Thundershowers!

Thunderheads in the Lakes Basin - 5/30/19

Just about every day this week started with sunny blue skies and ended with thundershowers!  It has been incredibly dramatic and beautiful!  The clouds are such amazing, changing, enthralling sights!  Some days we had heavy showers that pelted the trees and ground.  Other days we only got a sprinkling of rain, except during thundershowers. Thunder and lightning have become a daily occurrence. I can't seem to find a good source for current lightning strike info, but our local online news site, yubanet.com, regularly posts the current lightning activity on the Tahoe National Forest. On Thursday, May 29, there were 139 lightning strikes in our area!!! The total rainfall for the week was 1.37".  The river is flowing at 3,000 cfs.  Next week the forecast is for sunny days, with daytime temperatures in the 80's! Yes!!!    

Clouds and trees reflection near Sand Pond - 5/30/19

Lakes Basin Update!

Sierra Buttes obscured by rain - 5/30/19

Last Thursday, my friend BJ and I went up to the Lakes Basin for a hike.  The Gold Lake Road is plowed up to Snag Lake, where there is still 3-4 feet of snow!!!  We walked to Snag, Haven, and Goose Lakes while the clouds darkened and covered the sky.  The lakes were all mostly frozen except near the shoreline!  There were patches of bare ground in the forest, as well as patches of snow several feet deep.  It was gorgeous!  After about an hour, it started pouring so we headed back to the car in our ponchos.  Luckily the lightning wasn't striking near us!

Silk Tassel Bush - Greenleaf Manzanita - Willow Catkins

   Garrya fremontii - Arctostaphylos patula - Salix sp.

When we got back to the car it was only 12:30, so we decided to stop at the Sardine Lake Campground and hike out on the boardwalk.  By the time we got there it had stopped raining.  Since it was lower in elevation there wasn't any snow on the ground.  Plants were even blooming!  I found a female Silk Tassel Bush in bloom!  These plants are dioecious, and have male and female reproductive organs on separate plants.  The Greenleaf Manzanita bushes were in full bloom!  The flowers smelled and tasted like honey!  The willow catkins were lovely to see again, as the ones in our area have already gone to seed.  Spring is definitely starting in the Lakes Basin!

Black-backed Woodpecker (left & right) - American White Pelicans (center)

Picoides arcticus - Pelecanus erythrorhynchos

While out on the boardwalk, we saw several hundred American White Pelicans flying east up in the clouds!  Such beauty!  These lovely birds are probably on their way to their breeding grounds in Oregon, the central U.S., or central Canada.  These pelicans do not dive for fish, but will herd them to shore and nab them in the shallow waters.  They are colonial nesters, with up to 5,000 pairs in one nesting site!   

Also, up at Snag Lake we saw a very RARE woodpecker on a dead snag!  It was a Black-backed Woodpecker!  WOW!!!  It was the first one I've ever seen!!!  These lovely woodpeckers mainly live in the cold-climate forests found across Canada and Alaska. Their range also extends down into our area, but not much further south!  They prefer to live in burnt forests where a lot of wood-boring/bark beetles reside.  Unfortunately, post-fire salvaging of burnt trees has drastically reduced the population of Black-backed Woodpeckers and they have become quite rare.  Unlike most woodpeckers, it has 3 toes not 4!!!  How lucky we were to see one of these rare woodpeckers in our area!!!  Apparently, many avid birders have never seen one!  

Gray Fox - Urocyon cinereoargenteus

Feeder Watch!

Since I've added a table to our bird feeding station a few local mammals have been feasting!  Just about every evening I see this young fox munching away on sunflower seeds!  How beautiful!

Douglas Tree Squirrel/Chickaree

Tamiasciurus douglasii

Several of these cute Chickarees are there all day eating the sunflower seeds!  This week, one of the Chickarees figured out how to get into one of the hanging bird feeders!  Sheesh!  They are such acrobats!!!

Striped Skunk - Mephitis mephitis

Every evening I see one or more of these Striped Skunks foraging for seeds on the ground! What a menagerie!

Cassin's Finch - Green-tailed Towhee 

Carpodacus cassinii - Pipilo chlorurus

New Arrivals!

Down at the feeder, a single Cassin's Finch and two Green-tailed Towhees showed up this week!  They won't stay for the summer, but will migrate up to the higher elevations to mate and raise their young.  Right now there's still so much snow in the higher elevations, they may stay for awhile longer!!! 

During the breeding season Cassin's Finches live in wooded areas from 3,000'-10,000'.  I usually see them up at Yuba Pass, eating minerals along the roadside!  Their preferred food is tree buds, but will also eat green manzanita buds, seeds, and fruit.  In the winter they will migrate down out of the snowy areas to southern California, Baja, or mainland Mexico. I love their lovely rosy crests, breasts and backs!

Green-tailed Towhees migrate up from Mexico to breed in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, as well as most of the western U.S.  They prefer dense, scrubby habitat with a few trees, ranging from 4,000' to 10,000' in elevation.  Small insects and berries are their main foods.  I always see several of these lovely birds up in the Lakes Basin during the summer.

Cedar Waxwing - Olive-sided Flycatcher

Bombycilla cedrorum - Contopus cooperi

I spotted this lone Cedar Waxwing during a heavy rainstorm one late afternoon!  I see these birds in our neighborhood quite often!  They are primarily fruit eaters, and breed and raise their young later in the year, when fruits are ripe.  Right now they are eating mainly insects!  Most of these birds migrate to Mexico for the winter, but some may just migrate down to the California foothills.  

Olive-sided Flycatchers migrate north from the Andes in South America to the western half of the US and across Canada to breed!  This is the longest migration distance of any local songbird, for a total of approximately 5,400 miles!!!  WOW!!!  They have a very distinct call (check out any bird field guide) that makes them easy to spot!  There are always 1 to 2 of these birds in our neighborhood every summer!  

 American Lady Butterfly on Western Wallflower

 Vanessa virginiensis - Erysimum capitatum

Lots of Butterflies!

This past week, during the brief periods of sunshine, there have been lots and lots of American Lady Butterflies flying around our neighborhood!  It turns out that they haven't just hatched out, they have migrated here!  They are winter residents of the southern United States, Mexico, and Central America south to Colombia. In the Spring they migrate to, and temporarily colonize, the northern United States, southern Canada, the West Indies, and Europe. Wow! I've never seen so many of them before.  Just lovely!

Margined White Butterfly on Forget-me-Nots

 Pieris marginalis - Myosotis scorpioides

Margined White Butterflies are common throughout the western U.S.  They do not migrate here, they live here year-round.  They overwinter as a chrysalis.  They main flowers they feed on are in the mustard family.

Pale Swallowtail Butterfly on Sweet Williams

 Papilio eurymedon - Dianthus barbatus

Pale Swallowtail Butterflies are also common throughout the western U.S., where they live year-round.  They overwinter as a chrysalis. As adults they feed on a wide variety of flowering trees, shrubs, and flowers. 

American Robin - Turdus migratorius

What's happening with the nesting birds?

What bugs are out and about?

Where are the bears?

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

If you suddenly stop getting my blog in your email, you need to sign up again. This is a problem with blogspot.com and I can't figure out how to fix it.

Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated!

Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com. Thanks!