Sunday, February 25, 2018

Brrr!


Temperatures were in the 30's-40's during the day this week, and in the 20's at night! Brrr! On Tuesday we got a little rain and some hail. On Thursday we woke up to an inch of new snow on the ground! It kept snowing intermittently for the rest of the day. We ended up with a total of about 3" of dry powdery snow. The kind of snow that squeaks when you walk on it! It was so beautiful! I wandered for hours in our neighborhood, taking pictures, following tracks, watching birds, and reveling in the wintry landscape! More snow is predicted for this coming week. Hopefully, the storms will keep coming for a while. Right now the snowpack in the mountains is at a minimal level. We'll be grateful for anything we get!  

Empty Oriole nest in winter

Winter Brrrds!

Birds use a variety of techniques to survive cold winter temperatures.  They eat as much food as possible when it's available.  When food isn't available, they puff up their feathers and rest.  They have thicker plummage in the winter, which keeps the cold out and the warmth in!  They stay out of the wind by perching next to the trunk of a tree and near the ground, or by roosting in a cavity.  Sometimes a group of birds will even huddle together to conserve heat!  Some birds can drop their body temperature and go into a state of torpor, to conserve energy!  Some birds just leave the area, and fly to warmer climates!  That's probably what that Red-winged Blackbird has done.  I haven't seen him this week at all.  I hope he somewhere warm, with lots of food available!

Common Raven - Corvus corax            American Robin - Turdus migratorius

A pair of Common Ravens has been around all winter, and mid-February to early March is the time that Ravens start nesting!  Ravens mate for life, so I am assuming that the ones in our neighborhood are a mated pair.  Ravens usually build their large (5' wide x 2' tall) nest on a rock ledge that is protected by an overhanging ledge.  They have also been know to make their nest in the top of a large tree that has dense foliage.  They lay 3-7 eggs, and incubate them for 20-25 days.  The young are usually able to leave the nest 5-7 weeks after they hatch.  I saw a Raven in Grass Valley carrying a twig in its beak this week!  I'll let you know if our two local ravens start exhibiting the same behavior!

This week an American Robin showed up on the Hawthorne bush in our backyard!  I watched it eat the berries for several days.  Apparently it's not uncommon for Robins to show up in their breeding grounds as early as February!  I was a bit concerned that it might not find enough to eat so I checked out the Cornell website at www.feederwatch.org/learn/common-feeder-birds/, to see what food I could provide for the Robin!  It's a great website, and listed several types of food for Robins.  The only thing I had available was fruit, so I cut up some apples and put them outside.  The Robin didn't seem interested in them initially but it might, once all the Hawthorne berries are gone!  I'll just have to wait and see what happens!

Mountain Quail - Oreortyx pictus

The unidentified feathers pictured last week are Mountain Quail feathers.  One of my neighbors found a dead quail outside his home.  It had a broken neck, so it probably flew into a window.  Male and female Mountain Quail are hard to differentiate in the field.  The only visible difference is that the female has slightly shorter feather plumes on its head.  Both male and female have beautiful, striking plummage.  A small group of Mountain Quail showed up at my bird feeder this week!  I've been seeing small groups of them throughout this winter, scurring into the bushes as I approach.  It turns out that the groups are composed solely of related family members!  They will migrate up to higher elevations to breed in the Spring.  

Pussy willows in snow - Salix sp.

Cold-blooded Critters

The cold temperatures have put a stop to insect movement for now.  They cannot regulate their body temperature, like birds and mammals.  Once temperatures drop into the 30's, most insects become immobile.  

