They've hatched!

American Robin - Turdus migratorius

The Robins have finally hatched! It looks like there are 3 chicks in the nest!  Using my telephoto lens, I watched their parents feed them for several minutes.  I didn't want to get too close and disturb them!  It was amazing to watch them open their mouths and BEG to be fed!  Robin parents have been observed making over 100 foraging trips in a day to feed their nestlings!! 

During the first four days of their lives, the nestlings are fed regurgitated, partially-digested food.  On the fifth day, their parents start feeding them pieces of earthworms!  The quantity and size of the food increases rapidly, as the nestlings grow into full sized adults.  After about 15 days, the nestlings fledge and leave the nest, but are still not able to fly.  The adults will continue to feed them for approximately 14 more days!  

Robins do not have a high success rate with nests and nestlings.  Only 40% of their nests produce nestlings!  Only 25% (of the 40%) survive until November!  I'll have to check back next week and see how this particular family is doing! I hope predators don't find them!  Keep your fingers crossed!

                   Cliff Swallow                                        Blackheaded Grosbeak

       Petrochelidon pyrrhonota                          Pheucticus melanocephalus

Nesting News!

The Cliff Swallows are still busy flying in and out feeding their nestlings!  I haven't caught a glimpse of the nestlings yet, but I'll keep trying!

I was SO surprised to see the male Black-headed Evening Grosbeak on the nest!!  I had only seen the female on the nest, every time I had checked it previously!!  It has been about 19 days that they have been sitting on their nest.  Hopefully their eggs will hatch soon!

 Oriole nest (insert) - Female Bullock's Oriole - Icterus bullockii     

I found another nest!  I have had the pleasure of watching this female Bullock's Oriole from our garden, for the past month!  I only recently found her nest!  It's about 50 feet up in a tall, skinny, maple tree.  The leaves are so dense that I only saw the nest after much looking and looking!  The past week she has been foraging for her nestlings, with LOTS and LOTS of flights back and forth to her nest!  According to the bird Field Guides, her mate should be helping her feed the nestlings.  Apparently something must have happened to her mate, as I haven't seen him around at all.  She is doing all the feeding by herself!  I hope she doesn't wear herself out!!!  To add to her stress, the past few days have been rainy and cold, and the insects aren't out!  Luckily the cherries are ripe, and she's been feeding on them! 

Crane Fly (insert) - Holorusia hespera    

Female Brewer's Blackbird  -  Male Brewer's Blackbird

Euphagus cyanocephalus

I don't know where the Brewer's Blackbirds' nests are, but they are busy catching insects for their nestlings.  It seems that the main insects they're catching are Crane Flies, also known as Mosquito Hawks. These insects do NOT catch mosquitoes!  They only live for a few days, just long enough to mate and lay eggs.  If they eat anything at all, it's nectar and dew!  The birds, however, love to eat them! 

  

Birds love to eat butterflies, but they don't eat their wings!  I've been finding lots of wings in our garden. Butterflies are in the Lepidoptera or "scale wing" Family.  
If you look super close, you can see the individual scales on the wings!  

The patterns they make are quite beautiful!  

The scales are not just randomly placed.  The scale patterns help the butterfly protect itself by concealment, camouflage, mimicry, and warning!  Bold or brightly colored patterns warn that some butterflies are NOT edible!  This is called Aposematic coloring!  In Batesian mimicry, edible butterflies mimic the coloring of an inedible butterfly!

Scales also provide insulation, and keep the butterflies warmer!  They also help increase the lift-to-drag ratio in gliding flight!

Western Yellow-bellied Racer Snake - Coluber constrictus mormon

I found this Racer Snake on the road this week!  I've never seen one before!  
It is aptly named, as its belly was a light lemon-yellow and it moved super fast.  
At first I thought it was a Rubber Boa, because of its uniform coloring.   
It turns out that the two snakes are quite different!

Racer Snakes don't constrict their prey, even though their Latin name says "constrictus"!  Rather they pin down their prey with their body, and then swallow it whole!  They move super fast when they do this!  They eat rodents, frogs, toads, lizards, snakes, birds, and bird eggs.  They mate in Spring.  About a month later,

they lay 3 to 30 eggs in a hollow log or rodent burrow.  The juvenile snakes hatch-out

months later in the Fall.  These snakes bite hard and often if you try to handle them.  They are not poisonous, but the bites can be painful! 

Rubber Boa (brand new!) - Charina bottae

Rubber boas never bite or strike humans, and are quite docile when handled!  I photographed this one several years ago in the local mountains.  It has the rosy coloration that is indicative of a recently born Rubber Boa!  The rosy color darkens to  grey with age.  Its diet consists of small rodents, fledgling birds, and lizards.  The birds and rodents are constricted, but the lizards are swallowed whole, as they are taken in the cooler hours when they are immobile.  This snake hunts at night, as well as at dawn and dusk.  They mate in the Spring.  They are viviparous, and do not make eggs.  They give live birth to up to 9 snakelets in the Fall.

The North Yuba River is running at a fast 7.4 cubic feet per second!  Not as fast as last winter, but it is very high and very wide!  It's also a very chilly 44 degrees!  There's still LOTS of snow to melt, so we won't be swimming for quite a while!  More rain and and cold temperatures are in the forecast for today!  Brrr!

 Will the nestlings survive this cold weather?
Where do the butterflies go when it's cold and rainy?
What other insects are out there?
What wildflowers are blooming?
Where are the Black Bears????

Check back next week for the answers to these questions and more!