Tag Archives: nature

#52HikeChallenge, birding, Citizen Science, Firsts, galls, General Blog, Naturalist, photography, Surprises, Volunteering

A Short Walk at Sailor Bar, 07-18-23

I got up around 5:45 this morning, and got myself dressed, got the dog fed and pottied, and got myself out the door. I headed out to the Sailor Bar Community Park along the American River. The traffic was moving easily and I got a lot of green lights, so I was at the park by about 6:30 AM. It was already 67ºF outside and I knew it was going to warm up fast, so this was kind of an abbreviated excursion. I was only out for about 2 hours, and by then it was already 80ºF outside. Pleh!

I was hoping to see galls on the oak trees, but they weren’t really showing themselves yet. I saw only two single specimens of the Saucer Galls and one old specimen of a Hair Stalk Gall Wasp gall on a blue oak tree, but nothing on the Live Oaks or the Valley Oaks yet. It may be another month before we see anything else.

I did find quite few willow galls including the Willow Bead Galls, sawfly Apple Galls, Pinecone Galls, and some Rose Galls just starting to emerge. A sort of new-to-me gall was the gall of the Potato Gall Midge, Rabdophaga salicisbatatus. I don’t see this one very often, and when I first saw one, years ago, I couldn’t find a good species match for it. The “potato” ID must be relatively new to iNaturalist.

Along with the mosquitoes, I encountered a lot of Low-Jawed Orb-Weaver Spiders, including one that ran up onto some apple galls I was photographing as though she was claiming them as hers. There were no butterflies, but I did see some dragonflies hovering around a still pond in the river, and some Robber Flies on the ground.

As for the larger, more warm-blooded critters, I saw a few Cottontail Rabbits, California Quails, House Finches (feeding on the turkey mullein), Scrub Jays, some Crows, and a Green Heron resting in a tree near the river.

The tarweeds are starting to assert themselves, and the blackberry vines and blue elderberry trees are dripping with fruit. The California Mugwort is blooming as are the Buttonbush bushes, and fig trees. There was madia still in flower everywhere, and I found a couple of nice stands of Sacred Datura.

I feel a sense of urgency to photograph the plants and trees now before the summer heats really sets in and everything gets burned by the sun. But when it’s hot outside, I can only be out walking around in the very early morning hours when it’s still relatively cool (in the 60s).

As I mentioned, I was out for about 2 hours today. This was hike #39 of my #52hikechallenge for the year.

Species List:

  1. Acorn Woodpecker, Melanerpes formicivorus
  2. Bees, European Honeybee, Western Honeybee, Apis mellifera
  3. Blackberry, Armenian Blackberry, Rubus armeniacus [red canes, white flowers]
  4. Blue Elderberry, Sambucus nigra cerulea
  5. Brazilian Vervain, Purpletop Vervain, Verbena brasiliensis
  6. Buttonbush, Cephalanthus occidentalis
  7. California Mugwort, Artemisia douglasiana
  8. California Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly, Battus philenor hirsuta
  9. California Quail, Callipepla californica
  10. California Scrub Jay, Aphelocoma californica
  11. Canada Goose, Branta canadensis
  12. Common Madia, Madia elegans
  13. Crow, American Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos
  14. Desert Cottontail Rabbit, Sylvilagus audubonii
  15. Dragonfly, Variegated Meadowhawk Dragonfly, Sympetrum corruptum
  16. Fig, Common Fig, Ficus carica
  17. Fitch’s Tarweed, Centromadia fitchii
  18. Flies, Robber Fly, Efferia albibarbis
  19. Green Heron, Butorides virescens
  20. Hair Stalk Gall Wasp, Andricus pedicellatus [thread gall on blue oak]
  21. Heleomyzid Fly, Trixoscelis sp.
  22. House Finch, Haemorhous mexicanus
  23. Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos
  24. Mosquito, Super Family: Culicoidea
  25. Mullein, Doveweed, Turkey Mullein, Croton setiger
  26. Northern Mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos
  27. Oak, Blue Oak, Quercus douglasii
  28. Poison Oak, Pacific Poison Oak, Western Poison Oak, Toxicodendron diversilobum
  29. Potato Gall Midge, Rabdophaga salicisbatatus [on petiole, arroyo willow]
  30. Sacred Datura, Jimsonweed, Datura wrightii
  31. Saucer Gall Wasp, Andricus gigas
  32. Silver Long-Jawed Orbweaver, Tetragnatha laboriosa
  33. Stink Bugs, Family: Pentatomidae [eggs]
  34. Towhee, Spotted Towhee, Pipilo maculatus
  35. Tree of Heaven, Ailanthus altissima
  36. Tripartite Sweat Bee, Halictus tripartitus
  37. Willow Apple Gall Sawfly, Euura californica
  38. Willow Bead Gall Mite, Aculus tetanothrix
  39. Willow Pinecone Gall Midge, Rabdophaga strobiloides
  40. Willow Rose Gall Midge, Rabdophaga rosaria [on the terminal end]
  41. Willow, Arroyo Willow, Salix lasiolepis
  42. Willow, Narrowleaf Willow, Sandbar Willow, Salix exigua

