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!!!
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!!!
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
Steller's Jay - Cyanocitta stelleri
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment