Now Blooming!

Dogwood (non-native) - Cornus sp.

Everything is leafing out and blooming! The Mountain Dogwood has been blooming for a week or so, and is just beginning to lose its flowers. What looks like white petals are actually "bracts", leaflike structures that are usually positioned on the stem just below a flower. The actual flowers are tiny, and form the green center! These flowers will eventually form the red "berries" that ripen in the fall. These beautiful trees are native to western North America, and are one of my all-time favorites! 

Black Locust - Robinia pseudoacacia

In the past two weeks, the Black Locust trees have gone from looking dead and bone-dry, to lush, leafy, and bursting with flowers!  They are native to the southeastern United States, but have spread across the country and are considered invasive in some regions.  They are shade intolerant, and grow in open sunny areas.  They reproduce via seeds and root suckers.  The pinnately compound leaves emerge before the flowers, which bloom about a week later.  The flowers are "perfect", which means they have both male and female parts.  They are mainly pollinated by Hymenopteran insects, which includes bees, ants, wasps and sawflies.  Birds are also important pollinators of the flowers, such as Orioles, Hummingbirds, Grosbeaks, Tanagers, and some Warblers!  They are one of the trees favored by our local Bullock's Orioles.  The flowers provide lots of nectar, and the profuse leaves provide cover for nests.  Right now the lovely fragrance of the flowers is enveloping our neighborhood!     

     Bush Monkeyflower - Mimulus aurantiacus      Vari-leaved Phaecelia - Phacelia heterophylla

Purple Milkweed - Asclepias cordifolia

Wildflowers!

This week I drove along Highway 49, from Indian Valley to Downieville, and photographed the common wildflowers that were blooming!  I identified them by using two books for cross-reference, The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada, and Wildflowers of Nevada and Placer Counties.  It was a lot of fun!  

The two most prominently blooming flowers are the pale peachy-yellow Bush Monkeyflowers and the Arroyo/Succulent Lupines.  If you gently touch the "lips" of the stigma on the Monkeyflower, it will close up!  This movement has evolved to ensure that any pollen that lands on the stigma, travels to the ovary!  It turns out that the Arroyo/Succulent Lupines were probably planted by Cal-Trans along the highway, as they are native to California, but not Sierra County.  They can be distinguished from the common Sky Lupine, by the magenta color in the flowers. 

  Applegate's Paintbrush-Castelleja applegatei   Canyon Dudleya/Liveforever-Dudleya cymosa

Wooly Sunflower - Eriophyllum lanatum

    Arroyo/Succulent Lupine - Lupinus succulentus          Silverleaf Lupine - Lupinus obtusilobus

Round-toothed Ookow - Dichelostemma multiflorum

      Seep-spring Monkeyflower - Mimulus guttatus                    Ramm's Madia - Madia rammii

California Poppy - Eschscholzia californica

Bullock's Oriole (male) - Icterus bullockii

There's definitely a pair of Bullock's Orioles nesting in my neighbor's apple tree!  She has seen the female fly repeatedly into the tree with nesting material.  She has also seen the female taking nesting material from an old nest!  I've seen and heard them several times now.  They are so beautiful!!!  Last year I photographed a female oriole pulling fishing line out of an old nest, on the exact same date as this year!  It is marvelous to see this natural process being repeated! 

The male and female Orioles work together to weave a hanging pouch nest out of plant fibers, and whatever else they fancy.  However, the females do most of the work.  Most of the empty nests that I have seen are made from plant fibers, as well as fishing line and strips of blue plastic tarp.  It may take them a week or more to construct the nest.  Once the nest is completed, the female will lay 3-7 eggs in the pouch, and incubate them for 11 days. The altricial nestlings fledge in approximately 14 days after they hatch!

When watching a bird nest you need to be very discreet.  You should never watch a nest in plain view for more than a minute.  If you find a nest, try and make your approach to it different every time.  Lots of critters eat baby birds, so you don't want to make the nest location obvious to potential predators.  Stay away from the nest, if the birds have fledged.  You don't want to startle the baby birds into leaving the nest too soon.

Bullock's Oriole (female) - Icterus bullockii

This is the bird that was flying by in last week's post, 

and peeking from this Locust tree in the post on 5/12/18.

My neighborhood 5/17/18

Weather Update!

For the past two weeks we've been experiencing intermittent rain showers!  Unbelievably beautiful clouds show up every morning around 10:00 am and accumulate throughout the day.  Nice refreshing downpours of rain usually happen mid-day!  By the evening the clouds have cleared off!  It's been really really beautifu!

I checked on our local rainfall totals and we're at 96% of normal, with 57.85" of rain to date!!!  These rains are keeping the forest damp and fires away.  More of the same weather is expected this coming week!  Yahoo! 

What kind of insects are these birds eating?

Where are the Evening and Black-headed Grosbeaks nesting?

How are the Foxes?

Where are the bears and the deer?

What kind of bird is this?

What's happening in the Lakes Basin?

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

Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated!

Please contact me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com

Thanks!