Unseasonally Warm!

Ladybug/Ladybird Beetles - Hippodamia convergens

The weather has done a total reverse from last week! Last week it was cold and snowy. This week it's warm and sunny, with daytime temperatures in the high 60's!!! Ladybugs are starting to move around! Birds are showing up a month early! Plants are getting ready to bloom! It's kind of scary! Drought is not far off, if the weather continues getting warmer and drier. We are all hoping this warm weather is just temporary, and winter storms will return soon!

Ladybugs are busy crawling all over the place!  They're on tree trunks, twigs, pine needles, leafless bushes, and in the grasses.  If the weather stays warm, they will soon depart for the coastal and valley areas of California!

 Ladybug/Ladybird Beetles - Hippodamia convergens

This week, my dog and I walked the first half mile of the Canyon Creek Trail, which is in the sun.  There were ladybugs everywhere!  They were climbing up the stems of plants, clumping up in the damp grasses, mating, and exploring their environment.  They weren't eating anything, as aphids haven't hatched out yet.  They're just hanging out until conditions are right for their migration to lower elevations. Their bright red color advertises that they aren't palatable, so birds don't bother them! 

Aphids & Nymphs - Aphididae

Aphids are the main food for ladybugs.  Last fall, I found these aphids (photo above) on a husk of our garden corn.  I was surprised to see all those small white bugs among the aphids.  So I did some research, and it turns out those white "bugs" are actually not alive!  They are the cast off "cuticles", or "skin", of molting aphid nymphs!  The nymphs are the small green aphids in the photo. 

Most aphids are born live, and do not hatch from eggs.  Female aphids give birth to female nymphs, without sexual reproduction.  The term for this asexual reproduction is "parthenogenesis".  The nymphs have 3-4 instars, or growth periods followed by molting, before they become adults.  It only takes one week for a nymph to become an adult.  It can then give birth to 5 nymphs a day for up to 30 days, if conditions are ideal!  If you figure it out, the number of nymphs/adults exponentially grows at an astounding rate!  That's why they can be such a problem in gardens!  However, there are several predators of aphids.  One ladybug beetle will probably eat 5,000 aphids in its lifetime!  Other predators include ladybug larvae, lacewing larvae, soldier beetles, and syrphid fly larvae! 

In the fall, or when their host plant dies, some nymphs are born as males. As adults, these males, and some females, grow wings.  These winged adults fly to a new host plant for the winter.  The winged females will give birth to wingless female nymphs, which the winged males mate with, when the female nymphs become adults.  These mated females lay eggs that will overwinter.  In spring, female nymphs hatch from these eggs and start giving live birth to female nymphs. Thus the cycle begins again!

White-leaf Manzanita - Arctostaphylos viscida

Winter bloomers!

There's a picnic area on the North Yuba River, called Convict Flat, that's down near Indian Valley.  I like to go there at this time of year to see the blooming White-leaf Manzanitas!  These Manzanitas are 4'-12' tall and bloom in the winter!  Last year there were bumblebees and robber flies on the blossoms.  This week I saw an Anna's Hummingbird feeding on the blossoms!!!  What a surprise it was to see a hummer!  

Manzanita blossoms hold on tightly to their pollen.  This is to keep the pollen from washing away in the winter rains.  When a bee buzzes a "middle C" buzz inside a flower, the pollen explodes off the anthers and sticks to the bee's belly!  This is called buzz pollination or "sonification".  Wow!!!  I'm going back to Convict Flat today, to look for more pollinators!

  

Anna's Hummingbird - Calypte anna

Anna's Hummingbirds live year-round in the Sierra, they do not migrate to the tropics like most hummers.  In the winter, they move down to the foothills, where they can find tiny insects and spiders to eat.  They come back up to our area when winter blooming plants blossom!  In the foothills they begin nesting in December!  They will start nesting in our area, when enough food is available.

              Willow - Salix sp.                  White Alder - Alnus rhombifolia

Male Flowers!

Catkins of male flowers are starting to bloom!  

The male pussy willows (above left) are just starting to emerge from their winter coverings!  In a week or so, they will exert their stamens, with pollen covered anthers.  Each male pussy willow has approximately 270 flowers with two stamens each!  The female catkins will simultaneously emerge, just in time to catch wind-blown pollen!  Willows are dioecious, and have male and female catkins on separate bushes.

Alders are monoecious, and have both male and female flowers on the same plant.  The male alder catkins (above right) are the beautiful, pendulous, yellow-green flower spikes!  The female catkins, which mature into adult cones, are the tiny, hairy-looking, faintly reddish catkins located above the long male catkins!  I had never noticed these tiny female catkins before!  You never know what surprises await you in nature!

Grey Fox - Urocyon cinereoargenteus

Mammal Update

The  Grey Fox is still delighting us with her garden visits!  She usually shows up around 11:00 am or 5:00 pm, but not every day.  I only get to see her for about 30 seconds, if I'm lucky, before she trots off.  I also glimpsed another fox, on a different part of our property, one morning!  Perhaps there will be kits this coming spring!

Mule Deer - Odocoileus hemionus sp.

Photograph by Linda Frost ©2018

I haven't seen any deer yet in our neighborhood, but my neighbor saw a mountain lion!  He was working on the water ditch mid-day, and a mountain lion jumped down the hillside, jumped across the creek, turned and looked at my neighbor, and then trotted off!  Sheesh!!!  When a mountain lion is around, the deer probably leave the area.  That may explain why I haven't seen any deer for awhile!

My friend and local Downieville resident, Linda Frost, photographed this mule deer eating succulents on her rock wall this week!  I never thought they would eat succulents!  Pretty soon this buck will be losing his antlers!  Cast-off antlers become a great source of calcium for many forest critters, because they are made of bone.  I have found several antlers in the woods, over the years.  All of them had been gnawed on!

Supermoon and Lunar Eclipse

Lunar Eclipse - January 31, 2018  

I woke up around 4:30 on Wednesday morning and it was dark!  I hopped out of bed and looked out my studio window and there was the eclipsed moon!!!  I watched it for about 40 minutes, before it went behind the ridge!  I didn't think we'd be able to see it at all, because of the ridges that surround us!  It was so cool to watch!

The fungi I posted last week are Toothed Jelly Fungi, 

Pseudohydnum gelatinosum, and they are only about 2" tall! You can see the teeth quite well in the above photo!

Are the ladybugs going to leave?

Are hummingbirds going to return to our feeder?

Are the Sandhill Cranes going to fly over soon?

What other plants are winter-blooming?

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, 

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Thanks!