Rain, and rain, and raining!

Pussy Willows (male) - Salix sp.

It's been a rainy week! The total rainfall for the past 7 days is 8.15"! That brings our total precipitation to around 45" to date. Yahoo! The snow level rose up to around 6,500' in elevation, and stayed high all week. As of last Thursday, there was 4' of snow on Yuba Pass, at 6,709' in elevation. 6 weeks ago, there was only 1' of snow at Yuba Pass! 

Down in our neighborhood, the North Yuba River turned into a "Mocha Express", with fast-moving sediment-laden water! You could hear large boulders "clunking" in the river, as they were pushed around by the strong swift current! We are so lucky to get all this moisture! This weekend looks like the last of the wet weather for a while. A sunny break will be nice, but hopefully the storms will keep coming!

Turkey Vulture - Cathartes aura

Damp Birds!

During the heavy rainfall, this Turkey Vulture landed in a tree right outside my studio window!  It was huge!!!  I was so surprised to see it land.  We don't usually have Turkey Vultures in our neighborhood.  They usually live down in the foothills.

Turkey Vultures have a wingspan of 59", and a body length of 25"!  They ARE huge!  They eat carrion, which they detect with their keen sense of smell.  Their immune system is exceptional, as they never contract botulism, anthrax, cholera or salmonella from the carrion!  Their heads are featherless, which keeps the carrion from sticking to them!  They usually eat alone, but will occasionally feed on a large carcass with a small group of vultures.  Each vulture waits its turn to eat in these groups, as only one vulture eats at a time!  They are fairly easy to distinguish in flight, by the lack of wing flapping that occurs!  They can soar for hours moving from one updraft to another. Although they are usually solitary, they may roost together in small or large groups in the non-breeding season.  Turkey Vultures do not kill any prey, they just eat critters that have been dead for awhile!  

  

Sharp-shinned Hawk - Accipiter striatus

One afternoon this week, it stopped raining around 5:00 pm. I went out walking and saw several birds that were trying to dry-out in the last rays of the sun! I luckily spotted this Sharp-shinned Hawk up in a tree, spreading its tail feathers out to dry! What a beauty! 

The Sharp-shinned Hawk is the smallest hawk in the US and Canada, measuring 11' in length with a wingspan of 23".  They are forest predators, like the Northern Goshawk. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology states, "These raptors have distinctive proportions: long legs, short wings, and very long tails, which they use for navigating their deep-woods homes at top speed in pursuit of songbirds and mice."  They use surprise attack as their main method of capture.  They will eat birds as small as an Anna's Hummingbird, or as large as a Mountain Quail!  They will pluck off most of the feathers of their prey before they eat them! They are common visitors to our area in winter and occasionally breed here.  I hope to see it again in the near future!

Sharp-shinned Hawk - Accipiter striatus

Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias

While I was watching the Sharp-shinned Hawk, this Great Blue Heron flew by!  It landed in the top of a nearby tree!  It looked to me like it was trying to catch the last of the sun's rays, before the evening chill settled in.  I've seen a Great Blue Heron in our neighborhood all winter.  I need to add it to our year-round resident list!

Great Blue Herons are large birds, with a body length of 26" and a wingspan of 36"!  Their long legs add another 2' of height!  They feed on fish, frogs, crayfish, aquatic insects, small mammals, other birds, amphibians and reptiles!  They can hunt during the day and at night!  That's amazing!  They are the only herons found above the foothills!  They are usually solitary, except during breeding season when they form nesting colonies!  

High Water 3/22/18 - North Yuba River

The heavy rains caused the North Yuba River to rise 9.78" in 24 hours!  The volume of the water rose to 14.7 kcfs (thousand cubic feet per second) and dropped to 1.5 kcfs in 24 hours!  Wow!  Waterfalls appeared along the highway within hours.  I counted 19 new waterfalls on a 7 mile section of Highway 49!  They only lasted for a few days after the rain diminished.

I spotted this lone, immature Common Goldeneye along the shore during the high water!  I hadn't seen any Goldeneyes all winter, even though the field guide says "they regularly winter above the foothills of the western Sierra."  They are diving ducks, and eat mainly mollusks, crustaceans, aquatic insects, fish, fish eggs, as well as the tubers and seeds of aquatic plants.  When underwater, they hold their wings close to their bodies and paddle with their feet.  Dives last up to a minute!  They can fly up to 40 mph!  Wow!  They pair up during winter, and migrate to their breeding grounds, in Canada and Alaska, in the spring.

