American Black Bears - Ursus americanus
On Wednesday morning I went for a long walk in my neighborhood. The smoke had totally cleared off, the air was clear and fresh, and the sky was a brilliant blue dome with no clouds! It was glorious! At the end of my walk, as I turned at the last corner and headed home, I was astounded to see this American Black Bear and her three cubs walking down our road! I don't see bears very often, and have never seen one with THREE cubs!! The mom looked like she might head my way, so I slowly backed up. Just then, a neighbor started up her car and the noise made all four bears bolt into a blackberry thicket just off the road! I heard them crash off into the thicket, but couldn't see them anymore. I had watched them for a total of about 20 seconds! How lucky I was to see them at all! WOW!!!
Black Bears usually give birth every other year, but sometimes wait 3-4 years. Their litters range from 1-5 in number, but are usually 2-3. These cubs were probably born sometime in January or February, and weighed 7-16 ounces at birth! They would have stayed in their den with their mother, nursing, until springtime. When they emerged in spring, they weighed 5-11 lbs.! They are usually weaned by 6-8 months, but stay with their mother through their second winter, until they are about 17 months old. Adult males do not care for young, and only come together briefly with females to mate.
At this time of year bears are feeding heavily, usually consuming 5x their normal amount of food, to build up fat for the winter months. Their diet consists of fruit, berries, tree cambium, grasses, flowering plants, acorns, nuts, carrion, insects, honey, fish, and grubs. Right now in our neighborhood there are lots and lots of apple trees covered in ripe fruit, blackberries can still be found, Blackfruit Dogwood berries are ripe, pears are ripening, and grapes are in season! There's plenty here for this family to eat! They even ate some of the carrots out of our garden this week! You can tell what they've been eating by looking at their scat, which is all over our neighborhood right now!
Common Merganser - Mergus merganser
Wonderful River!
The North Yuba River is such a river of life! Wildlife is here and visible because of the river. I'm always constantly amazed at what I see! This week an astounding group of 21 Common Mergansers swam below me at the bridge! Although mergansers are social, I've never seen this many together on the river. Such beauty! Although they all look like females, there are probably lots of males in this group. The males have molted their striking black and white breeding plumage and are currently in their "eclipse" plumage, which is very similar to the female's year-round plumage.
Odocoileus hemionus columbianus
This week I was also surprised to see a spotted fawn crossing the river with two does! WOW!!! I haven't seen any does or fawns recently, so this was a real treat! The fawn was probably 2 or 3 months old as it wasn't tiny but it still had its spots! I also watched a single buck on the river bar this week! It might be one of the two that I've been seeing together lately, but I'm not sure.
Signal Crayfish - Western Aquatic Garter Snake (juvenile)
Pacifasticus leniusculus -Thamnophis couchi
I usually only find crayfish pincers in the river, but this week I found a whole dead crayfish. It was only about 6" long, and the pincers weren't orange, so it was probably a young one. Although it looked intact on the surface, upon investigation I found that all its intestines were missing!
Western Aquatic Garter Snake are excellent swimmers, and can stay underwater for several minutes. They eat fish, frogs, tadpoles, salamanders, earthworms, insects, slugs, small rodents, eggs and nestlings of birds! They do not poison or constrict their prey. They catch their prey with their teeth, and then swallow them whole! The females are ovoviviparous, and carry their eggs internally. The young snakes, up to 30 in a clutch, are born in late summer. They are 5" in length when born, and can reach up to 50" in length as adults.
River Otter - Lontra canadensis
To my delight, there were two River Otters in "our" swimming hole this week! I only saw them briefly, just a few seconds, before they disappeared!
I’ve been lucky this year and have seen River Otters four different times in the past 8 months! Many local residents have never seen an otter, because these beautiful animals are not common although they are indeed native to our river. They are uncommon because the food they eat isn’t abundant. They hunt night and day, and consume approximately 2.2-3.3 lbs of food a day. Slow moving fish (such as Sacramento Suckers which are also native) are their preferred fish (but will eat any species), crayfish, mussels, turtles, molting ducks, bird eggs, snakes, newts, and frogs compose their diet.
The reason why I’ve seen so many River Otters, is that I look for them almost every day, and I’m probably seeing the same ones again and again! Most of the time the sightings are brief, just a few seconds. One time I saw one eating a fish on land for several minutes! Usually I just see their heads above water for a few seconds, and then they disappear. They are powerful swimmers and can stay underwater for up to 8 minutes, swim at a speed of 6-8 mph, and travel underwater for 440 yards without surfacing! This time I was close enough to hear it’s snorting breaths! WOW!!!
I saw two different Ospreys on the river one morning this week. Later, when I looked at my photos on the computer, I realized that one of them was a juvenile! Juveniles have red eyes, adults have golden eyes. Was the juvenile the offspring of the adult? That would be so cool!
Confusing Petrophila Moth - Spotted Cucumber Beetle
Petrophila confusalis - Diabrotica undecimpunctata
I revisited the Bush Mint on the river's edge that had a variety of insects feeding on it a few weeks ago, and it was still blooming! I saw a few of those amazing Confusing Petrophila Moths, along with the wasps and bees I saw before. New this week there was a Spotted Cucumber Beetle and a Gray Hairstreak Butterfly!
Gray Hairstreak Butterfly - Strymon melinus
This tiny butterfly was rubbing its hindwings together! I'd never see a butterfly do that before! Apparently, scientists think that by rubbing its wings together, the appendages on the hind wings might look like moving antennae to a predator. That movement, together with those orange eyespots, may keep a predator from biting its head and killing it! Wow!
Grizzly Peak in the rain and mist
Damp Earth Art
IT FINALLY RAINED!!! On Thursday night and into Friday morning it rained and rained! We ended getting a total of a little more than a third of an inch of rain, and the Lakes Basin got over a half inch of rain! Yahoo! It smelled heavenly! I spent the whole day outside on Friday, which was cooler and cloudy and exquisite! For the past five days, there hasn't been any smoke in the air! Probably because the Dixie/Jarbo Gap and the Caldor fires have diminished somewhat. They even got some of the rain as well! 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.
What kind of bird is this?
Is the Lakes Basin going to re-open this week?
I'll talk about "close-focus" binoculars next week.
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!
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