Sierra Valley Raptors and more...

Prairie Falcon - Falco mexicanus

Two weeks ago, on February 2nd, my husband and I, and our friends Mary and Nancy, went over to Sierra Valley to hopefully see some raptors. We totally lucked out! We saw two different Prairie Falcons, one Rough-legged Hawk, lots of Red-tailed Hawks, several Northern Harriers, and two  Bald Eagles! It was quite a bird-watching day!!!

I had never seen a Prairie Falcon before! Wow!!! They are 16" in length, with a wingspan of 40", just about the same size as a Peregrine Falcon. Apparently they are year-round residents in Sierra Valley! We saw this one fairly close to Sierraville. The following information about Prairie Falcons is from the Cornell website http://allaboutbirds.org/.

"Prairie Falcons in summer eat mostly small mammals, particularly ground squirrels. They also eat pikas, birds, and insects. In winter, ground squirrels are not available, and the Prairie Falcon depends mainly on Horned Lark and Western Meadowlark. Prairie Falcons breeding in California and Utah also eat many shorebirds, Mourning Doves, and other bird species. Nesting pairs cache excess prey in clumps of vegetation and rocky areas within their territory, and males and females cache food in separate sites. Such caches provide a buffer against times when finding prey is difficult."

Prairie Falcon - Falco mexicanus

"This inhabitant of dry environments of western North America, where cliffs or bluffs punctuate open plains and shrub-steppe deserts, is an efficient and specialized predator of medium-sized desert mammals and birds, ranging widely in search of patchily distributed prey. Several species of ground squirrels are the mainstay of this species' diet; they provide fat-rich calories that pairs need for raising their broods of 4–5 young during the 3- to 4-month nesting season. When ground squirrels move underground to escape summer heat and dryness, most falcons leave their nesting areas in search of other prey. A hardy species, the Prairie Falcon has always made its living in lands that are susceptible to periodic droughts."

Prairie Falcon - Falco mexicanus

We saw this Prairie Falcon over near the Steel Bridge!

"Prairie Falcons breed in open country throughout the West wherever they can find bluffs and cliffs to nest on, including in alpine habitat to about 11,000 feet. Breeding habitats include grasslands, shrub steppe desert, areas of mixed shrubs and grasslands, or alpine tundra that supports abundant ground squirrel or pika populations. Breeding birds sometimes forage in agricultural fields. The majority of Prairie Falcons spend the winter in the Great Plains and Great Basin, in habitat that supports the Horned Larks and Western Meadowlarks that make up much of their wintertime diet. This includes grasslands, sage scrub, dry-farmed wheat fields, irrigated cropland, and cattle feedlots, where the falcons also prey on European Starlings."

How lucky we were to see these gorgeous falcons!

Rough-legged Hawk - Buteo lagopus

We saw this Rough-legged Hawk right near the Steel Bridge! It had been several years since I'd seen one, and my friend Mary had never seen one before! How exciting! These beautiful hawks breed in the taiga and tundra across Canada and Alaska, up to the high arctic. They feed on small mammals, including lemmings, voles, mice, shrews, rabbits and ground squirrels. In the winter they migrate down into the U.S. and inhabit pastures, marshy areas, and wet meadows.

Rough-legged Hawk - Buteo lagopus

They are not commonly seen in our area, except for Sierra Valley. Some years there are a lot in the valley in winter, other years there are few to none. We were so lucky to see one of these incredible, long-distance migrants! 

Red-tailed Hawk - Buteo jamaicensis

We saw more Red-tailed Hawks than any other species that day. They are one of the mostly commonly seen raptors in North America, and are found from coast to coast in the U.S. and as far south as Venezuela! Red-tails are medium sized hawks, measuring 19" in length, with a wingspan of 49", and a weight of 2.4 lb. They like to perch in trees, or posts on the edges of clearings or meadows, and watch for prey. Ground squirrels, gophers, rabbits, mice, snakes, lizards, kestrels, and meadowlarks are their main prey. They live in Sierra Valley year-round.

Red-tailed Hawk - Buteo jamaicensis

Here's a good shot of it's red tail! Red-tailed Hawks are classified as "buteos" which are medium to large, stout bodied hawks, with broad wings and fan shaped tails. There are several subspecies of Red-tailed Hawks in the U.S. that have unique color morphs, including one that has a gray tail!

