Winter Weather

Clouds before the Storm

Last week we got about 3" of heavy wet snow and some rain. Yahoo! Winter is still here! So far, our water-year total (from 10/1/19) is 22.04" of precipitation. At this time last year the total was 24.68". The river is pretty low, and the flow rate is only 879 cfs. More rain, not snow, is predicted for this coming week. The snow level is supposed to be initially high, around 8,000', and then it will hopefully drop down to around 6,000'. Fingers crossed that the Lakes Basin will get some more snow.  We really need it!

Sierra Buttes 1/19/20

We went up to the Lakes Basin last week after the storm.  There was 2' of newly fallen snow at the 5,500' level and the lakes were frozen!  It was beautiful as always!

Northern Flicker - Colaptes auratus

Project FeederWatch!

So far, I regularly see the following birds at our feeding station;

Northern Flicker (2), Steller's Jay (22), Oregon Junco (50+), Fox Sparrow (2), 

Song Sparrow (1), Mourning Doves (8), Spotted Towhee (2), and Mountain Quail (16).  I observe them two days a week, and record the highest number (per species) that I see.  I record my observations online at the Project FeederWatch website.  This information provides statistics for the Cornell Ornithology Lab that they wouldn't have been able to gather on their own. The following quote from Project FeederWatch explains how this citizen science project works.

"It helps scientists track long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance. When thousands of FeederWatchers in communities across North America count birds and send their tallies to the FeederWatch database, the result is a treasure trove of numbers, which FeederWatch scientists analyze to draw a picture of winter bird abundance and distribution.

FeederWatch data shows which bird species visit feeders at thousands of locations across the continent every winter. The data also indicates how many individuals of each species are seen. This information can be used to measure changes in the winter ranges and abundances of bird species over time. Importantly, FeederWatch data tells us where birds are as well as where they are not. This crucial information enables scientists to piece together the most accurate population maps.

Because FeederWatchers count the number of individuals of each species they see several times throughout the winter, FeederWatch data is extremely powerful for detecting and explaining gradual changes in the wintering ranges of many species." 

So I am still feeding the birds, but clean my station regularly to prevent build up of feces and mold.  I have to admit, it has been delightful watching these birds!

Varied Thrush - Ixoreus naevius

New this week there was one Varied Thrush at our feeding station!  It was a male, easily distinguished by it's dark navy-blue chest band!  

American Robin - Mountain Quail

Turdus migratorius - Oreortyx pictus

We also have an American Robin that has recently shown up at our feeding station!  I'm not sure if it has just arrived or if it is over-wintering in our neighborhood.  Usually Robins leave in the Fall, and return sometime in late February or early March.  I'll let you know if any more show up!

The number of Mountain Quail visiting our feeding station has increased from 8 to 16 or more!  I love watching and hearing these coveys of beautifully marked birds.

Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodius 

North Yuba River Update

The river has been low and slow lately.  I haven't seen any more Minks or River Otters, even though I look for them everyday.  However, I do see our local Great Blue Heron a couple of times a week, as well as a few Common Mergansers.  

 Common Merganser - Mergus merganser

These are either all female mergansers or male mergansers in their eclipse plumage.

The males usually develop their striking breeding plumage by the end of February or early March.  These birds are primarily fish eaters, and dive underwater to catch their prey.

 Common Goldeneye - Bucephala clangula

New this week I spotted 12 Common Goldeneyes on the river!!!  There were adult and juvenile males, and adult females!  They were all in their breeding colors!  The males have the bright white dots on their black heads, and white bodies.  They breed across Alaska and Canada.  They nest in tree cavities or nest boxes, and have one brood per season.  Unlike most ducks, they winter regularly above the foothills of the western Sierra.  They mainly feed on fish, mollusks, and crustaceans in the winter, and aquatic invertebrates in the summer.  They dive to catch prey, while holding their wings close to their body and kicking with their feet.  They can fly up to 40 mph, and the wind "whistles" through their wing feathers!  They were so beautiful to watch, as they swam in a close-knit group along the river!

 Common Goldeneye - Bucephala clangula

Both males and females have golden eyes!

Ladybird Beetles - Hippodamia convergens

Winter Insect Happenings!

I haven't mentioned the local Ladybird Beetles (commonly known as Ladybugs) yet this year. They congregated on the trunks of several large trees last Fall. They will stay here all winter in a dormant state. To keep from freezing, they produce an anti-freeze in their "hemolymph" (insect body fluid). In the Spring, the females will lay their eggs on the underside of a leaf.  In 3-5 days the larvae emerge from the eggs. After 2-3 weeks of eating aphids, the larvae pupate, and turn into an adult ladybug in about a week.  The adult ladybugs continue to eat aphids, mites, and scale insects until the temperatures drop in the Fall, and their winter dormancy starts again.

