Dark-eyed Juncos (female-top, male-bottom) - Junco hyemalis
Over the past two weeks small flocks of little birds have arrived in our neighborhood! Some of them have come down from the colder, higher elevations and will spend the winter here. Others are passing through on their way further south, or down to the foothills. This happens every fall, and I rejoice every time they arrive!
There are six subspecies of Dark-eyed Juncos in North America. The ones we have locally are the "Oregon" subspecies. Males have black hoods. Females have gray hoods. They are common and widespread across the U.S. in winter. Seeds are their preferred food. They will spend the winter here, and migrate up to higher elevations to breed in the spring. They are commonly seen in large flocks, except during the breeding season.
Pine Siskin - Spinus pinus
Last winter the Pine Siskin population in California, and across the U.S., suffered a tremendous loss from the salmonella bacteria in unclean bird feeders. It is the reason why I have TOTALLY stopped feeding birds. My focus now is to plant plants in our garden that will feed the birds. Right now there are hundreds of dried up sunflowers in our garden, that the birds have been feasting on! I plan to add more native plants next spring, and for years to come. This is a safe way to "feed the birds"! So far I've seen a couple of small flocks of Pine Siskins in our neighborhood! I am so glad that they have returned!
Pine Siskins are named for their preference for pine and other conifer seeds. They will hang from the tips of branches to glean seeds from the cones. They also feed on the ground for a wide variety of grass and shrub seeds, garden vegetable leaves and stems, and insects. Sap in tree trunk holes, that Sapsuckers have made, can also be part of their diet! They will also ingest minerals along the sides of roads! They range widely and erratically in response to seed crops. Their main food in winter is cone seeds and tree buds. Locally they've been eating the seeds from this year's cedar cones.
When food is plentiful they will store lots of seeds in their crop, which gets them through cold winter nights. Unlike hummingbirds, that go into a state of torpor overnight, Pine Siskins ramp up their metabolic rate to stay warm at night! They also put on a layer of fat for winter! They travel in small to large flocks all year, never staying long in any one area, in their constant search for food. I love watching these flocks of little birds flying in unison from tree to tree, and hearing their busy chatter as they forage and perch!
Bushtits (males) - Psaltriparus minimus
Bushtits live year-round in California. They are tiny little birds, measuring only 4.5" in length, and weighing only 6 oz. I'm not sure if they stay here in the winter. They mainly eat insects and spiders, as well as some seeds. Most of the year they live in flocks of 10-40 birds. In the end of February to early March, they pair off to breed and build their nest. It will take both the male and the female a month or more to build their amazing, 6"-12", sock-like nest of spider webs and plant material! I've seen these nests in museums, but never in the wild. It would be fabulous to find one! They female lays 4-10 eggs in the nest, and may have two broods in a season. Interestingly, adult male offspring help the mated pair raise their young! Also, incredibly the whole family sleep together in the sock-like nest!
Golden-crowned Kinglet (males) - Regulus satrapa
Locally, I've been watching these tiny Golden-crowned Kinglets flit about in the bare lilac bushes this week! Apparently they are looking for tiny insects to eat! Being so tiny, only 4" in length and 6 grams in weight, they can balance on the skinny tips of branches and glean insects! They move so fast, it was hard to get some photos! I took the photo on the right two years ago, when I found one dying on a trail (see"A Bird in my Hand" - Oct. 13, 2019 blog).
These beautiful, tiny, birds are found across North America, and are one of the most abundant bird species found in the dense forests of the Sierra, from 4500'-9000' in elevation. They prefer to remain year-round in these forests. They have unusually thick fluffy plumage that keeps them warm in the winter! In areas of extreme cold, they may even huddle together overnight! They specialize in eating insects at the tips of slender branches, under bark, and in tufts of conifer needles. Their small size and their ability to hover makes this feeding strategy possible. This strategy is apparently quite successful, as they outnumber all other bird species in these forests!
Their golden crown is very distinctive, as well as the black and white stripes on their head. Only the males have the golden crown. I usually see some every winter in our neighborhood. We're so lucky to see them here at 2,674' in elevation, way below their normal range!
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (adults) - Regulus calendula
Ruby-crowned Kinglets are named for the bright scarlet "crown patch" the male exhibits when excited or antagonized. Most of the time the crown isn't visible. These tiny birds mainly inhabit the snow-free foothills during winter. In Spring they move up to the Lodgepole/Hemlock forests to breed, around 9000' in elevation. They have been coming to our neighborhood every winter for years! Their fluffy, thick plumage keeps them warm at night. For food, they glean small insects off of twigs and branches.
