Goldfinches!

Lesser Goldfinch (female & fledglings) - Carduelis psaltria

Down in our garden there have been lots of Lesser Goldfinches feasting on the sunflower seeds.  I love hearing their tiny calls, and watching their acrobatic maneuvers to get seeds.  When the temps get cooler, these little birds 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!

A few years back I figured out approximately how many seeds a Lesser Goldfinch might eat in a day. My research was based on the information that birds eat 1/2 to 1/4 of their weight daily, and that a Lesser Goldfinch weighs about .33 oz. I pried the sunflower seeds from the dried flower heads (It's not as easy as you would think!) and found out that 37.5 seeds add up to .01 oz. in weight. However, the seeds I weighed were still in their hulls. The actual weight of JUST the seeds is probably at least half that weight. So I assumed that it would take 75 seeds to add up to .01 oz of weight. So, if a Lesser Goldfinch ate 1/4 of its weight (.0825 oz) in a day, it would need to eat approximately 619 seeds. If a Lesser Goldfinch ate 1/2 of its weight (.165 oz) in a day it would need to eat approximately 1,238 seeds!!! WOW! That is a lot of seed hulling! It also explains why they appear to eat continuously during the daylight hours! This is just an estimate, but it was fun to figure out! 

Lesser Goldfinches usually have 2 broods a year, sometimes even three!  Right now there are several fledgling goldfinches begging for food in our garden!  These are probably from second broods.  This video shows a full-sized fledgling fluttering its wings, hoping an adult will feed it!

Lesser Goldfinch (female - male) - Carduelis psaltria

The black cap easily distinguishes the male from the female Lesser Goldfinch.

Fundraising for Wildlife!

I've been busy lately, selling my art and photo-cards to raise money for the Wildlife Disaster Network, out of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.  So far I've raised over $400 this week, thanks to the generosity of the local residents of Camptonville and Downieville!  The art I featured last week. The photo-cards are blank notecards featuring 16 different photos from this blog (see sample composite above).  I'm headed out the door to do more fund raising right now!  If you would like to donate to an organization that helps wildlife check out my Sept. 3 blog, where I have links to three different wildlife organizations. Thanks! 

Northern Bluet Damselfly - Enallagma cyathigerum

Recently some dear friends of mine astonished me by giving me a pair of Close-Focus Binoculars!  I had read about this type of binoculars in naturalist Kate Marianchild's book Secrets of the Oak Woodlands: Plants & Animals among California's Oaks, but had never looked through a pair.  They are astonishing!!!  My friends gave me  a pair of Pentax Papilio II, 8.5 x 21, Extremely-Close Focusing, 0.5m/1.6ft binoculars!  The clarity and optics of this model are absolutely excellent!  I highly recommend them.  With these binoculars you can look closely at the underbelly of a lizard, watch a bee gather pollen on an anther, see the scales in a butterfly's wings, and count the hairs on a plant stem!  Another level of natural history observation and beauty is revealed through these binoculars!  I love the focal length of these binoculars, and the way the background goes out of focus when close objects are in focus.  Although not as powerful for distant objects, you can still "bird watch" with them!  Try a pair, you'll love them!

Sunflowers & Honey Bees - Anna's Hummingbird - Western Fence Lizard

Here are some photos that are similar to what you can see with Close-Focus Binoculars!  Such beauty!

Dragonfly Wing

Grizzly Peak and Storm Clouds

Damp Earth Art

Rain is in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning!  Yahoo!  Once again I hope it pours! The Dixie/Jarbo Gap and the Caldor fires have diminished a lot. Fingers crossed that they continue to diminish. I am so grateful that there aren't any fires in our immediate area. My heart goes out to those who have lost their homes in this unprecedented fire season. My unending thanks go to the fire fighters who continue to battle these dangerous fires every day.

I so wish it would rain! We can't do anything about the drought, the wind, hot temperatures and fires. Worry makes it harder to bear. So anytime I think of it, I think rain, rain, rain. My intention is to focus on the need for rain, and through collective positive energy invoke rain to fall. It is just a wish, a thought, and a hope. I've created a blog, dampearthart.blogspot.com, where I post photographs, quotes, and artworks that feature rain.

Acorn Woodpecker - Melanerpes formicivorous

This is an Acorn Woodpecker!  It flew over our garden a few weeks ago!  This type of woodpecker usually lives year-round in the foothills where it eats mainly acorns and insects!  I've never seen one in our neighborhood before!  Maybe it's too hot and dry in the foothills, so this male came looking for food!  We don't have very many oaks in our neighborhood, but there are a lot nearby on some south facing slopes.

What's happening in the Lakes Basin?

Are the bears and bucks still around?

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

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Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated. Please feel free to email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com. Thanks!