Spring Rain!

Willow in the rain - Salix sp.

This week we had rain instead of snow, with 7.15" of precipitation! This brings our water-year total to 73.54"! Last year our water-year total on Sept. 30, 2022, was 56.51", so we are doing great drought wise! Some more good news is that our power was restored last Friday at 6:30 PM! Yes!

Despite the persistent, wintery weather there are signs of Spring in our neighborhood. Several of the native shrubs are starting to bloom, most notably the willows and alders! The male pussy willows are just starting to emerge from their winter coverings. In a week or so, they will exert their stamens, with pollen covered anthers. Each male pussy willow has approximately 270 flowers with two stamens each. The female catkins will simultaneously emerge, just in time to catch wind-blown pollen. Each female willow catkin has 142 flowers with 1 pistil each. They are greener and less feathery in appearance than the male catkins. Willows are dioecious, and have male and female catkins on separate bushes.

White Alder with inset photo of male catkin - Alnus rhombifolia 

The local White Alders also have blooming catkins right now. In contrast to willows, alders are monoecious, having both sexes on one plant. The beautiful tassel-like hanging catkins are the male catkins that produce pollen. The female part of the alder is a cone, not a catkin. Most people are familiar with the little, dry, brown cones on alder trees. Every year, tiny new female cones grow just above the male catkins (pictured above the right column).

Green-leaf Manzanita - White-leaf Manzanita - Silk Tassel

Arctostaphylos patula - Arctostaphlos viscida - Garrya fremontii

There's a picnic area on the North Yuba River, called Convict Flat, that's down near Indian Valley. I like to go there at this time of year to see the blooming White-leaf Manzanitas! These Manzanitas are 4'-12' tall and bloom in late Winter/early Spring!

This year I recently discovered a blooming patch of Green-leaf Manzanita near Conflict Flat, but up on the highway! I hadn't realized that these Manzanitas also bloom early if they're in a sunny area!  This species of Manzanita is shrub-like and not nearly as tall as the White-leaf Manzanita.

 

Silk-Tassel is dioecious, like willows, having male and female flowers on separate plants. The tassels are the male flowers, the berries are the fruits of the female flowers. Right now the male tassels are still in bud, but getting longer every day!

Red-tailed Hawk - Buteo jamaicensis

Some of the mornings this past week were filled with down to the ground mists! It was so unusual for our area, and reminded me of being on the coast! I spotted this drenched Red-tailed Hawk on one of those misty, rainy mornings.  The rain persisted that day, so I didn't have much hope for the hawk to dry out.  However, a day later the sun did come out and gave all the wildlife a much needed break!

Common Raven - Corvus corax

There is a pair of Ravens that have lived in our neighborhood for years. Recently they have been perching together on the dominant dead tree along the river. I even saw them allopreening each other! "Allo" means "other: as in differing from normal or usual". This behavior, although common among primates, is very uncommon among birds! Most birds do NOT preen each other! Apparently these ravens preen each other in the hard to reach areas around the head. They are removing parasites, such as feather mites and other pests.  

Common Raven - Corvus corax

Bit by bit new birds are arriving in our neighborhood!  The Western Bluebirds arrived a few weeks ago and are still here.  A few Violet-green Swallows arrived two days ago, at the highway cutbank where they nest annually. I also saw one Western Meadowlark this week that was probably on its way to Sierra Valley.

Common Raven - Corvus corax

After days of rain, the sun came out and stayed out for three days in a row!  We were thrilled to see the sun, and I think the wildlife probably was too!

Sierra Buttes - 3/15/23

Sierra Buttes

While the days were sunny we decided to go exploring locally!  First we drove up to see what the Sierra Buttes looked like after all the recent storms. As you can see they were absolutely beautiful, covered in snow and capped in mist! The highest point of the Buttes is 8,519 ft in elevation.   

Sierra Buttes - 3/15/23

Later in the day, on our way home, the mists had cleared and I got this shot of the Buttes.  We were viewing them from around 5,600' in elevation, where there was approximately 3'-4' of snow on the ground.

View to the east from Sierra Valley - 3/15/23

Sierra Valley

The roads were in great shape so we decided to drive over Yuba Pass and down into Sierra Valley!  At Yuba Pass (elevation 6,710') there was a solid 8+ feet of snow on the ground.  The Pass doesn't have a view as it is in the forest. There is a large parking lot at the Pass, adjacent to Highway 49, which was filled with snow mobilers which I didn't photograph!

 

View to the north from Sierra Valley - 3/15/23

Sierra Valley was as beautiful as ever rimmed with snow-covered ridges! There was about 6"-8" of snow on the ground, and the dirt roads were unplowed and closed! The elevation of Sierra Valley is 4,850'.

View to the east from Sierra Valley - 3/15/23

We didn't see any birds or other wildlife while we were there.  Probably because there was minimal open ground, due to the snow cover.  It was lovely to be back in the valley.  We hadn't been there since the end of September!  We'll revisit it again in April when the snow is gone and the migratory birds have arrived.

Sandhill Cranes in the foothills - 3/14/23

Down in the Foothills

The day after we went to Sierra Valley we went down to the foothills.  To our delight we came across a group of about 50+ Sandhill Cranes feeding in a grassy field in the area of the South Yuba River State Park!!!  It had recently been quite rainy and windy, so these Cranes wisely decided to temporarily delay their migration northeast!  How lucky we were to see them!

South Yuba River - 3/16/23

South Yuba River State Park

The South Yuba River State Park is really starting to bloom!  The flowers I saw three weeks ago were still blooming, only more profusely!  There were also many new species of wildflowers in bloom!  I'll go back again in another week or so and report fully on the wildflowers.  The beautiful South Yuba River was rushing down the river canyon, and was filled with sediments from the recent rains.

Pipevine - Aristolochia californica

What was really cool is that the Pipevines were still blooming and there were more flowers on the vines than I've ever seen before.  The one vine pictured above had 30+ blossoms on it!

View along the Buttermilk Bar Trail 

California Poppies and Lupines were just starting to flourish in certain areas! This lovely park is located at 574' in elevation!  How lucky we are to have  the blooming foothills and the snowy Sierra in our "backyard"!

What are these creatures?

What new birds are going to arrive?

What else is blooming?

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

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