Bumblebees can keep moving at 32°, but can't move their flight muscles at 30°!  I'm assuming that bumblebees retreat to their underground homes when temperatures start to drop.  Mated queen bumblebees overwinter, usually underground, as adults.  When temperatures warm up these females start looking for a nest site to start a new colony.  They may use an old rodent burrow, a clump of dead grasses, or the base of a hedge as a nest site.  Once a queen establishes a nest site, she builds a "honey pot" out of wax, and fills it with regurgitated nectar.  She also makes a ball of pollen.  Then she lays 4-16 eggs on this pollen ball, and covers the whole thing with wax!  She then broods her eggs, by sitting on them, for approximately 4 days, and sips nectar from the honey pot.  The eggs hatch into caterpillars that eat the pollen ball!  After they eat all the pollen, the caterpillars pupate in silken cocoons.  In a few weeks, the adults emerge from the cocoons.  At this point the new adult bumblebees are all female!  These new females become workers for the queen bumblebee and help build the colony.  The queen keeps laying eggs through the summer.  In the fall, the last batch of eggs the queen lays will be unfertilized.  Male bumblebees will develop from these eggs!  At the same time female larva will develop into queens. The male bumblebees and the new queens mate.  The males are then kicked out of the hive!  These are the bumblebees I've seen spending the night on the flowers in our garden!  Eventually the old queen, the workers, and the male bumblebees all die.  Only the newly mated queens will overwinter.

    rear end of a Bumblebee - Bombus sp. California Tortoiseshell - Nymphalis californica

Some butterflies, such as the California Tortoiseshell pictured above, overwinter as adults.  Other butterflies overwinter as eggs, caterpillars, or chrysalides.  To keep from freezing, adult butterflies reduce the amount of water in their body fluids by 30%, and replace it with glycerol, sorbitol, or other types of anti-freeze.  They also store fat in their bodies in the fall!  As temperatures begin to drop, these adult butterflies hide in small crevices to spend the winter.  They then enter into a state of diapause, in which their metabollic and respiratory rates slow down.  When these adult butterflies emerge in the spring they often look quite tattered, due to their long lives of 8-10 months.  Most adult butterflies only live for a few weeks!  Wow!!!

Frost "curtain"

Window Frost!

It's been so cold that frost has been developing on some of our windows!  It forms when the outside of the glass is exposed to very cold air, and the inside of the glass is exposed to warmer, slightly moister air.  The patterns are incredibly intricate and beautiful!  Window frost is also called "fern frost" or "ice flowers".  These finely detailed patterns that repeat themselves are called "fractals".  The size of the frost crystals vary, depending on the amount of water vapor in the air and the amount of time the crystals have had to build up.  Aren't they amazing?

American Black Bear - Ursus americanus

Early this week I came upon a Black Bear cub on the highway!!!  It was pretty little and even shorter than the guard rail!  I was so surprised to see it!  I drove a little further and parked where there was room, and then ran back to take a photo!  The little cub was just walking down the highway in the oncoming lane!  I was worried that the bear might get hit by a car!  I ran back to my car, drove a little further where I could make a u-turn, and then headed back to where I had seen the bear.  Luckily the little bear was nowhere in sight.  I was glad that it hadn't been run over!  I looked around for a while, but didn't see it again.  Hopefully, it had ambled back to its mother!

Black Bear mating season is from June through early July.  The cubs are born sometime in January to early February.  The litters range from 1-5 cubs, but 2-3 cubs is the usual size.  The cubs weigh 7 ounces when they are born, and will nurse their mother while she is still hibernating!  When the cubs emerge in spring they weigh 4.5 -11 lbs!  They are totally weaned at 6-8 months, but stay with their mother through the next winter, until they are around 17 months old.  Female Black Bears do not tolerate adult males except during their brief mating season.  They raise their young on their own.  

When Black Bears are in hibernation they do not eat, drink, or produce bodily wastes.  They also do not experience any bone loss, or reduction in muscle mass!  They can sleep for 5 months, wake up, and climb a mountain!  This is not something a human could do!  Scientists are currently studying the biochemical processes of Black Bears to see how they deal with hibernation.  So far they've found out that since they are metabolizing mostly fat, they do not accumulate large amounts of urea in their blood.  The urea that does accumulate is converted to "creatine", which is non-toxic.  They have also figured out that Black Bear nitrogen wastes are biochemically recycled back into protein, hence they don't experience loss in muscle mass!  It all amazes me!

What's happening down on the river?

Is the hummer still around?

How is the fox?  

Where are the deer?

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

Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated!

