Tag Archives: ant hill

General Blog, Naturalist, photography, Volunteering

Trying to Beat the Heat on 06-05-19

June 5, 2019 The Chubby Woman

I got up around 5:00 am this morning so I could get out to the Effie Yeaw Nature Preserve before it got too hot outside. The predicted high for today was 100°. When I got to the preserve, it was already about 67° outside.

Just seconds after I arrived, my CalNat graduate/friend, Roxanne M., showed up to join me and so did “The Other Mary”, Mary M., another volunteer trail walker at Effie Yeaw. She brought a small bag for me filled with blackberries from her yard. I thought that was so nice of her.

The three of us walked for about 3 hours, but we cut out walk short because it was humid and hot at the river. When we left, it was already about 80°– and it was only a little after 9 o’clock. Pleh!

We weren’t expecting to see a lot, because nature is kind of in a transition period right now. We’re waiting for mammal babies to be born and insects to start showing themselves. And, we didn’t see a whole lot, but Roxanne and I can always find something to look at and focus on.

Roxanne is doing a seed-collecting thing right now for the naturalist class, and so she stops at different plants to see what kind of seeds they have on them and how the seeds might be disbursed. She took on this project on all by herself and is volunteering all the time it’s taking her to collect specimens and ID the plants. I’m so proud of her!

CLICK HERE for the album of photos.

On our walk we saw a group of about four deer including a young buck in his velvet and a very pregnant doe. And later on, we also saw a bunch of baby rusty-headed Common Mergansers zooming down the riverside with their mom. It was so cute to see some of the babies swimming with their face down in the water, like the adults do, looking for things to eat. Roxanne, The Other Mary and I all tried to get photos of them, but they moved so-so fast, it was really hard!

I also stopped to get some video of a hive of Common Black Ants (yeah, they’re really called that) carrying their larvae from one nest to another — most likely because the old nest was compromised in some way (infested with fungus, collapsing, etc.).

Moving the eggs and babies around can be really risky because they make for tasty treats for other insects and some birds, so the workers who carry them (very gently in their jaws) have to move really fast and know right where they’re going.

Queen ants are pretty awesome. They control the sex of all of their offspring (only creating males when it’s time for nuptial flights; ost ants you see are females); they can live for up to 15 (some say 30) years, and only mate during their nuptial flights… which means they can mate with several males during that short-term flight period, and then hang onto the sperm for the rest of their entire lives.

On our way out of the preserve we noticed leaves with circular cutouts on them. They’re made by Leafcutting Bees (Megachile sp.), a kind of native bee that lives in cavities. They use the bits they cut out of the leaves to line their tube-like nests and build a neat row of individual compartments, in each of which they’ll form a small doughy mound of pollen and nectar. On top of each of these mounds, the bee will lay a single egg.

Mother leafcutters can control the gender of their offspring, and often lay the eggs of their female offspring in the back of the tube-nest and the males in the front. This way, if the nest is invaded by a bird or other insects, it’s the males that will die first, leaving the females protected.

Although they’re solitary bees and don’t produce a lot of offspring, leafcutters are great pollinators. You can encourage them to pollinate your garden by building nesting boxes, called “bee condos”, for them in your yard. Here is a guide from the Xerces Society on how to do that: http://ow.ly/MhVf50uygX1.

Species List:

Acorn Woodpecker, Melanerpes formicivorus,
Asian Ladybeetle, Harmonia axyridis,
Black Phoebe, Sayornis nigricans,
Blessed Milk Thistle, Silybum marianum,
Bullock’s Oriole, Icterus bullockii,
California Brodiaea, Brodiaea californica,
California Ground Squirrel, Otospermophilus beecheyi,
California Poppy, Eschscholzia californica,
California Scrub Jay, Aphelocoma californica,
Canada Goose, Branta canadensis,
Columbian Black-Tailed Deer, Odocoileus hemionus columbianus,
Common Black Ant, Lasius niger,
Common Merganser, Mergus merganser,
Coyote Brush, Baccharis pilularis
Coyote Mint, Monardella villosa,
Dogtail Grass, Cynosurus echinatus,
Elegant Clarkia, Clarkia unguiculata,
English Plantain, Ribwort, Plantago lanceolata,
European Starling, Sturnus vulgaris,
Goldwire, Hypericum concinnum,
Green Shield Lichen, Flavoparmelia caperata,
House Wren, Troglodytes aedon,
Interior Live Oak, Quercus wislizeni,
Italian Thistle, Carduus pycnocephalus,
Leaf-Cutter Bee, Megachile,
Long-Jawed Orb-Weaver Spider, Tetragnatha elongate,
Mock Orange, Lewis’s Mockorange, Philadelphus lewisii,
Moss, Bryum Moss, Bryum capillare,
Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Picoides nuttallii,
Oak Titmouse, Baeolophus inornatus,
Oregon Ash, Fraxinus latifolia,
Pacific Bent Grass, Agrostis avenacea,
Praying Mantis, European Mantis, Mantis religiosa,
Rio Grande Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo intermedia,
Showy Milkweed, Asclepias speciosa,
Spicebush, Calycanthus occidentalis,
Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura,
Valley Oak, Quercus lobata,
Valley x Blue Oak, Quercus lobata x douglasii,
Variable Flatsedge, Cyperus difformis,
Wavy-Leaf Soap Plant, California Soaproot, Chlorogalum pomeridianum,
Western Fence Lizard, Sceloporus occidentalis,
White Alder, Alnus rhombifolia,
White Horehound, Marrubium vulgare,
Winter Vetch, Hairy Vetch, Vicia villosa,
Yellow Water Iris, Yellow Flag, Iris pseudacorus,

