North Yuba River Evening Light - 6/3/19
Before the weather warmed up this week, we had one last crazy rainstorm! Around 5:30 pm on Monday afternoon, big thunderheads moved in and it hailed for a few minutes, then it POURED, THUNDERED, and CRACKLED lightning for a solid hour! Distance was obscured by the heavy curtain of rain! Everything got drenched! The total rainfall for the downpour was .40" of rain!!! It was wild! Then the clouds opened up, the sun shone and it stopped raining! Sheesh!
Since then it's been blue-sky sunny, warm, and windy with a few clouds! The snow up in the Lakes Basin is melting fast, and the river has risen 2' in the last 5 days! It's still flowing steadily at 4,000 cfs. Our daytime temps have been in the 70's-80's. Next week they're predicting temps in the 90's!!! Summer is on the way at last!
Morning Fog - North Yuba River - 6/4/19
The next morning we drove over to Carmen Valley to check out the wildflowers.
On the way, we were enchanted by the heavy mist hanging over the river!
The air was warm and super humid. We had never seen fog on the river like this! It was probably due to the heavily saturated ground, and the warmer temperatures. It smelled heavenly!
Margined White Butterfly stuck on unknown Mushrooms
Mushrooms!
Mushrooms!
All the rain we've been getting has made mushrooms pop up! There are lots of them in our neighborhood right now! I'm not a mushroom expert at all, so I don't know the names of most of the ones pictured. I did come across an unusual sighting of a butterfly stuck to two tiny mushrooms! It is a Margined White Butterfly and it was stuck on the slightly slimy caps of the mushrooms. I'll bet it thought the mushrooms were yellow flowers and got stuck! I gently pulled it off and it flitted off after a few seconds! That was neat!
Unknown mushrooms - Puffballs (species unknown)
Unknown Mushroom Species
American Robin - Red-breasted Sapsucker
Turdus migratorius - Sphyrapicus ruber
Nesting News!
The American Robin is still sitting on her nest. It's been about 14 days. The eggs should hatch any day now! The nestlings will stay in the nest for approximately another 14 days, before they fledge. The Red-breasted Sapsucker had been going in and out of its nest, busily feeding its babies for the past week or so! The nestlings will probably fledge in a few more weeks. Woodpeckers have a much longer nesting period than most songbirds, because they are fully feathered and capable of limited, gliding flight when they leave the nest! I'm really hoping I get to see them!
Steller's Jay (front & back) - Cyanocitta stelleri
A pair of Steller's Jays made a nest in a Cedar tree right off our porch, about a month ago. Two weeks ago, I wrote in my blog that I thought some critter had eaten the eggs, because we hadn't seen much activity at the nest. Much to our surprise and delight, two large nestlings were perching on the edge of the nest this past Monday morning! WOW!!! All day long the nestlings stayed on the nest and flapped their wings and looked super ready to fledge. On Tuesday morning, they were still on the edge of the nest, but they were hopping all over and acting super restless. I checked on the nest around noon, and the two nestlings had fledged and left the nest!!! They were perched on branches higher up in the same Cedar. Over the course of the day, they kept going higher and higher up the tree, and their parents kept feeding them. On Wednesday morning, we searched and searched the cedar tree with our binoculars, but couldn't see the fledglings. However the parents were periodically flying in and out near the top of the tree. We think they might still be up there, or have flown off to another tree. We're also hoping that the juvenile birds will eventually show up at our bird feeders. We're keeping our fingers crossed! I'm just so glad the baby birds survived and didn't get eaten! Yahoo!
Steller's Jay fledglings - Cyanocitta stelleri
Black Headed Grosbeaks (female - male) - Pheucticus melanocephalus
I just discovered a Black-headed Grosbeak nest off the other side of our porch! It's in a Big-leaf Maple tree. There are two nestlings in it! It's difficult to photograph because of the wind and leaves in the way, but it's fun to watch! Both parents are feeding the nestlings! I have no idea how old these nestlings are. Usually Black-headed Grosbeak nestlings fledge two weeks after they hatch. Maybe they'll fledge next week!
Black Headed Grosbeaks (nestlings) - Pheucticus melanocephalus
Bullock's Orioles (male - female) - Icterus bullockii
For the third year in a row, a pair of Bullock's Orioles are nesting in a Big-leaf Maple tree right down the street! In past blogs I've featured pictures of their previous nests, all three of them, on the same branch! Now they've built a fourth nest!!! These are the Orioles that have been feeding at out hummingbird feeders this year! Only the female builds the nest and incubates the eggs. Both parents will feed their young. It always amazes me that they return to the same tree in our neighborhood every year. Their annual migration is 4,000+ miles one way, from their winter home in Costa Rica or Guatemala! It's unbelievable! I'll keep you posted on their progress.
Bullock's Oriole nest
Violet-green Swallows (female -fledgling) - Tachycineta thalassina
I was thrilled to see this female Violet-green Swallow and her fledgling one morning this week! These birds live on a fairly sheer rock face along the highway. They make their nests inside rock crevices and cracks. The fledglings, like the adults, can't walk, but they can perch! They have a longer nesting period than songbirds, 23-24 days, as they leave the nest fully developed and able to fly! They remain dependent on their parents for food, for a few weeks. How fun it was to see this little fledgling with a few downy feathers still showing!
Sierra Buttes - 6/4/19
Last Thursday my friends and I decided to hike up to Long Lake in the Lakes Basin. We thought the trail would be totally snow-covered but it wasn't! It was mostly snow free, except for the higher exposed areas where there was still 3' of packed snow.
Fawn Lilies - Prostrate Ceanothus/Mahala Mat - Giant Stream Orchid
Erythronium purpurascens - Ceanothus prostratus - Epipactus gigantea
There were just a few plants in bloom on our hike to Long Lake. Fawn Lilies were the first flowers we saw. They are always one of the first plants to bloom after the snow melts. They are so gracefully beautiful. We looked for Steer's Heads that often grow alongside Fawn Lilies, but only their leaves were showing, no flowers yet. Maybe we'll find some next week. The Prostrate Ceanothus/Mahala Mat was blooming in some areas. Their flowers are tiny, elaborate, and purple-petaled, with secondary spoon-like petals that stick out! Just amazing to look at up close. My friend Nancy and I always carry magnifying lenses just to look at plants closely. Quality hand lenses cost about $35, and they are well worth it! The macroscopic world of flowers is incredibly complex and super beautiful! We are always being astonished by what we see!
The Stream Orchid (pictured above right) wasn't in the Lakes Basin, it was down near Downieville along Highway 49! It just had to feature it because they are so unique and gorgeous! There were only about 50 of them in bloom, in another week or so there will be thousands blooming!
Long Lake 6/6/19
The lake itself was still mostly frozen, and the water was rushing fast and cold over the dam! It was wonderful to be back up in the Lakes Basin at one of our favorite lakes! So beautiful! Who knows where we'll go next week?
What's happening in Carmen Valley?
Where are the mergansers, heron, and kingfisher?
What bugs are out and about?
Where are the bears?
Check back next week for the answers to these questions and more!
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