This week, the rushing sediment-filled river water must have made it difficult for these diving ducks to eat.  Maybe they found some Indian Rhubarb tubers (Darmera peltata) to sustain them through the high water! 

                  Common Goldeneye (immature) - Bucephala clangula

Gray Fox - Urocyon cinereoargenteus 

Project FeederWatch Update!

Rainy and cold weather can be hard on local wildlife!  I made sure to keep our bird feeding station stocked with seeds.  Not only birds ate the seeds!  Around 5:30 on Thursday, I saw this Gray Fox up on our bird feeding station, happily eating sunflower seeds!  I watched him for about one minute before he noticed me!  How fun!  Chickarees and Gray Squirrels are regular feeder visitors, but I was surprised to see this Striped Skunk underneath the bird feeding station during the day!  It was pretty little and scampered off before I could get a good photo!  Soon we are going to start putting the seed in hanging feeders, not on a table, and out of a bear's reach.  I think they'll be coming out of hibernation soon!

  Chickaree - Tamiasciurus douglasii                Striped Skunk - Mephitis mephitis

    Dark-eyed Juncos (males) - Junco hyemalis & Spotted Towhee (male) - Pipilo maculatus

In addition to the regular birds that visit our feeder (Dark-eyed Juncos, Spotted Towhees, Pine Siskins), White-crowned Sparrows and Band-tailed Pigeons have arrived! 

White-crowned Sparrow (immature, left - mature, right)  Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii

These particular subspecies of White-crowned Sparrows, are only stopping by on their way to their breeding grounds in Alaska and Canada!  Both the immature and mature sparrows have distinctive pinkish-orange bills.  Primarily seed-eaters, our feeder is a good place for them to forage! 

Band-tailed Pigeon - Columba fasciata           Pine Siskins - Carduelis pinus         

Band-tailed Pigeons have returned to our neighborhood to breed, after spending the winter eating acorns in the foothills.  Sunflower seeds are quite popular with them as well, and they are frequent visitors to our feeder!

The Pine Siskins are still visiting our feeder, but not as many as a few weeks ago when it was snowy.  They have become one of my favorite birds!  I love to watch them swoop and land in unison!  I'm not sure if they'll be here throughout the spring and summer, but I'll keep watch!

Silk Tassel Bush flowers (male, left - female, right) - Garrya fremontii

What's Blooming?

The male Silk Tassel Bush I discovered a month ago, is now in full bloom!  I haven't found a female bush locally, but I spotted one about 7 miles up Highway 49!   It too was in full bloom!  Both plants produce tassels of flowers, but they are distinctly different.  I have no idea how the one in our neighborhood got here!   They are incredibly complex, beautiful flowers, aren't they?

The Pussy Willows (at the top of the page and below) are still in bloom as well.  In fact they have a batch of buds that aren't even open yet!  This year I've noticed that they stagger their bloom over a month or more!  Once the weather warms up, the insects will be happy to feed on them.  The insect below looks like it got caught out in the rain!  I wonder if it survived.

Possible Crane Fly on Pussy Willows - Salix sp.

The little bird in my post two weeks ago (same as the bird above) was a 

Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula)!

What kind of bird is this?  A lot of them showed up this week!

What kind of beetles are these?

Are there any frogs popping up?

What other birds have shown up lately?  

Where are those elusive 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 at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com

Thanks!

Too Busy to Blog!

In Between Storms

Grizzly Peak on Sunday morning

When the last snow storm finished on Sunday, we had 9" of wet snow on the ground! It was so beautiful to see all the trees and ridges blanketed in snow! Most of it has melted already, except in the shady areas. This brought our February precipitation to 2.67". We are still below average, at 32.64" to date. This past week has been cloudy and gray, but we only got a few sprinkles of rain. More rain and snow is on the way. Hopefully this coming week will be a wet one!

On Sunday morning I walked around for several hours, blissed-out on the snowy landscape!   Everything was stunningly beautiful and dramatic!  Around 10:00 am, the mist cleared, the temperature rose, and the snow quickly started dropping off the trees.  By mid-afternoon, the trees had dropped all their snow-load, the road had melted out, and the sun was shining!  The snow lingered on the highest ridges, and was beautiful to see in the late afternoon light!

