North Yuba River - 11/8/20
This week it was down in the 20's at night, and in the 50's during the day! We also got 1.27" of rain on Friday!!! More rain is predicted for next week as well! So I do indeed believe the fires season has ended! Yahoo!!! I'll never know if our cumulative wish for rain helped, on my blog at dampearthart.blogspot.com, but my thanks go out to all of you who contributed to that effort! I'll keep the blog up for a while, so if you haven't checked it out you still have time! We are SO grateful for the rain! It is such a relief to not be worried about fires. My thanks also go out to all the firefighters who worked so hard to save people, property, and wildlands from fire! You were amazing! I hope this winter is a wet, snowy, long one! Fingers crossed!
Rain drips!
Hooded Merganser (3 females - 1 male)
Lophodytes cucullulatus
Surprise Visitors!
Sunday night it rained, although it snowed at higher elevations. On Monday morning I was out wandering when I spotted some unusual waterfowl on the river! They probably came down to get out of the snow up in the Lakes Basin or Sierra Valley!
First I spotted a male Hooded Merganser with three females! Now that was a surprise! I've only seen one Hooded Merganser on the river the whole time I've lived here! They watched me warily as they sped downriver! They are uncommonly seen in our area, although they have apparently become more prevalent in the past ten years. I've observed them on local low-elevation ponds in our area, especially near the library in Grass Valley. You can read my previous blogs about them by entering "Hooded Merganser" in the "Search This Blog" bar at the top of the right column. It was exciting to see these four in our neighborhood!
Northern Shoveler (males/females) - Green-winged Teal (males/females)
Spatula clypeata - Anas crecca
Just a little further upstream I came across a small group of Northern Shovelers and Green-winged Teals!!! These birds normally live on ponds and marshes where they sift the water for tiny crustaceans, or Cladocerans, such as Daphnia. Like all Dabbling Ducks they sift water with their "lamellae", comb-like projections around the inner edge of the bill. They will also consume seeds, molluscs, swimming invertebrates, and plant remains.
Both species breed up in Alaska and western Canada, and migrate down to our Central Valley or as far south as Central America for the winter. Northern Shovelers migrate during the day and night. Green-winged Teals migrate at night. Has this small group of ducks been traveling together from their northern breeding grounds? Wouldn't that have been beautiful to watch them land in the North Yuba River on a snowy night?!!
Green-winged Teal (male/female)
Anas crecca
Green-winged Teals are the smallest dabbling duck in North America, measuring 14" in length. In comparison, Northern Shovelers are 19" long. I had never seen them before! The males were already in their mating colors! Apparently social courtship begins in late September-November, and by January most over-wintering females in California have mates!
I returned several times that day to watch them. Fortunately, they stayed in this one "pond-like" section of the river all day! I went back the following morning to see if they were still there, but they were gone. How lucky to see them during their short visit to our neighborhood!
Nancy and a HUGE California Black Oak!
The Halls Ranch/Fiddle Creek Ridge Trail
Due to the recent snowfall in the Lakes Basin, my friend Nancy and I hiked in the lower elevations this week. It still had gorgeous fall color! On Wednesday we hiked the Halls Ranch/Fiddle Creek Ridge Trail through a mixed conifer/deciduous old growth forest, with outstanding views of the North Yuba River Canyon. It's a steep climb in the beginning, with a gain of 1600' in elevation in the first two miles! However, the view from the top of the ridge is amazing!
Calif. Black Oak - Sierra Buttes - Canyon Live Oak & Calif. Black Oak
Quercus kelloggii - Quercus chrysolepis & Quercus kelloggii
Once you get to the ridgetop there's a distant view of the Sierra Buttes, and a plummeting view of the North Yuba River Canyon! From there we followed the ridgetop trail another 7.5 miles, up and down to Indian Valley. I don't know the history of the trail, but it was probably originally constructed by miners in the late 1800's. Now it's used by hikers, mountain bikers, and motorcyclists. We didn't see anyone else the whole day, so it doesn't seem to get much use, but there was evidence of a lot of recent trail work.
Downy Woodpecker - Giant Sawtooth Mushroom - Townsend's Solitaire
Dryobates pubescens - Neolentinus ponderosus - Myadestes townsendii
A few birds came by and checked us out while we were eating our lunch! The first arrival was a pair of Downy Woodpeckers! They live in this area year-round. A little later a Townsend's Solitaire perched nearby. It was probably on its way down to the snow-free foothills for the winter!
We also saw our first mushroom of the year, a Giant Sawtooth! Neither of us were familiar with this mushroom. We actually saw them in two places, both times they were near a dead stump. The mushroom was at least 12" wide and pretty flat on the ground. We didn't see any other kinds of mushrooms. It is probably a bit early in the fungi season, more should be showing up soon!
California Black Oak - Quercus kelloggii
The dominant trees we saw were California Black Oak, Canyon Live Oak, Douglas Fir, Incense Cedar, Ponderosa Pine and Madrone. The Black Oaks are deciduous (the Live Oaks aren't) and their golden-orange leaves were stunningly backlit and contrasted beautifully with the shadowed blue canyon!
A lot of the forest we hiked through had HUGE oversized trees and not much undergrowth, so we think it might be an "Old Growth" Forest that has never been logged. It was beautiful! The only tree stumps we saw were right alongside the trail, and the trees may have been cut to just keep the trail open.
Wikipedia states that an Old Growth Forest, "Is a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance and thereby exhibits unique ecological features and might be classified as a climax community. Typical characteristics of old-growth forest include presence of older trees, minimal signs of human disturbance, mixed-age stands, presence of canopy openings due to tree falls, pit-and-mound topography, down wood in various stages of decay, standing snags (dead trees), multilayered canopies, intact soils, a healthy fungal ecosystem, and presence of indicator species. Old-growth forests are often biologically diverse, and home to many rare species, threatened species, and endangered species of plants and animals."
Convergent Lady-beetles - Pacific Madrone - Whiteleaf Manzanita (?)
Hippodamia convergens - Arbutus menziesii - Arctostaphylos viscida (?)
On another day we hiked to the confluence of Canyon Creek and the North Yuba River! It was damp and mossy with lots of beautiful Big Leaf Maples shedding their leaves. There were some big Madrones and large tree-like Manzanitas along the trail, that had beautiful peeling bark. At the confluence, there were lots of Convergent Lady-beetles under the logs, rocks, and leaves on the ground! It was another lovely day out in nature!
Gray's Lovage seed heads - Ligusticum grayii
Lingering Fall Color!
Here are a few photos of the incredible fall beauty in our area! Enjoy!
California Black Oak - Quercus kelloggii
Frosty Leaves
North Yuba River - 10/8/20
Black Locust - Robinia pseudoacacia
Indian Rhubarb - Darmera peltata
What is Project FeederWatch?
What's happening in the Lakes Basin?
What are the Lady-beetles doing?
Check back next week for the answers to these questions and more!
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