I got around 6:00 am this morning and headed out to the American River Bend Park for my walk. It was overcast for most of the day, but I was able to do my walk without getting rained on, so that was good.
The first thing I saw when I got there was the leucistic female turkey and another “normal”-colored turkey walking through the tall grass along the side of the road with one small poult following after them. I don’t know which of the gals had the baby, but they both seemed to be taking care of it. Poults are so hard to photograph most of the time because the moms try to keep them hidden as much as possible. So, I only got a few shots of the baby’s behind.
This is the time of year for caterpillars at the park and you could see Pipevine Swallowtail and Rusty Tussock Moth caterpillars almost everywhere you looked. When I was videoing some of the Pipevine Swallowtail guys eating pipevine a woman and two of her friends came up. The woman plucked a caterpillar from the ground to show it to their friends, and when she came back to set it back onto a pipevine plant, I asked her if she’d seem the Tussocks. She said, no, so I showed her where some of them were and gave her and her friends a mini lesson on the species. Naturalist thing: check.
CLICK HERE for the album of photos.
The pipevine plants were abundant: on the ground, over logs, up into the trees and shrubbery. Some of them were super-thick. The wild grape vines were also everywhere. They seem larger than I’ve seen them in years – but that’s because of the rains, I’m sure. We were living with drought with so long that we don’t recognize the landscapes with water anymore… The Elegant Clarkia was in bloom all over the place; patches of pink – and some white – all along the river trail. So pretty.
Lots of House Wrens around singing today. I saw one male go over to a slit-like cavity in the side of a tree and look in, then he flew up into a nearby tree advertising his find. But the cavity was already taken by a pair of Oak Titmice. The mom came up with a beak full of bugs and started fussing at the Wren. She flew at him a couple of times to drive him off, but he was pretty persistent. When both of them were away from the cavity, I walked up to the tree to see if I could hear any babies inside. When I tapped on the tree, I could hear a hiss from inside. Sometimes, baby birds hiss to make themselves sound like snakes, so predators won’t bother to come inside the nesting cavity – and it also deters human from trying to get a better look inside. Hah!
I walked for about 4 hours and then headed back home.
Species List:
- American Bumblebee, Bombus pennsylvanicus,
- Anna’s Hummingbird, Calypte anna,
- Bedstraw, Cleavers, Galium aparine,
- Blue Elderberry, Sambucus cerulea,
- Bush Monkey Flower, Mimulus aurantiacus,
- California Buckeye Chestnut, Aesculus californica,
- California Hairstreak Butterfly, Satyrium californica,
- California Pipevine Swallowtail, Battus philenor hirsuta,
- California Pipevine, Aristolochia californica,
- California Wild Grape, Vitis californica,
- Canada Goose, Branta canadensis,
- Common Green Lacewing, Chrysoperla carnea,
- Common Hoptree, Ptelea trifoliata,
- Cranefly, Tipula spp.,
- Creek Clematis, Clematis ligusticifolia,
- Destroying Angel Mushroom, Amanita ocreata,
- Dog Vomit Slime Mold, Fuligo septica,
- Dogtail Grass, Cynosurus echinatus,
- Eastern Gray Squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis,
- Elegant Clarkia, Clarkia unguiculata,
- European Praying Mantis, Mantis religiosa,
- Gold Dust Lichen, Chrysothrix candelaris,
- Goldwire, Hypericum concinnum,
- Gouty Stem Gall, Callirhytis quercussuttoni,
- Great Egret, Ardea alba,
- Green Shield Lichen, Flavoparmelia caperata,
- House Wren, Troglodytes aedon,
- Interior Live Oak, Quercus wislizeni,
- Italian Thistle, Carduus pycnocephalus,
- Lace Lichen, Ramalina menziesii,
- Lesser Goldfinch, Spinus psaltria,
- Live Oak Gall Wasp, 1st Generation, Callirhytis quercuspomiformis,
- Live Oak Gall Wasp, 2nd Generation, Callirhytis quercuspomiformis,
- Mourning Dove, Zenaida macroura,
- Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Picoides nuttallii,
- Oak Leaf-Roller Moth, Archips semiferanus,
- Oak Moss Lichen, Evernia prunastri,
- Oak Titmouse, Baeolophus inornatus,
- Oak Treehopper, Platycotis vittata,
- Oregon Ash, Fraxinus latifolia,
- Painted Lady Butterfly, Vanessa cardui,
- Poison Oak, Toxicodendron diversilobum,
- Rattlesnake Grass, Big Quaking Grass, Briza maxima,
- Rio Grande Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo intermedia,
- Rusty Tussock Moth, Orgyia antiqua,
- Spotted Towhee, Pipilo maculatus,
- Sunburst Lichen, Xanthoria elegans,
- Sweet Broom, Cytisus racemosus,
- Toothed Crust Fungus, Basidioradulum radula,
- Trashline Spider, Cyclosa turbinata,
- Tree Swallow, Tachycineta bicolor,
- Tule Pea, Lathyrus jepsonii,
- Turkey Tail Fugus, Trametes versicolor,
- Valley Oak, Quercus lobata,
- Western Bluebird, Sialia mexicana,
- Western Redbud, Cercis occidentalis,
- Winter Vetch, Vicia villosa,
- Yellow-Faced Bumblebee, Bombus vosnesenskii
