Osprey - Pandion haliaetus
This summer I've made a concerted effort to go hiking once a week, every week! For the past four years, this hasn't been possible, due to my husband's health, but I've recently hired help and now have some free time to be in nature! Yay! In the past two weeks I went on two hikes by myself, explored a new area by car with my husband, and took several walks in our neighborhood! It's been delightful! In this blog, I'm just going to feature the highlights from these days "in the field". Hope you enjoy the photos!
Our Neighborhood
To my delight I spotted an Osprey perched on the one Cottonwood Tree on the river! I've seen Osprey's perch there many times over the years. I'm happy that it is still happening! It has been a while since I've seen one there!
Common Mergansers (three ducklings and a female) - Mergus merganser
I also spotted this Common Merganser mom on the river, with three ducklings!! Several females raise their young every year, on the section of the river that's in our neighborhood. I've seen as many as sixteen ducklings, and as few as one. Hope I see this family again soon! I love to see nature doing well!
Bullock's Oriole (male) - Western Tanager (male)
Icterus bullockii - Piranga ludoviciana
There are a variety of long distance migrants that visit our neighborhood in the Spring. Some just pass through, while others stay and raise their young here. Two of the most striking migrants are the Bullock's Orioles and the Western Tanagers. Both of these brightly colored birds spend the winter in southern Mexico, or as far south as Guatemala, a one-way migratory distance of approximately 3,000 miles!
Spotted Sandpipers - Olive-sided Flycatcher
Actitis macularius - Contupus cooperi
Spotted Sandpipers breed across the United States and Canada, and overwinter in Mexico and South America (excluding Argentina!), a one-way migratory distance of approximately 3,000 to 6,300 miles!!! The Olive-sided Flycatcher winters primarily in Panama and the Andes Mountains of South America, a one-way migratory distance of approximately 7,000 miles! It has been my pleasure to watch these long distance migrants raise their young, right here in our neighborhood!
Black Bear - Ursus americanus
The only bears I've seen this summer have been off the highway on Depot Hill, about 7 miles from our home. We saw one young adult and one cub on separate occasions. Both times they quickly went out of sight. The cub climbed up a bank into the brush, and the young adult headed down slope and out of sight. We see fresh bear poop on the road in our neighborhood just about every day, but have not yet seen a bear in person. When the apples ripen in a few months, we'll have a better chance of seeing them in the mornings or evenings.
Mountain Piperia Orchid - Piperia transversa
The Mountain Piperia Orchid pictured above, doesn't grow in wet meadows or bogs. Instead, it grows in shady areas of the dry forest floor! The flowers have a clove-like fragrance, which attracts moths.
Scarlet Monkeyflower - Blazing Stars
Mimulus cardinalis - Mentzelia laevicaulis
These beauties are currently blooming in my neighborhood!
The Sierra Buttes - 7/14/26
Lakes Basin Adventures!
The Sierra Buttes are now almost totally snow free! My friend Mike Vasey sent me an article about how the area has received more than enough rain this season, but is suffering from a lack of snow pack and is in a "snow drought" this year. This is due to the unusually warm, rainy winter we had, and the now hot summer we're in. So far it has made an incredible amount of flowers bloom, but that won't last forever. I hope we keep getting periodic rains to keep the Lakes Basin green for another month or more!
Upper Tamarack Lake - 7/13/26
I hiked up to the Tamarack Lakes last Monday and didn't see a single other person the whole day!!! There were tons of flowers, lots of birds, and gorgeous clouds!! It was a fabulous day out!
Bufflehead (female) - Bucephala albeola
As usual there was a family of Buffleheads on Lower Tamarack Lake! So fun and fascinating!
Bufflehead youngsters - Bucephala albeola
This year there was a group of four cute young ducklings!
Wilson's Warbler - Cardellina pusilla
I also saw a flash of yellow in the bushes, and it turned out to be a "first year" Wilson's Warbler!!! Wow! I couldn't get a great shot, so I put in an inset of an adult I took years ago. Notice that the immature one doesn't have the black cap on its head. I think I've only seen these tiny beauties three times in my life!
Rock Wren (adult) - Rock Wren (fledgling)!!!
Salpinctes obsoletus
To my delight I watched a Rock Wren explore a boulder covered slope. It spent some time in the shade of an upraised rock slab so I zoomed in with my camera and took some photos. I couldn't see what was keeping the Rock Wren there until I got home and looked at the photos on my computer. Imagine my surprise when I saw a fledgling Rock Wren in one of the photos! WOW!!! How exciting! Rock Wren adults are difficult to spot, but a fledgling is indeed a rarity! How lucky to have captured one on my camera!
