my neighbor's house
It was a dark and stormy night...
and we watched in trepidation as dark clouds gathered in the sky. The fear of lightning and possible wildfire was on everyone's mind. That night the thunder boomed, lightning flashed and flashed and flashed, and rain poured!
In the morning the storm had ceased, and everything was refreshed, incredibly fragrant, and glistening. Three small lightning fires had indeed started in our area, but they were quickly contained by the local firefighters. The total rainfall for our neighborhood, was .90"!
Earlier in the week we had several moist, fragrant, cool evenings, with dark clouds, light spatterings of rain, and lovely breezes! There were only a few flashes of lightning, thank goodness, and no fires were started! We only got .08" of rain from those storms, but the Lakes Basin got 2.21" of rain! More showers are predicted for later this week, but no thunder showers! Yay!!!
Steller's Jay in Sunflowers - Cyanocitta stelleri
Down in the Garden!
Right now in our garden, the sunflowers are starting to go to seed. They are attracting a variety of birds and insects, that feast on the seeds, nectar, or pollen.
Steller's Jays are year-round residents in our neighborhood, and are a joy to watch when they're feeding on the Sunflowers! The flowers bounce up and down from the movement and weight of the Jays, causing them to shift and change position to get to the seeds. Often, I see them hanging upside-down, reaching at odd angles, or even hopping up from the ground to get to the seeds! They are quite the acrobats!
Lesser Goldfinch (female) - Spinus psaltria
Lesser Goldfinches pass through here every year on their way to the lower elevations for the winter. I just love to hear their tiny mournful calls! Each couple usually arrives with a few juveniles that are still "begging" to be fed! For the most part, the adults ignore the begging youngsters or only feed them occasionally. And indeed, if they're not fed, the fledglings will eventually eat some seeds on their own.
Lesser Goldfinch (male) - Spinus psaltria
The males have a distinguishing black cap that is absent in the females. I love to see this group of tiny garden visitors arrive every year! They are just one of the reasons I plant sunflowers in our garden.
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Spotted Towhee (juvenile) - Pipilo maculatis
Like the Steller's Jays, Spotted Towhees are local year-round residents. Right now there are quite a few juveniles visible in our area. Juveniles and adults forage mainly on the ground and use a two-footed hop-scratch method to reveal seeds and insects under forest debris. I did, however, see a few of them up in the sunflowers checking out the seeds.
Spotted Towhee (adult) - Pipilo maculatis
The pattern and color of their feathers change, through molting, as the juveniles mature. Additionally, their eye-color turns from dark-brown to burnished-red.
The local resident Chickarees are busy harvesting Sunflower heads from our garden. I often see them running down the top of the garden fence with a freshly "picked" sunflower seedhead in their mouths! They will stash the seedheads for the winter, at the base of a tree, maybe under a log, or perhaps underneath some forest debris.
Chickaree/Douglas Squirrel - Tamiasciurus douglasii
They are also busy stashing walnuts from my neighbor's tree! They do this for most of the day, as they get ready for winter!
Two young Chickarees defying gravity at a rapid pace!
To my delight there are two young Chickarees hanging out in our area! It's been fun watching them scurry around and stare at me as I pass by. Just yesterday morning I caught them playing on a tree trunk. It looked like they were having a blast! Enjoy!
Western Gray Squirrel with Horse Chestnuts - Sciurus griseus
The Western Gray Squirrels are also stashing food for the winter. Right now they're busy with the walnuts next door, but I also saw them collecting Horse Chestnuts further down the road! During the winter, they will survive on their stored food, as well as actively forage for food.
I've been watching this Western Gray Squirrel hide individual walnuts in a variety of places. As soon as it finishes burying a walnut and leaves the area, quite often a Steller's Jay shows up! The Jay then digs up the walnut but doesn't eat it! Apparently they're just curious!
Honey Bees
Sunflowers also provide a lot of nectar and pollen for the local insects.
Here are just a few of the ones I've seen this week. We used to raise Honey Bees, but we stopped a while back. However, we still see lots of Honey Bees in our garden every year, and like to think that maybe they are descendants from the bees in our hives!
Bee Wolf - Bombus vosnesenskii
The Bee Wolf is a wasp that preys on honeybees. Their yellow eyes make them easy to distinguish from other wasps. Adult females dig underground, branching burrows. Each side tunnel ends in a brood chamber where 1-6 paralyzed bees are deposited. The female Bee Wolf lays an egg on each bee and seals up the tunnel. When the larvae hatch they eat the paralyzed bees, pupate, and dig out of the burrow as adults!!!
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Yellow-faced Bumble Bee - Philanthus crabroniformis
There are LOTS of Yellow-faced Bumble Bees in our garden right now. During the Spring and Summer, these Bumble Bees live in an underground burrow with one queen and 200-300 female worker bees. At the end of the summer the queen will lay unfertilized eggs from which male Bumble Bees will hatch. After they mate with a queen they leave the hive and do not return. Many of the males spend the night on our flowers!
It will be a full moon this coming Sunday at 7:30 PM. I hope to get some photos and maybe there will be some clouds again as well! I got this photo last night and there was a definite ring of color around the moon, coloring the clouds!!!
What's happening in the Lakes Basin?
What's happening on the river?
After 8 years of posting my blog, I've decided that I'm only going to post my blog every TWO weeks. Check back on September 20th for my next natural history blog.
Your questions and comments are always appreciated! Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com. Thanks!
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