photo by Marion Hill

In late February to early March, mating pairs break off from the flock to breed and build a nest. Their nests are truly incredible engineering feats! Each nest takes about 6 weeks to make! Both the male and the female Bushtits work together to make the nest out of lots of spider webs and plant material. The interior of the nest is lined with plant down, feathers, and fur! The resulting nest is stretchy and long, and it looks like a stuffed sock, with a round opening on one side near the top! The female will lay 4-10 eggs in the nest, that hatch in approximately 13 days. The whole family sleeps in the nest, until the chicks fledge, then they all sleep outside on branches! Scientists have also observed "bachelor" Bushtits, hanging around the nest site, that help feed the fledglings! Bushtits usually have two broods in one season, and they will re-use the nest they built for the first brood. Wow!

Since the weather was so lovely, we went down to Canyon Creek to see what was going on. To my complete surprise, I found something I'd never seen before!!! The trail has the river on the left and is bordered by a  grassy bank of moss covered bedrock on the right.  

Hydroscaphid or Skiff Beetles

I've often seen wet seepy vertical rocks on the bank, but I never really checked them out. Since my husband was taking a break, I looked at them more closely and discovered a bunch of beetles traveling up and down just underneath the film of algae-filled water on the vertical rocks!  It looked to me like they were encased in an air bubble! They moved pretty fast and only stopped when they encountered what appeared to be small clusters of mating groups! WOW!!!

Hydroscaphid or Skiff Beetles

I posted their photos on bugguide.net and they identified them as being in the Hydrophilidae Beetle Family, which is a huge family of aquatic beetles. I did some more research which made me think that they might be Hydroscaphids or Skiff Beetles! Wow! How cool!!!

The following information is from Wikipedia.com

"Size and Appearance: They are under 2 mm (0.079 in) long, typically tan, brown, or black. They are characterized by short, abbreviated elytra (wing covers) that leave several tapering abdominal segments exposed.

Habitat: They are found on mats of algae in hygropetric habitats, which are environments with a thin film of water flowing over rocks, such as the edges of streams, waterfalls, and seeps.

Respiration: Adults carry an air supply under their elytra, using special setae (hairs) on the abdomen to act as a plastron, allowing them to breathe underwater.

Feeding: Both larvae and adults are algophagous, meaning they feed on algae.

Distribution: They are found on every continent except Antarctica."

Pacific Chorus Frog (treefrog) - Pseudacris regilla

We'd also been hearing what I thought were Pacific Tree Frogs along the trail. Then bigger than heck one jumped into view! These frogs come in 3 different color phases, green, brown, and gray. I didn't see the gray or brown phase. They change their color to blend into the background. The less contrast between their color, and their immediate environment, the less chance they will be spotted by predators. The complete color change takes approximately two weeks.

These tiny frogs are only 2" big, but they have loud voices! The male frogs (Female frogs don't croak!) are some of the loudest croakers of the frog world! Right now is the time that males are croaking to attract a mate. Male frogs have a dark patch on their throat, which is their inflatable vocal sack. They usually croak at night, in ponds, where the females will lay their gelatinous eggs after mating. The tadpoles will hatch from the eggs in 1-3 weeks. The newly hatched tadpoles spend 7 to 12 weeks in their pond, maturing into an adult frog.

They spend the winter buried under forest duff. Just like insects, fish, and plants they replace fluids in their body with a type of anti-freeze to keep their cells from freezing, in winter. Once they emerge in Spring, they eat spiders, beetles, flies, ants and other insects. When they sense that an insect is near, they commonly twitch a toe to attract it, then snatch it up with their tongue!

California Tortoiseshell - Nymphalis californica

To my surprise there were several California Tortoiseshell butterflies flitting around our neighborhood this week! It turns out that they have overwintered as adults and are out looking for mates, as well as nectar to eat. Adults feed on many different flower species for nectar. They also eat sap, aphid “honeydew” and over-ripe or damaged fruit in season. They will lay their eggs on Ceanothus plants, the leaves of which the caterpillars will feed on when they hatch. If conditions are right, Tortoiseshells may have three or more generations from spring to fall. They will move upslope in the summer and return to lower elevations in the fall.

