Spiders, Toadstools, Slugs and More!

Bowl & Doily spider webs - Frontinella pyramitela

One afternoon this week, we decided to go for a walk on the local Canyon Creek Trail.  When we got there, the leafless shrubs were filled with the webs of sheet web spiders, all beautifully backlit by the sun! They were also filled with sparkling raindrops from the recent storm!  Such Beauty!

Bowl & Doily spider webs - Frontinella pyramitela

Inspired by these spiders and their webs, and in the spirit of Halloween, I'm featuring some of the native species often thought of as "creepy" in this blog! Some of them you definitely wouldn't want to eat or touch, while on the other hand others are quite harmless. All of them are surprisingly fascinating! 

Bowl & Doily spider webs & spider (inset) - Frontinella pyramitela

Spiders!

Spider webs are pretty incredible structures. Spider silk is a protein fiber that varies in structure (up to 7 different kinds) depending on its use! Most silks have exceptional mechanical properties, including high tensile strength and extensibility. A given weight of silk is five times stronger than the same weight of steel! Some spiders repair their webs at night. Others eat their web and rebuild it daily! Some spiders, such as the Crab Spider, don't build webs at all and rely on camouflage and ambush to catch their prey!

Bowl & Doily Spiders are sheet web weavers.  Sheet webs are horizontally spun, flat sheets of silk between tufts of grass or tree branches. These webs are made with individual strands or are woven as a thick sheet of silk, and the spider will also spin separate criss-crossed threads about the sheet. There are over 4, 600 species of sheet web weavers in the world! They are very tiny and don't use sticky thread, but rather entangle and snare prey in their dense webs.

Black Widow Spider - Latrodectus hesperus

After seeing the female Black Widow Spider pictured above, I was wondering if all spiders have venom. It turns out that except for two small groups in the arachnid family, all spiders have poison glands and release their secretions into their venom sacs near their chelicerae. However, the majority of spiders do not bite humans and except for a few cases, they are not harmful to the human being or other mammals.

The Black Widow Spiders are very poisonous and should NOT be handled. Their bite can be QUITE painful, but rarely fatal. The female is shiny black with a red hourglass or dashes on its abdomen. Males are brown or gray with red spots on their abdomen!

Spiders are not insects! They are classified in the Kingdom Animalia, the Phylum Arthropoda, the Subphylum Chelicerata, and the Class Arachnida. Spiders are in the Order Araneae. The main differences between insects and spiders are that they have 8 legs (insects have 6 legs) and only 2 body parts (insects have 3 body parts).

Black Widow Spider - Latrodectus hesperus

Black widows use a silk-like substance to weave tangled-looking webs, typically close to the ground in covered or dark places, such as near drain pipes or under logs.  We found several on the bottom of our bee hives!!! The female hangs upside down in the web to await her prey, exposing her bright markings as a warning to potential predators.

The black widow senses vibrations to the web. When an unlucky intruder gets trapped, the spider immediately begins weaving its glue-like webbing around it. Insects such as flies, mosquitoes, or even larger prey like grasshoppers are typically caught. Once captured, the black widow injects its victims with poison, paralyzing them.

The name “black widow” comes from the female’s habit of eating the male after mating!

Southern House Spider - Kukulcania hibernalis.

Tangle/Cobwebs are typically associated with the Theridiidae family (black widows or house spiders, for example.) These webs lack symmetry and are simply several jumbled threads supported by a base.

The spider pictured above is a female Southern House Spider, Kukulcania hibernalis. The males and females can both be up to 2" wide, but the males have longer legs and much smaller bodies.

Wikipedia states:  "The female Southern House Spider weaves the same type of tangled web that a Black Widow Spider weaves. Females seldom move except to capture prey caught in their webs. Males, on the other hand, typically wander in search of insects and females to mate with, having no particular territory.

The southern house spider is a cribellate spider. That is, its spinnerets do not produce adhesive webbing. Instead, to capture prey the spider uses its legs to comb webbing across its cribellum, a spiked plate near the spinnerets. This combing action frays and tangles the strands, producing a fine, velcro-like netting that ensnares insect legs."

Orb Weaver Web 

The Orb Weaver web above was made by a female spider. The female spider doesn't get stuck in her own web because she mainly travels on the non-sticky structural lines. Sometimes she has to walk on the sticky spiral lines, but her hairy legs have an oil that keeps them from sticking! 

