Down in our Garden!

Steller's Jay - Cyanocitta stelleri

Down in our garden so much is happening!  Lots of butterflies and tons of bugs are still feeding on the flowers! A male Anna's Hummingbird has become the guardian of the bee balm and is busy chasing away other hummers!  Some of the sunflowers are going to seed, and new birds have arrived to feast!  Year-round residents, such as the Steller's Jay above, are also enjoying the abundance of seeds!  Gray Squirrels are busy burying walnuts for the winter!  What a hub of activity!

Green-tailed Towhees (adult & juvenile) - Pipilo chlorurus

The Green-tailed Towhee that I saw last week is still hanging around eating seeds!  Surprisingly I discovered that she has a young juvenile with her!  I have watched this juvenile for several days now, pecking and scratch/hopping backwards on the ground just like the adult!  What a treat it is to see these two uncommonly seen birds!

Lesser Goldfinch(male) -Carduelis psaltria & Spotted Towhee(juvenile) -Pipilo maculatis 

Another new arrival is the Lesser Goldfinch (above left)!  There are quite a few of them in the garden right now, feasting on the Sunflower seeds!  They will spend the next month or so in our garden eating seeds.  As the weather cools and the days grow shorter, they will migrate down to the foothills for the winter.

I was also thrilled to see this juvenile Spotted Towhee (above right)!  Spotted Towhees are year-round residents in our neighborhood.  In spring and summer they mainly eat insects, as well as some plants.  In fall and winter their diet consist of mainly seeds, especially sunflower-family plants and thistles.  Right now they are taking advantage of the multitude of sunflower seeds in our garden!  Every morning I see them looking for food on the ground, pecking and scratch/hopping backwards! 

Anna's Hummingbird (male) - Calypte anna

This little bejeweled beauty has been fiercely defending the plot of Bee Balm in our garden!  I don't think he actually hurts any of the other hummingbirds, but he definitely spends lots of time chasing them away!  Right now there are about 5 hummers coming to his "patch".  When he's out chasing one hummer, the others are able to feed on the Bee Balm until he gets back.  In between flights he rests and feeds!  I was so thrilled to get this photo of them actually "in combat"!  Wow!

Dotted Blue - Euphilotes sp.                 Monarch - Danaus plexippus

Garden Pollinators!

Out in the garden there are so many insects pollinating and feeding on the flowers!  Insects can be difficult to photograph because they are so small, and they often move quickly and erratically!  It's also difficult to identify some of them because, especially with native bees, there are so many choices and a lot of them look alike!  I am not an entomologist, but I am curious about insects!  I've attempted to identify the ones pictured below, but am not sure I did it correctly, so don't take my guesses as facts!  The website https://www.BugGuide.net is a great source for pictures and names of insects!  Check it out!

   Woodland Skipper - Ochlodes sylvanoides & White-lined Sphinx Moth - Hyles lineata

California Carpenter Bee - Xylocopa californica & Small Carpenter Bee - Ceratina sp.

I think I was able to identify 4 new native bees!  They are all solitary in habit, and do not live in colonies. The two Carpenter Bees above, are only similar in their habit of making nests in wood.  However, the Small Carpenter Bee (above right), will also make nests in the stems of non-woody plants.  At first I thought the Small Carpenter Bee was an ant!  It's so tiny, especially when compared to the California Carpenter Bee (above left)!

Urban Anthophora - Anthophora urbana  &  Long-horned Bee - Melissodes sp.

Both of these bees (above) are "Digger Bees"!  Their names comes from their habit of digging underground tunnels, in which to lay their eggs!  Like Bumblebees, they will make a brood pot out of wax at the end of a tunnel, and fill it with nectar and pollen.  They then lay an egg on the top of this brood pot and seal up the tunnel.  When the larva hatches it feeds on this stored food.  Once the honey and pollen are consumed, the larva become dormant and remain underground for many months.  In spring they will pupate and emerge as adults. In some species the male larvae hatch before the female larvae.  They spend the first days of their lives hovering above the nesting area, waiting for the females to emerge!  As soon as a female emerges, a male mates with her!  Sometimes, the males even dig the females out!  Sheesh!

       

Bee Wolf - Philanthus multimaculatus  &  Xeromelecta - Xeromelecta californica

The Bee Wolf (above left) is a wasp not a bee!  As its name implies, it is a predator of bees!  The Bee Wolf digs tunnels underground, with a brood chamber at the end of each tunnel.  It will then paralyze bees by stinging them, and put 1-6 of them in each brood chamber!  It will then lay one egg on top of a paralyzed bee and seal up the brood chamber.  When the larva hatches it will feed on the paralyzed bees, pupate, and emerge out months later as an adult!

The Xeromelecta (above right) is a native bee.  It is a type of "Cuckoo Bee"!  They are named after Cuckoo birds because they are nest parasites!  (Brown-headed Cowbirds are the local birds that have this same nest parasitism behavior.)  Cuckoo Bees lay their eggs in the nests of other bees.  The Xeromelecta favors Digger Bee nests.  It will sneak into a nest, kill the Digger Bee eggs, lay its own eggs and fly away!  

It's tough out there, even for bees!!!  

 Western Gray Squirrel - Sciurus griseus  &   Steller's Jay - Cyanocitta stelleri

Other Critters!

I've been watching this Western Gray Squirrel hide individual walnuts in a variety of places.  They don't store a lot of food for winter, as they remain active throughout the year, but usually have a few caches of nuts!  As soon as the squirrel left, this Steller's Jay showed up and checked out what the squirrel had been burying!  Apparently the walnut didn't interest him, as he left it alone!  Steller's Jays are another year-round resident in my neighborhood.  They are very smart, curious, and observant birds!

Gray Fox - Urocyon cineroargenteus

I've seen the Gray Foxes in the same area several mornings this week!  It seems like they are warming themselves up in the morning sun!  In the heat of the afternoon, they retreat into the shade.  I've found a spot beneath some bushes that definitely looks like their bedding area!  Nighttime is when they are usually out hunting!   This afternoon I found a bunch of bird feathers in our garden that might be from a Towhee!  Perhaps one of the foxes caught it!  I'll keep you posted!

It's getting dark earlier now.  When I walk my dog in the evenings, 

I see lots of bats in the twilight sky!

What kind of bats are they?

Will the juvenile Towhees survive?

How are the young Mergansers doing?

 What about those Crayfish?

Check back next week for the answers 

to these questions and more!