California Tortoiseshell - Nymphalis californica

Most Tortoiseshells overwinter in the foothills and migrate upslope in the spring. To our delight we recently had a day FILLED with Tortoiseshell butterflies! It was a mass migration of overwintered adults coming up to the higher elevations!  They were flying everywhere, and in some areas congregating in groups of "puddling" adults!  The following info about puddling butterflies is from the website at https://coastalbg.uga.edu.

"Puddling, sometimes referred to as “mud-puddling,” is a behavior observed primarily in male butterflies. It involves these winged wonders congregating around puddles, damp soil, or even animal droppings. The butterflies use their proboscis, a long, straw-like mouthpart, to absorb essential nutrients from the substrate. These nutrients often include salts, amino acids, and minerals like sodium, which are crucial for various biological processes.

The Purpose of Puddling: While the sight of butterflies sipping on muddy water might seem peculiar, there’s a good reason behind this behavior. Puddling serves several vital functions in a butterfly’s life. 

Nutrient Uptake: Butterflies primarily feed on nectar, which provides them with sugars for energy. However, nectar lacks many essential nutrients, such as sodium and amino acids. Puddling helps supplement their diet with these vital elements, which are crucial for reproduction and overall health.

Reproductive Success: The nutrients obtained through puddling are especially important for male butterflies. During mating, males transfer some of these nutrients to females, which can enhance their reproductive success. A well-nourished female is more likely to produce healthier offspring.

Hydration: Butterflies need water for survival, just like any other organism. Puddling provides them with an easily accessible source of hydration, especially in arid environments where water may be scarce.

Social Interaction: Puddling sites often become social gatherings for butterflies. These communal gatherings can serve as opportunities for courtship and mate selection, allowing butterflies to find suitable partners.

The Role of Minerals: One of the most intriguing aspects of puddling is the butterflies’ preference for certain minerals. Sodium, in particular, is highly sought after by butterflies. It plays a crucial role in their physiology, helping regulate their internal fluids and maintain proper muscle function. Butterflies have even been known to visit human sweat and tears to obtain sodium, a phenomenon that highlights their unerring instinct for finding these vital minerals."

Puddling California Tortoiseshell males! - Nymphalis californica

Enjoy!

Blue Oak - Quercus douglasii

My husband and I also traveled down to Daugherty Hill to see some more spring greens!!! We had the whole place to ourselves and there weren't even any cows! What luck! The blue oaks were beginning to leaf out and birds were singing everywhere! It was glorious!

Lark Sparrow - Chondestes grammacus

Right away I spotted these two Lark Sparrows! They are easy to identify by the rusty colored patches on their heads. Lark Sparrows are foothill birds and they build their nests on bare ground, or slightly above ground in a shrub. Right now is their breeding season, and males are known to give a female a twig during copulation, which she then flies off with and places in her nest! 3-6 eggs are laid per clutch, and hatch within 12 days! Both male and female adults feed the nestlings, which can fly within 9 days! I love the markings and colors of the adults! 

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly - Battus philenor

To our delight, there were several Pipevine Swallowtail Butterflies, sipping nectar from the scattered wildflowers. They weren't in large clusters or groups, but they were flitting around the whole park! I wondered why they weren't getting eating by birds. It turns out that they are inedible to predators, because they ingest toxic aristolochic acids from their Pipevine host plant when they are caterpillars. These acids stay in their bodies even when they pupate into adults! There weren't lots of wildflowers in bloom, but we enjoyed the ones we saw. 

Popcorn Flower - Western Buttercup - California Saxifrage

Plagiobothrys nothofulvus - Ranunculus occidentalis - Micranthes californica

Purple Sanicle -  Sanicula bipinnatifida

Hairy Vetch -  Butter and Eggs/Johnny Tuck - Blue Dicks

Vicia villosa - Triphysaria eriantha - Micranthes californica

We'll be back down in the foothills again soon, 

to catch the full bloom of the  Spring wildflowers!

Come and join me for a talk on Saturday, March 21st about "Animals in Winter". It's a fundraiser for the Camptonville Community Center. Hope to see you there!

Check back in two weeks for my next natural history blog, 

on Sunday, March 28th.

Your questions and comments are always appreciated! Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com. Thanks!