                             Snow "Blossoms"                                        Ridge-top Trees

 Pine Siskins - Carduelis pinus 

The birds did just fine in the snow!  Their beauty was even more striking against the snowy backdrop.  This group of Pine Siskins has found my bird feeding station, and are daily visitors now!  It's so lovely to see them in the tree tops first thing in the morning!

Steller's Jay - Cyanocitta stelleri

This Steller's Jay was all puffed up in the thin sunlight of early morning.  I watched it preen and fluff for several minutes!  It seemed to me that it was trying to dry off, after several days of snowy weather!  Steller's Jays are monomorphic.  To us, both the male and female look the same in the field.  However, birds see a much wider range of color than humans, including ultra-violet light!  In some species of birds, the males have bright ultra-violet markings that attract females!  I haven't read that this is true for Steller's Jays, but I'll do some more research!

Mountain Quail - Oreortyx pictus

The Mountain Quail were busy scurrying around in the underbrush one morning.  Since they are mainly seed eaters, I suspect they hang out at my bird feeding station when I'm not around!  They always run into the bushes whenever they see me.  I've seen more Mountain Quail this winter, than I ever have before!

Quail Tracks

Tracking in the Snow

The photos above are both pictures of Mountain Quail tracks!  The tracks on the left were made in several inches of wet snow.  The tracks on the right were made in a 1/4" of dry, powdered snow, on the road.  They look really different!  In most of the track books the tracks look defined and perfect, like the track on the above right.  In reality, tracks in the snow vary greatly in appearance.  Tracking is actually quite complicated!  Here's a list of some of the things you need to notice when trying to figure out a track:

How many toes are there?

Are any claws present?

How wide and how long are the footprints?  

What is the length of one full step?

How deep is the track?

How old is the track?

Is there any scat that might identify who left the track?

Where is the track located?

As you can see, there's LOTS to learn about tracking.  The internet has lots of good sources for tracking.  The following website is geared toward kids, but is a great place to start, 

www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/education/educators/pdfs/wild_wonders_issue2.pdf.

Sierra Buttes & Sardine Lake (frozen) 3-7-18

Lakes Basin Update

On Wednesday I went cross-country skiing up in the Lakes Basin!  I skied up to Sardine Lake and beyond, and I didn't see one other person all day!  It was sunny, clear, fresh, quiet and beautiful!  There was about 2' of packed snow on the ground.  It was so peaceful!  

About 30 years ago, my dog spotted a porcupine in one of the pine trees near Sardine Lake Campground!  It was so camouflaged up among the branches and pine needles, that it took me awhile to see it!  Its long quills looked just like the pine needles!  I really looked for porcupines while I was up there this week, but I didn't see any.  Unfortunately, porcupines have become quite rare in California, possibly due to an increased use of rodenticides in the state.  Here's a link to an article about them,  

http://snamp.cnr.berkeley.edu/static/documents/2012/03/28/Porcupines_an_increasingly_rare_sight_in_California_forests_scientists_say.pdf   If you do see a porcupine in California, please contact the California Dept of Fish and Wildlife. 

Sierra Buttes afternoon clouds 3/7/18

When I skied back to my car, the sky had darkened with beautiful dense gray clouds!  

It was such a contrast from the blue skies of the morning, but just as beautiful!  

Bushtits - Psaltriparus minimus

Convict Flat Revisited!

I drove down to Convict Flat this week, to see if the White-leafed Manzanita was still blooming.  It was, and I saw two male Anna's Hummingbirds feeding on the flowers!

I also noticed some new little birds in the bushes.  They turned out to be Bushtits!  I had never seen them before!  They are tiny little birds, only 4.5" long including their tails!  They usually live year-round in flocks of 10-40 birds.  They feed on tiny insects and spiders, scale insects, caterpillars, beetles, wasps, and ants!  In late February to early March, mating pairs break off from the flock to breed and build a nest.  Their nests are truly incredible engineering feats!  Each nest takes about 6 weeks to make!  Both the male and the female Bushtits work together to make the nest out of lots of spider webs and plant material.  The interior of the nest is lined with plant down, feathers, and fur!  The resulting nest is stretchy and long, and it looks like a stuffed sock, with a round opening on one side near the top!   The female will lay 4-10 eggs in the nest, that hatch in approximately 13 days.  The whole family sleeps in the nest, until the chicks fledge, then they all sleep outside on branches!  Scientists have also observed "bachelor" Bushtits, hanging around the nest site, that help feed the fledglings!  Bushtits usually have two broods in one season, and they will re-use the nest they built for the first brood.  Wow!