Yellow-rumped Warbler (first year - male) - Setophaga coronata
I was surprised to see a small flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers feeding in the lilacs across the street this week. Apparently local Yellow-rumped Warblers are found year-round in the Sierra, and migrate down to the lower elevations for winter. In other parts of the US they migrate down to the desert areas or even down to Costa Rica for the winter, from their breeding grounds across northern Alaska and Canada. The Lakes Basin is one of the southern most areas in which these warblers breed. They mainly feed on insects and other small invertebrates in the summer, and switch to insects and berries in the winter. I'll have to keep an eye out for them this winter!
Insect-egg Slime Mold - Leocarpus fragilis
An Odd Organism!
To our surprise bright orange-yellow slime molds have been showing up in the forest this week. It's all over the place! It isn't a mold or fungus, it's a group of single-celled organisms that move around and engulf their food, mainly bacteria! The following quotations from several websites briefly explain this complex organism!
The following information is from https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2012.11811
"In the wild, P. polycephalum rummages through leaf litter and oozes along logs searching for the bacteria, fungal spores and other microbes that it envelops and digests à la the amorphous alien in the 1958 horror film The Blob. Although P. polycephalum often acts like a colony of cooperative individuals foraging together, it in fact spends most of its life as a single cell containing millions of nuclei, small sacs of DNA, enzymes and proteins. This one cell is a master shape-shifter. P. polycephalum takes on different appearances depending on where and how it is growing: In the forest it might fatten itself into giant yellow globs or remain as unassuming as a smear of mustard on the underside of a leaf; in the lab, confined to a petri dish, it usually spreads itself thin across the agar, branching like coral."
The following information is from,
"Slime molds have characteristics of both molds and protozoa. Under certain conditions, the slime mold exists as masses of cytoplasm, similar to amoebae. It moves over rotting logs or leaves and feeds by phagocytosis. The amoeba stage is called the plasmodium, which has many nuclei.
The amoeba stage ends when the plasmodium matures or encounters a harsh environment. At this point, it moves to a light area and develops fruiting bodies that form spores at the ends of stalks. The spores are resistant to environmental excesses. They germinate when conditions are suitable to form flagellated swarm cells, or amoeboid cells, which later fuse to again form a multinucleate plasmodium."
The following information is from
"Defining Fungi and Slime
Slime molds may be slimy, but they are not molds. Molds are fungi. A century ago, fungi, were defined by what they did not have, or did not do:
- They did not move, like animals.
- They did not have the green pigment chlorophyll
- They were not as small as bacteria.
Today, organisms in the Kingdom Fungi are defined by:
- having chitin in their cell walls.
- not being able to move during any stage of their life cycle
- lacking chlorophyll
- being larger than bacteria.
Alive and Durable
Slime molds move, and lack chitin in their cell walls. They are now classified as belonging to the Kingdom Protista (Protoctista).
Their ingestion of food is one reason slime molds are not considered to be fungi. Fungi produce enzymes that break down organic matter into chemicals that are absorbed through their cell walls, not ingested."
Insect-egg Slime Mold - Leocarpus fragilis
None of the slime molds we found stayed in one place! When we went back to a site where we'd seen slime molds the day before, they had disappeared without a trace! How wild! I think these little droplet-like shapes must be the spore-bearing fruiting-bodies. What do you think?
Non-biting Midges - Chironomidae Family
They're Back!
Once again, the non-biting midges have hatched out of the river and are congregating at the tops of the pines that grow on the sunny side of the river. It is fascinating to watch these beautiful undulating clouds of mating midges! 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. American Dippers also feed on these underwater larvae! 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!
Non-biting Midges - Chironomidae Family
I've been watching this phenomenon for two weeks now!
I wonder how much longer it will continue!
Walking in the Rain
Damp Earth Art
We got another .13" of rain this week! Yahoo!!! Hopefully we'll get more rain soon! Thanks to all of you who contributed art, thoughts, and wishes to this "rain dance"! It's been fun! I'm going to keep posting rain inspired writings, art, etc. on my blog at dampearthart.blogspot.com. Check it out and pray for rain!
Wild Turkey - Meleagris gallopavo
Wild Turkeys don't live in my neighborhood, so I don't know much about them. I saw this one (and several more) in a undeveloped piece of land in an urban area! The following information is from the Cornell website allaboutbirds.org.
"Wild Turkeys get around mostly by walking, though they can also run and fly—when threatened, females tend to fly while males tend to run. At sundown turkeys fly into the lower limbs of trees and move upward from limb to limb to a high roost spot. They usually roost in flocks, but sometimes individually. Courting males gobble to attract females and warn competing males. They display for females by strutting with their tails fanned, wings lowered, while making nonvocal hums and chump sounds. Males breed with multiple mates and form all-male flocks outside of the breeding season, leaving the chick-rearing to the females, The chicks travel in a family group with their mother, often combining with other family groups to form large flocks of young turkeys accompanied by two or more adult females."
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Is there any Fall color left?
What's happening in the Lakes Basin?
What's going on at the Open Slope?
Check back next week for the answers to these questions and more.
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