Carpenter Ants - Camponotus pennsylvanicus
Last week we came across a Carpenter Ant Colony in the Lakes Basin! I hadn't seen one for many years! Carpenter Ants don't eat wood. They excavate homes in damp, rotting logs, and remove excess wood mouthful by mouthful! In the picture above a carpenter ant is about to drop a mouthful of wood! The telltale pile of sawdust in the photo below is the result of many mouthfuls of wood being dropped! (I'm not sure why the two ants in the photo look different. I'll post it on inaturalist.org and see what they say.)
Carpenter Ants live in colonies of one or more queens and thousands of female workers. The workers forage for food at night, enlarge the size of the nest, and care for the queen and her larvae. They eat mainly dead insects, as well as honeydew from aphids. This food is subsequently regurgitated and fed to the queen and larvae! In the summer, 200-400 winged females and males develop in the colony. These winged ants overwinter in the nest, and disperse in the Spring to mate. After mating the males die, and the females remove their own wings and search for a location to start a new colony!
Carpenter Ant Sawdust Pile
Spotted Flower Buprestid Beetle - Sierra Pericopid Moth
Acmaeodera sp. - Gnophaela latipennis
There are LOTS of insects out there eating and pollinating the flowers right now! Inaturalist.org is a great resource for identifying flowers, insects, birds, etc. Just post your photo and search their data base for a matching image, and almost always it will be instantly identified! I spotted two different adult wood boring beetles feeding on flowers this week (above left & bottom right)! As larvae they live under the bark or in the heartwood of trees! I also spotted two moths (above right & below left) that I thought were butterflies! I had never seen these moths before! The Annaphila Moths were tiny, about as big as my thumbnail! I posted it on Bugguide.net, and it was a new species for their guide! WOW! How lucky to see them!
Annaphila Moth - Dimorphic Flower Longhorn Beetle
Annaphila lithosina - Anastrangalia laetifica
California Striped Racer - Masticophis lateralis lateralis
Herps Update!
I was out wandering one morning when a lizard zoomed past me in the grass, hotly pursued by a snake!!! The lizard got away, but the snake shot up a nearby tree! WOW! I've never seen a snake climb a tree before! They use the "scoots" on their bellies to move, and apparently climbing trees is a cinch! The snake was a California Striped Racer, distinguished by the yellow stripes on its sides. Their preferred foods are lizards, snakes, frogs, small mammals, birds, snakes, and some insects. I've never seen one before! Racers can really move FAST!!!
Sierran Tree Frog - Pseudacris sierra
Up in the Lakes Basin, we came across a Sierran Tree Frog that was orange in color! The ones I've seen have always been green or brown, never orange. Apparently it's not rare to see an orange tree frog, just not that common. We were lucky to see one!
Yellow-bellied Marmot - Marmota flaviventris
Mammal Update!
I saw this Yellow-bellied Marmot up in the Lakes Basin this week! I haven't seen one in a while! It was hanging out on a bunch of boulders, its preferred habitat. Usually marmots live in underground colonies, below boulder fields. Marmots are vegetarians and eat a wide variety of plants. Marmots mate soon after they emerge from hibernation. About 30 days later, females will give birth to 3-8 pups. The pups are nursed for 3 weeks, after which the pups emerge from the den. Parental care is limited after pups emerge, but the family unit stays together. During the winter, when plants are not available, marmots hibernate. They are true hibernators. Their respiration and heart beat slows down, and their body temperature drops slightly. This slows down their metabolism, and makes them able to live off their body fat while hibernating. Marmots can hibernate for 6 to 8 months, depending on the severity of winter!
Black-tailed Mule Deer (male) - Odocoileus hemionus columbianus
A group of bucks with their antlers in velvet have been charging through our neighborhood the past two mornings!!! There must be a Mountain Lion nearby!
Bullock's Orioles preening! (female & male) - Icterus bullockii
Nesting News!
The Bullock's Orioles have been super busy feeding their nestlings! I've watched the female repeatedly dive into our garden and catch a butterfly! She then whacks the wings off, and flies off to feed the body to her nestlings! The male prefers to catch insects in the Iceland Poppies! Maybe it's catching honey bees! I've also watched the female preen herself in a cedar tree near her nest. It's amazing to see her fluff out her feathers as she grooms herself! Bullock's Oriole nestlings usually fledge after 2 weeks in the nest, which will be sometime next week. They may stay around in the nest tree for a few days, before the whole family heads south for their winter home in Costa Rica! The 4,000 mile trip south takes around 3 months! I sure hope I get a glimpse of the fledglings before they go!
Bullock's Orioles (male & female) - Icterus bullockii
Red-breasted Sapsucker (adults) - Syraphicus ruber
The Red-breasted Sapsucker adults have also been super busy feeding their young. They fly to the nest about every 2-5 minutes, with something to feed the nestlings! I can't tell if there's more than one nestling in the nest. This morning one was really sticking out of the nest!!! Wow! Woodpecker nestlings stay in the nest for 23-28 days. When they fledge, they are fully feathered and capable of gliding flight. Maybe it will fledge later today! How exciting!!!
Red-breasted Sapsucker (adult) and nestling - Syraphicus ruber
Hopefully I'll get a photo of this nestling after it fledges!
Hopefully I'll get a photo of this nestling after it fledges!
Anna's Hummingbird (female) & Bee Balm - Calypte anna & Monarda didyma
To Feed or not to Feed!
Since that little hummingbird died two weeks ago, I haven't been feeding the birds at all. I've been reading a lot about feeding birds, and there are pros and cons. For now, I've decided to plant flowers for hummingbirds! There are many great websites that deal with the types of plants that attract hummingbirds. A good one is https://www.hummingbirdsociety.org/hummingbird-flowers/. We have quite a few of these flowers in our garden, including salvia, columbine, lupine, penstemon, bee balm, and zinnias. There are also many native plants available in the surrounding forest. Plants are definitely the natural way to feed hummers! I'll keep you posted on further research I do on the feeding of birds.
The cherries are ripe!
I took this photo last year, but haven't seen any bears yet this year!
Where are they?
The river is slowing down with a flow of 1,350 cfs.
Now that it's slower, will the mergansers, heron, and kingfisher show up?
What other birds are fledging?
Check back next week for the answers to these questions and more!
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