Orb Weaver Spider and Web - Family Araneidae

The female will use the web to trap insects. Once they're stuck, the female will bite the insect, wrap it in silk and wait for it to die. Once it dies, the female vomits digestive fluid over the wrapped dead insect, to soften it, then eats it by chewing and sucking! 

Male Orb Weavers don't make webs. They spend their time cruising for females to mate. At this time of year, the females are laying their last clutch of eggs, and will die at the first frost. The eggs will overwinter, up to several hundred eggs in one egg sac, and hatch in the spring, The eggs will overwinter, but the female and male spiders will die at the first frost. We just had our first frost last night, so I'm glad I got these spider web photos this week!

Questionable Stropharia - Stropharia ambigua

Toadstools!

The term toadstools usually refers to fungi that have a stem and a cap and are possibly poisonous! The fungi above does have a stem and cap, and is not edible!  However there are always exceptions to the rule!  My personal rule is to NOT eat wild mushrooms, unless you're with a mycologist!

Since the recent rain, mushrooms have been popping up everywhere! I'm still not very good at identifying them but I love looking for them in the woods!  There is a huge variety of mushrooms that grow in our neighborhood! 

Last January I learned something super interesting about mushrooms! (I'm repeating that information here.) I was wondering how fast mushrooms grow, because they seem to show up overnight. One day you don't see any. The next day there's tons of them. So I did a little research and I found out that if conditions are perfect (not too hot, too cold, too wet, or too dry) most mushrooms CAN double there size in 24 hours!!! How do they do that?

Well, plants and animals grow through the process of "cell division", which is relatively slow and takes lots of energy. The underground mushroom body (the mycelium) does grow by cell division. However, the fruiting body, or mushroom, grows by "cell enlargement", not "cell division". The mushroom enlarges its cells by filling them with water! This can happen very quickly, and make it appear that a mushroom is growing super fast! The tiny "button" stage of a mushroom has almost exactly the same number of cells that the fully-grown mushroom has! This is also why mushrooms appear when it rains! Without the rain they couldn't "grow"!

Witch's Butter - Tremella mesenterica

This aptly named fungus can totally dry up and shrink in size when water/humidity is absent.  As soon as it rains, it can absorb the water and swell back up again!

Club/Thumb Fungi - Spathularia neesii

These odd shaped fungi are only about half an inch tall. I've only seen them growing in wet mossy areas. They do kind of look like naked thumbs!

Shaggy Mane - Coprinus comatus

I recently revisited an area where I had seen a Shaggy Mane mushroom once before, and to my delight there was a new one sprouting in the same spot!  Over the course of a few days, this mushroom will become taller and the fringes will form a cap that drips a slimy substance!  What an unusual mushroom!

Dyer's Polypore - Phaeolus schweinitzii

The Dyer's Polypore pictured above is a wide as a dinner plate, and grows in  stacked fluted layers!  The layers are velvety and tough! It's not that common in our woods, so I was thrilled to find two of them!

On one of our local walks we came across a mound of human-disturbed earth, on which the fungi were prolific!!!  There were all kinds of mushrooms growing on the mound, but I don't know what kind they were. Here are some photos of what we saw!

unknown fungi

These mushrooms were just PACKED together and very numerous!

unknown fungi 

This one was a big as a dinner plate and looked like a crusty loaf of bread!

unknown fungi 

These were also as big as dinner plates, and were a deep pumpkin-orange in color!

Banana Slug feasting on a Bolete! - Ariolimax buttoni

Slugs & Slime!

A variety of critters are fungivores (eaters of fungi), such as the Northern Flying Squirrel, deer, mice, voles, squirrels, beetles, and even banana slugs!  Banana slugs are slimy, but they aren't poisonous to handle. 

The following information about Banana Slugs is from the website https://www.firesidemotel.com/banana-slugs-traverse-our-forests.

"In its seven years of life, give or take, the banana slug spends a lot of its time eating decomposed animal and plant matter. By doing so, they help their ecosystem by excreting nitrogen-rich fertilizer, good for plants on the forest floor. They also spread the spores of mushrooms, one of their favorite foods.

During dry or drought periods, banana slugs will estivate, that is, secrete a thick coat of protective mucous around their bodies and then bury themselves in debris to wait until the environment becomes moister. They won’t emerge again until environmental conditions favor their survival.

