South Yuba River State Park Revisited

American Dipper & Nest - Cinclus mexicanus

My friend Nancy and I decided to go back to the South Yuba River State Park last week, to check out the wildflowers!  To our delight there were lots of wildflowers in bloom, the river was an incredible, clear, glass-green, and the weather was perfect!  While we were sitting on the shoreline of the South Yuba River, Nancy noticed an American Dipper singing in the river.  To our astonishment it flew across the river and landed right by its nest!  WOW!!!

The male and the female American Dippers build their nest together, but the female does most of the construction. The nest consists of an inner nest made from woven grasses, leaves, and bark, and an outer shell of moss! I couldn't find the exact length of time it takes for them to build a nest, but I would imagine it would be at least a week or two. She will lay 4-5 eggs and incubate them for 14-17 days. After hatching, the nestlings remain in the nest for 25+ days while both parents feed them. After fledging, the parents will continue feeding them for approximately another week. Their nest was large, about 10'' wide and 8" tall! How lucky we were to see this incredible nest built so near the rushing river!

Common Side-blotched Lizard (?) - California Quail (male - female below) - Hermit Thrush 

Uta stansburiana (?) - Callipepla californica - Catharus guttatus

Since it was a warm day, we also saw some lizards for the first time this year!  They probably spent the winter under leaves or logs on the forest floor, in a dormant state called "brumation."  This one was so camouflaged we wouldn't have noticed him if he hadn't moved!  Later on, a pair of beautiful California Quail crossed our path!  This is only the second time I've seen a female California Quail!  What a treat! At the end of the day a Hermit Thrush paused for a while and checked us out!  It probably was on its way to its breeding grounds across the lower half of Canada and Alaska!

Redbud - Cercis occidentalis

There were lots of wildflowers and shrubs in bloom!  

Here are some of the ones we saw!  Enjoy!

Henderson's Shooting Star - Birds Eye Gilia - True Baby Stars

Primula hendersonii  - Gilia tricolor - Leptosiphon bicolor 

Pipevine growing on Poison Oak - Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly

Aristolochia californica on Toxicodendron diversilobum - Battus philenor

We saw several Pipevine Swallowtail Butterflies in the park.  Just like birds, the blue color in butterflies is from structural coloration not pigment.  If the light is right, the hindwings can be a beautiful blue in color!  These butterflies are inedible to predators, because they ingest toxic aristolochic acids from their Pipevine host plant when they are caterpillars.  These acids stay in their bodies even when they pupate into adults!

After Pipevine Swallowtail Butterflies mate, the female lays her eggs (which also contain toxic acids) on the underside of Pipevine leaves. When the caterpillars first hatch, they stay together in small groups and feed on Pipevine leaves. When they grow larger they head out on their own to feed and pupate. It takes approximately one week for a caterpillar to change into an adult and emerge from its chrysalis. The adults usually live for a month, feeding solely on wildflower nectar.

The Pipevine or Dutchman's Pipes is one of the earliest blooming native wildflowers. We were lucky to find many of the flowers, being green and brown in color they are somewhat hard to detect! These plants are not carnivorous, but they have an odor that attracts carrion-feeding insects that crawl inside the pipe-shaped flower and pollinate the blossom! Amazing!

Blue-eyed Grass - Ground Iris - Zigzag Larkspur

Sysrinchium bellum - Iris macrosiphon - Delphinium patens

Forest Art!

At the end of the day we came across this lovely, natural, forest-art in the trunk of an oak tree!  What a nice surprise!  It made us think that we might have to do some forest-art ourselves, in the near future!  How fun!

Red-eared Slider - Great Blue Heron

Trachemys scripta elegans - Ardea herodius

Pond Update!

I still haven't made it to the Wood Duck Pond, but I stop at the other two ponds just about every week.  New at the Charles Marsh Pond was a turtle and a Great Blue Heron! The Heron was catching something, maybe polywogs, and swallowing them! Unfortunately the turtle looked like an invasive species, a Red-eared Slider, which can really cause the decline of the native Western Pond Turtle. The following information about turtles is from the californiaherps.com website.

"The introduction of non-native turtles into Western Pond Turtle habitat, especially the two most successful invasive turtle species, the Red-eared Slider and the Painted Turtle, has been another cause of the decline of the Western Pond Turtle. Both species are common in the pet trade and feral turtles now found in California were most likely released by their owners. Since the Western Pond Turtle is the only native freshwater turtle in its historic range, it did not develop the ability to successfully compete for resources with other species of turtles, and both the Red-eared Slider and the Painted Turtle produce nearly twice as many offspring as the pond turtle which allows them to overwhelm and out-compete the pond turtle population."

Canada Geese Couple - Branta canadensis

At Joubert's Diggins there were several pairs of Canada Geese, some Buffleheads, Mallards, and even some Hooded Mergansers!  Yay!  I hope some Wood Ducks arrive soon!  I'll keep you posted!

Bufflehead Couple - Bucephala albeola

 

Hooded Merganser Couple - Lophodytes cucullatus

Mallard Couple - Anas platyrhyncos 

Storm Clouds from Rocky Rest

Damp Earth Art

No rain at all this past week, but a little more rain is predicted for the next couple of days! Anything helps! Please join me in my continuing hope for precipitation! Perhaps our collective efforts may help it happen. Rumor has it that there was an outdoor "Rain Dance" performed in our area this week, just before the storm came! My thanks go out to those who were involved, I'm sure it helped! Yay! I'm going to keep posting rain inspired writings, art, etc. on my blog at dampearthart.blogspot.com. Any submissions would be greatly appreciated.

Wishing for peace in Ukraine and an immediate end to this senseless war!

Unfortunately, you can no longer sign up to get my blog via email. Just go to northyubanaturalist.blogspot.com directly. It looks better than the emailed version!

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