You can post a comment by clicking on the "No Comments" below
or
email me a northyubanaturalist@gmail.com

Thanks! 

Saturday, February 17, 2018

Another dry week!

The weather was cloudy, cold, windy, sunny, and warm this week! Throughout it all it's been consistently dry. Dark clouds rolled in for a couple of days, but we only got a dusting of snow and a few drops of rain! The daytime temperatures have dropped down to the high 40's to mid 50's, and the nighttime temps have been in the low 30's. So at least it has cooled off some! 

It really felt like February for a couple of days!  We had frosty mornings and gusty winds!  Beautiful dark clouds covered the sky and the sunsets were spectacular!  NOAA (www.forecast.weather.gov) is predicting a 50% chance of snow for the next few days. I sure hope it happens!  My fingers are crossed! 

Sierra Buttes - Tahoe National Forest - 2/14/18

Up in the Lakes Basin, the the east facing ridges have some snow.  The west and south facing slopes are basically snow-free, below 8,000'!  The Gold Lake Road has about 4" of  totally icy, heavily used, packed snow for the first shaded 1/2 mile.  If you get past this ice sheet, the road is bare and snow-free almost up to the turn off for Salmon Lake, which is around 6,000' in elevation!  
    
Sierra Buttes - 2/14/18

On Valentine's Day we went for a picnic up by Sardine Lake!  It was cloudy, cold, windy, and dramatically beautiful!  The wind had blown plates of frozen lake ice up against the shore!  A dusting of snow covered the icy road, and walking was easy.  We saw quite a few tracks in the new layer of snow, including fox and mountain lion!  We were the only ones up there, and had it to ourselves!  How lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place! 

Piled up plates of ice on the shore of Sardine Lake - 2/14/18

Female willow catkins (left) and male willow catkins (right) - Salix sp.

What's Blooming?

We also had some sunny days this week!  If you were in the shade it was cold, but in the sunny spots the insects were buzzin'!  Honey bees, bumblebees, flies, and beetles were all busy feeding on the nectar and pollen from the willows!  The female willow catkins have blossomed and the male catkins are starting to exert their stamens and anthers!

Male Alder tassels and female cones (at top of photo) -  Alnus rhombifolia

The male alder tassels are starting to dry up. I haven't seen lots of insects visiting these flowers. They must rely on wind pollination.  When it's windy, I've watched clouds of pollen soar out of our local alder thickets!
Silk Tassel Bush - Garrya fremontii

I found a new flowering bush in my neighborhood!  It's a Silk Tassel Bush!  Right now it has  beautiful maroon and white catkins!  I've seen these bushes up in the Lakes Basin on sunny dry slopes.  At first I thought they were Manzanitas, because of the leaf shape and appearance.  It's easy to see that they're not Manzanitas, when the flowers or berries are present!  The flowers are totally different, and in the fall the berries are a deep purple, not greenish-yellow like the Manzanita berries! 

Silk-Tassel is dioecious, like willows, having male and female flowers on separate plants.  The tassels are the male flowers, the berries are the fruits of the female flowers.  I have only seen a male bush.  I was thrilled to find one in my neighborhood!  I've never seen them here before!  I'll have to go looking for a female bush!!!

Red-winged Blackbird - Aeglaius phoeniceus

FeederWatch Update!

The Red-winged Blackbird (above) is still hanging around!  He's visited my bird feeding station daily this week.  I haven't seen any female blackbirds yet.  I'll just have to wait and see how long he sticks around!  He is so dramatically colored!  I love watching him hop and strut and twitch his tail!
  
 Anna's Hummingbird (male) - Calypte anna

There's a pair of Anna's Hummingbirds consistently feeding at our feeder now.  Hummingbirds have sexual dimorphism, the male and female differ in appearance.  The male can be identified by his bright magenta head and throat.  I'm thinking that the dominant hummer at our feeder last year was an immature male.  Maybe he's matured and has returned to his old home range! 

