Surprising Beauty!

Non-biting Midges - Chironomidae Family

I was walking along Highway 49 one afternoon this week when I spotted this incredible swarm of insects!  They looked like fountain spray!  The shape changed continually while I watched for 10 minutes!  I thought they might be 1,000's of gnats, so I caught one to make sure!  I took a photo of it and posted it on https://bugguide.net, under their "ID Request" section.  Right away I got an answer back that they were most likely Non-biting Midges, in the Chironomidae Family!

Midges are often mistaken for mosquitoes due to their similar size and body shape. They lay their eggs in shallow waters. The eggs sink to the bottom. In a few days the larvae hatch out of the eggs and burrow into mud, or construct a small tube in which they live, feed and develop. The aquatic larvae feed on detiritus in the water and are a great source of food for fish and aquatic insects. After 2-7 weeks, the larvae turn into pupae. The pupae then swim to the surface and the adults emerge from their pupal exuviae (cast off skin). Adults do not feed and spend their short, 3-5 day lives mating!

Most midges are active from Spring through Fall, but some orders fly in the winter! Adult midges are known for their large mating swarms. Often, these cloud-like swarms congregate in the early evening, when the sun is getting low. Usually they form just above some tall object such as a bush, tree, hilltop, or over a pool, stream, or lake. How lucky I was to watch this incredible spectacle!

Non-biting Midges swarm & inset - Chironomidae Family

Apparently midges aren't the strongest of fliers, and are easily pushed around by the wind.  I was mesmerized by the sunlit beauty of the swarm as it was fluidly moved from one position to another!

North Yuba River 1/1/19

River News!

About a week ago on a cloudless day, a dead standing tree by our bridge fell into the river! I didn't see or hear it fall, but all of a sudden there were big sections of a tree trunk in the river! At first I was totally puzzled by the broken trunk sections, until I finally noticed that the tree had fallen! It had been perched above the river, on the side of a steep slope for years! I have photographed many birds perched in this tree over the past 2 years, including Ravens, Northern Flickers, a Red-tailed Hawk, Western Tanagers, Bullock's Orioles, and Red-breasted Nuthatches! I climbed down and looked at the trunk where it broke off and it was filled with white, fungal hyphae. The main part of the trunk was actually still sound and not riddled with insects or their galleries! Maybe the high-water this winter will carry the trunks downstream. If not, it will be interesting to see how these trunk sections are used by the river critters!

Osprey - Hooded Merganser (female)

Pandion haliaetus - Lophodytes cucullatus

I saw 2 surprise avian visitors this week!  Both of them were so far away that I couldn't get great photos of them, but it was fun to watch them!  

The Osprey I saw wasn't right above the river, but rather up-slope and back from the river canyon.  Maybe it had just flown in for the day, as the weather was nice and sunny!  I kept watching for it to show up on the river later that day, but didn't see it.

The Hooded Merganser was a complete surprise to me!  According to the field guides they are uncommonly to rarely seen in our area!  However, I asked some local birding friends and apparently they have seen them in our area in the recent past.  At https://birdsna.org they do have Hooded Mergansers listed as visiting our area in the Winter, or non-breeding season!  I have never seen one before!  It was a wild looking duck with a really unusual wedge of feathers on the back of its head!  Classified as diving ducks, Hooded Mergansers eat small fish, aquatic insects and crustaceans, particularly crayfish.  They have serrated bills for grasping and handling slippery prey.  Their eyes are specially adapted to see underwater.  I went back several days in a row to see if it was still around, but didn't see it.  It was so exciting to see such an usual and uncommon duck right in our neighborhood!!!

Icicles on Dendroalsia Moss - Dendroalsia albietina

Moss, Lichens, and Fungi

Once again icicles are hanging from some of the mosses in our neighborhood!  The reason why moss can tolerate freezing temperatures is that moss has a natural anti-freeze (glycerol, sucrose etc.) in its cells!  This lowers the temperature at which water freezes, thus preventing damage to the plant cells. Lots of plants use this anti-freeze technique to survive the winter, including most evergreen shrubs and trees, some ferns, succulents, and liverworts! 

Mosses are non-flowering plants that typically grow in damp, shady environments.  When it's wet mosses thrive.  When it's hot and dry they become dormant.  Mosses do not have seeds and after fertilization develop sporophytes with unbranched stalks, topped with single capsules containing spores. There are approximately 12,000 species of mosses in the world!  

Dendroalsia Moss - Dendroalsia albietina

Moss can be found growing on just about any surface where it's damp and shady, such as rocks, tree trunks, and even man made structures.

Fruiticose Lichen - Crustose Lichen - Fruiticose & Foliose Lichen

Lichens are a symbiotic relationship between algae and fungus.  The algae is inside the fungus, and produces chlorophyll that feeds the fungus.  The fungus houses and protects the algae!  Lichens grow in just about any environment, from the desert to the arctic!  There are over 13,500 species of lichen in the world!!!  There are three main forms of lichen; fruiticose, foliose, and crustose.  Fruiticose lichen is shrubby and bushy.  Foliose lichen is flattened and leafy.  Crustose lichen is crusty and flattened. Winter is the time that lichens thrive.  They need water and moisture to grow.  During summer, when it is hot and dry, lichens become dried out and dormant.  

Questionable Stropharia - Stropharia ambigua

I haven't seen many mushrooms this year, and apparently they are quite scarce locally.  It's not a good year for fungus.  This one patch of mushrooms was growing right by our compost pile in the shade!  What a nice surprise!

Mule Deer - Odocoileus hemionus sp.

Mammal Update!

Across the Highway from where the midges were performing, I happened to see a female Mule Deer!  She checked me out and eventually went on with her grazing, while occasionally listening behind herself for other deer or predators.  I didn't see any other deer with her, but perhaps they were watching me warily from the woods!

Mountain Lion scat - Bobcat paws

Felis concolor - Lynx rufus

What I did see on our bridge was a bunch of recent Mountain Lion scat!  It was thick with hair, probably deer!  A good reason for that deer to be checking behind herself! 

I would love to see a Mountain Lion one of these days, preferably from the safety of my car!

Last week I asked "Whose feet are these?".  They are Bobcat feet.  Unfortunately, I was able to photograph them because the Bobcat had been hit by a car and died.  My friend BJ showed me the Bobcat.  It was so sad to see this beautiful animal killed on the highway.  I hadn't seen a Bobcat for 30 years!  Lots of wild animals, thousands, are annually killed by cars in California. There have been efforts to reduce the number of roadkills through signage, fencing, overpasses and underpasses, but the numbers are still high.  Sadly, we moved the beautiful Bobcat off the road and down the bank.  It was an honor to be able to see it so closely.

Lesser Goldfinches - Carduelis psaltria

Spenceville

Since the weather was sunny and cold, we decided to drive down to the Spenceville Wildlife Area for a hike.  It's located in the rolling grasslands, dotted with Blue Oak/Gray Pine forests, in the foothills. We saw several raptors on our hike as well as a flock of Lesser Goldfinches feeding on thistle and grass seeds!  Black Phoebes were performing their fly-catcher techniques of catching bugs, and Acorn Woodpeckers called loudly from their granaries!  It was a lovely, beautiful hike under the filigree of bare oak trees.    

For more information about the area, which is managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, visit their website at https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Lands/Places-to-Visit/Spenceville-WA. 

Lesser Goldfinch - Black Phoebe - Acorn Woodpecker

Carduelis psaltria - Sayornis nigricans - Melanerpes formicivorous

What kind of clouds are these?

What's the weather been like?  Any rain or snow in the forecast?

What's happening in the Lakes Basin?

How's that fox doing?

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

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