Another Year!

Northern Pintails and American Wigeons with Snow Geese in the background

Eight years ago, on December 23, 2016, I started this blog! This year, due to my husbands health, I wasn't able to get out and explore as much as usual. This made my time out in the wild even more precious! I still managed to see lots of incredible landscapes, wildflowers, birds, insects, herptiles, and mammals! Below are photo-composites of some of the amazing beauty that I was so privileged to see this year!

This year I had an astounding 21,535 hits on my blog (7,000 more than last year!), from 70 different countries!!! Thanks go to all of you for your continued interest in my blog! 

Landscapes:  My own neighborhood is constantly surprising me with new wildlife sightings and incredible beauty! Table Mountain once again had an incredible wildflower bloom this year, that was a pure delight to hike through.

The Sierra Valley nesting season was fabulous to watch once again!

The Sierra Buttes and the Lakes Basin were ever-changing beauty!

Daugherty Hill Wildlife Preserve and the "Other" Spenceville were delightful to visit in the winter as always!  I am so lucky to be able to hike and observe nature in these special, unique habitats!

Sunrise in my neighborhood

Table Mountain

Sierra Valley

Sierra Buttes

Daugherty Hill Wildlife Preserve

The "Other" Spenceville

Sunset in my neighborhood

Insects: This year I saw several insects that I'd never seen before. Some of them I saw because of my new interest in investigating the trunks and bark of conifer trees, a fascinating new subject for me! I also saw a Sphinx Moth with cocoons of the parasitic Braconid Wasp on it! I had never seen that before either! Wonders never cease when you're out in the woods!

Achemon Sphinx Moth

Pink-faced Jewel Beetle - Wood-boring Beetle

Red Admiral Butterfly - Northern White Skipper

Chalk-fronted Corporal Dragonfly

Great Basin Wood-Nymph - Nelson's Hairstreak Skipper

Wooly Aphids - American Square-headed Snakefly larva

White-lined Sphinx Moth Caterpillar parasitized with Braconid Wasp cocoons

Birds: Bird watching is one of my absolute favorite pastimes! This year I lucked out and saw several that I have never seen before! I also saw a juvenile Bald Eagle that was almost totally dark. I didn't recognize it as a Bald Eagle in the field, but later found out that Bald Eagles don't get their distinctive white head and tail until they are 4-5 years old!!! Another surprising sighting was a male Ruddy Duck doing a mating display called "bubbling"! While I watched it, it pointed its tail straight up and repeatedly pounded it's breast with its bill that created a small semi-circle of bubbles in the pondwater in front of it! Wow! I was also enchanted by a murmuration of thousands of Red-winged Blackbirds! I love all the grace, colors, behaviors and songs of birds!

Bald Eagle (adult)

Lewis's Woodpecker (juvenile) - Merlin (adult)

American White Pelican (adult) - Bald Eagle (juvenile)

Ruddy Duck "Bubbling" (male)

Bewick's Wren (adult) - Snowy Egret (adult)

Buffleheads (female & ducklings) - Long-billed Dowitcher (adult)

Red-winged Blackbirds (adults)

Wildflowers: It was another incredible wildflower year this year! Howard Meadow was once again displaying thousands of Corn Lilies and many other wildflowers!!! It was blissfully beautiful to wander through! Bridgeport/South Yuba River State Park and Table Mountain, were also carpeted in Spring blooms! New to me this year is the Pretty Jacob's Ladder that I saw for the first time ever, over in Frenchman's Canyon! How lucky I was to enjoy this profuse bloom!

Corn Lilies and Groundsel

Yellow Cat's Ears - Dutchman's Pipes

Bur-Reed - Canyon Delphinium

Monarch Butterfly on Angelica

Indian Warrior - Blazing Star

Pretty Jacob's Ladder - Yellow Mariposa Lily

Bird's-eye Gilia, California Poppies, Blue Dicks & Kellogg's Monkeyflower

Mammals: Mammals are never numerous in our area, so they are always a delight to see. This year I was astonished to see an American Mink in our neighborhood river!  I hadn't seen one in five years! It was only in sight for less than a minute, but what a thrill that was! I also saw a Sandhill Crane with a vole (probably) in its beak, which I'd never seen before! And the most amazing sighting of all was Mountain Lion, 15 feet away in my neighbors terraced garden!

Mule Deer Doe and Fawn

Mule Deer Buck - Mule Deer Doe

Pronghorn - Gray Fox

American Mink

American Mink - American Mink

Chickaree - Sandhill Crane with Vole

Mountain Lion (photo ©Clinton Hayes 2024)

I'm so looking forward to another year of hiking and exploring our incredible natural world, and am SO grateful that I still CAN!

Check back in two weeks, on January 4th, for my next blog post.

Best wishes for the New Year to all of you!