Belted Kingfisher (male) - Megaceryle alcyon
It's been about two months since I wrote about the local ponds I've been watching. Last week I visited the one closest to our home and found it to be pretty much the same with a few new residents!
This male Belted Kingfisher is still presiding over the pond, declaring his territory with a rattling call. Male kingfishers lack the rust-colored band across their chest, that is present in females. Solitary except during breeding season, this Belted Kingfisher has been here all winter. I haven't seen a female in the area, but now is the time that they would be excavating their nesting burrow. The male does most of the excavation, but the female helps. The subterranean burrows are usually made near the top of a vegetation free, dirt, cut-bank or cliff, and can extend for 16'-25' underground!!! It usually takes 3-7 days or more to create the burrow. The female lays 5-7 eggs, and the incubation period is 22 days. Both parents feed the nestlings, which fledge after 27-29 days. Parents continue to feed fledglings for an additional 3 weeks. I'll check back in a week or so, and see if I can find a burrow entrance in a nearby dirt bank!
Wood Duck (male) - Aix sponsa
To my delight there was a pair of Wood Ducks in the pond! I hadn't seen them there before! They are SO beautiful! These duck nest in the foothills of the western Sierra, usually below 3,000' - 4,000' in elevation. They are tree-cavity nesters, but do not use abandoned woodpecker cavities. They use natural cavities that have formed in a mature tree, often where a branch has broken off due to heart rot. The Wood Duck is the only North American duck that regularly produces two broods in one 5-6 month breeding season! The female lays 10-13 eggs in her feather-lined nest, anytime between March and June. The incubation period is 30 days. The ducklings are born precocial, and leave the nest usually within 24 hours after hatching. They jump to the ground and their mother leads them to water, where they immediately start feeding! After approximately 30 days, the female abandons the young ducklings, to start another brood! This pond is in the right elevation/location for these ducks to nest. I hope I this beautiful pair stick around!
Wood Duck (female) - Aix sponsa
Bufflehead (male - female) - Bucephala albeola
There were two pairs of Bufflehead Ducks swimming and diving in the pond. Hopefully they will raise their young here! Buffleheads are monogamous, and often stay mated for several years. Females re-nest in the same area year after year. The tendency of an organism to stay in or habitually return to a particular area to breed and raise young is called philopatry. They are tree-cavity nesters, usually in abandoned cavities made by Northern Flickers. Around the first week in May, the female will lay 4-17 eggs in the nest cavity, which she has lined with feathers from her chest! The incubation period is 30-33 days. The young are born precocial, with their eyes open and covered in down. They leave the nest within 24-36 hours, when their feathers are totally dried out. They jump to the ground and their mother leads them to water, where they immediately start feeding! After 5-6 weeks, the mother abandons them. Typically Buffleheads nest in the boreal forests and aspen woodlands of Canada and Alaska, but since 1996 an increasing number of nesting pairs have been discovered in small mountain lakes in the northern Sierra Nevada! I have seen Buffleheads with babies up in the Lakes Basin. That would be so cool if they raised babies in this pond!
There was a pair of Canada Geese on the pond, that has been there for a while.
It will be interesting to see if they raise their young there! Usually, they like to forage on grasses on the ground, as well as on pond/river plants. There's not much grass in the area of this pond, so they probably won't nest here. I'll just have to wait and see!
Frog eggs covered in algae - Frog eggs uncovered
unknown species (photographed on 2/28/20)
Frog embryos photographed on 2/28/20 - Frog embryos photographed on 4/14/20
The frog embryos that I saw this week were about twice as big as the ones I saw in February. Their shape had changed and they looked like little fishes! I'll go back again this week and see if they "hatch" out as tadpoles. It's so interesting what you can see if you just take a look, especially if you visit the same site repeatedly!
Tadpole - Pacific Chorus/Treefrog (gray form)
There were several adult frogs in and on the edge of the ditches. The most common ones were Pacific Chorus/Treefrogs. All of them were about 1" - 2" in length. Pretty tiny!
Water Mite - Greater Bee Fly
Hydrachna sp. - Bombylius major
Interesting small Critters
There were also some insects in and around the ditches. The most conspicuous in the water, because of their color, were the tiny, bright-orange Water Mites. Turns out these tiny critters have eight legs and are in the same class as spiders, Arachnida. They are piercer-predators and feed on insect larva, aquatic plants, and tiny crustaceans. The following information on their life-cycle is from the website https://www.sacsplash.org/critter/water-mite.
Roadside Wet Ditches
It has also been awhile since I checked on the frog eggs in the ditches. Last time I looked, in the end of February, there were eggs and frog embryos in the gelatinous masses. Since then it snowed and rained a bunch. Now it's warmed up and their development is progressing quickly! I have no idea if the eggs I saw in February are the same ones I saw this week. Probably not, but I'll never know!
The frog embryos that I saw this week were about twice as big as the ones I saw in February. Their shape had changed and they looked like little fishes! I'll go back again this week and see if they "hatch" out as tadpoles. It's so interesting what you can see if you just take a look, especially if you visit the same site repeatedly!
sp. unknown - Pseudacris regilla
There were several adult frogs in and on the edge of the ditches. The most common ones were Pacific Chorus/Treefrogs. All of them were about 1" - 2" in length. Pretty tiny!
Foothill Yellow-legged Frog (?) - unknown species
Rana boylei (?) - Rana sp. (?)
It was difficult to identify them. I need to learn a lot more about all of them!
It was difficult to identify them. I need to learn a lot more about all of them!
