Black Bear - Ursus americanus
It's been really HOT this past week, with temps in the high 90's and low 100's! It was way too hot for us, and made me wonder how wildlife copes with excessive heat. Here's what I've learned!
The bear in the photo above, looks like it's taking advantage of a sprinkler! The truth is, it wasn't really in the sprinkler's reach, and was just eating fallen cherries off the ground! It was such a "cool" photo, I couldn't resist putting it in my blog! The way that most mammals really deal with the heat is by being active at night. During a hot day, they remain inactive in the shade. If a Black Bear is active during the day, its thick coat of hair can insulate it somewhat from the heat.
However, if it stays out in the sun too long a Black Bear can indeed overheat. To cool off, it will retreat to the shade, possibly stretch out and lie down on its sparsely furred belly to cool off, drink from a water source, or even wade in a river! I spotted this Black Bear lying in the river a few years ago! It was a super HOT day, and the bear was taking advantage of the cool river water. It stayed in place in the river for the entire five minutes I watched it from a distance!
Columbian Black-tailed Deer - Odocoileus hemionus columbianus
Some mammals, including deer, will head for the water to cool off during a heat wave as well. Occasionally I'll see deer in the river during the summer. Sometimes they are crossing the river, sometimes they're just walking along the edge of it. I have often thought that it's a way to travel without leaving a track. I've never seen them lying down in the river like the bear pictured above, but I'm sure it cools them off!
Steller's Jay (adult) - Cyanocitta stelleri
Rufous Hummingbird (female) - Black Phoebe (adult)
Selasphorus rufus - Sayornis nigricans
These birds aren't singing or squawking in alarm, they're panting to get rid of excess heat! Like dogs, some birds can do their own version of panting to help them stay cool. Their version is called gular fluttering, and it involves breathing with their mouths open while also vibrating their throat membranes. This causes excess heat to leave their bodies. Birds can also keep from overheating by seeking shade, spreading out their feathers, bathing in water, and becoming less active. It was amazing how few birds we saw, and how quiet it was in the hottest part of the day!
Northwestern Fence Lizard - unknown frog
Sceloperus occidentalis occidentalis - sp.?
Northern Pacific Rattlesnake - Crotalus oreganus oreganus
Herptiles (amphibians and reptiles) are ectotherms, and are dependent on external sources to maintain their body heat. To regulate their body heat they will bask in the sun when it's cool, and hide in the shade when it's too hot. It turns out that extremely hot temperatures can kill a snake within 10-20 minutes. So when the air temperature reaches the high 90's and into the 100's, reptiles seek out shade and wait for the temperature to drop. Reptiles like lizards and snakes might burrow underground or move under a rock or log. Amphibians will stay in water or damp mud to keep from drying out.
So wildlife has a variety of ways to beat-the-heat!
Myself, I headed up to the Lakes Basin to cool-off in the higher elevation lakes!
Leopard Lilies - Lupine
Lilium pardalinum - Lupinus sp.
In Search of Uncommon Wildflowers
To beat the 100𝆩+ weather in my neighborhood, at 2,400', I drove up to the Lakes Basin last Sunday to look for some uncommon wildflowers around 6500'. This is the time of the year that they should be blooming, and I knew they wouldn't last in the heat. It was "now or never", so I headed up the trail with my fingers crossed. About a mile in on the trail, there is a beautiful, smallish, wet meadow that is often filled with wildflowers. This year's bloom was no exception, and the meadow was a botanist's paradise!
California Bog Asphodel - Leopard Lilies - Death Camas
Narthecium californicum - Lilium pardalinum - Toxicoscordion venenosum
There were lots and lots of Death Camas in bloom. These plants are indeed toxic so do not eat them. As the USDA states, "The entire plant is highly toxic and fatal to both humans and animals. Poisoning symptoms include profuse salivation, burning lips, mouth numbness, thirst, stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea, confusion, slow irregular heart beat, low blood pressure and low temperature, difficulty breathing, coma, and death."
Corn Lily - Veratrum californicum
Corn Lilies are not lilies, neither are they related to corn! They are related to (unbelievably) Trilliums and Death Camas, and are in the False-Hellebore Family (Melanthiaceae)! Some years Corn Lilies leaf out but never bloom. This year there are lots of blossoming Corn Lilies! Yay!