Banana Slugs - Ariolimax buttoni

Mucous, or slime, is a critical component for banana slugs, helping them to breathe efficiently, to move and to take in water. The slime acts as a lubricant and an adhesive – hence, they can climb up trees. Pheromones released in the slime attract other slugs for mating, and the lubricant also is said to numb the tongues of predators such as garter snakes and salamanders.

Of its body features, this gastropod (the word means “stomach-foot”) has only one lung and moves by contracting muscles along its underside in tandem with its secreting slime. Of its four tentacles, the top two detect light and movement, while the lower two are for smelling and feeling. If damaged by a predator or by accident, the tentacles will grow back."

Insect-Egg Slime Mold - Leocarpus fragilis

To our surprise bright orange-yellow slime molds have been showing up in the forest this week. It's all over the place! It isn't a mold or fungus, it's a group of single-celled organisms that move around and engulf their food, mainly bacteria! The following quotation briefly explain this complex organism, and is from the website at https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/biology/microbiology/the-fungi/slime-molds.

"Slime molds have characteristics of both molds and protozoa. Under certain conditions, the slime mold exists as masses of cytoplasm, similar to amoebae. It moves over rotting logs or leaves and feeds by phagocytosis. The amoeba stage is called the plasmodium, which has many nuclei.

The amoeba stage ends when the plasmodium matures or encounters a harsh environment. At this point, it moves to a light area and develops fruiting bodies that form spores at the ends of stalks. The spores are resistant to environmental excesses. They germinate when conditions are suitable to form flagellated swarm cells, or amoeboid cells, which later fuse to again form a multinucleate plasmodium."

Dog Vomit Slime Mold - Fuliga septica

 I've read about Dog Vomit Slime Mold, but I just saw one for the first time in my life a few weeks ago!  They are indeed slimy and if you touch them, they dissolve! Yuck! Probably a perfect ingredient for a witches' brew!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this collection of creepy, unusual, and gross species! Pretty interesting stuff, I think! Get out there and check it out yourself, and let nature cast a spell on you!

What's happening in the Lakes Basin?  

What's happening in the local Oak Woodlands?

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

Your questions and comments are always appreciated!  Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com.  Thanks!

Signs of Fall!

Steller's Jay (adult) - Cyanocitta stelleri

It's definitely Fall in my neighborhood! The long distance migratory birds are mostly on their way south to their winter residences, and the local year-round birds are dominating the neighborhood once again!  

I don't usually talk much about the birds that live here all year, as I'm always distracted by the tropical migrants.  They are just as lovely and wonderful as the tropical birds, but even more amazing because of their ability to over-winter in our snowy climate!

Unfortunately, because I see them so often, I tend to take Steller's Jays for granted. However, they are anything but "common". They are super smart and inquisitive. They watch everything that's going on in our neighborhood, to raise an alarm if necessary, but more often to see an opportunity for some food. I once watched a squirrel bury a walnut, and within one minute after the squirrel left, a Steller's Jay unearthed the walnut and flew away with it!!!  They have habituated readily to humans, and are regular scavengers in residential areas, campgrounds and picnic areas. They are excellent vocal mimics, like Ravens, and easily imitate the sounds and calls made by other birds, dogs, cats, squirrels, as well as environmental and man made noises! 

Steller's Jays mate for life. They are omnivores and eat carrion, small mammals, bird eggs, baby birds, insects, reptiles, acorns, berries, seeds, and garbage. Their beautiful blue feathers can vary in hue from turquoise to royal blue. The color comes from the cell structure of the feathers, not from pigment!

 

Black Phoebe (adult) - Sayornis nigricans

Black Phoebes are typically non-social and solitary, except during breeding season. They are flycatchers, and feed by flying out from a perch and catching flying insects, or "hawking". Their diet consists of variety of insects, spiders, small fish, as well as fruits and berries in winter. They prefer to live near water. They are year-round residents in our neighborhood, and do not migrate.

Common Raven (adult) - Corvus corax

Of all the corvids, Ravens may be the smartest! They are capable of learning innovative solutions to newly encountered problems! They are also the biggest of all perching birds! Ravens can be found in almost any location across the globe! However, Ravens are non-migratory, and remain all year in their chosen location. We have a pair of Common Ravens that have lived in our neighborhood for years! I just love hearing them call to each other!

