Lakes Basin Hikes

North Eureka Peak and Eureka Lake

I've been super busy with "life" lately and haven't had the time to write up all of my recent hikes. So here is a quick summary of some of the hikes I've been on in the last month and a half! Enjoy! 

Eureka Peak

About 10 days ago my friends, BJ and Nancy, and I hiked up to Eureka Peak which is near Johnsville, and north of Mt. Elwell.  The trail starts at Eureka Lake, and it's about 2.5 miles uphill to the top of North Eureka Peak (which you can see in the above photo).  About another mile and half past this peak you reach the "official" Eureka Peak (at 7,447') that isn't discernable from the surrounding landscape, and isn't even signed! However there are glorious views from both "peaks", to the east, south and west. We lucked out and had an incredible show of clouds all day long as well!  The round trip hike was about 5.5 miles, pretty evenly divided between uphill and downhill. It had been 10 years since I'd been there! So glad to be back there again. It was gorgeous!

Glorious Clouds

Clouds make such a difference in the day.  I just love it when they are around!

North Eureka Peak and view to the east

Though not the official Eureka Peak, North Eureka Peak is an easy scramble to the top, and offers fabulous views.

Mount Elwell

Mount Elwell

About a month ago I hiked up to the top of Mount Elwell, with my friend Hank Meals and five others!  We took the Grassy Lake/Long Lake Trail to the summit, about 6.7 miles round trip, with an elevation gain of 1,600'! It's an uphill hike to the summit at 7,818', with the last 1.5 miles being VERY steep!  The view is incredible from the top! 

View south from Mount Elwell

Although there was some haze in the air, is was still gorgeous! And again, I hadn't been there in 10 years! I was so lucky to be able to get there! What a paradise lay below us, and all around us!

Ranger's Buttons - American Lady Butterflies - Grass of Parnassian

 Sphenosciadium capitellatum - Vanessa virginiensis - Parnassia palustris

On the way to the peak we passed several small, wet meadows that were filled with late blooming wildflowers and butterflies.  The butterflies were particularly attracted to the Pennyroyal.  The Ranger Buttons were going to seed and looked like fancy pincushions. The Grass of Parnassus was gorgeous with its fringed staminodes!

Townsend's Solitaire - Myadestes townsendii

We saw and heard a group of Townsend's Solitaires calling along one section of the trail. I had never seen these birds in a group before.  Usually they're by themselves (hence the name!).  We didn't see any juveniles, but they're so cool looking I had to include one for you to see. The white eye-ring is typical, and helps identify these birds in the field.

 View of Long Lake from near the PCT

PCT Loop

 

About a month and a half ago, my friend Diane and I hiked a loop trail up to the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) and back.  We had grand views from the top of the ridge, near the PCT. It was a gorgeous, blue-sky day, and a great day to be out hiking!

California Ground Squirrel - fledgling (sp?) - Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel

Spermophilus beecheyi - unknown species - Spermophilus lateralis

I was really hoping we'd see a Yellow-bellied Marmot on our hike, as I'd seen them in the area before. Unfortunately, the Marmots weren't out, but we did see a California Ground Squirrel and a Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel.

There were also several birds along the trail, and I managed to photograph the fluffy fledgling pictured above.  Not sure what kind of fledgling it is, but I'm guessing it's possibly a Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Upper Tamarack Lake

 

Tamarack Lake 

Again, about a month and a half ago, my friends, Nancy and Patricia, and I hiked up to the Tamarack Lakes.  The hike is only about 3 miles round trip, but the lakes are lovely and wonderful to swim in if it's warm.  The day we went, there were incredible storm clouds charging past, and we even got a tiny bit of rain.  We all swam in the lake, our first swim this summer! It was heavenly! Amazingly we didn't see anyone else there all day!

Olive-sided Flycatcher - Dark-eyed Junco

Contopus cooperi - Junco hyemalis

Right near us there was an Olive-sided Flycatcher hawking insects out of the air. On the forest floor and in the trees, Dark-eyed Juncos were foraging.  So fun to watch!  

Howard Meadow 9/14/23

Howard Meadow 

Two weeks ago, my husband and I drove up to Howard Meadow to see what was going on.  It was dry and turning a hundred shades of brown and gold!

Just gorgeous!

Sierra Tiger Beetle - Cicindela tranquebarica ssp. sierra

As we walked up the road to the meadow, we saw about 10 Sierra Tiger Beetles on the road!  More than I've ever seen before!  They are so beautiful in their green iridescent color! Wow!

