It's Springtime!

Spring Green!

We've had nothing but sunny weather since that snowstorm came through two weeks ago!!! All the snow is now gone, and the temperatures have been in the 60's!!! What an extreme change! It has changed from a black and white palette to a palette with a multitude of greens! It's a gorgeous time to be outside!!!

Polypody Ferns and Dendroalsia Moss

Ferns, mosses and lichens thrive when the weather is moist and cool! 

The North Yuba River

The North Yuba River has incredible clarity and color at this time of year. The water is too cold for algae to grow and the sediments have settled since the last high water of two weeks ago. 

Common Mergansers (females) - Mergus merganser

The Common Mergansers are starting to return to the North Yuba River! They've spent the winter down in the Central Valley of California. They are a beautifully striking contrast to the green river!

Stout-beaked Toothwort - Grand's  Hounds tongue - Western Rue Anemone

Cardamine pachystigma - Adelinia grandis  - Enemione occidentale

In the shady damp areas of my neighborhood, the flowers pictured above are in full bloom! Every year I look forward to seeing these early bloomers!

The White-leaf Manzanita has been in bloom for a month or more, along Highway 49 in a few sunny areas near our neighborhood!

 Two Bushtits (males) - Psaltriparus minimus

Bushtits are tiny little birds, only 4.5" long including their tails! They usually live year-round in flocks of 10-40 birds. Their winters are spent in the foothills or coastal areas. They feed on tiny insects and spiders, scale insects, caterpillars, beetles, wasps, and ants! They were feasting on some unknown insects on the recently blossomed fruit trees!

 Bushtits (female - male) - Psaltriparus minimus

I couldn't identify the tiny birds in the above flowering tree, but I had my suspicions that they were Bushtits. However, I had a memory that Bushtits had a white eye-ring, and these didn't. I looked them up in the field guide and realized that only the females have white eye-rings, males don't! So the ones I saw were male Bushtits! How cool!

Bushtits and nest (female - male) - Psaltriparus minimus

Photo by Marion Hill

In late February to early March, mating pairs break off from the flock to breed and build a nest. Their nests are truly incredible engineering feats! Each nest takes about 6 weeks to make! Both the male and the female Bushtits work together to make the nest out of lots of spider webs and plant material. The interior of the nest is lined with plant down, feathers, and fur! The resulting nest is stretchy and long, and it looks like a stuffed sock, with a round opening on one side near the top! The female will lay 4-10 eggs in the nest, that hatch in approximately 13 days. The whole family sleeps in the nest, until the chicks fledge, then they all sleep outside on branches! Scientists have also observed "bachelor" Bushtits, hanging around the nest site, that help feed the fledglings! Bushtits usually have two broods in one season, and they will re-use the nest they built for the first brood. Wow!

Since the weather was so lovely, we went down to Canyon Creek to see what was going on. To my complete surprise, I found something I'd never seen before!!! The trail has the river on the left and is bordered by a  grassy bank of moss covered bedrock on the right.  

Hydroscaphid or Skiff Beetles

I've often seen wet seepy vertical rocks on the bank, but I never really checked them out. Since my husband was taking a break, I looked at them more closely and discovered a bunch of beetles traveling up and down just underneath the film of algae-filled water on the vertical rocks!  It looked to me like they were encased in an air bubble! They moved pretty fast and only stopped when they encountered what appeared to be small clusters of mating groups! WOW!!!

Hydroscaphid or Skiff Beetles

I posted their photos on bugguide.net and they identified them as being in the Hydrophilidae Beetle Family, which is a huge family of aquatic beetles. I did some more research which made me think that they might be Hydroscaphids or Skiff Beetles! Wow! How cool!!!

The following information is from Wikipedia.com

"Size and Appearance: They are under 2 mm (0.079 in) long, typically tan, brown, or black. They are characterized by short, abbreviated elytra (wing covers) that leave several tapering abdominal segments exposed.

Habitat: They are found on mats of algae in hygropetric habitats, which are environments with a thin film of water flowing over rocks, such as the edges of streams, waterfalls, and seeps.

Respiration: Adults carry an air supply under their elytra, using special setae (hairs) on the abdomen to act as a plastron, allowing them to breathe underwater.

Feeding: Both larvae and adults are algophagous, meaning they feed on algae.

Distribution: They are found on every continent except Antarctica."

Pacific Chorus Frog (treefrog) - Pseudacris regilla

We'd also been hearing what I thought were Pacific Tree Frogs along the trail. Then bigger than heck one jumped into view! These frogs come in 3 different color phases, green, brown, and gray. I didn't see the gray or brown phase. They change their color to blend into the background. The less contrast between their color, and their immediate environment, the less chance they will be spotted by predators. The complete color change takes approximately two weeks.

These tiny frogs are only 2" big, but they have loud voices! The male frogs (Female frogs don't croak!) are some of the loudest croakers of the frog world! Right now is the time that males are croaking to attract a mate. Male frogs have a dark patch on their throat, which is their inflatable vocal sack. They usually croak at night, in ponds, where the females will lay their gelatinous eggs after mating. The tadpoles will hatch from the eggs in 1-3 weeks. The newly hatched tadpoles spend 7 to 12 weeks in their pond, maturing into an adult frog.