Hydrachna sp. - Bombylius major
Interesting small Critters
There were also some insects in and around the ditches. The most conspicuous in the water, because of their color, were the tiny, bright-orange Water Mites. Turns out these tiny critters have eight legs and are in the same class as spiders, Arachnida. They are piercer-predators and feed on insect larva, aquatic plants, and tiny crustaceans. The following information on their life-cycle is from the website https://www.sacsplash.org/critter/water-mite.
"Fun facts: The larva of this red species of Water Mite is a parasite on the Water Boatman. The Water Boatman is a common insect in vernal pools. The Water Boatman helps the Water Mite larva in two ways. It shares its energy and provides a free taxi service. The Water Mite larva attaches to a Water Boatman and sucks out some of its body fluids for energy. When a Water Boatman flies to other vernal pools, it carries the Water Mite larva along. One Sacramento scientist collected 100 Water Boatmen from a vernal pool. He marked each one with a tiny drop of nail polish. Two weeks later, he found two of the marked bugs in a vernal pool 70 miles away! Any Water Mite larvae on those two Water Boatmen got a long ride to a new vernal pool.
Life cycle: Water Mites go through four stages of life: egg, larva, nymph and adult. When a vernal pool fills with water, the larvae hatch out of the eggs. Each larva needs to find a Water Boatman to parasitize. The larva will cling to the outside of a Water Boatman until the larva is fully grown. Then it drops off the host and turns into a nymph. The nymph is a predator that swims in the vernal pool. When the nymph is ready to become an adult, it clings to an underwater plant and changes into its adult form. After finding a mate, the female produces a jelly-like glob of eggs, which she attaches to a plant. Then she dies. The eggs remain there as the pool dries up. They are adapted to survive the long, hot summer. When the winter rains fill the vernal pool, the Water Mite repeats its life cycle."
_______
The most conspicuous insect I observed flying around the wet ditches (other than butterflies) were Bee Flies. The following information on their life cycle is from the website https://www.fs.fed.us./wildflowers/pollinators
"Early, in the spring it is easy to see some furry insects flying and hovering just above ground. These are flies of the genus Bombylius, members of a large family of flies, Bombyliidae, known as bee flies. Bombylius flies are widely distributed in the northern hemisphere; they are found in North America as well as in Europe and Asia.
They are among the many flies that imitate bees. But unlike them they have only two wings instead of four, large eyes, skinny long legs and very short antennae. They are prodigious fliers that can hover in midair, move very fast and maneuver with great skill, changing directions in the blink of an eye. They possess a stiff and long tongue, or proboscis, which they use for probing into flowers to sip their nectar while hovering in front of them. By not landing on the flower they seem to try to avoid the predators that may be hiding in them, such as crab spiders or ambush bugs. Despite barely touching the flowers some pollen sticks to their furry coat and is easily transported to other flowers.
They are visitors of some early spring flowers such as spring beauty, Claytonia virginica, the same flowers that are visited by some bees such as Andrena. They are just as efficient pollinators of these flowers as are the bees and they are more frequent visitors so, all and all, they probably pollinate more flowers than these bees.
The reason why it diligently hovers over bare ground early in the spring is that it is looking for bee nests, probably the same ones with which they compete for nectar. The bees dig tunnels and lay their eggs at their bottoms after collecting enough pollen to feed the larvae. This requires numerous trips, thus the bee fly takes advantage of the mother’s absence and lays its eggs in such nests. Making use of its flying prowess, it does not even need to land but it flicks its abdomen while hovering over the open burrow, letting one egg fall in or near it. The fly larva finds its way to the chamber where the mother bee has laid the provisions and the egg and proceeds to feed on the stored pollen. Afterwards it devours the bee larvae; when it is fully grown, it pupates and stays inside the nest until next spring."
Scotch Broom - Cytisus scoparius
Since the recent rains, I've been pulling up
lots of Scotch Broom (Cytisus scoparius) bushes, a
non-native, invasive species. I've been watching it move further and
further up the North
Yuba River
Canyon
The following information,
from http://www.ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=17357, explains the history and current status of
these gall mites.
"Scotch broom was introduced into North
America in the mid-1800s from Europe as an
ornamental and for erosion control. The bright yellow flowers and rapid growth
has made it a prized ornamental however its ability to out-compete native
plants and form dense stands has also made it one of California
The broom gall mite (Aceria genistae) which
is actually not an insect but more closely related to spiders and ticks has
recently taken residence on the invasive plant Scotch broom (Cytisus
scoparius). It attacks Scotch broom by forming small growths on the plants buds
which greatly reduces the ability for it to grow and reproduce. In some areas,
the gall mite has even killed large stands of broom. Native to Europe, the mite
was first found on Scotch broom in the Tacoma , Washington and Portland ,
Oregon Washington
and Oregon and even into parts of British Columbia Ashland ,
Oregon with no occurrences in California
However, beginning in 2014, the mite has
been found in many areas throughout El Dorado ,
Placer and Nevada counties in California
If you suspect evidence of Scotch broom gall
mites, the University
of California Cooperative Extension
If everyone got
out and pulled out 50 or 100 of these plants, the benefits would be huge! So if
you're looking for something to do, get out there and start pulling!
I'll talk about this critter next week!
What's blooming?
What's happening in the Lakes Basin?
Are birds starting to make nests?
Where are the Bears?
Where are the Bears?
Check back next week for the answers to these questions and more!
During these days of Covid-19 and uncertainty, I hope you are all healthy and coping with this unusual stress. Get out in nature while you have the time! It can be so healing!
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