California Ground Squirrel Collecting Acorns

I heard some rustling at the top of an oak tree and various bits of debris and an acorn or two were falling through the canopy. I looked up to see a squirrel rustling around in the foliage. It appeared to be gathering acorns, but I couldn’t quite get a clear view. After about 5 minutes or so, it came scurrying down. It would climb down the trunk, perch on a limb, and survey the surroundings. Once the scene was assessed to be safe after about half a minute, it would continue down to the next limb. When it got low enough, I saw that it was a California ground squirrel and its cheeks were bulging with acorns! Ground squirrels have cheek pouches that they can stuff with extra food to take with them to cache for later. This one looks like it managed to cram maybe six to eight acorns or more in there! Maybe it had already retrieved any acorns that had fallen on the ground or maybe it was just easier to gather and choose yummy, healthy, bug-free acorns from the tree instead of hunting for them on the ground. I’m not sure, but it was interesting to see a ground squirrel at the top of an oak tree. I hadn’t really imagined it venturing up there, but it seemed at home navigating its way around high up in a tree.

Yellowjackets Investigating Willow Leaves

There is a willow down by the river at the small beach where people and their dogs go swimming. It is teeming with yellow jackets crawling on the leaves. It was slightly unnerving to stand next to it record this video and check out what they find so alluring. The undersides of many of the leaves are covered with tiny aphids. So, the upper surfaces of the leaves below them are lightly sprinkled with honeydew. My guess is that the yellow jackets are attracted to this sugary substance. It was fascinating to watch the yellow jacket’s antennae sweep the surface of the leaf as they walked around foraging. I read a little about insect’s antennae and was captivating to read how they work and see all of the different shapes and sizes. Yellow jackets perceive the sense of smell, hearing, and touch through their antennae.

Another interesting thing I observed happening was that some of the yellow jackets had difficulty flying away. After moving around on the leaves for a while gathering honeydew, they would pause for takeoff, flutter their wings a few times, achieve enough liftoff to clear the leaf, and then fall to the ground. They would then crawl around on the ground, and I kept a close eye on them to make sure that they didn’t crawl up under my pant leg. It’s kind of strange, right? What was happening to them?

I also wondered why the yellow jackets didn’t forage any of the aphids. They didn’t seem interested in them at all. Aphids seem like tender little morsels that would be easy pickings.

What Bird Is This?

I briefly watched this bird out in the wetlands as it flew around catching insects. I liked the way the light was shining behind it illuminating its rusty-colored tail. I was only able to watch it for a few minutes and then it flew back into the wetlands where I couldn’t see it. For fun, I thought it would be interesting to see what you thought this bird might be. Leave your guesses/thoughts in the comments below.

I just want to add that this small wetland area attracts so many birds. It is a real eye-opener how crucial wetlands are, no matter the size, in supporting so much diversity in wildlife.

Virginia Rail

It was early evening, and I took a leisurely walk through the arboretum. As I approached the wetlands, I heard the calls of chickadees moving through the lower part of the canopy and decided to go see what they were up to. I walked out onto the bridge in the wetlands to find them flitting around in the red-osier dogwoods. As I was watching them, a small flock of Bushtits came sweeping through and descended onto the lily pads sticking out of the water. They were excitedly gleaning insects from the surface of the leaves. As my eyes followed their acrobatic tumblings, I came across another bird at the water’s edge. A Virginia Rail was squatting on a lily pad and quietly foraging.

A Virginia Rail’s habitat is mostly shallow, freshwater wetlands but can also occupy brackish marshes near the coast. They prefer wetlands with “40–70% coverage of tall, emergent vegetation” (All About Birds). This consists of cattails, rushes, grasses, and plants like spirea, red-osier dogwood, and willow found in the wetlands at the arboretum. These areas provide great cover. Coupled with that, Virginia Rails have excellent camouflage and are mostly solitary birds, so they are often heard more than seen. With their long toes and strong legs to help them walk around on floating vegetation, they are right at home in a marsh habitat.

Their diet consists of “beetles, snails, spiders, flies, small fish, slugs, crayfish, and frogs. In the winter, they eat aquatic invertebrates as well as plant material and seeds” (All About Birds). This one appeared to be probing into the mud for food and eating bits of vegetation.

Seeing this bird is a reminder of how important it is to stay tuned into my surroundings. This encounter only lasted a few minutes, so it can be easy to miss these brief, but exciting moments. I am also reminded to be curious about places that I have been to many times because they can offer new and delightful experiences.

I hope to see you out there.

Resource
Virginia Rail Life History, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Virginia_Rail/lifehistory. Accessed 16 Sept. 2023.