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Firsts, General Blog, Naturalist, photography, Volunteering

Two-Horned Galls and a Beetle with a Hairy Chest, 07-11-19

Around 5:30 this morning, I headed out to the American River Bend Park for a walk. It was in the high 60’s when I got there and heated up quickly; around 71° when I left.

 I didn’t have an agenda in mind and was just watching for whatever Nature wanted to show me. I ended up finding a few galls on the oak trees, including one I’d never seen before. I’d seen photos of them but had never seen one “live”. It was a Two-Horned Gall of the wasp Dryocosmus dubiosus. Coolness. They’re found on the underside of the leaves of Live Oak trees, usually along the median vein. Also found the big Oak Apple galls, tiny Pumpkin Galls, and some Goldenrod galls.

In the water fountain near the restroom, I found a large beetle lying on its back.  It was about an inch long and really kind of “hairy”. It had lost one of its antennae and was dying, but I still took some photos of it.  I wasn’t exactly sure what it was, so when I got home, I Googled “beetle with hairy chest” – Hah! – and the correct identification actually came right up.  It was, of course, a “June Bug” or more correctly a May Beetle, Phyllophaga sp.  Around that same area, I found the shed skin of a snake, including its face.

June Bug, May Beetle, Phyllophaga sp.,

I could hear Red-Shouldered Hawks yelling at each other across the forest while I was out there, and at one point a fledgling flew down out of a tree onto the ground beside the trail.  I couldn’t tell if he actually caught anything or if he was just practicing, but he sat for a moment and looked over his shoulder at me so I could snap a photo before he flew off again.

CLICK HERE for the full album of photos.

Just as I was leaving, I came across the nesting cavity of some Tree Swallows. I watched them take turn flying in and out of the cavity a few times and got some photos before heading back to the house.

Citizen Science, Firsts, General Blog, Naturalist, photography, Volunteering

Blue Oak Galls and Other Stuff, 07-09-19

I headed out to the Effie Yeaw Nature Preserve.  It was about 56° when I got there, but it was up to around 75° when I left.  When I got there, I was happy to see my friend and fellow-naturalist Roxanne there, too. She’s helping me out with the Monarch monitoring facet of my volunteer work at the preserve. I really appreciate her help, too, because it makes the somewhat tedious process of looking over each milkweed plant go more quickly. 

Still no sign of Monarch eggs or caterpillars, and what was odd was we didn’t see much in the way of other insects either.  We did find some spiders (including a White Crab Spider and a little Jumping Spider), some aphids, a single praying mantis, and a couple of beetles but that was it.  The lack of critters was rather surprising and made me wonder if the area had been sprayed or something.  We worked on the plants for about 90 minutes and then went for a short walk through the preserve.

 Although we heard a lot of different birds, we didn’t see any Wild Turkeys today, which was very unusual. They’re normally all over the place. We came across two bucks but no does and no fawns. Both bucks were in their velvet.  One was a nervous youngster who was just getting his first antlers (a “spike buck”), and the other was a laid-back 3-pointer who was just lying in the grass on the side of the trail.  He kept an eye on us but didn’t move from his spot. I guess he figured we were no match for him, so we weren’t much of a threat.  He was gorgeous. And because he was so still, we were able to get quite a few good photos of him.

CLICK HERE to see the album of photos.