When the weather is cold, hummingbirds seek shelter in the dense foliage of trees or shrubs. They also drop into a torpor overnight, which slows their metabolic rate to 1/15 of normal!  During torpor their body temperature falls from 104° to 64.4°F, and their heart rate drops from 1,000 beats a minute to 180-50 beats per minute!  All this reduced body activity conserves energy!  Wow!

Pine Siskins - Carduelis pinus

A flock of about 25 Pine Siskins was feeding in the alders one morning this week!  It looks like they were getting seeds out of last year's cones.  They come and go so quickly it's hard to get a photo of them.  In winter, these little birds can speed up their metabolic rate, to stay warm on cold nights!  A survival technique that's surprisingly the opposite of hummingbird torpor!  Siskins will also put on a layer of fat before winter, to help ward off the cold!

Chickaree - Tamiasciurus douglasii  and  Western Gray Squirrel - Sciurus griseus

Even though I moved the bird feeder away from the fence, the Chickarees and Gray Squirrels can still easily jump up on the feeder.  I'm going to have to figure out something else soon!

Gray Fox - Urocyon cinereoargenteus

I only caught a few glimpses of the Gray Fox this week!  She seemed more secretive and elusive.  Perhaps she's getting her den ready for this coming spring.

Spenceville - 2/15/18

Spenceville

A friend and I decided to visit Spenceville this week.  It's a wildlife and recreation area run by the California Department of Fish and Game.  It is in a beautiful rolling oak grassland, with a few small streams.  The Blue Oaks were just barely leafing out and the grass was lush!  We saw a few wildflowers, including brodiaeas, Fiddlenecks, Miner's Lettuce, and Calfornia Manroot!

        American Kestrel - Falco sparverius           Red-tailed Hawk -  Buteo jamaicensis
American Kestrel hovering (center photo)

We also saw several different kinds of birds while we were there, including Scrub Jays, Meadowlarks, lots of sparrows, a White-breasted Nuthatch, Kestrels, and Red-tailed Hawks!  Both the American Kestrel and the Red-tailed Hawk prefer to hunt in open areas, not in the woods.  Kestrels mainly live in the foothill areas, whereas Red-tailed hawks are commonly found at higher elevations.  They both hunt from perches.  Kestrels will also hover in the air while searching for prey.   They both like to eat reptiles and small mammals.  Kestrels also eat large insects.  Red-tails sometimes eat Kestrels!  It was such a treat to watch these beautiful raptors on their perches and in the air!

Whose feathers are these?

Whose poop is this?

The ladybugs have left!  
There aren't any in my neighborhood anymore!

What are the bears doing?  

Where are the deer?

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

Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated!

You can post a comment by clicking on the "No Comments" below
or
email me a northyubanaturalist@gmail.com

Thanks! 

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Early Birds & Bugs!

Anna's Hummingbird - Calypte anna

Due to the warm, sunny weather, birds are showing up earlier than normal in our neighborhood! Some of them are our usual spring visitors, but some I've never seen here before! The Anna's Hummingbirds were the first to arrive. I've seen two males and one female down by the garden. 

I've watched the males perform their territorial display twice already!  Both times they faced me and hovered about 10 feet off the ground.  Then all of a sudden they "helicoptered" straight up about 100' in the air!!  Then they dove down and past me and back up again!  I kept hearing a single loud "chirp" as they flew back up after their descent.  It sounded just like a squirrel chirp.  I looked it up, and apparently it's their tail feathers that make that sound at the base of their dive!!!

Anna's Hummingbird - Calypte anna

As soon as I saw one hummer, I hung out our hummingbird feeder. There aren't many plants flowering right now, for them to feed on.  If you have a feeder it may be time to put it out!  Make sure you clean it thoroughly before you put it outside.  

Here's what Audubon recommends:   
Mix a solution of 4 parts white vinegar to 1 part warm water.  
Take your feeder totally apart and scrub every surface with the vinegar solution.  Rinse thoroughly after cleaning.   
Fill your feeder with a solution of 4 parts water to 1 part sugar.  

They also recommend that you continue to clean your feeders once a week throughout the hummingbird season.  This year, think about contributing your hummingbird observations to Audubon, and become a citizen scientist!  Check out www.hummingbirdsathome.org for more information.