Bald-faced Hornet Nest before and after Winter's arrival

Dolichovespula maculata

I mentioned this Bald-faced Hornet nest back in November.  The hive has since fallen apart, and the queen has gone dormant under leaf litter, or a tree bark, or in a rock crevice.  Only the queen survives the winter, all the other wasps die off in the cold of Fall.  I find it amazing that ANY of this nest is still hanging, since it is only made of wasp-made "paper"!

Non-biting Midges - Chironomidae Family

The Non-biting Midges are back, swarming above the tops of pine trees near the river!  Midges are often mistaken for mosquitoes due to their similar size and body shape. They lay their eggs in shallow waters. The eggs sink to the bottom. In a few days the larvae hatch out of the eggs and burrow into mud, or construct a small tube in which they live, feed and develop. The aquatic larvae feed on detritus in the water and are a great source of food for fish and aquatic insects. After 2-7 weeks, the larvae turn into pupae. The pupae then swim to the surface and the adults emerge from their pupal exuviae (cast off skin). Adults do not feed and spend their short, 3-5 day lives mating!

Most midges are active from Spring through Fall, but some orders fly in the winter! Adult midges are known for their large mating swarms. Often, these cloud-like swarms congregate in the early evening, when the sun is getting low. Usually they form just above some tall object such as a bush, tree, hilltop, or over a pool, stream, or lake. How lucky I was to watch this incredible spectacle again!

Questionable Stropharia - Chantrelle (?) 

Stropharia Ambigua - unknown species

Mushrooms are still popping up, due to the wet but warm weather!

Who's track is this?

What's happening in the local foothills?

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

If all of a sudden you haven't been getting email notices of my blog being published, just sign up again on my blog. I don't know why you got "unsubscribed". It's some kind of problem with Blogspot.com and/or FeedBurner.com. I apologize for this glitch!

Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated!

Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com

The Sacramento Delta

Great Horned Owl - Bubo Virginianus

Oh WOW an OWL!!!  This stunning Great Horned Owl was just one of the amazing birds we saw down in the Sacramento Delta last week!  These owls are mainly nocturnal and not commonly seen during the day!  We REALLY lucked out!!!  They are the top avian, nocturnal predator in North America!  They are "perch and pounce" hunters.  Ninety percent of their diet consists of mammals, such as mice, voles, ground squirrels, rats, gophers, hares, raccoons, rabbits, porcupines, skunks, carrion, and sometimes house cats!  They can carry up to three times their weight, or approximately 9 lbs!  Ten percent of their diet consists of birds including owls, raptors, waterfowl (even herons!), starlings, pigeons and nestlings.  They will also occasionally eat reptiles, amphibians, and insects.  They are found year-round across Alaska, Canada, the U.S., Mexico, and Costa Rica.

  

Great Horned Owl - Bubo Virginianus

Great Horned Owls are usually solitary except during breeding season, which is in winter.  Egg laying occurs as early as January!  They do not build their own nests, but rather occupy large, abandoned, raptor nests.  Their "horns" are technically called "plumicorns" and are neither horns nor ears, just elongated feather tufts.  Scientists haven't figured out the purpose of these tufts, but suggest that they may aid in camouflage, or in the identification of an owl by its mate.  When I first saw this owl it had its back turned to me, and its plumicorns made me think it was a cat!!!

Red-shouldered Hawk - Buteo lineatus

Owls are raptors along with eagles, hawks, kites, falcons, harriers, ospreys, and vultures. Wikipedia states that a raptor is "a species of bird that primarily hunts and feeds on vertebrates that are large relative to the hunter. Additionally, they have keen eyesight for detecting food at a distance or during flight, strong feet equipped with talons for grasping or killing prey, and powerful, curved beaks for tearing flesh."

In winter when trees are bare and prey is scarce, you will often see raptors perched in the open, searching for food.  On our delta trip, we saw a lot of raptors, especially  Red-shouldered Hawks. These beautifully marked hawks feed on small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, crayfish, insects and birds.  The one above left, was pretty wet from the morning rains!  I think they're gorgeous

Red-tailed Hawk - Buteo jamaicensis

We also saw several Red-tailed Hawks perching and searching for prey. These large raptors feed on small mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and carrion. The open wetlands of the Sacramento Delta provide a variety of prey for these handsome birds.

View off the Staten Island road

The Sacramento Delta currently contains 550,000 acres of cultivated rice.  Historic farming practice was to burn the rice fields after harvest.  This created an air pollution problem for the surrounding areas.  In 1991 the California state Rice Straw Burning Reduction Act was created.  The plan was to gradually decrease the practice of rice straw burning, with the intent of eliminating the practice completely by 2000.  (The further history of the implementation of this bill is too lengthy to include in my blog, and is available on a variety of websites.)  Currently, approximately 90% of the rice fields are now flooded post-harvest, rather than burned.  