Black-capped Chickadee Eating Oregon Ash Seeds

Chickadees are so curious and have such a varied diet. This morning I heard them calling from the canopy and decided to go over and see what they were doing. I found them plucking Oregon Ash samaras, carrying them over to nearby limbs, and eating the seeds. They were so adept at balancing, lining up the samara along the limb, and picking the seed out of the end. They would eat some ash seeds for a few minutes, then dart over to an oak tree to rummage around through the canopy for a couple of minutes, and then pop back over to the ash for more seeds. I am always amazed at how action-packed they are and that they never seem to stop moving.

Gopher Snakes & Western Fence Lizards

Here are some more notes from wandering along the river. I have been seeing many small Western Fence Lizards. I see them basking on the rocks, leaping between rocks, and looking around and underneath rocks. They are curiously exploring their world. I imagine their bodies find it thrilling to feel all of the different textures of the rocks—gritty, smooth, bumpy, etc. They must be acutely tuned into all the different temperatures of the rock’s surfaces from the hot tops in the sun to the cool bottoms next to the damp ground and every thermal reading in between.

Another animal that is keenly tuned into its surroundings is the gopher snake. It was quietly moving in and out of the rocks and through the willows. I imagine it was aware of all the scurrying lizards and was looking for a meal. Its diet includes insects, lizards, rodents, birds, and bird eggs. Gopher snakes are constrictors. I watched it for a little while hoping to witness it capturing its prey but didn’t have any luck.

Canopy Opens

Last fall or winter (maybe it was two years ago), an old Bigleaf Maple tree split in half. The tree forked near the base and had become rotten inside. Half of it is still standing and being propped up by other trees. The other half was leaning towards the trail, so for safety, the arboretum cut it down. This opened up the canopy allowing the sun to reach into the forest that was mostly in the shade. As a result, numerous sprouts have started to emerge from the trunks of these Bigleaf Maples that were growing next to the Grandmother maple. It will be interesting to see how these new shoots develop and the landscape fills back in over the next 20 or 30 years.

Bushtit Eating Blackberry

I was watching a flock of bushtits move through the landscape. They fluttered and tumbled into a thicket of blackberries that were growing up through a cottonwood tree. As I peered through the foliage, I found some of them eating the blackberries. I captured one plucking off one drupelet at a time. I love its stance of one leg down grasping a tree limb and one nearly straight up holding onto the berry. I imagine the thorns of a blackberry are potentially harmful to birds. They have easily torn open my skin on more than one occasion when I was picking the berries. This one is playing it smart and showing off its acrobatic skills by finding a safe place to perch away from the thorns.

Favorite Tree

Every time I go out to the arboretum, I remind myself to slow down and take my time. I often begin by sitting on a bench, tuning into my senses, and letting go of all the busyness in my life. I hear chickadees calling, crickets singing, and leaves rustling. I feel the warmth of the sun and the wind brushing against me. I smell the dampness of recent rains and leaves starting to decay. I taste some ripe blackberries. I see insects buzzing in the air, and squirrels climbing through the trees. There are so many discoveries to be made in nature and it is more likely to happen if I start this way.

After sitting for a little while, I took a walk out to my favorite tree. It has so many beautiful forms, patterns, colors, and textures to behold and experience. It stands upright and its canopy is open and spacious.

The needles are long, soft, and green. They radiate outwards forming wispy brooms that sweep back and forth in the wind. The old needles turn orange and are scattered in a loose mat underneath the tree.

There are old cones still attached to the tree. They are gray and small bits of lichen are scattered across their surfaces. The scales are still nestled together at the base forming a beautiful pattern. Some old cones have partially detached leaving behind barnacled florets. The new cones have opened in the warm, summer sun. Their copper-colored bodies develop into a bouquet of arching scales. Red-breasted Nuthatches visit the cones looking for seeds to eat or cache for later.

Its catkins are tubular and dry a papery, reddish-brown.

The tree produces a sticky sap that always manages to find its way onto my body or clothes somewhere. It has a cool, sharp scent that feels refreshing.

The bark of the trunk is layered with flakes creating a furrowed, craggy landscape. It has a warm, sweet smell. The bark on the young limbs is reminiscent of a snake’s skin.

It has a gentle song and a peaceful dance as it sways in the wind.

There is so much to learn, notice, and experience with this tree. It can live to over 500 years old. This is only the beginning of its life. I will only get to know it and be friends for such a brief time.

Fishing Spider or Wolf Spider?

I was sitting along the edge of the river turning over stones, and occasionally one of these dusky, gray spiders would come shooting out from underneath one. Most of the time, they would disappear back underneath another rock as quickly as they appeared. They are lightning-fast. They could even escape by dashing across the surface of the water to another pile of rocks. It was difficult to follow one and keep up with where it went. Turning over stones to find it again was tricky. It felt like that magician’s game where a ball is placed under one of three cups, the cups are speedily switched around, and then you have to guess which cup the ball is under. The spider seemed to never be under the rock I thought it was under. I would turn over a rock and see it bolt out from the one beside it. It would disappear under another rock as it continued to play the game and give me the slip. I was very grateful when one of the spiders finally paused out in the open for a moment and kindly allowed me to take its photo.