Ravens are omnivorous, and eat carrion, small mammals, baby birds, bird eggs, insects, acorns, grains, fish, and even garbage! They are also known to store extra food in secret hiding places! They will often feed together in large groups, but live singly or in mated pairs.

Of all the corvids, Ravens are the most playful! They have been seen playing games, like dropping a stick in the air and catching it before it lands! Ravens also like to swing upside down, do rolls and somersaults in the air, and slide down snow banks! Scientists think this play may be just for fun, or perhaps a way of showing off and attracting a mate.

Sandhill Cranes - Antigone canadensis

To my delight I saw and heard a group of 49 Sandhill Cranes flying over our neighborhood this week!!!  They were heading to California's Central Valley where they will over-winter. Most of the Sandhill Cranes that overwinter in California's Central Valley breed in Idaho and Oregon. I am so glad that they flew by!  They are one of my absolute favorite signs of Fall!

Bald Eagle (adult) - Haliaeetus leucocephalus

To our complete surprise there was a Bald Eagle on the river this week! We only saw it once. They are uncommon in our area, and it's a rare privilege to see one! WOW!!! Bald Eagles are LARGE birds, measuring 31" in height, with a wingspan of 80" (6.5 feet!)!! Fish, waterfowl, and mammals are their main prey.

The American Eagle Foundation states: "Bald Eagles were once very common throughout most of the United States. Their population numbers have been estimated at 300,000 to 500,000 birds in the early 1700s. Their population fell to threatened levels in the continental U.S. of less than 10,000 nesting pairs by the 1950s, and to endangered levels of less than 500 pairs by the early 1960s. This population decline was caused by humans. The mass shooting of eagles, use of pesticides on crops, destruction of habitat, and contamination of waterways and food sources by a wide range of poisons and pollutants all played a role in harming the Bald Eagle's livelihood and diminishing their numbers. For many years the use of DDT pesticide on crops caused thinning of eagle egg shells, which often broke during incubation.Strong endangered species and environmental protection laws, as well as active private, state and federal conservation efforts, have brought back the U.S.A.'s Bald Eagle population from the edge of extinction. The use of DDT pesticide is now outlawed in the U.S. This action has contributed greatly to the return of the Bald Eagle to America's skies. The Bald Eagle is presently protected by the Endangered Species Act of 1973, Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940, Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, and the Lacey Act. It is listed as a "threatened" species in the lower 48 states."

Currently there is approximately 10,000 breeding pairs in mainland U.S. and approximately 35,000 breeding pairs in Alaska. It is my sincere hope that they remain protected by laws, and that their population continues to thrive. How lucky we were to see one these magnificent eagles!

Belted Kingfisher (female) - Megaceryle Halcyon

Unlike most birds, the female Kingfisher is more colorful than the male. The male does not have the rust-colored band across its chest, nor patches underneath its wings. Kingfishers catch small fish, crayfish, and tadpoles by plunge-diving from perches, into shallow or surface water. Most of their dives are less than 24" deep into the water. After they catch their prey, they bring it back to a perch and pound it against a branch to stun it! Whatever they cannot digest, such as fish bones etc, is regurgitated in pellets!

Spotted Towhee (male) - Pipilo maculatus

Spotted Towhees are year-round residents in our neighborhood. In spring and summer they mainly eat insects, as well as some plants. In fall and winter their diet consist of mainly seeds, especially sunflower-family plants and thistles. Right now they are taking advantage of the multitude of sunflower seeds in our garden! Every morning I see them looking for food on the ground, pecking and scratch/hopping backwards!

Mountain Quail (male) - Oreorctyx pictus

I've been seeing several coveys of 6-9 Mountain Quail in our neighborhood this week. These beautiful birds are way more visible on the white snow than they are in the summer! They are the largest North American quail, measuring 11" in height, with a wingspan of 16", and a weight of 8 oz. Every spring they walk as much as 20 miles up to their breeding/nesting grounds at higher elevations. In the fall they walk back to down to lower elevations to spend the winter. They eat a large variety of plants and seeds. In the fall and winter they stay together in small coveys of family related groups, while foraging and roosting.

Black Locust - Robinia pseudoacacia

The Deciduous Trees!

 

The local deciduous trees have changed the whole landscape with their gorgeous Fall colors! The willow, locust, cherry, and maple trees are all turning brilliant butter-yellow, the dogwoods are bright raspberry-jam in color, and the black oaks are just starting to change to a golden-yellow. Here's a few photos! Enjoy!

