Another Year!

Virginia Rail - Rallus limicola

Nine years ago, on December 23, 2016, I started this blog! Like last year, due to my husbands health, I wasn't able to get out and explore as much as usual. Whatever time I got outside was a gift! Each moment spent hiking, photographing, and observing nature was treasured. Birds, wildflowers, mammals, insects, and herptiles continued to amaze me! Clouds and their accompanying landscapes brought me much joy, over and over again. It was another great year, for which I am so grateful! Below are photo-composites of some of the incredible beauty that I was so privileged to see this year!

This year I had an astounding 58,352 hits (36,817 more than last year!!!) on my blog, from 90 different countries (20 more than last year)!!! Thanks go to all of you for your continued interest in my blog!

Landscapes: I am so lucky to have these extraordinary wild areas to explore!

Sunset looking west in Sierra Valley

View of the Sutter Buttes from the Spenceville Wildlife Area

Mount Elwell and Long Lake in the Lakes Basin

Howard Meadow in the Lakes Basin

Sunset looking east in Sierra Valley

Birds:  I find Bird Watching mesmerizing! I love seeing familiar birds return every year, as well encountering new species!  This year I was lucky to closely observe a Virginia Rail and a Sora in Sierra Valley! I have seen both of these birds before for fleeting moments, but this year they stayed in view for a minute or more!  I was also thrilled to see a Pileated Woodpecker in our neighborhood for the first time, as well as a small flock of Western Bluebirds bathing in a puddle!!! I was delighted to see a Common Merganser and her young on the river once again. They raise their young in our neighborhood every year!  Down in Gray Lodge we saw a juvenile Night-crowned Heron and Common Gallinules for the first time ever! The Gallinules were probably there before, but I had mis-identified them as coots!

Common Merganser (female) with ducklings

Sora (adult) - Rock Wren (adult)

Pileated Woodpecker (male) - Black-crowned Night Heron (juvenile)

Western Bluebirds bathing - (males & females)

White-faced Ibis (adult) - Marsh Wren (adult)

Wood Duck (female) - Common Gallinule (adult)

Black-crowned Night Heron (adult)

Mammals:  Mammals are never numerous in our area, so they are always a delight to see. This year I was astonished to see 11 Pronghorns in Sierra Valley. When we first came upon them they were reclining on the edge of an irrigated alfalfa field! It was a group of 10 females and 1 male, during mating season!!! I was also thrilled to see a Muskrat near the Steel Bridge! We also saw two Coyotes in the Spenceville Wildlife Preserve! Down in Gray Lodge Wildlife Area an Audubon's Cottontail and a Black-tailed Jackrabbit showed up briefly! In the Lakes Basin, a Marmot was sunning himself in a area where we have consistently seen one before! And in my neighborhood, I managed to see several Mule Deer, a young Black Bear, and a Gray Fox! Unfortunately, my cat caught a Trowbridge's Shrew, but it was a delight to look at.

Pronghorns - 1 male and 10 females

Trowbridge's Shrew (two views)

Coyote - Gray Fox

Yellow-bellied Marmot

Mule Deer (doe) - Muskrat

Audubon's Cottontail - Black-tailed Jackrabbit

Black Bear

Wildflowers: This year was dryer than the past two years, so the wildflower bloom wasn't as profuse. However, there were still lots and lots of wildflowers in the Lakes Basin, down at North Table Mountain Ecological Preserve, and in Sierra Valley. Bridgeport/South Yuba River State Park and the Spenceville Wildlife Area, were also carpeted in Spring blooms! Such beauty!

Sierra Primrose

Anderson's Thistle in bud - Showy Penstemon

Wild Azalea - Bitterroot

Crimson Columbine with inset of Anna's Hummingbird

Fireweed - Leopard Lily

Sierra Downingia - Alpine Shooting Star

Sky Lupine and Goldfields (in background)

Small Critters:  This year I've combined my insect and herptile sightings in one photo-composite. This year, on walks with my husband, I explored an area near our neighborhood many times in the winter. To my delight I came across an uncommon Sierra Ensatina there! These lovely, tiny salamanders are difficult to find, as they need a damp environment to survive, and are usually out of sight under dead tree bark, or duff on the forest floor! On North Table Mountain Ecological Preserve there was a large variety of pollen eating beetles! In the river, I was startled to see two Sacramento Suckers swimming along! In the Lakes Basin I encountered a Sierra Gartersnake for the first time ever! It's all amazing to me!

Two Common Checkered Clerid Beetles and one Blister Beetle 

Feather Millipede - Sierra Ensatina

Sierra Mountain Kingsnake

Sacramento Suckers

Sierra Gartersnake

Sierra Newt - Western Pond Turtle

Cucumber Beetle

I am 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 3rd, for my next blog post.

Happy Holidays and Best wishes for the New Year to all of you!