Giant Checkerbloom - Orange Sulphur Butterfly - West Coast Canada Goldenrod

Sidalcea gigantea - Colias eurytheme - Solidago elongata

There were several types of wildflowers still in bloom, mainly Checkerbloom, Aster, and Goldenrod.  Butterflies were everywhere among the late season blossoms. Just beautiful!

What's turning fall colors in the Lakes Basin?

What other birds going to pass through our neighborhood on their way "south"?

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

Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated!

Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com.

The Chickaree or Douglas Squirrel

Douglas Squirrel/Chickaree -Tamiasciurus douglasii

Last week I wrote about an amazing sighting of a Douglas Squirrel/Chickaree carrying its babies to a new nest. I'm happy to report that the babies are just fine!  It appears that they are almost full grown and capable of feeding themselves!  They are scampering up and down the trunk of the locust tree where their new nest is, as well as nearby trees, and occasionally stopping to eat a seed or tree bud. It's really fun watching them chase each other, and zip up-down-and-around the trees at high speed.

The recently moved young Douglas Squirrels/Chickarees

Tamiasciurus douglasii

Douglas Squirrels/Chickarees mate in late winter and early spring. They are monogamous, and have only one mate per season. After 5-6 weeks of gestation, 1-8 altricial (naked and blind) kits are born. The average litter size is 4. The kits' eyes open after 26-36 days. Kits stay in the nest for approximately 3 months, until they are weaned and half to two-thirds their normal size. Only the mother takes care of the young. The weaned kits continue to stay with their family a few more months. Depending on food availability, a second litter may be born later in the summer.

The recently moved young Douglas Squirrels/Chickarees

Tamiasciurus douglasii

Douglas Squirrels/Chickarees have a body length of 10.6"-14", a tail length of 4"-6", and a weight of 5-13 ounces. They are incredible athletes and acrobats, and are constantly jumping from one branch to another, climbing up trunks, or running along a phone line! They run so fast that I can hardly get a photo that isn't blurred! 

Douglas Squirrel/Chickaree -Tamiasciurus douglasii

John Muir wrote a whole chapter (Chapter 9 - The Douglas Squirrel) about these squirrels in his 1894 book "The Mountains of California".  It is a delightful account of these energetic, charming, little squirrels.  I've copied excerpts from his book below.  To read the whole chapter just click on this link https://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/the_mountains_of_california/chapter_9.aspx

"He is the squirrel of squirrels, flashing from branch to branch of his favorite evergreens crisp and glossy and un-diseased as a sunbeam. Give him wings and he would outfly any bird in the woods. His big gray cousin is a looser animal, seemingly light enough to float on the wind; yet when leaping from limb to limb, or out of one tree-top to another, he sometimes halts to gather strength, as if making efforts concerning the upshot of which he does not always feel exactly confident. But the Douglas, with his denser body, leaps and glides in hidden strength, seemingly as independent of common muscles as a mountain stream. He threads the tasseled branches of the pines, stirring their needles like a rustling breeze; now shooting across openings in arrowy lines; now launching in curves, glinting deftly from side to side in sudden zigzags, and swirling in giddy loops and spirals around the knotty trunks; getting into what seem to be the most impossible situations without sense of danger; now on his haunches, now on his head; yet ever graceful, and punctuating his most irrepressible outbursts of energy with little dots and dashes of perfect repose." 

Douglas Squirrel/Chickaree -Tamiasciurus douglasii

"No other of the Sierra animals of my acquaintance is better fed, not even the deer, amid abundance of sweet herbs and shrubs, or the mountain sheep, or omnivorous bears. His food consists of grass-seeds, berries, hazel-nuts, chinquapins, and the nuts and seeds of all the coniferous trees without exception,--Pine, Fir, Spruce, Libocedrus, Juniper, and Sequoia,--he is fond of them all, and they all agree with him, green or ripe. No cone is too large for him to manage, none so small as to be beneath his notice. The smaller ones, such as those of the Hemlock, and the Douglas Spruce, and the Two-leaved Pine, he cuts off and eats on a branch of the tree, without allowing them to fall; beginning at the bottom of the cone and cutting away the scales to expose the seeds; not gnawing by guess, like a bear, but turning them round and round in regular order, in compliance with their spiral arrangement."