The most exciting thing to me that we came across on our walk was sighting a few different species on a Blue Oak tree (Quercus douglasii) along the River Trail.  It had both Saucer Galls (Andricus gigas) and newly budding Crystalline Galls (Andricus crystallinus). The saucers start out flat and then form cups (some with smooth edges and some with serrated edges). The Crystalline Galls start out like tiny dark-pink urns and then swell up and get their sparkly spines. We hadn’t seen any galls at all on the “Frankenstein” hybrid tree further up the trail, so finding the galls on the Blue Oak by the river was rewarding. 

It was nice to see that this particular Blue Oak was also getting acorns on it. These oaks don’t produce acorns in drought years, and when they do produce acorns, they’ll produce a lot one year (a “mast” year) and then produce far fewer for the next two or three years.  So, as I said, it was nice to see this one with acorns all over it.  (The acorns usually take a year to develop.) Blue Oaks are also endemic to California, which means they’re found here and nowhere else on the planet.  It’s also one of the oak trees that is immune to the fungus that causes Sudden Oak Death.  Very cool trees.

Oh, and we found a Treehopper – but it jumped away before I could get a photo of it.  Those things are sooooooo weird-looking with their hunched backs. The one we saw was a Buffalo Treehopper (Stictocephala bisonia): mostly green with some burnished gold edges on it.

We walked the trails for about 2 hours.

Species List:

  1. Blue Oak, Quercus douglasii,
  2. Brass Buttons, Cotula coronopifolia,
  3. Buffalo Treehopper, Stictocephala bisonia,
  4. California Mugwort, Artemisia douglasiana,
  5. California Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly, Battus philenor hirsuta,
  6. California Praying Mantis, Stagmomantis californica,
  7. California Wild Grape, Vitis californica,
  8. Canada Goose, Branta canadensis,
  9. Columbian Black-Tailed Deer, Odocoileus hemionus columbianus,
  10. Common Buttonbush, Cephalanthus occidentalis,
  11. Common Merganser, Mergus merganser,
  12. Common Snowberry, Symphoricarpos albus,
  13. Convergent Ladybeetle, Hippodamia convergens.
  14. Crystalline Gall Wasp, Andricus crystallinus,
  15. Desert Cottontail, Sylvilagus audubonii,
  16. European Honeybee, Apis mellifera,
  17. Flax-Leaf Horseweed, Erigeron canadensis,
  18. Green Lacewing, Chrysoperla carnea,
  19. House Wren, Troglodytes aedon,
  20. Italian Thistle, Carduus pycnocephalus,
  21. Jumping Spider, Phidippus sp.,
  22. Mallard, Anas platyrhynchos,
  23. Moth Mullein, Verbascum blattaria,
  24. Mushroom Headed Mayfly, Small Minnow Mayfly, Callibaetis ferrugineus ferrugineus,
  25. Oak Titmouse, Baeolophus inornatus,
  26. Occidental Grasshopper, Trimerotropis occidentalis,
  27. Oleander Aphid, Aphis nerii,
  28. Poison Oak, Toxicodendron diversilobum,
  29. Red-Shouldered Hawk, Buteo lineatus,
  30. Saucer Gall Wasp, Andricus gigas,
  31. Showy Milkweed, Asclepias speciosa,
  32. Sweet Pea, Lathyrus odoratus,
  33. Tarweed, Common Madia, Madia elegans,
  34. Wavy-Leaf Soap Plant, Soap Root, Chlorogalum pomeridianum,
  35. Western Fence Lizard, Sceloporus occidentalis,
  36. White Alder, Alnus rhombifolia,
  37. White Crab Spider, Misumessus sp.
General Blog, Naturalist

Summer 2019 CalNat Class #5, 07-05-19

Because it was a holiday weekend, only about half of the students in our Certified California Naturalist program showed up for this class, and we didn’t have a guest speaker.  So, it was a more “intimate” group, and we got to do a lot of species identification stuff and showed the students how to use the various facets of Calflora.org and CalScape.org for plant species identification.

This particular class focused on plants, so our volunteer/fellow naturalist Roxanne Moger, brought in her display of a variety of different seeds.  The students took time to go through them and tried to figure out the mechanism the plant might use to disperse its seeds.  

 Nate also helped to augment the class with a “spot the critters” exercise. He was showing the class images from the field cameras we have set up at the Silver Spur Ranch, and how he has to go through the photos carefully in order to see what’s actually being recorded. ((This is the project being funded in part by the grants I got from the Sacramento Zoo.))

Nate leading the class on “critter spotting”

CLICK HERE for more photos from the class.