Fireweed - Chamerion angustifolium
There were lots of flowers in bloom, especially at the north end of Upper Tamarack Lake. My favorite are the tall spikes of magenta Fireweeds!
Lorquin's Admiral - Limenitis lorquini
These Lorquin's Admiral butterflies are often mistakenly identified as California Sisters. They are quite similar but the shape of the orange tip, on the end of their wings, differ between the two species.
Mountain Pennyroyal and Church Meadow
Monardella odoratissima
We decided to drive out to Church Meadow and see what was happening! It was STILL in full bloom and delightful! We had a great afternoon exploring and botanizing there!
Leopard Lilies - Lilium pardilinum
One section along the road was an obvious seep, as there were Leopard Lilies growing there, and nowhere else!
Monument Plant - Green Rein/Bog Orchid
Frasera speciosa - Platanthera sparsiflora
There was a wide variety of flowers in the seep area, and one that we haven't seen in the Lakes Basin ever before, a Monument Plant!!! Monument Plants only bloom in the last year of their 30-40 year lifespan. Their flowering stalks are typically 7'-9' tall, bearing over 600 flowers!!! After they bloom, they die! Most of their lifetime is spent as a basal rosette of leaves. We saw two stalks, one was two feet tall and turning maroon. The other is now about 3.5' tall with both green and maroon leaves and tight flower buds on the top. We'll keep checking on it to see if it does indeed bloom! How unusual and exciting to find one of these extraordinary plants!
Interestingly, there were green orchids that were as tall as the Monument Plant growing next to it. They were over three feet tall! The flowers were very tiny and green. I'm not sure I've identified them correctly, but I chose the "the most likely" identification. More research is needed!
Cow Parsnip - Heracleum maximum
Brewer's Angelica - Angelica brewerii
Corn Lily leaves - Veratrum californicum
Corn Lily in Bloom! - Veratrum californicum
This year the Corn Lilies haven't been blooming at all. Imagine my surprise when I found the blooming one pictured above, on the edge of a dry, non-blooming patch of Corn Lilies! Perhaps it's the only one that bloomed in the Lakes Basin this year!!! Corn Lilies typically have blooming years, and non-blooming years, depending on the timing of the rains and snows.
Corn Lily Flowers - Veratrum californicum
Sculptured Puffball - Calvatia sculpta
To our surprise we came across six Sculptured Puffballs in this one area! Each one was the size of a large orange and filled with powdery spores! The one without the spines reminded me of a tortoise shell! This is only the third time I've ever seen these unusual fungi!
Smith Lake - 7/13/26
I decided to hike up to Smith Lake last Monday, and once again I had it to myself! I walked around the lake and connected with the "Connection Trail" for the hike back. Not a long hike but the views and wet meadows were spectacular. The west end of the lake has a "trail" that is in the process of being reclaimed by the forest and quite a bit overgrown, but passable.
Sierra Rein Orchid - Platanthera dilitata
There were thousands of flowers in bloom in the long, narrow, wet meadow before Smith Lake! It was unbelievably beautiful!! More Sierra Rein Orchids were in bloom than I'd ever seen before! I spent several hours looking, lingering, and watching in this lovely sierran meadow. Such beauty!
Bog Asphodel - Bigelow's Sneezeweed
Narthecium californicum - Helenium bigelovii
Western False Asphodel - Triantha occidentalis
This lovely white flowered plant is actually a carnivore! It has a unique feature of trapping small insects near its insect-pollinated flowers. Flower stems are coated with sticky hairs that produce a digestive enzyme known as phosphatase, which digests the small insects. The hairs can catch midges and gnats (see inset photo) but are not sticky enough to capture larger insects like bees and butterflies that pollinate the flowers! How cool!
Sierra Rein Orchid - White Brodiaea - Goldenrod Crab Spider
Plantathera dilitata - Triteleia hyacinthina - Misumena vatia
The Sierra Rein Orchid is pollinated by moths that have a proboscis long enough to reach into the long nectar spur!
The White Brodiaea had a surprisingly bright yellow crab spider among it's flowers! I have seen white Goldenrod Crab Spiders, perhaps this one had just moved over from a yellow Bog Asphodel! It takes 6 days to change from yellow to white. This process is relatively quick because the spider simply discards pigment to change color.
As I was leaving the Lakes Basin there were dark storm clouds coming in from the east, and it did indeed rain up there that night. We even got a little bit of rain down in our neighborhood that evening! Just wonderful! I promise I'll be back soon!
What's happening in Sierra Valley?
What's happening in the Lakes Basin?
Check back in two weeks, on Sunday, August 3rd, for the answers to these questions and more.
Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated. Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com. Thanks!
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