Douglas Squirrel/Chickaree -Tamiasciurus douglasii

"He is, without exception, the wildest animal I ever saw,--a fiery, sputtering little bolt of life, luxuriating in quick oxygen and the woods' best juices. One can hardly think of such a creature being dependent, like the rest of us, on climate and food. But, after all, it requires no long acquaintance to learn he is human, for he works for a living. His busiest time is in the Indian summer. Then he gathers burs and hazelnuts like a plodding farmer, working continuously every day for hours; saying not a word; cutting off the ripe cones at the top of his speed, as if employed by the job, and examining every branch in regular order, as if careful that not one should escape him; then, descending, he stores them away beneath logs and stumps, in anticipation of the pinching hunger days of winter. He seems himself a kind of coniferous fruit,--both fruit and flower."

Douglas Squirrel/Chickaree -Tamiasciurus douglasii

"Go where you will throughout the noble woods of the Sierra Nevada, among the giant pines and spruces of the lower zones, up through the towering Silver Firs to the storm-bent thickets of the summit peaks, you everywhere find this little squirrel the master-of-existence. Though only a few inches long, so intense is his fiery vigor and restlessness, he stirs every grove with wild life, and makes himself more important than even the huge bears that shuffle through the tangled underbrush beneath him. Every wind is fretted by his voice, almost every bole and branch feels the sting of his sharp feet. How much the growth of the trees is stimulated by this means it is not easy to learn, but his action in manipulating their seeds is more appreciable. Nature has made him master forester and committed most of her coniferous crops to his paws. Probably over fifty per cent. of all the cones ripened on the Sierra are cut off and handled by the Douglas alone, and of those of the Big Trees perhaps ninety per cent. pass through his hands: the greater portion is of course stored away for food to last during the winter and spring, but some of them are tucked separately into loosely covered holes, where some of the seeds germinate and become trees."

Western Meadowlark (non-breeding adult) -Sturnella neglecta

A New Arrival!

To my delight an adult non-breeding Western Meadowlark was up near the Open Slope in my neighborhood this week!  It is probably just passing through on it's way to its winter habitat in California's Central Valley or foothills, or even as far south as Mexico.  Right now they don't have their breeding "colors" but are still beautiful!  The male and female adults are monomorphic (look the same). They both become way more colorful during the breeding season (see photo below).

Western Meadowlark (breeding adult) -Sturnella neglecta

Grizzly Peak and morning clouds

We had a lot of beautiful clouds pass by this week, and we even got a few sprinkles, but no measurable rain!  Rain is in the forecast for the next few days.  My fingers are crossed!

Late blooming Sneezeweed - Helenium bigelovii

What's happening in the Lakes Basin?

What other birds going to pass through our neighborhood on their way "south"?

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

Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated!

Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com.

Garden Delights!

Steller's Jay Adult - Cyanocitta stelleri

Down in our garden the sunflowers are starting to go to seed, and the local wildlife is feasting on them! The Steller's Jays live here all year, and are quite acrobatic when eating sunflower seeds! They are also quite clever in their seed getting antics! They are a lot heavier than goldfinches, and can't perch on the smaller, thinner-stemmed sunflowers. I watched the one above repeatedly leap up about 4.5 feet to get the seeds of one particular sunflower head! Wow!

Lesser Goldfinch  (Male) - Carduelis psaltria

A few Lesser Goldfinches have recently arrived in our garden, and are foraging on the sunflower seed heads that the Chickarees haven't been able to harvest! I love their tiny little calls to each other. 

Lesser Goldfinch (Juvenile & Adult Male) - Carduelis psaltria

There has been a juvenile goldfinch that flutters and flutters its wings ever hopeful that its parents will feed it, even though it is full-sized and fully capable of feeding itself! Lesser Goldfinches usually have 2 broods a year, sometimes even three! This juvenile is probably from a second brood. These beautiful little birds have their babies later in the year than most songbirds.  They time the hatching, and subsequent fledging of their nestlings to match this time of year, when seeds are newly available.

Lesser Goldfinch (Juvenile & Adult Male) - Carduelis psaltria

When the temps get cooler, these little birds will migrate down to the foothills and valleys of California for the winter. It is so fun to watch these little birds (4.5" in length), the smallest of all goldfinches, feast in our garden!

Douglas Squirrel/Chickaree - Tamiasciurus douglasii

Our local Chickarees have been climbing the sunflowers, cutting off the entire seed heads, and then eating or running off with them!  What they don't eat right away, they store for winter. They're cutting LOTS of them off!

Douglas Squirrel/Chickaree carrying baby squirrel 

Tamiasciurus douglasii

Just yesterday evening we were sitting down in our garden enjoying the view, when I saw a Chickaree carrying something other than a sunflower head in its mouth!  I zoomed in with my camera and was totally shocked to find out that it was carrying a baby Chickaree!!! WOW!  You can see it's hind feet and tail in the above photo! It ran lickety-split along the phone line down the road and disappeared.  