Bald Eagle - Haliaeetus leucocephalus

 We saw two Bald Eagles that day, and both of them were sitting on low fence posts! It was cold and windy, so maybe that's why they weren't soaring around or perching on telephone posts. They are year-round residents of Sierra Valley .

Northern Harrier - Circus hudsonius

These beautiful raptors are not classified as "hawks" they are "harriers". They were too hard to photograph as they were so distant, and flew so quickly. The composite above is from a few years ago.

 California Mule Deer - Odocoileus hemionus californicus

To our delight we also came across a small band of California Mule Deer. There were five females and one buck! They were camouflaged beautifully against the dry grasses and sagebrush of the Valley!

California Mule Deer (buck) - Odocoileus hemionus californicus

The buck looked like it had a few wounds on it's side and back thigh! No idea what might have caused the wounds, Mountain Lion, Wolf, barbed wire? 

California Mule Deer (does) - Odocoileus hemionus californicus

In late winter, Mule Deer usually band together in loose herds to be safer and warmer! The more eyes there are watching for predators, the better the protection! 

Sierra Valley looking East from Harriet Lane

The Valley was drier than I've ever seen it before. There was also a definite lack of waterfowl. However, it was still amazingly beautiful! I'm glad that there's a winter storm due to arrive this week, that will bring snow to the mountains and rain to the lower elevations. We need it! 

South Yuba River Beauty

A Short Hike at South Yuba River State Park

The day after our trip to Sierra Valley, my husband and I, and our friends Rod and Rochelle, went for a hike down in the South Yuba River State Park. It was gloriously green with lush grasses and a few early bloomers! The river itself was crystal clear and a rich glass-green color. Such beauty!

 

 Common Fiddleneck - Zig-zag Larkspur

Amsinckia menziesii - Delphinium patens

a tiny, slightly-opened Pipevine flower - maturing Pipevine flowers

Aristolochia californica

California Manroot - Nemophila

Marah fabaceus - Nemophila pedunculata

South Yuba River Beauty

We had a lovely walk and picnic above the beautiful river! Just wonderful! There's not doubt that we'll be back soon!

A big winter storm is supposed to arrive tonight!  It will start out rainy and then turn snowy over the next three days, with the potential of two feet of snowfall in our area!  A lot more snow is expected at the higher elevations. Thank goodness, as there's only a foot of snow up at Yuba Pass right now, at 6,709' in elevation! My neighborhood will probably look like the photo above in a few days!

Fingers crossed it all goes well! I'll let you know how it goes!

Check back in two weeks, on February 28th for my next blog!

Your questions and comments are always welcome. Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com. Thank you!

Two Wildlife Refuges

The Sutter Buttes from the Spenceville Wildlife Refuge

These past two weeks have been sunny and warmish so we traveled to the lower elevations to see what was going on down there. This week I went to the Spenceville Wildlife Refuge, about a two hour drive to the west from our neighborhood. It is a beautiful rolling oak woodlands that I love visiting. The morning we arrived it was fresh and cool and LOTS of songbirds were singing! Just heavenly! My friend Hank and I hiked there for several hours enjoying the big sky vistas, the green lushness, and the filigree of the bare-branched Blue Oaks. Unfortunately I don't have time to write about all that we saw that day, but I plan to go back again within a month and I'll write more then. In the meantime, enjoy these photos!  

Meadowlarks - California Quail 

Sternella neglecta /Callipepla californica

Although the trees hadn't leafed out yet, the grasses created a rich yellow-green carpet throughout the reserve! Such beauty!

We passed by 6 manmade ponds that were filled with the chorus of frogs!

Here's a recording of that chorus!

I love how the reflection looks like the trees are straight and not branched!

Bedrock Mortar Site

I was privileged to be lead to two bedrock mortar sites within the preserve, by local writer, historian, and friend, Hank Meals! He has hiked in the Spenceville Wildlife Refuge countless times and has discovered mortar holes throughout the area. The following information about the local Nisenan People, who created these mortar holes, is from Hank's blog at https://yubatreadhead.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-spenceville-wildlife-area-rolling.html. 

We left in the late afternoon, with plans to be back again soon, 

when the oaks start to leaf out!