I'm am going to go searching for one of their cool nests!  Hopefully, one or more will show up at Convict Flat!

  

Anna's Hummingbird (male) - Calypte anna

Gray Fox - Urocyon cinereoargenteus 

 Fox Update!

There's a new fox (above left) visiting my bird feeder these days!  I'm pretty sure it's not the one I have been seeing since last Spring (above right).  You can tell from the photos, that they're not the same fox.  I'm hoping the one who used to "pose" for me, with the slanting eyes, will show up again soon.  They're both beautiful, with their healthy fur coats!  This is mating season for foxes, and we've been hearing them "bark" at night lately.  I hope this summer there will be several young foxes born in our neighborhood!    

Gray Fox - Urocyon cinereoargenteus 

What kind of bird is this?  

Are the Pussy Willows done blooming?

Are the Alder cones getting bigger?

What new birds have arrived?

What's happening down on the river?

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 

(Apparently these comments often don't get posted by blogspot for some reason, 

but sometimes they do!)

or

email me a northyubanaturalist@gmail.com

Thanks! 

Snow & Rain!

This week, several storms out of the gulf of Alaska brought much needed precipitation to our county! On Monday 4" of wet snow fell! On Thursday it poured all day, for a total of 1.1" of rain. Friday night it snow 6" of wet snow. Another 3" of snow fell on Saturday night. A little more snow is predicted for today. Yahoo! The river is up, the ground is getting saturated, and the creeks are running faster! 

Last week, before the temperatures warmed up, there were beautiful ice sculptures forming on the creeks and the river.  They're gone this week, but they were lovely to see!  It's amazing what difference a few degrees makes!

Ice shards and ice "bells"!

Grizzly Peak

I see Grizzly Peak every day.  This week it changed dramatically, along with the weather!   Cloud shadows, frost, fog, and snow changed the nature of the peak's appearance daily!     

  

Northern Goshawk - Accipiter gentilis

Northern Goshawk - Accipiter gentilis

This week I found a beautiful, dead, adult male Northern Goshawk in the woods.  I found it face down, spread-eagled on the ground, at the base of a large Douglas Fir tree.  Its neck was broken, and its beak was slightly cracked.  It was large and weighty!  I took tons of photos!  The feathers were so finely detailed!  Such beauty!  These beautiful birds are uncommon, and few in number, in our area.  I was sad that he had died.  I feel so privileged to have been able to study and photograph him.

Northern Goshawks have a wingspan of 41", a body length of 21", and weigh 2.1 lbs.  They are the largest and most powerful of North American accipiters.  Accipiters are hawks that are distinguished by short, broad wings and relatively long legs, adapted for fast flight in forests.  Usually they rely on stealth and lightning quick strikes to catch their prey.  If detected by their prey, they can chase them at tremendous speed through the forest, using their tail as a rudder!  They hunt for birds, mammals, reptiles, and insects in the forest and forest clearings.  They will attack while in flight, from a perch, or on the ground.  They catch their prey with their feet.

Their preferred nesting habitat is mature old-growth forests, with a 60% closed canopy, and in close proximity to a creek, pond, or lake.  Nesting begins in February or March.  A large stick nest is built mainly by the female, on the largest, lowest branches of a mature conifer.  The nest is approximately 3'-4' long, 1.6'-2.2' wide, and 2' tall.  The interior cup is lined with leaves, and strips of bark, and is 9" long and 3" wide.  The Cornell Lab of Ornithology states, "Northern Goshawk pairs build and maintain up to eight alternate nests within their nesting area. Even with options available, they may use the same nest year after year, or may switch to a new nest after a brood fails. Pairs may add fresh conifer needles to the nest during breeding. Aromatic chemicals (terpenes) in the needles may act as a natural insecticide and fungicide."  Surprisingly, Northern Goshawks do not mate for life!

Northern Goshawk (details) - Accipter gentilis

Anna's Hummingbird (male) - Calypte anna

The male Anna's Hummingbird is still feeding from the bird feeder!  I thought for sure the wet, cold weather would convince him to move on!  I haven't seen the female hummer for a little while, but I haven't been out watching the feeder all day either.

Hopefully they'll both make it through this week of winter weather!