Blue-eyed-Grass - Crimson Columbine - Sierra Rein Orchid
Sysrinchium bellum - Aquilegia formosa - Platanthera dilitata
Interestingly the Sierra Rein Orchid is pollinated by moths (at night?) with a proboscis long enough to reach into the nectar spur!
Old-growth Red Fir Forest - Abies Magnifica
On the next mile+ of the trail I hiked in the forest, away from any wet meadows. Around 6,500' I entered into an Old-growth Red Fir Forest that was heavily populated with large trees but not much understory. It was nice and open! The trunks had lichen growing on them starting around six feet, the average snow depth, and going up! It was lovely!
Pipsissewa/Prince's Pine - Chimaphila umbellata
This forest is where I often see one of the uncommon wildflowers I was looking for, Sugarstick (Allotropa virgata), but unfortunately I didn't see any of them! Last year we saw hundreds of them in bloom! Maybe this year it got too hot too fast for them to bloom. I did however see lots and lots of the lovely Pipsissewa/Prince's Pine pictured above.
Sugarsticks - Allotropa virgata
Just as I was about to leave the shaded Old Growth Forest I luckily spotted a small group of Sugarsticks at the base of a tree!!! How delightful! They are really unusual looking. They have no green parts, and don't produce any chlorophyl. They are mycoparasites, or myco-heterotrophs, organisms with the ability to parasitize fungi. They feed primarily on mycelium, the vegetative part of a fungus, consisting of a network of fine white filaments/hyphae. Sugarsticks feed primarily on the mycelium of matsutake mushrooms, which in turn tap into the roots of trees!
Sugarsticks - Allotropa virgata
They are a clonal species that spreads through an extensive lateral root system, that is 2'-4' deep! Since they are underground, buds on the lateral roots can survive a fire if the trees supporting the fungus don't die. They are in the Ericacaea (Heath) Family, and are the only species in the genus Allotropa. They are related to Snow Plants, Pinedrops, and surprisingly Prince's Pine/Pipsissewa! Sugarsticks were declared a "sensitive" species in 1998.
I ended up finding approximately 12 individual Sugarsticks! How fun! So lucky to find them!
Un-named Pond
The next part of my hike took me past a lovely little pond, at approximately 7,000' in elevation. It was much cooler there than down in my neighborhood.
A few hundred yards west from the end of the pond, is where I usually find Drummond's Anemones (Anemone drummondii), the second uncommon wildflower that I was looking for. I was hoping my luck would hold out and they'd still be in bloom!
Bufflehead (female) - Pacific Tree Frog
Bucephala albeola - Pseudacris regilla
There was a single Bufflehead female duck on the pond, swimming back and forth. Along the shore I found a strikingly marked Pacific Tree Frog!
Drummond's Anemone - Anemone drummondii
To my delight, I wasn't too late to see the Drummond's Anemones in bloom! There was a small group of about 12 plants that were still blooming! Yahoo! All around them were the dried seed heads and stalks of ones that had already bloomed! Every year we come here to see these beautiful wildflowers, as we've never seen them blooming anywhere else in the Lakes Basin! Such a lovely reason for a hike!
en.Wikipedia.org states: "Each Drummond's Anemone produces several showy flowers, each with five to eight petal-like sepals but no petals. The sepals are usually white (occasionally bright blue to purplish blue) with a distinct blue tint especially on the underside. The flower center is filled with many yellow-anthered stamens. Anemone drummondii is native to western North America from California to Alaska. It is found in mountainous environments such as the Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, and the Rocky Mountains extending from open coniferous forests to rocky slopes at alpine elevations."
Hidden Lake - 7/16/23
About half a mile from the Drummond's Anemones I reached my final destination, an off-trail lake named Hidden Lake, a 6,864' in elevation! Of course I had to dip in and linger along the shore for some time before I headed back down the trail and home. It was another incredible day in the Lakes Basin, totally filled with beauty! I am SO lucky!
What's happening on the River?
What's happening in my neighborhood?
Check back next week for the answers to these questions and more!
Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated. Please feel free to email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com. Thanks!
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