North Yuba River insect hatch!
The North Yuba River is right out my door. Almost every day I go wandering along its borders, delighting in whatever I see. Once again this week I saw things I'd never seen before! The more you look the more you see, and there is always more to learn. The more you learn, the more you realize that you really don't know much! Just this morning, I was down on the river and saw this incredible cloud of insects hovering right above the river! How beautiful! I don't know what kind of insects they are, but I'll try to find out. One discovery leads to another! This will be a brief blog. The daylight hours are shortening and I gotta go outside!
Common Mergansers - Mergus merganser
Last week, the mother Merganser and her duckling were accepted by the group of 9 Mergansers! (The duckling is the one facing the camera, above.) Since then, the group itself has broken up into smaller groups of 2 to 3. In fact, I don't always see them every morning. Perhaps there are fewer fish available, or the shortened daylight hours have triggered a change in behavior. They will probably start migrating to California's Central Valley, the southern U.S., or northern Mexico in a few weeks, or more.
American Dipper - Canada Geese
Cinclus mexicanus - Branta canadensis
American Dippers are found singly along the river. They each establish a territory in a section of the river that they defend from other dippers. They usually live here year-round.
A pair of Canada Geese are almost always seen together on the river, foraging for plants to eat. They mate for life! This year they didn't raise any ducklings! Probably because of the wet, rainy, and cold Spring we had. For the past few years, they have been here almost year-round, depending upon the severity of winter.
Common Raven - Great Blue Heron
Corvus corax - Ardea herodia
To my surprise there were two Common Ravens walking around on the river rocks one morning! One of them (above photo) got pretty close to our resident Great Blue Heron, who quickly moved away! I have no idea what they were doing. Maybe they were just checking out the possibilities for food. The heron and the ravens are usually year-round residents.
Osprey - Belted Kingfisher (female)
Pandion haliaetus- Megaceryle alcyon
The last time I saw our local Osprey was more than a week ago! Perhaps he/she found a better source for fish, further down the river. I sure hope I see it again soon!
Surprisingly I saw two Belted Kingfishers together! They were flying around and perching close to each other one morning. Belted Kingfisher adults do not stay together after the breeding season. However, the young may stay around with female parent for up to three weeks after fledging! Since breeding season ended back in the end of June, these kingfishers could possibly be a mother and her young! How exciting!
Rainbow Trout Fry - Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus
There are still LOTS of Rainbow Trout fry in the shallow water of the river. Safety in numbers seems to be their plan of defense!
Mountain Garter Snake - Northwestern Fence Lizard (?)
Thamnophis elegans elegans - Sceloporus occidentalis occidentalis
The dry river rocks are plenty warm for reptiles to be active! The garter snake was little, about 6 inches long and tiny! The lizard was one of many that were scampering over the rocks and dry vegetation. As long as the weather is warm, these cold bloodied reptiles and their insect prey will be remain active.
Steller's Jay - Cyanocitta stelleri
Down in the Garden!
The sunflowers are going to seed in our garden. Lots of birds are showing up to feed on the seeds. I love watching the antics of the Steller's Jays that are too heavy to perch on the seed heads. They hang upside down, jump up and peck, and stretch to reach the seed heads from the fence railings.
Lesser Goldfinch (male and female)
Carduelis psaltria
The Lesser Goldfinches are back! These little birds eat LOTS of seeds! On average a goldfinch will eat 1/4 to 1/2 its body weight daily, which would be approximately 619-1,238 seeds a day! WOW! That is a lot of seed hulling! It also explains why they appear to eat continuously during the daylight hours. When the temps get cooler, they will migrate down to the foothills and valleys of California for the winter. It is so fun to watch these little birds (4.5" in length), the smallest of all goldfinches, feast in our garden!
Bee Wolf - Yellow-faced Bumble Bee
Bombus vosnesenskii - Philanthus crabroniformis
The Bee Wolf is a wasp that preys on honeybees. Their yellow eyes make them easy to distinguish from other wasps. Adult females dig underground, branching burrows. Each side tunnel ends in a brood chamber where 1-6 paralyzed bees are deposited. The female Bee Wolf lays an egg on each bee and seals up the tunnel. When the larvae hatch they eat the paralyzed bees, pupate, and dig out of the burrow as adults!!!
There are LOTS of Yellow-faced Bumble Bees in our garden right now. During the Spring and Summer, these Bumble Bees live in an underground burrow with one queen and 200-300 female worker bees. At the end of the summer the queen will lay unfertilized eggs from which male Bumble Bees will hatch. After they mate with a queen they leave the hive and do not return. Many of the males spend the night on our flowers!
Woodland Skipper - Mylitta Crescent Butterfly
Ochlodes sylvanoides - Phycoides mylitta
Right now there's an abundance of these little butterflies in our garden. Both of these beauties are quite small, only about 1/2" in size! They are obviously important pollinators! Skippers are not true butterflies and differ from them in several ways, including hooked antennae, stronger wing muscles, and more well-developed eyes.
California Tent Moth caterpillars - Malacosoma californicum
Last week I posted a photo of some caterpillars in a "tent" of silken threads. North America .
They start from a mass of eggs, up to 350, laid by an adult in the
fall. The eggs overwinter, and hatch into caterpillars in the
spring/summer. They live and eat the leaves of deciduous trees.
They will pupate soon, then hatch out as adults and lay eggs. In some
areas of North America these caterpillars have
created a lot of damage to trees, especially aspens. Luckily in our area
their population is not at an infestation level. We see them every year,
but not in huge concentrations.
What's happening in the Lakes Basin?
Where are the bears?
Will the Osprey return?
Check back next week for the answers to these questions and more!
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Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com
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