Fur, Feathers and More!

Gray Fox - Urocyon cinereoargentus

Gray Foxes!

I had some friends visiting this week!  On one of our walks we saw two foxes sunning themselves on the limb of a broken tree!  We only saw them for a few seconds, but it was an event!!!  Unfortunately we didn't have our cameras!  Rats!  I went back the following morning and luckily got these photos!!  I think the younger one is on the right (below).  They are so camouflaged!  Aren't they beautiful!!

Gray Foxes - Urocyon cinereoargentus

Gray Foxes will make their dens in clefts, rock piles, small caves, or hollow logs and trees.  They give birth to up to 7 kits in the Spring.  Young Gray Foxes are weaned at 3 months, and hunt for themselves at 4 months.  The family remains together until Fall, when the young reach sexual maturity, and then they disperse.  

Gray Foxes are omnivores and eat insects, small mammals, birds and bird eggs, fruit, seeds, and grasses!  They usual forage at night, but are often seen in the daytime.  Gray Foxes are the only foxes in North America that can climb trees!

Raccoon - Procyon lotor

Raccoon!

My friend was walking around on our property and came across the remains of a 

long-dead raccoon!  He thought this raccoon was probably killed by a Mountain Lion!  He found lots of fur, part of the upper jaw and nose, and the tail!  Mountain Lions are definitely in my neighborhood.  In fact there have been a couple of local sightings of one, just this month!  Now that would be something to see!

 Western Tanager (feathers) - Piranga ludoviciana

Western Tanager

I found a dead, female Western Tanager on our property this week.  It had been dead for some time, but didn't have any damage to its body.  There are many reasons why wild birds die.  The biggest cause of bird death is the destruction of habitat. Disease is also a major cause of bird death, but number totals are unknown. Feral and domestic cats kill 500 million birds annually!  Cars kill 60 million birds annually!  Pesticides kill 72 million birds annually!  Window strikes are another major cause of bird death, with a staggering annual total of 97-976 million fatalities annually!  

These window strike deaths are totally preventable!  I put plastic flagging tape outside, in vertical rows about 10" apart, on all my home windows.  This seems to have stopped the birds from crashing into our windows.  You can get LOTS more information on how to make your home "bird safe" at www.flap.org.  Please check it out, and do your part to help wild birds survive!

Chipping Sparrow - Spizella passerina   & Green-tailed Towhee - Pipilo chlorurus

Look-a-likes!

These two similarly feathered birds showed up in our garden this week!  One was a lot smaller than the other, but it wasn't a baby!  The rusty orange crowns made me think they were the same type of bird!  Wrong!  They're two distinctly different species, but are commonly found together at this time of year!

Chipping Sparrows (above left) range in size from 4.7" - 5.9", and usually weigh .4 -.6 of an ounce!  Pretty small!  They prefer to live in evergreen forest that are interspersed with grassy openings.  Right now they are eating seeds on the ground, and their feathers are molting!  They will migrate south to southern California, Arizona, or Mexico for the winter.

Green-tailed Towhees (above right) are much larger than Chipping Sparrows.  They are approximately 7.2 " in length, and weigh about 1 ounce!  Their tail is yellow-green, and they do not have a white stripe above their eye.  They usually spend the spring and summer at higher elevations, up to 10,000'!  At this time of year, they drop down to lower elevations below 4,000' to molt and fatten up before migration.  In winter they will migrate south to Arizona or Mexico.

  North Yuba River - June 2, 2017           North Yuba River - Aug. 12, 2017

North Yuba River Update!

As you can see from the photos above, the river has slowed down and the water level has dropped significantly in the past 2 months!  It has also warmed up a bunch, and is perfect for swimming!  My friends and I spent hours on the river this week, 
swimming and exploring!  

Rainbow Trout "Fry"- Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus

We found that the fish fry (above) are getting bigger, but they're not quite fingerlings yet.  We looked for Crayfish, but weren't able to find any!  Did the Heron eat them all?  I'll get a snorkel and mask and look harder!

Damselfly (adult & nymph) - Argia sp.

We also found this Damselfly adult (below) and exoskeleton on a river-side plant!  

Damselflies are similar to Dragonflies only they are a lot smaller.  They also differ in that they hold their wings at a 45° angle or parallel to their body when at rest.  Dragonflies hold their wings at a 90° angle.  Like Dragonflies, Damselflies live underwater as nymphs for a year or more before they emerge out of their 

exoskeleton as an adult!  They certainly have huge eyes!!!

Pollinators!

There are all kinds of pollinators ranging from birds to tiny native bees!  I found  Anna's Hummingbirds, two kinds of wasps, carpenter bees, and honey bees in my garden!  Up in the Lakes Basin I came across some Ranger Buttons (a wildflower) that  two kinds of native bees were pollinating!  It turns out that there are 1,000 species of bees that are native to California!  I had been told that Honey Bees are not native to North America.  However, a newly identified fossil shows that honey bees (Apis nearctica) lived in North America at least 14 million years ago, but did not survive through the following eras.  Colonists brought the honey bee (Apis mellifera) from Europe in 1622.  This is the Honey Bee you might see in your garden.  I'm going to see how many native bees I can identify locally, and post them for you next week!  

Okay, so next week I'll hopefully have some information about Crayfish!

I'll also post what native bees I find!

What will the weather bring?  

Are we going to get some rain?

Are there local fires happening?

Are the Yellow Jacket Wasps out yet?

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