Red-winged Blackbird - Agelius phoeniceus     American Robin - Turdus migratorius

I was so surprised to hear the Red-winged Blackbird one morning this week!  I thought he had left!  Later that same day, I was really surprised to see 2 of them!!!  They were both feeding on a new feeding table we had set up under a cedar tree!  It looked like they were both males, but I couldn't tell for sure.  Unfortunately, it was late and there wasn't enough light to photograph them!  Hopefully they'll be more visible this week!

The American Robin has eaten all the hawthorn berries!  He's still hanging around so he must be eating worms, that have surfaced since the heavy rains!  I've only seen one Robin so far, maybe more will arrive this week!

Pine Siskins - Carduelis pinus

 Project FeederWatch Update!

My bird counts have been staying pretty much the same all winter.  I usually see 2 Spotted Towhees, 2 Song Sparrows, 16 Steller's Jays, and about 30+ Dark-eyed Juncos at our feeder every day.  This week there were 122 surprise visitors, a flock of Pine Siskins!!!  They showed up on Saturday, the snowiest day of the week.  I had put out some birdseed that was mainly thistle seed, and the Siskins loved it!!!  They are so beautiful to watch as they swoop, dive, and land together as a group!  They are tiny birds.  One of them flew into a window on a building near the bird feeder, and stunned itself.  I picked it up from the snow and warmed it in my two hands.  After about a minute, it perked up and flew away!  Yahoo!! 

Pine Siskins are nomadic finches that range widely and erratically in response to seed crops. Their main food in winter is cone seeds and tree buds.  Locally they've been eating the seeds from last year's alder cones.  When food is plentiful they will store lots of seeds in their crop, which gets them through cold winter nights.  Unlike hummingbirds, that go into a state of torpor overnight, Pine Siskins ramp up their metabolic rate to stay warm at night!  They also put on a layer of fat for winter!  I love watching these little birds and hearing their busy chatter as they forage on the ground, and perch in the trees! 

Pine Siskins - Carduelis pinus

  Steller's Jay - Cyanocitta stelleri                 Dark-eyed Junco - Junco hyemalis

Cold Feet!

I've noticed that the birds at the snowy feeder are sometimes standing on one leg.  This is one way they deal with cold feet, but they also have a couple other strategies.  Birds' feet don't get frostbit because there's not much fluid in the cells of their feet. Their feet are mainly made up of tendons and bones, and don't have much muscle or nerve tissue.  Also, the two blood vessels that carry the blood from the bird's body to its feet and back, are right next to each other.  The cooled blood returning to the bird's body, is warmed by the body-warmed blood going to the feet!   Also, their circulation is so fast, that the blood doesn't stay in their feet long enough to freeze!  Wow!! 

Old Oriole Nests

Nests in Winter

I've seen 9 old oriole nests in our neighborhood this winter!  All of them appear to have fishing line and blue plastic tarp incorporated in their nests!  In winter, orioles reside in Mexico and Central America.  They'll be back this spring, and a lot of these old nests will be recycled and re-incorporated into new nests!

Why don't the birds that live here in the winter, use nests in the winter?  Well some of them do, but not these type of cup nests that fill up with snow.  Some birds use abandoned woodpecker nests for shelter in winter!  Often, several birds of the same species, such a bluebirds, will shelter together in a woodpecker nest overnight or in stormy weather!  Most birds don't build nests in winter because it uses up a lot of energy (calories) to build a nest.   Also, birds need to move around a lot to find enough food in winter, and going back to their "home" may not be worth the energy expended to get there.  Not all birds use woodpecker nests for shelter.  Some birds huddle together to stay warm.  Others fluff up their feathers and perch in a protected location.  

Old Oriole Nests

 Skunk                         Deer                        Raccoon                       Fox

Mammal Update!

I haven't seen the fox or any deer, but their tracks are all over the place!  My husband saw a skunk up on the bird feeding station one night!  I found raccoon tracks on the other side of the creek.  Once again, I haven't seen these mammals because they are mainly out a night!  Their tracks tell where they went, and sometimes what they caught or found.  This morning it was obvious that the fox was digging down in the snow to eat the birdseed!   This summer, I'm determined to spend the night out in the garden and watch what happens!

   Is Spring around the corner?

Are the Pine Siskins going to stick around?

Have the Hummers survived this winter weather?

Where are the Red-winged Blackbirds?

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 

(Apparently these comments often don't get posted by blogspot for some reason, 

but sometimes they do!)

or

email me a northyubanaturalist@gmail.com

Thanks!