Fox Sighting!

Gray Fox - Urocyon cinereoargenteus

A fox showed up near our compost pile this week!  It's not the same one that seemed to "pose" for me last year, but I recognized it!  All the foxes I've seen look different.  Their fur, size, and faces are all unique!  This one showed up a year ago last Fall.  I was thrilled to see it again!  Foxes will eat berries and fruit, but probably not the decaying vegetables in our compost pile.  However, I'm sure our compost pile attracts local mice, voles, and woodrats that a fox would gladly eat!

  

Gray Fox - Urocyon cinereoargenteus

Surviving in the winter can be tough for foxes.  There isn't as much food available, so they have to spend a lot more time hunting.  Although mostly nocturnal, they will also hunt during daylight if necessary.  To stay warm, they develop a thick coat of fur in winter.  They also like to sunbathe on sunny days!  Curiously, they seldom sleep in a den during winter.  They usually just curl up in a protected area, such as under dense, thick, brambles, or in a rocky crevice or rotten log!  A grey fox’s home range usually extends from about two to seven miles, but they only cover a small portion of this every day.  Since this home range is not large they know it very well, including the behaviors of their potential prey!

Sharp-shinned Hawk

 Accipiter striatus

Project FeederWatch Update

As part of the FeederWatch Project, I also record the birds that I see frequenting the area around our bird feeders.  In our garden, which is right next to the feeders, there is an alder tree with a dead top.  Lots of birds perch in these dead branches.  This week our local Sharp-shinned Hawk decided to stop by!  I luckily got a photo before it took off.  This time it was facing towards me so I saw its breast feathers.  Sharp-shinned Hawks like to eat song birds so I'm sure this one has been watching our bird feeders closely.  How lucky to see it again!

 Downy Woodpecker (male - left, female- right)

 Picoides pubescens

Surprisingly, a male Downy Woodpecker also perched in the same tree top this week!  The bright red feathers on the back of its head, indicated that it was a male.  I also spotted a female Downy Woodpecker on the trunk of a dead locust tree, that's about 15' from our garden.  Woodpeckers don't eat seeds or songbirds, so clearly the male was just perching to take a look around.  The female was searching for insect larvae under the bark of the locust tree.  These woodpeckers are here year-round.  It's always great to see them!  Such beauty!

Sierra Buttes 11/26/18

A Snowy Lakes Basin!

Last Thursday, after the big rainstorm had passed through, we went up to the Lakes Basin for a hike.  To our surprise there was 4+" of new snow on the ground, starting around 6500' in elevation!!!  We spent several hours walking around on the snow enjoying the beauty.  It was incredibly lovely!  More snow fell this week, and more is predicted for next week.  It looks like winter is here!  Yahoo!

Large Wolf Spider with egg sac -  Black Bear Track

Alopecosa kochii -  Ursus americanus

To our surprise we came across a large (1.5" long, including legs) female Wolf Spider carrying an egg sac on its bum!  It was just scooting along on top of the snow.  Wolf Spiders don't build webs.  They pursue or ambush insects, as well as other spiders.  Unlike most other arachnids that generally have poor vision, Wolf Spiders have excellent eyesight.  The females spin an egg sac out of spider silk, which they carry until it hatches in the spring or summer.  I was really surprised to see it carrying an egg sac at this time of year!  Do they make their egg sack before winter, as a survival technique?  I'll have to do some more research!

We also came across the track of a Black Bear!  Black Bears don't truly hibernate.  They spend most of the winter sleeping, but can become active if the weather is mild.  In late summer and early fall bears gorge on insects and berries, and gain up to 5" of body fat!  They don't eat anything during the winter, and live off this stored up fat.  Bears den in a variety of places, including brush piles, underground root systems of trees, hollow standing dead trees, and rocky caves or crevices.  If a bear is disturbed in its den, it will often relocate.

Common Goldeneyes (foreground) - Common Mergansers (background)

 Bucephala clangula - Mergus merganser

At Salmon Lake we saw a lot of ducks!  At first I thought the majority of them were Buffleheads, but they weren't!  They were Common Goldeneyes, one of the few species of duck that overwinters above the foothills of the Sierra.  They eat fish, aquatic vertebrates, seeds, and tubers.  When the lake freezes, they will possibly move down to the North Yuba River for the winter.

Common Mergansers feed on fish.  They too will migrate down in elevation to spend the winter.  I was actually surprised to see them up this high (6,500') this late in the season!

Common Ravens - Corvus corax

When we were eating our lunch, two Common Ravens flew past us and perched in a nearby tree.  I went to investigate, and ended up watching them preen each other for several minutes!  Wow!!!  I've never seen this before!  The term for this preening behavior is "allopreening".  "Allo" means "other: as in differing from normal or usual".  This behavior, although common among primates, is very uncommon among birds!   Most birds do NOT preen each other!  Apparently these ravens preen each other in the hard to reach areas around the head.  They are removing parasites, such as feather mites and hippoboscid flies.  To me it seemed that they preened each other so tenderly, so gently.  I felt so privileged to see them apparently caring for each other!  It was incredible and beautiful!

 Common Ravens - Corvus corax

Common Ravens - Corvus corax

I came across this congress of Ravens on Highway 49 last week.  They were all trying to eat one roadkill Opossum!  I've seen lots of roadkills, and usually there will be one or two Ravens feeding on it.  Why were there so many ravens at this roadkill?  Ravens regularly communicate with each other when there is food available.  Usually it is vagrant, non-breeding, young ravens that direct other ravens towards food through verbal and gestural communication.  Scientists think that they do this because a local territorial adult, that wouldn't normally share food with a vagrant youth, is forced to share when a large group of ravens arrive!  I've seen pictures of raven groups feeding together, but usually it's a whole deer carcass they're consuming.  I wonder why they all gathered to eat one small Opossum?  Maybe food was scarce?  Maybe Opossum is a delicacy?  Maybe it was just a good day to catch up on the neighborhood gossip!  Whatever the reason, it was really fun to watch them!

More rain fell since my last post, and it's falling right now!  We're even supposed to wake up to snow tomorrow morning!  So far we've received another 2.27" of rain, and the river flow is up to almost 800 cubic feet per second!  I'll keep you posted on what's happening.  In the meantime, go out and do a rain dance!

Rain, rain, come on down.

Come and quench this thirsty ground.

Come and let wet smells abound.

Fill the air with a joyful sound!

(repeat!)

This is a Black Phoebe!  What is this flycatcher eating at this time of year?

Will the Pine Siskins show up soon?

What are the ladybugs doing in the rain and snow?

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

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