In 2015, the rice growers and several government agencies united to form the Waterbird Habitat Enhancement Program (WHEP). The following text, from the calrice.org website, explains the purpose and effects of this program.

"This program emerged from a cooperative effort between the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), California Rice Commission, rice growers, Audubon California, Point Blue Conservation Science and The Nature Conservancy to find ways to both grow rice and improve the habitat for birds. Collaborative research that documented the benefits of on-farm management for birds led to the adoption of on-farm conservation management practices included in WHEP.

One of the greatest benefits from rice farming in the Central Valley is the environmental gains that accrue to wildlife. California ricelands provide valuable open space and habitat for 230 species of wildlife, many of which are species of special concern, threatened or endangered. This is especially important today, given that 95 percent of California's historical wetlands in the Central Valley are now gone. As many as seven million wintering waterfowl rely on the Central Valley, and rice fields provide nearly 60 percent of all of their food resources."

American White Pelican - Pelecanus erythrorhynchos

We saw so many birds during the two days we were in the delta!  One unexpected species were these American White Pelicans!  They were standing on a man-made levee, and later on they all sat down close to each other!  Such a beautiful sight!  These large birds are mainly fish eaters.  They don't dive for fish, but work together in groups and herd fish towards shallow water where they are easier to catch.  They will also eat crayfish and amphibians.  They are winter residents of the Central Valley, as well as the coast of California, Baja, Mexico, and Central/South America.

American White Pelican - Pelecanus erythrorhynchos

American White Pelicans are almost always in groups of 10 or more.  They are colonial breeders, with up to 5,000 pairs in one site!  They leave their winter grounds in late February for the breeding grounds in the north central part of North America. I was astounded at the beauty of this group of them!  Such closeness!

Sandhill Cranes - Antigone canadensis

We saw Sandhill Cranes everywhere this year!  We spotted them initially in the fields of corn stubble along the road.  They eat any roots, leftover corn, small mammals, snails, reptiles and amphibians, and insects that they can find! 

Sandhill Cranes - Northern Shovelers - Tundra Swans
 Antigone canadensis - Ana clypeata - Cygnus columbianus

At dusk they flew in and landed in the shallow wetlands along the road.  There were so many of them!  The cumulative honks of the cranes, along with the quacking of the ducks, and the hoots of the swans created quite a symphony!

Sandhill Cranes - Antigone canadensis

We woke up to rain on our second day (yahoo!) and drove out on the delta to see what we could see!  The cranes were still in the same area and we got to watch a few of them "dance"!  We weren't sure if we were seeing a mating dance, or if they were just drying out their wing feathers!  Apparently their mating dance is quite elaborate.

Sandhill Cranes & Gulls (?) - Antigone canadensis & unknown genus/species

We drove around on levees and bird-watched for hours!  It was an amazing dream come true!  Cranes were in large groups throughout the wetlands.  More than I've ever seen before!  They will be leaving in late February for their breeding grounds as far north as British Columbia, or as close as northern-eastern California.  Pairs bond for life!

Tundra Swans - Cygnus columbianus

There were more Tundra Swans in the delta than I've ever seen before!  These gracefully elegant large birds fly down from the high Arctic to spend the winter in California's Central Valley, a round-trip distance of 5,000 miles!  They feed on the leaves, stems, seeds, and tubers of aquatic plants, including rice.  They will leave for their high Arctic breeding grounds in mid February.  Two months later they will reach the high Arctic and start breeding!!!  Once pairs are bonded, they mate for life!

Red-winged Blackbird - Agelaius phoeniceus

On one of the last stops on our delta trip we came across this field covered in Red-winged Blackbirds!!!  WOW!  They were incredible to see and hear!!!  

What a beautiful way to end an absolutely amazing day!

How much snow has fallen lately?

What's happening on the river?

How's Project Feederwatch Going?

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

If all of a sudden you haven't been getting email notices of my blog being published, just sign up again on my blog. I don't know why you got "unsubscribed". It's some kind of problem with Blogspot.com and/or FeedBurner.com. I apologize for this glitch!

Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated!

Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com

Down in the Delta

I'm bird watching down in the Sacramento River Delta this week, and am not able to blog!  Check back next week for a report on the cranes, swans, pelicans, hawks and more, that we saw!  It's been amazing!

If all of a sudden you haven't been getting email notices of my blog being published, just sign up again on my blog. I don't know why you got "unsubscribed". It's some kind of problem with Blogspot.com and/or FeedBurner.com. I apologize for this glitch!

Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated!

Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com

Wood Ducks and other Wonders!

Wood Duck (male) - Aix sponsa

Back in November, a friend of mine told me where to go to see Wood Ducks in the winter.  I had never seen them before.  Just last week, I followed his directions to a lower elevation pond near Grass Valley and there they were!  WOW!!!  Oh my goodness, they were stunningly beautiful!  I spent an enchanted hour watching them in the cattail-lined pond!  They appeared to be in couples.  The male is incredibly colorful, while the female is beautifully feathered in white, gray, and brown.  The females are quite camouflaged in their environment. 

Wood Ducks (male & female) - Aix sponsa

 I have since read that pairing/courtship behavior begins in mid-winter.  They are monogamous, and typically produce two broods of 10-13 ducklings per year!!!  They nest in tree cavities that are 25' above the ground, or higher.  Adults feed mainly on acorns off the ground, but will also forage for invertebrates and aquatic plants.  I'll have to find out if they will nest near this pond and come back in the Spring!  How lucky to see these incredible, gorgeous birds!!!

 Hooded Merganser (males & female) - Lophodytes cucullatus

The males are usually really easy to see with their bright white and black heads.  The females however are super camouflaged and blend into the vegetation.  Can you see the lone female swimming behind the two males?

 Sierra Buttes - 12/16/19

Lakes Basin Update

About 10 days ago, we hiked up to Sand Pond and Sardine Lake, in the Lakes Basin.  We were the first ones to walk on the newly fallen 5" of cold, powdery snow.  It was absolutely beautiful!  I went back again this week but the snow has really diminished. The road to Sardine Lake is covered in patchy snow, but the lakes are now thinly frozen.  More snow is forecasted for this coming week!

American Dipper - Cinclus mexicanus

  

To my delight I spotted this American Dipper in the creek near Sand Pond!  It was bobbing and diving in the freezing water!  You can see a little piece of ice on one of its toes! 

Their feet don't freeze in the frigid water, for a variety of reasons. 

In heat exchange, the closer two temperatures are (eg. creek water and bird feet) the less heat is exchanged.  So if you have cold feet, you don't lose much heat to ice or snow.  Their feet are cold because of the counter-current heat exchange system between the arteries and veins in their feet.  Warm arterial blood flowing to the feet passes close to the cold venous blood returning from the feet.  The arterial blood warms up the venous blood, thus lowering the arterial blood's temperature.  This makes the arterial blood relatively cool when it flows through the feet, and less heat exchange occurs.  The cooled blood provides just enough oxygen and food to tissues, and just enough warmth to avoid frostbite!  Surprisingly most birds only lose about 5% of their body heat through their feet!

American Dipper - Buffleheads (females or immature males) 
Cinclus mexicanus - Bucephala albeola

We also spotted a pair of Buffleheads swimming on the open water of Sand Pond!

 Partially frozen Sand Pond 12/16/19

We spent a little while at Sand Pond, enjoying the sun and sparkles on the water.

Leafless Alders on the edge of Sand Pond 12/16/19

I just loved the abstract design of the forest reflected in Sand Pond!

Fresh snow on Evergreens 12/16/19

Everything was hushed and fresh and glorious in the powdery snow!

 Questionable Stropharia - unknown mushroom

Stropharia ambigua - genus & species unknown

Mushrooms in January!

With the mild winter temperatures ranging in the 40's and 50's during the day, mushrooms are popping up!  To me it's really surprising to see them in our neighborhood at this time of year.  The photo I posted last week, was a group of Questionable Stropharia mushrooms.  This fungi usually appears in the same area year after year.  Several different animals eat fungi, including deer, squirrels, and mice.  Flying Squirrels particularly like fungi, but will also eat seeds, nuts, fruit and insects.  I have never seen a Flying Squirrel even though they live in our area.  I mainly don't see them because they are nocturnal.  

 Polypore - Witch's Butter

genus & species unknown - Tremella mesenterica

We also went for a hike on the Hall's Ranch Trail which has a southern, sunny exposure.  The moss was luxuriant on the trunks of the trees, along with Polypore 
and Witch's Butter fungi! 

Unknown mushroom - Turkey Tail  

genus & species unknown - Trametes versicolor

Along the highway, I found a ring of these pale honey-colored mushrooms around the base of a pine tree, and Turkey Tail fungi growing on a decomposing log!

What happening in the Sacramento Delta?

What's happening on the creek?

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

If all of a sudden you haven't been getting email notices of my blog being published, just sign up again on my blog. I don't know why you got "unsubscribed". It's some kind of problem with Blogspot.com and/or FeedBurner.com. I apologize for this glitch!

Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated!

Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com