They spend the winter buried under forest duff. Just like insects, fish, and plants they replace fluids in their body with a type of anti-freeze to keep their cells from freezing, in winter. Once they emerge in Spring, they eat spiders, beetles, flies, ants and other insects. When they sense that an insect is near, they commonly twitch a toe to attract it, then snatch it up with their tongue!

California Tortoiseshell - Nymphalis californica

To my surprise there were several California Tortoiseshell butterflies flitting around our neighborhood this week! It turns out that they have overwintered as adults and are out looking for mates, as well as nectar to eat. Adults feed on many different flower species for nectar. They also eat sap, aphid “honeydew” and over-ripe or damaged fruit in season. They will lay their eggs on Ceanothus plants, the leaves of which the caterpillars will feed on when they hatch. If conditions are right, Tortoiseshells may have three or more generations from spring to fall. They will move upslope in the summer and return to lower elevations in the fall.

California Tortoiseshell - Nymphalis californica

Most Tortoiseshells overwinter in the foothills and migrate upslope in the spring. To our delight we recently had a day FILLED with Tortoiseshell butterflies! It was a mass migration of overwintered adults coming up to the higher elevations!  They were flying everywhere, and in some areas congregating in groups of "puddling" adults!  The following info about puddling butterflies is from the website at https://coastalbg.uga.edu/2023/09/puddling-a-butterflys-secret-garden-of-delight/The Art of Puddling:

"Puddling, sometimes referred to as “mud-puddling,” is a behavior observed primarily in male butterflies. It involves these winged wonders congregating around puddles, damp soil, or even animal droppings. The butterflies use their proboscis, a long, straw-like mouthpart, to absorb essential nutrients from the substrate. These nutrients often include salts, amino acids, and minerals like sodium, which are crucial for various biological processes.

The Purpose of Puddling: While the sight of butterflies sipping on muddy water might seem peculiar, there’s a good reason behind this behavior. Puddling serves several vital functions in a butterfly’s life. 

Nutrient Uptake: Butterflies primarily feed on nectar, which provides them with sugars for energy. However, nectar lacks many essential nutrients, such as sodium and amino acids. Puddling helps supplement their diet with these vital elements, which are crucial for reproduction and overall health.

Reproductive Success: The nutrients obtained through puddling are especially important for male butterflies. During mating, males transfer some of these nutrients to females, which can enhance their reproductive success. A well-nourished female is more likely to produce healthier offspring.

Hydration: Butterflies need water for survival, just like any other organism. Puddling provides them with an easily accessible source of hydration, especially in arid environments where water may be scarce.

Social Interaction: Puddling sites often become social gatherings for butterflies. These communal gatherings can serve as opportunities for courtship and mate selection, allowing butterflies to find suitable partners.

The Role of Minerals: One of the most intriguing aspects of puddling is the butterflies’ preference for certain minerals. Sodium, in particular, is highly sought after by butterflies. It plays a crucial role in their physiology, helping regulate their internal fluids and maintain proper muscle function. Butterflies have even been known to visit human sweat and tears to obtain sodium, a phenomenon that highlights their unerring instinct for finding these vital minerals."

Puddling California Tortoiseshell males! - Nymphalis californica

Enjoy!

My husband and I also traveled down to Daugherty Hill to see some more spring greens!!! We had the whole place to ourselves and there weren't even any cows! What luck! The blue oaks were beginning to leaf out and birds were singing everywhere! It was glorious!

Lark Sparrow - Chondestes grammacus

Right away I spotted these two Lark Sparrows! They are easy to identify by the rusty colored patches on their heads. Lark Sparrows are foothill birds and they build their nests on bare ground, or slightly above ground in a shrub. Right now is their breeding season, and males are known to give a female a twig during copulation, which she then flies off with and places in her nest! 3-6 eggs are laid per clutch, and hatch within 12 days! Both male and female adults feed the nestlings, which can fly within 9 days! I love the markings and colors of the adults! 

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly - Battus philenor

To our delight, there were several Pipevine Swallowtail Butterflies, sipping nectar from the scattered wildflowers. They weren't in large clusters or groups, but they were flitting around the whole park! I wondered why they weren't getting eating by birds. It turns out that they are inedible to predators, because they ingest toxic aristolochic acids from their Pipevine host plant when they are caterpillars. These acids stay in their bodies even when they pupate into adults! There weren't lots of wildflowers in bloom, but we enjoyed the ones we saw. 

Popcorn Flower - Western Buttercup - California Saxifrage

Plagiobothrys nothofulvus - Ranunculus occidentalis - Micranthes californica

Purple Sanicle -  Sanicula bipinnatifida

Hairy Vetch -  Butter and Eggs/Johnny Tuck - Blue Dicks

Vicia villosa - Triphysaria eriantha - Micranthes californica

We'll be back down in the foothills again soon, 

to catch the full bloom of the  Spring wildflowers!

Come and join me for a talk on Saturday, March 21st about "Animals in Winter". It's a fundraiser for the Camptonville Community Center. Hope to see you there!

Check back in two weeks for my next natural history blog, 

on Sunday, March 28th.

Your questions and comments are always appreciated! Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com. Thanks!