Winter has arrived!

Saddleback - 12/9/21

Winter arrived in a five day storm this week!  We received 10.11" of precipitation, most of it in the form of rain!!! Yahoo! Higher elevations got several feet of snow.  We ended up with about 4" of snow on the ground in our neighborhood! Since then we've had a few sunny but COLD days, with daytime temperatures in the 40's! What a difference from two weeks ago, when the temperatures were in the  70's!  More rain and snow is predicted for the coming week!  I hope the storms keep coming and wash this drought away!

 

Light snow on the Ridgetop

North Yuba River 

Before the Storm!

Before the recent storm, the river was quite low and there was still a little fall color along its shoreline. Right now the river is UP, with a gain of 3' in height and an increased flow rate from 445 cfs to 761 cfs (cubic feet per second).  Almost every single fall-colored leaf has dropped, and now the dominate colors are the beautiful clear jade-green of the river, the ochres and rusts of the bare willows, and tawny husks of the dried grasses. Just beautiful!

Winter River

Bald Eagle above the North Yuba River - Haliaeetus leucocephalus

About a week before the storm, I spotted a Bald Eagle perched above the river!  Although I usually see one during the summer and fall, this is the first one I've seen in the past 6 months! It was scanning the river for prey. Fish, waterfowl, and mammals are their main diet.  I've been looking for fish in the river myself!  The clearness of the water should make fish more visible, but I haven't seen any lately. Right now the river is a chilly 42 degrees! Being coldblooded, trout become less active when the the water temperature drops below 40 degrees. Their metabolism and respiratory rates slow down. Adult trout usually stay in deep pools during fall and winter. To keep from being eaten, young trout stay away from adult trout, and spend the winter in shallower pools near the shore, where overhanging branches provide cover.

Common Goldeneye (females - male) - Bucephala clangula

Also about a week before the storm, Common Goldeneye ducks arrived on the river! Perhaps they are the ones we saw on Salmon Lake about 3 weeks ago! These ducks will spend the winter here. In California, Common Goldeneyes are the only ducks that regularly spend the winter on rivers and lakes above the foothills of the western Sierra. They are diving ducks and eat fish, aquatic vertebrates, seeds, and tubers. When diving, they keep their wings pressed to their sides underwater, and swim with their webbed feet! They are amazing to watch when they're underwater! Right now the males are in their black and white mating colors.  The females have a yellow tip to their bill during mating season.  Right now pair formation is just starting! They will migrate to their northern breeding grounds in Alaska and Canada in the spring.  I am so thrilled that they have returned to our neighborhood for the winter!

 

Common Merganser (male -female) - Mergus merganser

The most common waterfowl we see on the river in the spring, summer, and fall are the Common Mergansers.  They breed and raise their young up here, and migrate down to lower elevations in the winter. Like the Common Goldeneyes they are diving ducks, and eat fish, aquatic mollusks, insects, crustaceans, worms, frogs, small mammals, and plants. Pair formation has just begun, and the males are in their breeding colors! Right now there are still a few of them on the North Yuba River.

River Otter tracks (front feet - front and hind feet) - Lontra canadensis

A few weeks ago, my friend BJ and I hiked down to a section of the river that usually has two lovely beaches.  This year one beach has been divided into two sections by the high water, and the other beach is overgrown with willows!  In the damp sand we came across multiple tracks of River Otters, but we didn't see any of them. 

River Otter - Lontra canadensis 

inset: unidentified swimming mammal

About a week later, I was walking along the open slope when I spotted two River Otters in the river below! They were so far away that it was difficult to photograph them. You can see the head of one lit up in the sun in the photo above. During the following week I spotted a smaller underwater mammal on the same section of the river!  Again, because it was so far away it was hard to photograph (see inset above). The photos are too vague to identify the mammal, but my guess is that it was an American Mink!  Hopefully I'll see these aquatic mammals again this winter!

Damp Earth Art

With the 10.11" of precipitation that we received this week, our water year total (since Oct. 1, 2021) is approximately 30"! Yahoo!  Last year at this time we had only received approximately 8" of precipitation, and our total FOR THE ENTIRE WATER YEAR in 2021 was only 29.58" of precipitation!!!  So we are about half way to achieving our average rainfall of 60+"! WOW!!! More rain and snow is predicted for the coming week! My fingers are crossed that we get lots of precipitation! In the meantime, I'm continuing my constant hope for rain (or snow!). Please join me! Perhaps our collective efforts may help it happen. I'm going to keep posting rain inspired writings, art, etc. on my blog at dampearthart.blogspot.com. Any submissions would be greatly appreciated. In the meantime pray/wish/hope/dance for rain!

What mammals are around?

What else is inhabiting the damp rocky slopes in our neighborhood, 

besides the ferns, lichen, and moss?

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

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