Red-tailed Hawk at the Gray Lodge Wildlife Refuge

Last week, my husband and I revisited the Gray Lodge Wildlife Refuge. To our completed delight the Snow Geese were there in the thousands! They hadn't been in the wetlands when we visited a month ago. The sight and sound of them are so much a part of Gray Lodge, that I really missed them on our previous visit. This visit they filled us with beauty once again! Yay!!!

Snow Geese Landing in the wetlands - Anser caerulescens

Here's a video of them landing and calling!

(Oops! Looks like you get to see the same video twice! I'll fix it soon!)

Some areas were just packed with Snow Geese!

Snow Geese - Greater White-fronted Geese - Northern Pintails

Anser caerulescens - Anser albifrons - Anas acuta

Double-crested Cormorants (adult/juveniles) - Nannopterum auritum

Northern Pintails (males/females) - Anas acuta

Gadwalls (female/male) - Mareca strepera

Green Heron with a tadpole (adult) - Butorides virescens

Green Heron swallowing a tadpole (adult) - Butorides virescens

Red-tailed Hawk (adult back & front) - Buteo jamaicensis

California Towhee (adult) - Bushtit (adult) 

 Melozone crissalis - Psaltriparus minimus

When we were leaving Gray Lodge the sun had come out and the water was filled with a myriad of glistening sparkles! How lucky we were to engage with such beauty!

Neighborhood News!

To my absolute delight I spotted another Pygmy Owl this week in my neighborhood! It was in the same vicinity of the one I saw a few weeks ago, so it is probably the same one. WOW!!!

Check back in two weeks, on February 14th, for the latest Natural History News from my neighborhood!

Your comments and questions are greatly appreciated. Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com

Neighborhood News!

Non-biting Midges - Chironomidae Family

Unfortunately, my husband and I had the flu for the past 10 days or so and we haven't been outside much. We also had 6.50" of rain in the past two weeks, that kept me from exploring. However, warm and dry weather followed the rainy days, and I managed to go for a couple of walks recently, and saw some very cool stuff!

The Open Slope

Every year at this time, the Non-biting Midges put on a show at the tops of some of the pine trees on the open sunny slope (pictured above) in my neighborhood. The slope is bordered by the North Yuba River, from which the midges have recently hatched. The swarm moves up and down and sideways, sometimes congregating in a dense mass, sometimes spreading out. It is quite beautiful to watch, especially if it's backlit by the sun!

Adult Midges lay their eggs in shallow waters. The eggs sink to the bottom. In a few days the larvae hatch out of the eggs and burrow into mud, or construct a small tube in which they live, feed and develop. The aquatic larvae feed on detritus in the water and are a great source of food for fish and aquatic insects. After 2-7 weeks, the larvae turn into pupae. The pupae then swim to the surface and the adults emerge from their pupal exuviae (cast off skin). They then fly off and form swarms of thousands in which they mate! Adults do not feed and spend their short, 3-5 day lives mating!

Non-biting Midges - Chironomidae Family

I love this close-up photo of non-biting midges! Although it looks like these midges have four pairs of wings, they really only have one pair that functions and looks like wings. Because midges move so quickly and erratically, I couldn't slow down their movement enough to capture a photograph of their one pair of wings! 

Midges have another pair of wings, but they are tiny and  knob-like organs called halteres that help with stability. The yellow arrow is pointing to one of these halteres! This image is off of Creekman.com, which is the work of KEN W. DAVIS WILDLIFE MEDIA.

Northern Pygmy-Owl - Glaucidium gnoma 

While I was watching the Non-biting Midges, a small bird flew by and landed on the top of one of the pine trees! I quickly zoomed in with my camera and was super surprised to discover that it was a Northern Pygmy Owl! It only stayed on the tree top for a few seconds, then flew down to the dry grasses on the slope and disappeared among them! Wow!!! It must have spotted a rodent! Soon after that it flew away with something in its talons and disappeared in the trees! This all happened in less than half a minute! I was super thrilled to have seen it! I haven't seen a Northern Pygmy-Owl for a year or more! 

Northern Pygmy-Owl (adult) with Dark-eyed Junco

Glaucidium gnoma - Junco hyemalis

Unlike most owls, Northern Pygmy-Owls are diurnal (active during the day). They prey on small birds and mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and insects. They perch and drop down on their prey, and often take prey up to 3x their size!  I took the above photo several winters ago. A Northern Pygmy-Owl had taken advantage of the birds at our bird feeder, and had caught a Dark-eyed Junco that was feeding there! Although they have a different body shape than songbirds, they are about the same length as many songbirds!

