Some of our daytime highs this week were in the 80's! All of a sudden lizards, snakes and insects appeared! More birds also arrived, some of them coming all the way from Central America! Flowers, trees, and bushes burst into bloom, and pollination was happening everywhere! It was an amazing week!
Spiny Lizard - Sceloperus sp.
This Spiny Lizard was in our garden, where we watched her eat a fly!! They will also eat spiders, scorpions, centipedes, beetles, wasps, ants, and sometimes buds and leaves! There are over 80 species of Spiny Lizards in the world, and I'm not sure what species this one is. I think this is a female, because male Spiny Lizards have a bright blue patch on each side of their belly, and their throat. After she mates with a male, she will lay 3-15 eggs in sandy soil. She doesn't incubate the eggs! Air and soil temperatures are sufficient for the eggs to develop on their own. They will hatch in approximately 2 months, into 1" long baby lizards!!!
Spiny Lizard and Western Aquatic Garter Snake - Thamnophis couchi
I found this snake lying on the road, warming up in the sun. All critters, except for mammals and birds, are ectotherms. They rely on external sources, such as sunlight and heated surfaces, to regulate their internal body temperature. Garter snakes are the most aquatic of all our local snakes. This Western Aquatic Garter Snake is an excellent swimmer, and can stay underwater for several minutes. They eat fish, frogs, tadpoles, salamanders, earthworms, insects, slugs, small rodents, eggs and nestlings of birds! They do not poison or constrict their prey. They catch their prey with their teeth, and then swallow them whole! The females are ovoviviparous, and carry their eggs internally. The young snakes, up to 30 in a clutch, are born in late summer. They are 5" in length when born, and can reach up to 50" in length as adults.
Carpenter Bees - Xylocopa sp. and a Bumblebee - Bombus sp.
The Pollinators!
The onions in our garden are now blooming and attracting a variety of pollinators! Carpenter Bees have been there for days, drinking the nectar from the flowers!
Adult male and female Carpenter Bees hibernate in separate tunnels, in winter. In the Spring, they mate and then clean out an old tunnel, or create a new one, for their larvae. The female lays 6 to 8 eggs. Each egg is placed in a separate chamber, along with some "bee bread" (a ball of nectar and pollen). The chamber is then sealed off with wood particles. When the egg hatches, the larva eats the bee bread, pupates, and emerges out of its chamber as an adult. This complete metamorphosis takes several months! Meanwhile, the adult males and females can be seen feeding on nectar throughout the Summer. They do not eat wood. Male Carpenter Bees don't sting, as they have no stinger. Females do have a stinger, but rarely sting!
White-lined Sphinx Moth Caterpillar and Adult - Hyles lineata
Bleeding Heart Flowers - Dicentra formosa
The Bleeding Hearts are in full bloom in our garden! I've seen the White-lined Sphinx Moth busily gathering nectar in the late afternoon and evening. I saw the caterpillars of these moths in the desert! They were huge, measuring almost 5" in length! They were voraciously eating the blooming wildflowers! After 2 weeks of eating, the caterpillars burrow into the ground to pupate. After 2-3 more weeks, they emerge as adults. In Spring the adults will mate, and the females will lay eggs! They are also called the "Hummingbird Moth", because of their size, and the way that they hover and rapidly flap their wings!
White-lined Sphinx Moth - Hyles lineata & Calliope Hummingbird - Selasphorus calliope
While I was photographing the White-lined Sphinx Moths a hummingbird showed up and started feeding on the Bleeding Heart flowers! I was so excited to realize that it was a Calliope Hummingbird that I had never seen before! These hummingbirds are the smallest bird in the United States, measuring 3.25" in length, and a 4.25" wingspan!! They are also uncommon, and nest between 4,000' and 11,000' in the Sierras! So I luckily saw him while he was passing through our area! They feed mainly on nectar and tiny insects. The female make a tiny well-insulated nest, that holds two, tiny, .5"eggs. The incubate their eggs for 15-16 days. The altricial nestlings fledge about 18-21 days after they are born. I would LOVE to see one them! In the winter they migrate to the lower elevations and coastlines, sometimes as far south as Mexico!
Western Tanager (male) - Piranga ludoviciana
These beautiful Western Tanagers showed up this week! The colors of these male birds are so amazing! The females are a pale grayish lemon yellow, but I haven't photographed one yet. They winter in southern Mexico and Central America! They stop by my neighborhood for a few weeks, and by late May they move up-slope into the coniferous forest to nest. I always feel like Summer has begun, when these lovely birds show up!
Red-breasted Sapsucker - Sphyrapicus ruber
I've seen a few of these beautiful red-headed sapsuckers in my neighborhood this week! The coloring is very similar between the male and female birds. Both are brightly colored. They aren't as noisy as their relatives the Northern Flickers, but they do peck tons of shallow holes, in horizontal rows, in living trees! They feed on the sap that oozes out of these holes, as well as the insects that are attracted to the sap. They nest in the mixed conifer zone, so hopefully that means my neighborhood!
Like other members of their woodpecker family, they excavate a new nest in a dead tree, or in a live tree with dead heartwood. The female lays 4-7 eggs, and incubates them for 14-16 days. The altricial nestlings fledge in a few weeks! Maybe I'll get lucky and see some this month!
Empty Nests Again!
I have been searching and searching for active bird nests, but with no luck! I've found about 20 nests, all unoccupied, so far! I did see the female Brewer's Blackbird below, with a twig in her beak. So maybe I've been looking too early! I will keep looking, with my fingers crossed!!!
Brewer's Blackbird - Euphagus cyanocephalus
Chickaree or Douglas Tree Squirrel - Tamiasciurus douglasii
If you guessed that last week's scat was Black Bear scat, you guessed right! I haven't seen any bears at all, even though I photographed that scat 3 weeks ago! I haven't seen any baby mammals either, probably because they're out and about at nighttime. However, I did see this young-looking Chickaree in my backyard!
Neither have I seen any Brown-headed Cowbirds!
Is that a good thing? Do lizards and snakes make sounds? How do these reptiles communicate? What other kinds of animal scat can be easily identified? What other birds are out there singing? Check back next week for the answers to these questions!
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