Douglas Squirrel/Chickaree carrying baby squirrels

Tamiasciurus douglasii

Just a few minutes later it returned and went and got ANOTHER BABY CHICKAREE and ran down the road carrying it! WOW again!!!  Once again it returned in a few minutes, got ANOTHER BABY CHICKAREE and carried it down the road via the phone line!  Triple WOW!!!  

We have never seen this happen before and were wondering why it was moving its babies. My neighbor reminded us that PG&E had JUST cut down a huge dead Douglas Fir tree right near our garden, two days ago.  He thought that maybe the Chickaree had a nest in that tree and that's why the babies were being moved!!  That made sense to us.  I know where their new nest is and I'll carefully observe them and let you know how they get on!  So cool to see this unusual behavior!  I hope the babies make it!

Western Fence Lizard - Sceloporus occidentalis

Western Fence Lizards are the most commonly seen lizard in our garden. The following information about them is from from californiaherps.com.

"Males have blue markings on the sides of the belly edged in black, and two blue patches on the throat. Females have faint or absent blue markings on the belly. Males establish and defend a territory containing elevated perches where they can observe mates and potential rival males. Males defend their territory and try to attract females with head-bobbing and a push-up display that exposes the blue throat and ventral colors. Territories are ultimately defended by physical combat with other males. Courtship and copulation typically occurs from March to June. Egg laying occurs 2 - 4 weeks after copulation. Females dig small pits in loose damp soil where they lay 1 - 3 clutches of 3 - 17 eggs usually from May to July. Eggs hatch in about 60 days, usually from July to September."

Western Fence Lizard - Sceloporus occidentalis

I've been seeing lots of these little lizards in our garden. Most of them are only 2.5" long! I'm hesitant to try and catch them, because I don't want to stress them out! They are so camouflaged in the dry grasses and weeds! These little ones won't be full-sized till next Spring.

Western Fence Lizard (male) - Sceloporus occidentalis

Soon, cool temperatures will cause these lizards to bury themselves under the decaying leaves on the forest floor, where they will spend the winter in a state of torpor.

Sierra Alligator Lizard - Elgaria coerulea palmeri

I saw this Sierra Alligator Lizard in my garden this week. It kept perfectly still once it saw me, and was so camouflaged it was difficult to see! The following information about this lizard is from californiaherps.com.

"Sierra Alligator Lizards have large scales, a long alligator-like snout, light-colored eyes, and a longitudinal fold on the lower sides of the body. They can be fairly large in size. Active during daylight, they are frequently seen moving on the ground, and occasionally up in bushes. Alligator lizards do not typically bask in the sun out in the open or on top of a rock like many other lizard species. There's not much difference in appearance between the male and female Alligator Lizards. Eggs are usually laid between May and June, and hatch during late summer and early fall. Females lay two clutches of eggs per year, often in decaying wood or plant matter to keep them warm. Females will guard the eggs until they hatch. They eat small arthropods, slugs, lizards, small mammals, and occasionally young birds and eggs."

Coral-bellied Ringneck Snake - Diadophus punctatus pulchellus

This beautiful Coral-bellied Ringneck Snake surprised us in our garden!  It was quite long, about two feet in length!  I haven't seen any of these snakes in quite a while, so it was a delight to find one. It was quite a beauty! The following information about them is from californiaherps.com.

"Prefers moist habitats, including wet meadows, rocky hillsides, gardens, farmland, grassland, chaparral, mixed coniferous forests, woodlands. Secretive - usually found under the cover of rocks, wood, bark, boards and other surface debris, but occasionally seen moving on the surface on cloudy days, at dusk, or at night. Eats small salamanders, tadpoles, small frogs, small snakes, lizards, worms, slugs, and insects. The mild venom may help to incapacitate prey. Females are oviparous, laying eggs in the summer, sometimes in a communal nest."

Mylitta Crescent - Common Checkered Skipper - Gray Hairstreak

 Phycoides mylitta- Pyrgus communis -Strymon melinus

There are still LOTS of butterflies in our garden. Lately it seems that there are a lot of little ones that are less than an inch wide (pictured above)!

Cabbage White - Monarch - Fritillary

Pieris rapae - Danus plexippus - Speyeria sp.

There are also lots of regular-sized butterflies, including several Monarchs!

Stonefly Adult (species unknown) - Common Green Darner Dragonfly

order Plecoptera - Anax junius

I came across this adult Stonefly sunning in our garden!  What a surprise!

