Chipmunk in Bitter Cherry Bush - Tamias sp. & Prunus emarginata
Right now there is a lot of ripe food in the forests of the Lakes Basin! In the past few weeks wild berries have turned red, green cones have matured, and flowering plants have gone to seed. Evidence of animals eating this abundance is everywhere!
It appears to be quite a berry year! Some years there aren't many berries at all. It took this photo several years ago (and used it in a blog) but just had to post it again. I love how this chipmunk is touching a bitter cherry and is ready to eat it!
Bitter Cherry - Prunus emarginata
This year the Bitter Cherry bushes are loaded with berries! It's a valuable food source for the local mule deer, black bear, small mammals, rodents, and various birds.
Blue Elderberry - Red Osier Dogwood - Mountain Ash
Sambucus Mexicana - Cornus sericea - Sorbus californica
There are many plants "in berry" right now. Blue Elderberry, Red Osier Dogwood, and Mountain Ash are some of the most common ones. These are all eaten by the local mammals and birds.
Mountain Ash - Sorbus californica
This year the Mountain Ash has an ABUNDANCE of berries! The berries are eaten by a variety of birds, as well as squirrels, rabbits, bear, and deer.
Red Fir Cones - Abies magnifica
This year there are TONS of green cones on the firs and pines in the Lakes Basin. Depending upon the species of tree, cones can take 2-3 years to mature. The cones we are seeing now started growing several years ago. Most of the literature I've read, states that trees produce lots of cones when they are stressed. For the past four years, we've been in an extended period of drought and the trees are stressed by the lack of water.
White-headed Woodpecker (female) - Clark's Nutcracker (adult)
Dryobates albolarvatus - Nucifraga columbiana
Many birds eat the seeds from conifer cones. These seeds (or nuts) are the main source of food for White-headed Woodpeckers and Clark's Nutcrackers.
California Red Fir - California Red Fir - Western White Pine
Abies magnifica - Abies magnifica - Pinus monticola
The woody, green cones visible on the trees are the female cones that contain seeds. The male pollen cones are tiny in comparison, don't look like cones, and disintegrate within a season. FIR cones sit upright on the tops of the trees (except for Douglas Fir cones, which hang down). PINE cones hang down from the trees. Most of the woody cones you find on the ground are female pine cones. Female fir cones are not as woody, and usually dry-up and fall apart while they are still on the tree.
Chipmunk - Tamias sp
Chipmunks hibernate during the winter. Right now they are eating lots of food, and storing up some fat for the winter. Their diet consists of conifer seeds, fungi, flowers, berries, various nutlets, and insects. They will also store small caches of food underground, to consume before and immediately after hibernation.
Chipmunks and Squirrels are busy right now cutting green cones off the trees, and eating or storing the ripe seeds. Like skinny left-over corn cobs, the woody cores of cones litter the forest floor!
Chickaree/Douglas Tree Squirrel - Tamiasciurus douglasii
Chickaree/Douglas Tree Squirrels do not hibernate in the winter! They store 100's of cones on the ground, in large caches for winter! They will dig down through the snow to eat the seeds in these stored cones! They do not live underground. Their nests are mainly found in hollow trees, or abandoned woodpecker cavities, 15'-20' above the ground. They will also sometimes build a ball or cup-shaped nest out of leaves and twigs, up in the branches of a tree.
Cassin's Finches - Red-breasted Nuthatch - Mountain Chickadee
Haemorhous cassinii - Sitta canadensis - Poecile gambeli
Every time I drive on a forest road lately, in certain areas large flocks of birds take off from the ground when I approach. I'm assuming they're foraging on the ground for seeds. Seeds make up the diet of many, many birds especially in fall and winter. We recently saw lots of Cassin's Finches in one area, where the nasal calls of the Red-breasted Nuthatch were frequently heard, and Mountain Chickadees foraged on the forest floor!
Gray's Lovage - Anderson's Thistle - Cow Parsnip
Ligusticum grayi - Cirsium andersonii - Heracleum maximum
A LOT of the flowering plant in the Lakes Basin have recently gone to seed. Recently I've noticed the Cow Parsnips, Gray's Lovage, and Anderson's Thistles releasing seeds. Many more are still in bloom and will go to seed over the next few weeks.
Corn Lilies -Veratrum californicum
Late Bloomers!
The meadows have mainly dried, but some of them still have plants in bloom. This year the Corn Lilies didn't bloom. There probably wasn't enough water for them to produce flower stalks at the right time. Maybe next year! I think they're gorgeous even when they dry up! Enjoy these late bloomers!
Hooded Ladies Tresses - Sneezeweed - Western Ladies Tresses
Spiranthes romanzoffiana - Helenium bigelovii - Spiranthes porrifolia
Subalpine Aster - California Grass of Parnassus - Fireweed
Aster intergrifolius - Parnassia palustris- Chamerion angustifolium
Yarrow - Bolander's Yampah - Ranger Buttons
Achillea millefolium - Perideridia bolanderi - Sphenosciadium capitellatum
Damp Earth Art
Once again, more HOT weather has come in this week with no rain in sight. Please join me in my continuing hope for precipitation! 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.
This is a Rainbow Trout in a meadow creek!
What's changing in the Lakes Basin?
Check back next week for the answers to these questions and more!
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me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com. Thanks!
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