 

Big Leaf Maple & Mountain Dogwood

Robinia pseudoacacia  - Cornus nuttallii 

Willow - Salix sp.

California Black Oak - Quercus kelloggi

California Black Oak - Quercus kelloggi

Morning Mist after the .37" of rain!

Have any mushrooms popped up?

What's happening in the Lakes Basin?

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.

Fall has arrived!

Quaking Aspens and American Dogwood 

Populus tremuloides - Cornus sericea

In the passage of only one week, the local deciduous forests have gone from green to glowing reds, golds, and yellows! It's absolutely stunning!  The temperatures have also gotten cooler, and we received .37" of rain in the past week.  Fall is officially here!

Quaking Aspens in misty rain - Populus tremuloides 

We were out in the woods when the rain came in, causing light mists in the forest!

Quaking Aspens and American Dogwood 

Populus tremuloides - Cornus sericea

The American Dogwood has turned a gorgeous raspberry color!

Chipmunk eating Bitter Cherries - Tamias sp. - Prunus emarginata

Ripe Berries!

Many of the shrubs in the Lakes Basin are loaded with berries right now.  A wide variety of birds and mammals feast on all of them. I took the above photo several years ago, and usually post it every year during the berry season! 

Bitter Cherry - Prunus emarginata

Bitter Cherry foliage is a valuable browsing species for mule deer, and black bears. The fruits are eaten by small mammals, rodents, and various birds. Bitter cherry often forms extensive thickets on moist slopes and along stream banks in the Sierra Nevada.

American Dogwood - Cornus sericea

The fleshy white berries of the American Dogwood are very valuable to wildlife, and are a stunning contrast to the raspberry colored fall leaves. Just a week ago the leaves were still green!

Wildlife browse the twigs, foliage, and fruits. Many species of birds feast on the berries including robins, cedar waxwings, woodpeckers, bluebirds, and warblers. Mammals that eat the fruit and foliage include black bear, beaver, mountain beaver, cottontail rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks, mice, and rats. Deer only eat the foliage.

Baneberry - Feathery False Lily of the Valley - Red Elderberry

Actaea rubra - Maianthemum racemosa - Sambucus racemosa

The berries of Baneberry, Feathery False Lily of the Valley, and Red Elderberry are poisonous and not edible for humans. However, many species of birds eat them including Robins and Grouse, as well as squirrels, white-footed mice, raccoons, black bears and browsing deer.

California Mountain Ash - Sorbus californica

The California Mountain Ash produces showy white flowers in spring, warm yellow foliage in fall, and fiery red/orange berry clusters in late fall to early winter. It ranges from 15 to 30 feet tall, with a spread of 15 to 25 feet. The berries are eaten by many birds and mammals. They are a favorite of the American Robin and Cedar Waxwing, as well as Black Bears. Again, just a week ago their leaves were green!

Sierra Coffeberry - Creeping Snowberry - Utah Serviceberry

Rhamnus rubra - Symphoricarpos mollis - Amelanchier utahensis

There are also a lot of other shrubs that are "in berry" right now, which I'm sure will get eaten by a variety of critters!

Western Juniper and American Robins

Juniperus occidentalis - Turdus migratorius

To our delight we came across several Western Juniper trees that had many American Robins feasting on their berries this week! They were creating a busy flutter in the trees, while calling and chirping to each other! Western Juniper berries attract a wide variety of birds. Everything from bluebirds and grosbeaks to wild turkeys and grouse devour the fruit. During one frigid day, a single American Robin or Townsend's Solitaire may gulp down more than 200 berries!

What's happening in my neighborhood?

Are the Sandhill Cranes migrating through now?

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.

Way TOO busy to blog!

Sierra Valley from the Steel Bridge - 10/3/23

Sorry I'm late on my Blog! I've just been TOO busy with company and everything else! We did manage to get over to Sierra Valley recently and it was gloriously beautiful!  Hope to get back there again soon!  Next weekend I'll be back on task, and will get my blog done in a timely manner.  In the meantime enjoy these photos!

Northern Harrier (female) - Circus hudsonius

Horned Lark (adult) - American Coots (juveniles) - Red-winged Blackbird (female)

Eremophila alpestris - Fulica americana - Agelaius phoeniceus

Sandhill Cranes Pair - Antigone canadensis

View looking to the north end of Sierra Valley - 10/3/23

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.