Red-winged Blackbird (male) - Agelaius phoenicius

Around 4:30 pm on Wednesday afternoon, I watched this beautiful Red-winged Blackbird eat seeds, flick its tail, and strut all over my bird-feeding station!  He entertained me for 30 minutes!  I have never seen this bird in our neighborhood before!  I've since read that they usually live in marshy areas filled with cattails and rushes!  My neighbor has a man-made pond with cattails and rushes, and she lives just up the street.  He's probably lived in or dropped by her pond before!  Typically Red-winged Blackbirds live in the valley and foothills, but it's not unheard of that they spend their spring and summer at higher elevations!  How fun it was to watch him at such close range!  I hope a female shows up soon, and that they stick around!
  
Townsend's Solitaire - Myadestes townsendi

I was so surprised to see this Townsend's Solitaire in our garden, early one morning this week!  In the winter they are supposed to be on the east side of the Sierra, in juniper forests!  They are rarely seen in the foothills on the west side where we live!!!!  Both male and females look the same (monomorphism).  In the spring
 Townsend's Solitaires migrate over from the east side to the west side of the Sierra, but usually stay up at high elevations.  I have no idea how it ended up in our garden.  I haven't seen him since that morning.  Hopefully he's finding enough food to eat wherever he goes!  What a treat it was to see this rare, long-tailed, robin-size bird down in our garden in February!  Wow!!!

Orb Weaver Web - Araneidae 

The spiders are back in action!  The spider eggs were laid in the fall, with up to several hundred eggs in one sac!  Now, because of the warm weather, they have hatched.  Female spiders are the ones that weave the webs.  Males are not commonly seen, as they are smaller than the females, and are constantly on the move looking for a mate!  

Female spiders can spin up to 7 different kinds of silk, depending upon their needs!  All seven kinds of spider silk have high tensile strength and are extremely stretchy!  The silk itself is made up of protein fibers.  Dragline silk is used for the outer rim and spokes of the orb, and is weight-for-weight stronger than steel!!!  Capture-spiral silk is used for the capturing lines of the web. It's sticky and extremely stretchy and tough.  Aciniform silk is used to wrap captured prey, and is two to three times tougher than the other silks! Wow!!!

Honey Bee - Apis sp.                                    Bumblebee - Bombus sp.

Down at Convict Flat the bees are buzzin'!  I saw honey bees, bumblebees, and many kinds of native bees!  Most (but not all) of these bees have overwintered as mated queens.  They probably have just started making their colonies.  Some colonies may number in the thousands, while others may have only 4 members!  Some colonies are in the ground, others can be in abandoned rodent burrows, on bushes, in grasses, in cavities in logs, or trees!  Every species of bee has specific behaviors.  There are over 1,600 species of native bees in California!  I have a LOT to learn!

    California Tortoiseshell - Nymphalis californica    Hoary Comma - Polygonia gracilus

Both of these butterflies live in coniferous forests, overwinter as adults, and lay eggs in the spring.  Right now they are busy sipping the nectar of Manzanita flowers! 

Adult California Tortoiseshells (above left) visit many different flower species for nectar.  They also eat sap, aphid “honeydew” and over-ripe or damaged fruit in season.  Their caterpillars feed on the leaves of ceanothus shrubs, especially snowbrush.  If conditions are right, Tortoiseshells may have 3 or more generations from spring to fall.  They will move upslope in the summer and return to lower elevations in the fall.

Adult Hoary (Zephyr) Commas (above right) feed on the nectar of many kinds of flowers.  Their caterpillars eat willow, quaking aspen, gooseberry and currant leaves.  The scientific name, polygonia, refers to the “many angled” trailing edge of both wings, and the common name, Hoary, refers to the whitish-gray color on the underside of their hindwings. 