Firsts, General Blog, Naturalist, photography, Volunteering

Checking Out the Spider’s Den and Other Stuff, 05-18-19

May 18, 2019 The Chubby Woman

I got up a little before 6 o’clock this morning and headed out to the Effie Yeaw Nature Preserve for a walk by myself. I was trying to beat the rain – and was also on the lookout for slime molds. I did beat the rain (it didn’t show up until around 3:00 pm), but I zeroed out on the slime molds. I think they need one more sunny day between the rainstorms to wake up.

It was nice and quiet on my walk, although I did come across a few other people. I was able to identify some birds to a couple who I think was visiting the place for the first time, and also directed a photographer to some good spots for photo opportunities. Doing my trail-walker thing.

CLICK HERE for the album of photos.

I saw a lot of the usual suspects: deer, turkeys, Starlings, House Wrens. I saw several bucks in their velvet, including the one with wonky antlers (one long and one short) and a torn ear. He should be easy to recognize from here on out. And I also saw a doe with one ear that seemed really droopy. I don’t know what might have been bothering that ear; It didn’t look damaged or infected, at least as far I could tell.

A nice find was a male California Quail and one of his brides. I hear the quail at the preserve all the time, but they’re very fast and secretive, so I hardly ever get to actually see them. This pair were pretty far away from me, across a meadow, but I was still able to get some shots. At one point, the male jumped up on a pile of brush so I could see him. They crack me up; their chubby little bodies look like light bulbs.

I also got to see quite a few female Common Mergansers going up into the cottonwood tree the Wood Ducks were in the last time. There were maybe three or four of the Mergansers, each flying around the tree and landing on different parts of it, quacking in low voices all the while. I don’t know if they were scouting out a nesting spot or were attracted to something else. I got some interesting-angle shots of them.

I was greeted by a pair of Western Bluebirds on another part of the trail. First the female flew in and then the male. They’re such bright, cheery-looking little birds. I always like seeing them.

And there was a very chubby California Ground Squirrel who popped up from her burrow to look around. I think she was pregnant based on her body mass. Their gestation lasts about a month, and then its another 6 to8 weeks before the babies emerge from the burrows. So, we won’t see them until sometime in July, most likely.

By the pond at the end of the Pond Trail were was some very fresh otter scat, so I’m guessing the otter was around there earlier this morning. I’ve seen otters in that pond occasionally, but they usually wait until there are more crawdads around… The leeches in that pond might deter them, though.

I’m always curious when I find folded leaves or sealed leaf tents on plants, but I recognized what one was before I opened it when I found it on a mugwort plant. I handled it gingerly, and put it back where I found it afterwards. Inside was, as I suspected, a mama American Yellow Sac Spider, Cheiracanthium inclusum, and her egg sac.

I was careful about how I opened it and handled it, because theses spider can pack a very painful bite (and are believed to bite more people than any other spider). The bite is said to burn like a wasp’s sting (and for sensitive people it can make them sick). The mother spider seals herself inside her rolled leaf tent with her egg mass, which can have as many as 100 eggs in it (although less is typical). She stays with the mass until the spiderlings hatch. After her babies hatch, she’ll stay with them until they’ve all gone through one molt (usually around 2 weeks). As I mentioned, I set her and her tent back where I found them. She’ll spin new web to close her tent up again. ((Investigating leaf-rolls can be very interesting and rewarding for a naturalist, but just be careful. You never know what might be inside of them.))

The young coyote showed up again today, in between two deer who didn’t seem to be aware that it was there. It’s a very young coyote – gangly and thin, a teenager – but is hunting on its own, which I think is kind of unusual. It moves too quickly, so I can’t tell if it’s a male or a female, but I did manage to get a few better photos of it today and a video snippet.

I got so preoccupied with my photo-taking that I lost track of time, and didn’t get back to the car until 11:30 am… So, I’d been on my feet for five hours. My ankles were killing me during the drive back to the house.

Species List: