American Robin (adult) - Turdus migratorius
Almost every year a "Cherry Festival" happens in our neighborhood when the cherries are ripe! A whole variety of birds show up to feed on the bounty. This year the dominant cherry eaters were American Robins and Black-headed Grosbeaks. There were also some Steller's Jays, Western Tanagers, Bullocks Orioles, and Spotted Towhees feasting on the fruit. Surprisingly, I didn't see any pigeons arrive!
This year what was super cool, was that one of the last trees to have cherries was right behind our house porch. We could watch the birds closely without alarming them. As the numbers of cherries diminished the birds became more concentrated around the remaining few! Like wild animals in a desert around a drying-out pond of water! Their constant chattering and movement was fascinating to watch and hear! Such beauty!!!
There are a few different kinds of cherry trees growing here. Queen Anne Cherry Trees produce medium/small cherries that are rosy/blond in color. Another kind produces lots of small dark cherries that are mostly pit, but I don't know its name. Another unknown cherry is lemon yellow, large, and is more fruit than pit. The birds enjoy them all!
Some birds swallow the cherries whole, some peck bites from them, others pick the whole cherry, roll it around in their beaks, and then spit out the pit! Below is a photo gallery of this year's Cherry Eaters! Enjoy!
American Robin (juvenile) with cherry - Turdus migratorius
Bullock's Oriole (juvenile) - Western Tanager (male)
Icterus bullockii - Piranga ludoviciana
Black-headed Grosbeak (female-male)
Pheucticus melanocephalus
Hairy Woodpecker (female) - Red-breasted Sapsucker (adult)
Dryobates villosus - Syraphicus ruber
Last year I saw a Hairy Woodpecker eating cherries. This year a Red-breasted Sapsucker showed up and nabbed some! I didn't know that these woodpeckers ate cherries! I looked it up and they do indeed eat "fruit" but it is a minimal part of their diet. I'll bet cherries are a sweet change from their usual insect fare!
Spotted Towhee (male) - Steller's Jay (adult)
Pipilo maculatis - Cyanocitta stelleri
Douglas Tree Squirrel or Chickaree - Tamiasciurus douglasii
Local mammals, such as bear, fox, raccoons, squirrels, and chickarees also eat the cherries! Many can climb trees (even foxes!), but there are also lots of edible cherries on the ground.
Western Gray Squirrel - Sciurus griseus
The mammals and birds feasted on all the cherries on the ground for a few days after the "festival"! What a fun event it was to witness!
Howard Meadow 7/1/25
Three Lakes Basin Meadows!
My husband and I went up to three of the Lakes Basin Meadows with our friends Mary and Hannah this week! The meadows were lush and green and bordered with wildflowers! Each meadow had wildflower species that were unique to it, as well as those that were common in all three meadows. Luckily it was breezy and coolish at the meadows, and the bug-count was way down!
Pretty face - Nuttall's Larkspur
Tritelia ixioides - Delphinium nuttallianum
At the western end of Howard Meadow, before the thicket of green Corn Lilies, there was a carpet of thousands of lemon-yellow Pretty Face and royal-blue Nutall's Larkspurs!!! I've never seen this many of these flowers in one place before. It was STUNNING! There were lots and lots of pollinators on the flowers, especially bumblebees!
Bridge's Gilia - Navarettia leptalea
At the base of the Pretty Face and Nuttall's Larkspur, there was also a carpet of lavender-pink Bridge's Gilias, by the thousands! These flowers are tiny, but definitely worth getting down on your knees to look at them.
A patch of Bridge's Gilia in Howard Meadow
Bistort - Sierra Lewisia
Bistorta bistortoides - Lewisia nevadensis
There were many Bistorts in the meadow, but we only saw two Sierra Lewisia in the forest surrounding the meadow.
Lincoln Sparrow - Melospiza lincolnii
There were lots and lots of birds singing in and around the meadow. Lucky for us, Mary is really good at recognizing the songs and calls of birds! She heard Lincoln Sparrows, Chipping Sparrows, and Lazuli Buntings to name a few! What a treat it was to have her identify them for us!
In the book Sierra Nevada (1970) the author, Verna R. Johnston, writes a delightful account of the wildlife that inhabits sierran meadows, including Pocket Gophers, California Moles, voles, Aplondontia, shrews, Coyotes, bats, deer, weasels, songbirds, and raptors! It is a fascinating account of the complex ecosystem of a meadow. I highly recommend her book! The following quote is her introduction to the subject of mountain meadows.
"This inherent rhythm, unique to each species, is very evident among the animals of the mountain meadows. Thousands of meadows, varying from small seepages to spacious ranches, intersperse the midmountain, higher mountain forests. Each, in an unmatched setting of its own, is a serene open place where morning dew hangs heavy on the grass and sedge, midday sun dazzles, evening's coolness brings the deer. But each is much more than grass, wet soil, wildflowers, deer at twilight. Each is an interlaced community of plants and animals whose lives affect each other intimately the year through, often in ways that barely show above the surface."
Howard Creek
We walked down to Howard Creek that flows through the middle of the meadow, in hopes of finding some Elephant Head flowers. We didn't find any, but we did come across a "meadow watefall" that was super cool! Here's a short video of it for you!
Apart from being gorgeous, meadows are a very important part of the sierran ecosystem. The following quote from https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5397692.pdf
briefly summarizes their benefits to the environment.
"Besides supporting species not found elsewhere, meadows do many other things. They filter sediment from water flowing from surrounding slopes—providing clean water for wildlife and healthy habitat for aquatic animals that live in lakes and streams. Meadows provide an important breeding ground for invertebrates (such as insects), a key food source for many birds, amphibians, and reptiles. Meadow plants also provide food and habitat structure for small mammals that, in turn, provide an important prey base for raptors, coyotes, and other predators. Meadows are sponges, absorbing water as snowpack melts and holding that water like an underground water tank. By holding the water in the mountains, the risk of flooding in the Sacramento Valley is reduced significantly. Then, later in the summer, this stored water feeds the many streams and rivers in the mountains, so they continue to flow during the long dry summers."
Pond!
To our complete surprise, at the end of the day, we found a pond in Howard Meadow!!!It was a hard-edged pond with LOTS of tadpoles in it, and it wasn't fed by Howard Creek! In fact it was higher than the creek! What a surprise! We plan on going back again soon to check it out further!
Showy Penstemon - Slender Penstemon
Penstemon speciosus - Penstemon gracilentius
Along the dry road to the meadow we also found thousands of blooming wildflowers! Here's a few of the flowers we saw!
Stickseed - Bolander's Yampah
Hackelia velutina - Perideridia bolanderi
Logged Meadow
On the road to Howard Meadow there is a small but beautiful logged meadow, about 1/4 mile in from the Gold Lake Road. It is filled to the brim with gorgeous White Brodiaea and Bolander's Yampah! Take a short walk out in it and look for beetles in the flowers! A little bit late the mallows will be in bloom here.
White Brodiaea - Snowplant - Shasta Clover
Tritelia hyacinthina - Sarcodes sanguinea - Trifolium kingii
I was also surprised to see a few Snowplants still in bloom! Shasta Clover is interesting as the flowers hang downward!
Lincoln Meadow with blooming Bistort - Inset: Alpine Shooting Star
Bistorta bistortoides - Primula tetandra
We also went up to Lincoln Meadow to see what was blooming! It too was lush green and still quite wet! Bistort was growing on the edges along with Alpine Shooting Stars! The breeze was heavenly and we ate our picnic lunch there as the flowers danced in the breeze!
Dancing Wildflowers!
Scarlet Gilia - Anderson's Thistle (in bud) - Dwarf Chamaesaracha
Bistorta bistortoides - Circium andersonii - Chamaesaracha nan
In the area of Lincoln Meadow we came across a dry slope covered in lupines, cinquefoils, paintbrush and hundreds of Scarlet Gilias!!! It was was difficult to photograph in the hot sun, but lovely to see! A little bit further we came across some Anderson's Thistles in bud and a new plant for us, in the nightshade family, Dwarf Chamaesaracha! It had been more than a month that I had been up in the Lakes Basin, and our day in the meadows filled me with peace and beauty for days. I hope to get back there soon!
What birds are up in the Lakes Basin?
What's happening on the Lakes Basin Lakes?
After 8 years of posting my blog, I've decided that I'm only going to post my blog every TWO weeks from now on. Check back on July 19th for my next natural history blog.
Your questions and comments are always appreciated! Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com. Thanks!