Echo Azure - Celastrina echo

The Echo Azure Butterfly overwinters as a chrysalid. This is an early flying butterfly, often signaling the arrival of spring to butterfly watchers. It is tiny
 measuring only 7/8 to 1 3/8 inches!  Adults drink flower nectar such as Toyon , Coffeeberry, and Pussypaws.  Eggs are laid on flower buds.  Caterpillars feed on the flowers of ceanothus, California Buckeye, blackberries and several others.  Adults have several generations from early spring to the fall (February to October). They will live in almost any habitat with the required woody host plants, including chaparral, oak woodlands, mountain streams, and suburbs.

Steller's Jay - Cyanocitta stelleri

Project FeederWatch Update!

Every day about 16 Steller's Jays visit our bird feeder. Usually it's first thing in the morning, right after I put out the bird seed. They are so common, we tend to take these jays for granted. From a distance, the bird in the above photo looked like a blue ball!  I thought it was an oriole nest, made with strips of blue tarp!  When I zoomed in with my camera, I was surprised to see this puffed up Steller's Jay!  Their beautiful blue feathers can vary in hue from turquoise to royal blue.  There is no blue pigment in the feathers!  The color comes from it's cell structure! 

The Cornell Bird Lab states, "Tiny air pockets in the barbs of feathers can scatter incoming light, resulting in a specific, non-iridescent color. Blue colors in feathers are almost always produced in this manner. The blues seen in the feathers of Indigo Buntings, Mountain Bluebirds, and Steller’s Jays are structural colors. If you find the feather of a Blue Jay or Steller’s Jay you can see for yourself how this works. First, observe the feather in normal lighting conditions and you will see the expected blue color. Next, try back-lighting the feather. When light is transmitted through the feather it will look brown. The blues are lost because the light is no longer being reflected back and the brown shows up because of the melanin in the feathers."

Steller's Jay - Cyanocitta stelleri

I also enjoyed watching the Jay above preen its feathers in the morning sun!  Preening is important for the bird's health.  Birds have to deal with a lot of parasites!  Bird Lice eat their feathers and skin. Feather Mites feed on feathers or skin. Feather flies are blood sucking parasites! To deal with these parasites, birds sun themselves, take dust baths, bathe in water, and preen their feathers!

When preening, birds remove these parasites, as well as dust and dirt.  They are also using oil from their preen gland, located just above the base of the tail, to help waterproof and keep feathers flexible. Additionally, they are aligning each feather in its optimum position!  One bird can have up to 25,000 feathers!  Wow!

Chickaree - Tamiasciurus douglasii    Western Gray Squirrel - Sciurus griseus

The Gray Squirrels and Chickarees are eating all the sunflower seeds at my bird feeder!  Just this morning I saw three Gray Squirrels and two Chickarees munching away!  I decided to move the feeder away from the fence.  This might  make it a little more difficult for them to get to the seeds!  I'll let you know how it works out!

Gray Fox - Urocyon cinereoargenteus

It looks like the area near our garden, and bird feeder, is the Gray Fox's winter home!  Yahoo!  I see her just about every other day!  I'll never tire of seeing her!  



Last Tuesday, my friend and I drove over to Sierra Valley to see if any Sandhill Cranes had arrived. We didn't see any Cranes, but we saw lots of Canada Geese, some Tundra Swans, many hawks, a Kingfisher, and a couple groups of ducks! Usually, in spring, Sierra Valley is full of birds. It's NOT spring yet. It's still winter, so I was happy that the bird population was small! 

It was clear and cold. The temperature was in the high 40's. There was frost in the shadows of the bushes! Sierra Valley, at 4,850' is surrounded by mountains ranging from 6,000'-8,000' in elevation. It is a sagebrush and grassland ecosystem, interspersed with small streams, marshes, and a few hot springs! It is 120,000 acres in size!

The Red-tailed Hawk (right) was just waiting for a squirrel, rabbit, or gopher to catch for his lunch!  The Tundra Swans (below) are just stopping by on their migration to their breeding grounds in the Arctic! 

Tundra Swans - Cygnus columbianus

What's happening up in the Lakes Basin?

Have the ladybugs left our area?

Are the Sandhill Cranes going to fly over soon?


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

Your comments & questions are greatly appreciated!

Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com, 
or
click on the comments just below, to post a comment! 
Thanks!