We had crazy weather last weekend! It hailed, snowed, thundered, and poured rain! In three days we received 2.62" of precipitation, including half an inch of snow! Up in the Lakes Basin they got two feet of new snow! It was great to get the extra moisture, and our water year total is now 50.43"! Yay! In contrast to that cold weather, a very warm dry spell is predicted for next week or more, with temperatures up in the 80's!
Light snow on the Ridgetop
Brewer's Blackbirds (female - male) - Euphagus cyanocephalus
New Arrivals - Migratory Songbirds
Every year Migratory Songbirds arrive in our neighborhood. Some stay and raise their young here, while others just pass through. Last Spring, there was a definite lack of our usual summer songbirds, due to the lingering snow and cold temperatures. This year, to my delight, it's looking like our usual summer residents and visitors are back to their normal pattern. Some of them are short-distance migrants, while others are long-distance migrants. The following information from https://birdsoftheworld.org explains the differences.
“Types Of Migration
The term migration describes periodic, large-scale movements of populations of animals. One way to look at migration is to consider the distances traveled.
Permanent residents do not migrate. They are able to find adequate supplies of food year-round.
Short-distance migrants make relatively small movements, as from higher to lower elevations on a mountainside.
Medium-distance migrants cover distances that span a few hundred miles.
Long-distance migrants typically move from breeding ranges in the United States and Canada to wintering grounds in Central and South America. Despite the arduous journeys involved, long-distance migration is a feature of some 350 species of North American birds."
Brewer's Blackbirds are definitely short to medium distance migrants, and probably drop down to the foothills or the central valley for the winter. In the Spring they migrate up to our neighborhood to nest and raise their young!
Bullock's Oriole (adult male - 1st year male) - Icterus bullockii
Bullock's Orioles are LONG distance migrants. They migrate down to central Mexico and northwestern Costa Rica for the winter, a distance of over 4,000 miles! In the Spring, they migrate back up to the western half of the U.S. to breed and raise their young.
This year, the first male Bullock's Oriole arrived in our neighborhood on April 21st! Since then I have also seen a 1st year male, maybe two, in a particular area of our neighborhood. I have not as yet seen a female, but that doesn't mean that there isn't one in the area. I'm thrilled that they are back, as last year, not one nested in our neighborhood!
Bullock's Oriole (1st year males) - Icterus bullockii
1st year males look a lot like the females, except for the dark black stripe that extends down from their beak onto their chest. Adults mainly feed on insects, but also eat fruit and plant nectar.
Black-headed Grosbeak (female) - Pheucticus melanocephalus
I saw the first male Black-headed Grosbeak on April 12 this year! Just this week, the females have arrived! They will pair off soon, and start nesting. They migrate to our neighborhood from southern Mexico, a distance of approximately 2,700 miles!
House Wren (adult) - California Scrub-Jay (adult)
Troglodytes aedon - Aphelocoma californica
Every Spring two House Wrens establish their territories down the road from our home. They are short distance migrants and probably spend the winter in the foothills of California. They will breed and raise their young in our neighborhood! I've only seen their tiny fledglings once! So cute! Hope I see them again this year!
A Scrub Jay just arrived this week! What a surprise! They are year-round residents of the foothills, and rarely come up to our elevation. Every once in a while, one of them shows up and hangs out for a bit. I thing they're just gorgeous and are a real treat to see in our neighborhood!
Olive-sided Flycatcher (adult) - American Dipper (adult)
Contopus cooperi - Cinclus mexicanus
In the field guides, the Olive-sided Flycatcher's repeated call is "What peeves you?". When you hear it in the field, the accent is definitely on "peeves". We think a better phrase would be "We love you", with the accent on "love"! This little gray and white bird is another LONG distance migrant. The majority of these birds breed across northern Canada and southeastern Alaska. In the fall they will migrate south to southern California, or Mexico, or Central America, or maybe even as far south as Bolivia, a distance of approximately 5,300 miles!!
I wanted to update you on the status of the American Dipper nest that I wrote about on April 12th. The nest is still intact and the parents are flying back and forth feeding the nestlings! Yay! I'll post more photos soon! So glad that they're being successful this time around!
Leaf Beetle - Red Admiral ButterflyChrysomelidae Family - Vanessa atalanta
New Insect Sightings!
I saw numerous Leaf Beetles this week! They are tiny, about half an inch in length including the antennae, and are in the Chrysomelidae Family. Their brilliant, metallic, blue-green color was amazing!!! This iridescence occurs naturally in some beetles, some butterflies, and some birds. The color is not from pigment, but rather from structure. Interestingly, the color works as camouflage, not as warning to a predator or as an advertisement for a mate!
I was also delighted to see a Red Admiral Butterfly! Although these butterflies are apparently common across the U.S., I've never seen one before! They overwinter as adults, and in the spring lay their eggs on plants in the Nettle family. As adults they eat the sap of trees, the juices from fermenting fruit, and the liquid in bird droppings! Visiting flowers for nectar is their last food choice! What an unusual butterfly!
Echo Azure Butterflies - Nelson's Hairstreak Butterfly
Celastrina echo - Mitoura gryneus nelsoni
This week, I also came across a group of Echo Azure Butterflies "puddling". This is a common behavior that many butterflies engage in, mostly males. Puddling sites can occur in a variety of places: mud, dung, fermenting fruit, carrion, urine. Butterflies are attracted to these sites because they can sip up the salt (sodium) and minerals found there. When these tiny butterflies open their wings, they reveal their beautiful sky-blue color. They also feed on the flower nectar of buckbrush, buckeye, toyon, blackberries, and others.
I also identified, for the first time, some tiny, dusty-orange butterflies that were feeding on the onion flowers in our garden. They are called Nelson's Hairstreaks! Their eggs are laid on the needles of Incense Cedar trees, which the caterpillars eat once they hatch. Adults feed on the nectar of flowering Buckbrush, Pussy Paws, and composites.
Indian Warriors - Pedicularis densiflora
What's Blooming?
Wildflowers are showing up everywhere, and the trees and shrubs are in bloom as well! It's gorgeous out there! With warm weather coming up it won't be long until we're in full bloom! How exciting!
The Indian Warriors featured above grow near Joubert's Diggins, one of the ponds I regularly write about. They don't grow in our area. They are related to Indian Paintbrush and are in the Broom-rape Family. Here's what the California Native Plant Society says about them in their book Wildflowers of Placer and Nevada Counties.
"Indian Warrior is parasitic on the roots of shrubs, mostly on members of the Heath Family such as Manzanita and Madrone. This allows it to live in shady environments because it is not solely dependent upon sunlight for photosynthesis to survive. The colonies under a favored host tend to expand over the years."
Indian Rhubarb - Darmera peltata
Right now the river is running high and no Indian Rhubarb is showing yet. However in the creeks they are in full bloom! The huge leaves are full of life themselves, often harboring a wide variety of insects!
Braun's Giant Horsetail (vegetative form and spore bearing form)
Equisetum telmateia ssp. braunii
This week I went to see if the Braun's Giant Horsetails were in bloom, and they were!!! What fun! I've only found them in one spot, along a small creek off of Highway 49! Horsetails have been around a long time, and are considered "living fossils"! During the Devonian period, approximately 3,500 years ago, they were as thick as forests and as big as trees!
Horsetails are actually classified as ferns! Like ferns, mushrooms, and mosses, horsetails reproduce via spores not seeds and do not have flowers. They can also reproduce directly from underground rhizomes. This particular species is dimorphic, with infertile vegetative stems that are green and photosynthetic, and fertile stems that are brown and not photosynthetic, but do produce strobili (a structure resembling the cone of a conifer) covered with sporangiophores that produce spores.
Horsetails are also called "Scouring Rush", because pioneers used them to scrub pots and pans. Their hollow, jointed, ridged stems have silica in their cells which makes them tough!
Forktooth Ookow - Naked Broomrape
Dichelostemma congestum - Aphyllum purpureum
The Forktooth Ookow is in the Brodiaea Family. What's amazing about these plants is that they have long, 3'-4' lily-like leaves! The leaves are what caught my attention last year, way before the plants bloomed.
Luckily the Naked Broomrape flowers were in bloom on the Canyon Creek Trail this week. They grow in a wet, rocky, mossy seep alongside saxifrage, of which they are root parasites. They are quite small, only about 2" tall. Their hairs glistened incredibly if you look at them with a hand lens! Their unusual name is derived from; "broom" = European plants called brooms, "rape" = rapum or cluster of tuber like roots, and "naked" = leafless. They are in the same Broomrape Family as the Indian Warriors! This is the only area I've ever seen them!
Spotted Coralroot Orchid - Corallorhiza maculata
My husband and I walk almost daily on a dirt road in our neighborhood. I'm always looking for changes in the plants along the road. Two Thursdays ago, before the rain, I came across this unusual looking pinkish stem with tight, deep-red buds! It didn't have any green leaves so I thought it might be some kind of Broom-rape or Orchid. Over the course of 7 days, the buds gradually opened to reveal tiny spotted orchids! It was a Spotted Coralroot Orchid! I have seen these flowers often in the woods, but have never seen it in bud!
Here's what the California Native Plant Society says about them in their book Wildflowers of Placer and Nevada Counties.
"Coralroots are mycoheterotrophic, dependent on mycorrhizal fungi (Russula) for nutrients, and are apparently restricted to dry acidic soils covered by decomposing litter."
Sierra Buttes 4/30/24
The Lakes Basin still has a good amount of snow, and the Gold Lake Road isn't open yet. The county hopes to have the road open by next week. I can't wait to get back up there and on the trails again!
What's happening in Sierra Valley?
What insects are out and about?
Where are the bear and the deer?
.After 8 years of posting my blog, I've decided that I'm only going to post my blog twice monthly from now on. My next post will be on the weekend of May 25th. See you then!
Your questions and comments are always appreciated. Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com. Thanks!
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