Stonefly nymphs (not pictured) will live underwater for 1 to 4 years, depending on the species. They prefer running rivers and streams, not lakes and ponds. They feed on algae, detritus, and plant materials under water. When their nymphal stages end, the nymphs will crawl out of the water onto rocks, their exoskeletons will dry out and crack open, the adult (pictured above) will pull itself out of the exoskeleton, pump up its wings, dry out, and fly away! As adults they feed on nectar, as well as algae and lichens. The adults usually live for about a month, just long enough to mate and lay eggs!

Right now quite a few dragonflies are away from the river and flying over our neighborhood catching insects.  Perhaps the insect population on the river has diminished.  I just love their gigantic eyes!

What's happening in the Lakes Basin?

What birds will migrate through our neighborhood?

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

Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated!

Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com.

Rain & Ripening Fruit

Steller's Jay in the Rain

Last Saturday, Sunday, and Monday it rained, for a total of 1.18"!  Yahoo!!! It was a real soaker, just like the rain we got a few weeks ago. It smelled heavenly, and everything feels renewed and refreshed! To me the fragrance is nature's camphor, but "petrichor" is the official name. Petrichor was coined by Australian scientists in 1964 to describe the unique, earthy smell associated with rain. It is caused by the water from the rain, along with certain compounds like ozone, geosmin, and plant oils. There's no other fragrance like it, and it's one of my absolute favorites! Fingers crossed that these rainstorms keep coming! 

Apples & Gnats

Ripening Fruit!

We have lots of domestic fruits growing in our neighborhood, including apples, pears, plums, persimmons, cherries, and grapes. There is also an abundance of thriving non-native Himalayan Black Berries. Because these domestic crops have been growing for close to a 100 years in our area, the native animals have become somewhat dependent on them.  

Last year, a late snow in the Spring caused an overall crop failure in our county, as well as many surrounding counties!  Native plants were also affected by the late snow, and even the Oaks were mainly barren of acorns last Fall. This was a considerable hardship for the local wildlife. In contrast, this year the domestic plants are all loaded with ripening fruit, and the native plants are making seeds and berries! This means that food is plentiful for our local wildlife once again! Yay!

Steller's Jay - Cyanocitta stelleri

This was a great year for apples! There are hundreds of them on the local trees! Right now they are just starting to ripen, and lots of wild critters are eating them. Steller's Jays are opportunistic omnivores, that live here year-round. I was delighted to come across one pecking on an apple! 

Douglas Squirrel/Chickaree - Tamiasciurus douglasii

Our local Chickarees also live here year round. They eat a variety of native , leaves, flowers, fungi, seeds and berries. Every year they store seeds and seed-filled cones in scattered caches, to help survive the winter.  They do not hibernate, and remain active in the winter.  Apparently they enjoy eating the local domestic fruits as well!

Columbian Black-tailed Deer - Odecoileus hemionus columbianus

Columbian Black-tailed Deer eat a wide variety of shrubs, grasses, flowers and fruits.  This doe and her fawn were enjoying the fallen apples in one of our neighborhood orchards.

Unknown plum

There are three kinds of domestic plums in our neighborhood, and they're all delicious!  Two of them are small, about an inch wide and fat, but they're my favorite.  One is peachy in color, the other is dark purple. The skins are a tiny bit tart, but the flesh is juicy and sweet.  Lots of animals like to eat them!

Black-headed Grosbeak female eating unknown plums

Pheucticus melanocephalus

At this time of year many birds are in the process of switching from a diet of insects to a diet of fruits and berries. The colder weather has made the insects mostly inactive and hard to find, whereas many fruits have recently ripened.

Unknown plums

These purple plums are regular sized plums and the favorite of the local Black Bears.  A bear can just about eat a tree-full of plums in one evening!

Himalayan Blackberries - Rubus armeniacus

As their name implies, Himalayan Blackberries are not native but they are prolific in California!  Right now they are loaded with ripe berries that many critters feast on.

Columbian Black-tailed Deer - Odecoileus hemionus columbianus

Deer love blackberries, along with Raccoons, Skunks, Squirrels, Foxes, and Opossums to name a few!

American Robin - Turdus migratorius

Robins as well as many other birds are also feasting on the ripe berries.

Black Bear scat - Ursus americanus

Black Bears apparently eat thousands of black berries as evidenced by this large scat filled with blackberry seeds!

Monarch Butterfly - Danaus plexippus

What's going on with the local Butterflies?

Have any new birds arrived?

What's happening with the herptiles?

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

Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated!

Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com.