Winter & Spring

Beginning on February 16th a winter storm moved in and dropped approximately 2.5' of snow in our neighborhood!!! It was the first and only big winter storm we've had this year! It was absolutely beautiful with intermittent blizzard-like flurries of snowfall over 4 days!  Luckily we didn't have to go anywhere that week, so I tromped around in the powder snow with my camera every day. It was a bit tough to keep my camera dry, but lovely to be out in the falling snow! The landscape had turned to a striking black and white palette! 

The North Yuba River 2/16/25

Common Goldeneyes (3 males - 4 females) - Bucephala clangula

To my delight I spotted a group of Common Goldeneye Ducks on the river! This time the females were also present. A few weeks ago, there had only been males. In the near future, when the weather turns to Spring temperatures, these ducks will migrate north to Canada and Alaska to breed. In the meantime, they are busy diving in the river to catch fish, crawdads, aquatic insects, and mollusks!

Osprey  - Pandion haliaetus

I was also thrilled to see an Osprey in a tree-top overlooking the river! Our river never freezes, so fish are available in the winter. However, trout seek out the deepest, slowest parts of the river in the winter. Their metabolism slows down significantly and they become lethargic. Rather than search for food, they hang out and wait for aquatic insects to pass by!  Midges are the main food for trout in the winter, as they complete their life cycle in winter and are readily available! It's been more than a week since I first saw this Osprey, but it is still here on the river! It must be successfully catching trout!

 

The sky was filled with thousands of small clumps of falling snow, 

in a hushed, muted silence!

A filigree of Black Walnut branches, delineated by the snow! 

Killdeer - Charadrius vociferous

To my COMPLETE surprise, a Killdeer showed up in our neighborhood, the day after the snowstorm ended!!! Such beauty! They are rarely seen in our area, as they prefer short-grass, open fields. I've seen them often in Sierra Valley in the springtime and summer.  This adult hung around for about 4 days that were mainly sunny, after the storm. I read up on what they eat and earthworms were part of their menu! So I dug up some of our compost pile and found some earthworms and night crawlers. I carried them down to where the Killdeer was hanging out and left them on the ground!  I didn't linger as the Killdeer made it very clear that my presence made him wary. About half an hour later I went to see if the earthworms were still there, and they were gone. Maybe the Killdeer found them, or maybe they just wriggled away into the surrounding brush!  I'll never know, but I hope the Killdeer got one of them at least! After several days of sunny weather, we recently got a day of heavy rain and the Killdeer is no longer around. I hope it flew down to lower elevations where it normally lives.

Another interesting fact is that a year ago today, on March 1st, I spotted a Killdeer up off the highway in my neighborhood, after a winter storm!  It makes me wonder if it could possibly be the same one that just visited us!  

Killdeer - Charadrius vociferous

Here's a photo of the one I saw a year ago!

Pittman Road in the Spenceville Wildlife Area

The Spenceville Wildlife Area

The snow melted quickly in our neighborhood, but I still felt the need to see some foothill greens, so my friends Mike and Patti and I went down to Spenceville for a hike this week! It had been a month since I'd been there, and the oak trees were just starting to leaf out and the grasses were even more lush and vibrant! It looked just like the above photo, that I took a year ago!!!

We hiked a six-mile loop through rolling hills covered with meadows and Blue Oak forests. We also passed several manmade ponds, one of which had a few delightful waterfowl! 

Pied-billed Grebe (adult) - Podilymbus podiceps

Pied-billed Grebes are uncommon. "Pied" means having two or more colors. They eat crustaceans, fish, frogs, and aquatic insects. They forage for food underwater, as well as on the surface of ponds and bays. Curiously they also eat a lot of their feathers! Apparently this helps in the formation of pellets that they cast to rid their intestine of undigested material. The Cornell Lab states: "Regular ejection of stomach contents minimizes buildup of gastric parasite population in upper alimentary tract." 

To escape predation they dive or sink slowly out of view, or hide underwater with only their eyes and nostrils just above the surface! Together the male and female build their floating platform of a nest out of dead and rotting aquatic plants. Additionally, they share the brooding of eggs and raising of the young. They are fierce defenders of their nesting territory, often attacking other waterfowl from underwater! What interesting, different habits this bird has! I'm always so amazed at how everything has evolved so specifically!

