It's Summer!

Osprey - Pandion haliateus

The weather has been in the 90's with clear blue skies, it's summertime! There's been a lot more wildlife activity on our beautiful river corridor. I've found that mornings and evenings are the best times to observe wild animals. Every morning I go down to one particular spot on the edge of the river to see what's happening. Twice this week, I saw an Osprey perched in a fir tree across the river! They hunt by perching above a river or lake, scanning for prey, and then plunging down feet-first to catch a fish. They are the only raptor in North America that uses this method of hunting. The soles of its feet have scales with sharp points to help hold slippery fish. Look at those sharp talons!!! 

Osprey - Pandion haliateus

The first time I saw this Osprey, it had a large trout in its talons that it was eating!  You can see the open pinkish mouth of the fish right under the only visible talon above.  Its tail can be seen hanging to the left and below the branch the Osprey is perched on.  It was a good sized fish!  99% of an Osprey's diet is fish.  Last Wednesday, the California Department of Fish and Game just planted the North Fork of the Yuba River, where I live, with Rainbow Trout!  This morning I saw an Osprey in the river!  It had just caught a fish!  I watched it flap its wings, rise up and out of the river, and fly away with a fish in its talons!  Wow!!! It was amazing to watch!  Such strength and agility!

Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias

I've been seeing two separate Great Blue Herons on the river this week.  I never see them together.  Apparently these birds only live colonially during breeding season.  The rest of the year they hunt and roost on their own.  They are the tallest bird on our river, being 5' tall, with a 6' wingspan!!  They have very keen eyesight, like most wildlife, and fly off as soon as they see me. I love their elegant, long, graceful feathers!

Common Mergansers - Mergus merganser

The local Common Merganser population has doubled in size!  Every day now, I usually see 12-15 Common Mergansers together on the river!  My neighbor says that there are 9 juveniles in the group!  I haven't seen them that closely.  I have however seen a single mom with one little duckling (photos below) sleeping on a beach about half a mile downriver!  I've seen them twice in the same area.  The first time I saw them, they were sleeping together about two feet away from a sleeping Canada Goose!  I saw them again a week later, just by themselves, sleeping away on the same beach!  I have read that Common Mergansers are social birds, and generally stay in groups.  I have no idea why this single mom and her one offspring are separated from the large group up-river.  Also, I never realized that these ducks sleep until 9:00 or so in the morning!!!  Do they have tiring nights, being on guard for predators?  So many questions...

Common Mergansers - Mergus merganser

Usually the Common Mergansers females on our river have 5-9 ducklings swimming right behind them in the Spring.  This year we didn't see any young fuzzy ducklings!  It was probably due to the late heavy rains we got this past Spring, and the high flow of the river at that time.  The duckling above is the only little duckling I've seen this year.  I sure hope it survives. It was definitely bigger the second time I saw it!  Look at his cute, little, webbed feet!

American Dipper - Cinclus mexicanus

The bird that I asked about at the end of last week's post is an American Dipper.  It has a caddisfly larva case, in its beak!  It probably ate it, or pecked the case off and ate it.  I'm not sure what it did, because it flew off with the whole thing in its beak.  Dippers probe, walk, and swim underwater looking for invertebrates to eat.  Usually you will only see one dipper at at time, as they are territorial and keep other dippers off their section of the river or stream.  This week I saw three dippers repeatedly fly and stop together along the edge of the river!  I was quite curious about what was happening!  I zoomed in with my camera and was thrilled to see a dipper fledgling begging for food from its parent!!! Wow!  I've never seen young dippers before!  Both parents will feed the fledglings.  I went back a few days later and saw the three of them still together, with the fledglings begging anytime a parent was near!  The feeding by the parents varies from 5-30 days!  Perhaps depending on the availability of food?  

 Golden Stonefly nymph exoskeletons - Spotted Sandpiper

Hesperoperia pacifica - Actitis macularia

On the dry river rocks, that edge the river, there are a lot of Stonefly nymph exoskeletons.  These aquatic insects live underwater up to a year or more, feeding on algae, detritus, other aquatic invertebrates, and plant material.  When they are ready to turn into adults, they climb out of the river onto dry rocks.  The sun dries them out and the back of their exoskeleton splits open.  The adult then pulls itself out of its exoskeleton, unfolds its wings, dries out and flies off.  Sometimes hundreds of Stoneflies emerge at the same time!  The adult Stoneflies live for about a month, feeding on nectar and algae, mating, and laying eggs!  