Great Horned Owl and Northern Pygmy-Owl size comparison

(not a real photo)

I made the fake photo above, to show you the approximate size difference between a Northern Pygmy Owl and a Great Horned Owl, the only two owls I've ever observed in my neighborhood. Pygmy Owls are quite small for an owl, measuring 6.3-7.1" in length (including tail), with a wingspan of 12", and a weight of 2.5 oz. Great Horned Owls are much larger, measuring 22" in length, with a wingspan of 44", and a weight of 3.1lbs!

Red-tailed Hawk (adult) - Buteo jamaicensis

I checked the same slope for four more days but never saw the Northern Pygmy-Owl again. However, a Red-tailed Hawk was there on two of the days! Red-tailed Hawks are classified as "buteos" which are medium to large, stout bodied hawks, with broad wings and fan shaped tails. Many species have a variety of color phases. Their diet consists primarily of small mammals.

 Red-tailed Hawks are large birds with a wingspan of 49", a length of 19", and a weight of 2.4lbs. They hunt in meadows and fields for small mammals, snakes, lizards, and other birds. They use the perch-and-wait method of hunting. Once prey is sighted they will drop from their perch, flap-and-glide downward, thrust their legs forward when about 3m from prey, and grab prey with their feet.

American Kestrel (male) - Falco sparverius

Starting about five years ago, and continuing for several consecutive years, an American Kestrel perched in the pine trees on this open slope. However, it has been notably absent during the past three years. They are so beautifully feathered!

American Kestrels prefer to hunt in wide open, grassy fields. They are the smallest falcon in North America, measuring 9" in length, with a wingspan of 22", and a weight of 4.1oz. Their diet consists primarily of insects and small rodents such as: grasshoppers, beetles, dragonflies, scorpions, spiders, butterflies, moths, voles, mice, shrews, bats, snakes, lizards, frogs, and small songbirds! In the winter there aren't many insects or lizards around, so it was probably hunting for rodents on the slope. 

Ladybird Beetles - Hippodamia convergence

Another insect that is visible in the winter are Ladybird Beetles. Thousands of them arrived in our neighborhood more than a month ago. Usually they are in the crevices of tree trunks, on the ground underneath shrubs, among pine needles on the forest floor, or on the stems of leafless plants. They congregate in the Fall to mate, and then become inactive when the temperatures cool. They will stay here all winter! The name "Ladybug" is a misnomer, as these insects are not "true bugs".

Common Goldeneyes (males) - Bucephala clangula

In the North Yuba River, which flows past the Open Slope, the Common Goldeneyes have just arrived! I have seen four gorgeous males, but no females yet! They are so strikingly handsome!  They are diving ducks, and I love watching them "swim" underwater!

Sometimes they show up in the end of December, sometimes in January, or sometimes as late as early February! They usually stay around until April or even May before they head north for their breeding grounds in the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska. They prefer the forests as they are tree cavity nesters, like Buffleheads, Wood Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, and Common Mergansers!  In California, Common Goldeneyes are the only ducks that regularly spend the winter on rivers and lakes above the foothills of the western Sierra.

Common Merganser (male) - Mergus merganser

Two weeks ago, just before the rainy weather I was totally surprised to see one male Common Merganser and three females on the river! They aren't usually here at this time of year! The warm weather probably lured them up from lower elevations.

Common Merganser (male, females) - Mergus merganser

I haven't seen them since the rainy weather happened! Hopefully, they went back down to their regular winter habitat in California's Central Valley.

Club Coral Fungus - Clavariadelphus occidentalis

On another note, the fungi population is still thriving!  I've come across some real unusual looking fungi in the forest in the past two weeks!

Saddle-shaped False Morel - Gyromitra infula

Again, I must state that you shouldn't eat a mushroom unless an expert mycologist tells you that it is edible. Field guides can lead you astray. 

What's blooming?

Are there any other insects out and about?

What's it look like in the Lakes Basin?

Check back in two weeks, on January 31st, for the answers to these questions and more!

Your comments and questions are greatly appreciated. Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com