American Wigeon (male - female) - Mareca americana

American Wigeons are quite common throughout California in the Winter.  In the Spring, they migrate north to Canada/Alaska to breed. I've seen them several times down in Gray Lodge. The black tip of their bill, as well the dramatically colored feathers on the male's head, make them easy to identify! These dabbling ducks forage on primarily submerged aquatic plants, as well as on upland grasses, clovers, and seeds. American Wigeons swim more than most dabbling ducks, while foraging for submerged plants. They are also very good at stealing food from other ducks, especially diving ducks!

Valley Oaks - Quercus lobata

There were Valley Oaks interspersed throughout the Blue Oak woodlands, that hadn't leafed out yet. This particular pair of Valley Oaks had a variety of songbirds in them! We stopped and "bird watched" for a little while and were delighted with what we saw!

Oak Titmouse (adult) - White-breasted Nuthatch (adult) - Western Bluebird (juvenile male!)

Firstly we noticed several Western Bluebirds perching and flying around. I lucked out and got a photo of a downy male juvenile!  WOW!!!  Secondly, there were at least three or four visible White-breasted Nuthatches searching for insects in the tree trunk crevices! Lastly there were some tiny grey birds hopping around, that we later figured out were Oak Titmice! 

In the summer Western Bluebirds are primarily insectivores. In winter they eat fruits and berries, such as juniper, poison oak, wild grapes, and elderberry. They also particularly love to eat mistletoe berries, and will sometimes sleep overnight in a clump of mistletoe to defend their find! They like to live on the edge of open areas, such as meadows or burned areas. They are short-distance migrants, and generally move down slope in winter. Males have brilliant plumage, and females are dully colored in comparison.

We kept hearing loud repeated calls and finally figured out it was the White-breasted Nuthatches! Like the Red-breasted Nuthatches in our area, these little birds climb up and down the trunks and branches of trees, gleaning insects from the surface and crevices.

The Oak Titmouse lives year-round in the oak woodlands of California's coast, central valley, and foothills. Their songs and calls are the "voice and soul of the oak woodlands". The male Oak Titmouse has as up to 12 distinct songs, but usually 3 to 4, in its repertoire. An Oak Titmouse mates for life. During breeding season the male feeds and serenades its mate! The also defend their territory (up to 6 acres) with songs and calls exchanged between males! Their diet consists of insects, acorns, oak catkins, fruit and seeds. They usually live in the same location year round.

Acorn Woodpecker - Yellow-rumped Warbler

Melanerpes formicivorus - Setophaga coronata

We also saw several Acorn Woodpeckers that day. They are one of the dominant species in the foothill oak woodlands. Acorns are the main food they depend upon in winter. They store acorns by drilling holes in dead tree trunks and putting an acorn in each hole! These acorn filled trunks are called "granaries". Granaries have been known to contain up to 50,000 acorns!

We also heard Yellow-rumped Warblers, but never spotted one. These colorful birds spend their winters in warmer climates, and are some of the first warblers to return to our area in the spring. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology states: "Short to long-distance migrants, some western Yellow-rumped Warblers move to the nearby Pacific Coast to spend the winter. Other populations migrate to wintering grounds in Mexico and throughout Central America."

Sandhill Cranes - Antigone canadensis

To our delight we heard and saw hundreds of Sandhill Cranes flying overhead that day! WOW!!! They were heading north from California's Central Valley to their breeding grounds in northeast California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. I just LOVE seeing and hearing them every year! Such amazing beauty!

Woodland Stars - Buttercup - Blue Dicks

 Lithophragma heterophyllum - Ranunculus californicus - Dichelostemma capitatum

We also saw a couple of wildflowers in bloom! They were scattered and few, but more will be popping up in the near future! 

At the end of our hike, we reluctantly left this beautiful green woodlands to go home, but we'll be back soon!

Come and join me for a talk on Saturday, March 21st about "Animals in Winter". It's a fundraiser for the Camptonville Community Center. Hope to see you there!

I will also post my next blog by Sunday, March 15th. 

Check back then to hear my latest Natural History News!  Thanks!