Spotted Sandpipers search the shoreline for insects to eat.  Adult Stoneflies are one of the many insects they consume!  I saw a Sandpiper on the river about a month ago.  Back then it didn't have any spots, its breast and belly were pure white.  Now the Sandpipers I see are all spotted, indicating that it's their breeding season.  I love how they bob up and down while searching for insects!  They are the only shorebirds that live up in the Sierras!  I've even seen them up in the Lakes Basin!

 Mule Deer (doe) crossing the North Yuba River - Odocoileus hemionus

Mammal Update!

I was out photographing the Common Mergansers on the river, when I noticed a distant deer fording the river!!!  That's a new one for me!  The river is pretty shallow right now, and it looked like the deer just walked across, and didn't even have to swim!  Wow!  How surprising to see!

Columbian Black-tailed Deer (buck) - Odocoileus hemionus columbianus

This beautiful buck has been hanging around the human habitation in my neighborhood, for the past week or so.  We think it might be because there is a Mountain Lion in the vicinity!  A neighbor has seen a lion with a cub this past week!  Wouldn't that be something to see?!!  In the meantime, we really enjoy watching this handsome buck, with his antlers all in velvet, graze in the immediate area!

Gray Fox - Urocyon cinereoargenteus

A fox, that really looks like the one that had the two kits, has been hanging around our property!  Its coat looks a bit mangy. I sure hope that fox family is doing good!  Maybe I'll get lucky, and see the little foxes too!

 Gaping Keckiella - Lemmon's Keckiella

Keckiella breviflora - Keckiella lemmonii

Local Blossoms!

Although it's pretty hot and dry, there are some flowers blooming in our neighborhood. Here are some of my favorites!

Alaska Rein Orchid - Rattlesnake Plantain Orchid

Piperia unalascensis - Goodyeara oblongifolia

Blazing Star - Scarlet Monkeyflower

Mentzelia laevicaulis - Mimulus cardinalis

Metallic Sweat Bee - White-lined Sphinx Moth

Agopostemon texanus - Hyles lineata

Interesting Insects!

Down in our garden there is an abundance of flowers attracting lots of insects!  Here are a few of the unique ones!  I know that there are lots of native bees (1,500+) that don't look like honey bees.  I've seen several collections of bees in museums.  The variety is astounding!  I was always surprised to see bright green bees in the collections.  I was super surprised to see a green bee feeding on the lavender flowers in our garden!  Wow!  They were really tiny, but their bright green color was gorgeous!  Some species of Sweat Bees are attracted to human sweat, hence their name!

The Sphinx Moths are always fascinating to watch.  They flap their wings so fast, they blur like a hummingbirds' wings!  These moths will have two broods between February and November.  The larvae (caterpillars) feed on a variety of plants, and pupate underground.  Some years they are in our garden as soon as the first flowers bloom.  This year they arrived about three weeks ago. Unlike butterflies, they stay out feeding in our garden until way past dusk.  

Common Whitetail Dragonflies (males) - Plathemis lydia

I have never seen this kind of dragonfly before, with its transparent black markings on transparent wings!  It was stunning!  The photo on the left makes it look like it has 8 wings, but its really only four wings with four shadows!

Orange Sulfur Butterfly - Goldenrod Crab Spiders female & male (inset)
Colias eurytheme - Misumena vatia

Newly arrived this week are the bright yellow Orange Sulfur Butterflies!  So pretty!   I also luckily found a male Crab Spider in our garden.  They are super tiny, just a fraction of the female's size!  The wide-spread banded legs are distinctive for the male. Female crab spiders do not spin webs.  They wait and ambush their prey, then paralyze them with a toxic venom.  I couldn't find any definitive information about whether or not the female crab spider eats the male. I did find information that stated that 65% of all female spiders eat the males, before, during, or after copulation!  Sheesh! 

What kind of flowers are these?

What's happening in the Lakes Basin?

Are the Tanagers and Orioles all gone?

What kind of fish and insects are in the river?

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

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