When researching which spider this is, I narrowed it down to two similar but different kinds, a wolf spider and a fishing spider. Let’s compare them. The first area to consider is the location where they are found. They are both terrestrial, but fishing spiders are found near bodies of water and can move across the surface of water. Another thing to notice is their legs. Fishing spiders have longer legs which helps them walk on the surface of water. Wolf spider’s legs are shorter and stocker. Thirdly, is the placement of their eyes which they both have eight. Fishing spiders have two rows of four eyes. Wolf spiders have three rows—two eyes, then two larger eyes, then four small eyes. I imagine this can be difficult to discern. Color can also be a helpful clue. Fishing spiders tend to be gray or brown with banded legs. Wolf spiders are also different shades of brown or gray and frequently have a light or dark stripe running down their backs.

My spider seems to fit the description of a fishing spider more than a wolf spider. Beyond the name or category, I love the color and pattern of this spider.

Fishing Spiders
Fishing spiders don’t spin webs to catch their prey. They roam around looking for prey or they will sit at the edge of the water, place their legs in the water, and detect the movement of insects or even small fish to catch. Fishing spiders are nursery web spiders. The female carries around her egg sac and when the eggs are near hatching, she will suspend the sac in the protection of folded leaves.

Robin Eating Red-osier Dogwood

The American Robin eats a wide variety of fruits, so it is no surprise to find them eating the Red-osier Dogwood berries. One of the shrubs next to the river had an abundance of berries, and I watched a robin eating from it quite a few times on different days. It would fly in, perch, and watch its surroundings for a moment. It would then pluck a berry, hold it in its beak, slightly toss it back, and swallow it whole. I feel like it ate around 6 - 8 berries before flying off. I found it interesting that I have only seen one robin at a time eating the berries. It is not unusual to see a group of robins in a tree devouring fruit. Also, I usually see them start to gather together this time of year. For example, in the recent post Grasshoppers - August 20, 2023, there were probably a dozen robins together out in the meadow eating grasshoppers.

Common Knotweed

It hasn’t rained in a dog’s age. It is dry as a bone. This old road through the South meadow was traveled by farm equipment for years and many people walk on it daily. It’s compacted hard as a rock. It is gravelly and bakes in the full sun. It seems unlikely that any plant would grow here. That said, common knotweed grows on the road, is green, and blooming.

It grows in these fairly dense flat mats. The stems radiate from a central, knot-like structure and maybe that is the origin of its common name. It has small green leaves, and the flowers are white. It produces a plethora of seeds. I often see dark-eyed juncos congregating on the road in the fall and winter eating the seeds.

It is not a beautiful, showy plant, but it got my attention because of the location of where it grows and its hardiness.

White-breasted Nuthatch Cleaning Out Nestbox

I subscribe to Birds of the World by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology which is a resource found on their website that they describe as, “Birds of the World is a powerful resource that brings deep, scholarly content from four celebrated works of ornithology into a single platform where biologists and birders can find comprehensive life history information on birds. Every bird has a story. Discover them all with Birds of the World.”

When I looked up nesting of White-breasted Nuthatches there surprisingly wasn’t a lot of current information on certain topics and little information on others. The information on nest construction cited sources from 1948, 1968, and 1978. Under the section “Selection,” it only stated “Not clear which sex selects the nest site.” Under the section “Maintenance And Reuse Of Nests,” it only stated “No data but thought to reuse nests often. No information on maintenance.”

Birds of the World is a great resource but obviously doesn’t contain all the information about White-breasted Nuthatches. That’s good news. There is probably still much to be discovered about its life. The even better news is that it is a common bird found at the arboretum that I can watch, study, and enjoy. Who knows, maybe I’ll make a new and exciting discovery about its life.

A couple of weeks ago I observed this nuthatch partially cleaning out this box. A pair of nuthatches have used two different nest boxes out at the arboretum the last two summers, so maybe it is scouting out a potential nesting site for next year. White-breasted nuthatches seem like curious birds, and I see them thoroughly investigating trees. They are constantly circling branches and the trunks of trees as they forage. It is not uncommon to see one pop into the cavity of a tree to have a look around. It makes sense to keep track of potential places to seek refuge during bad weather, escape danger, nest, etc. Next spring I’ll be wondering if they decide to nest in this box. I hope to see you out there!

Toad Bug

I was sitting at the edge of the river seeing what interesting animals might wander by, when this little creature hopped out in front of me. At first, I thought it was a frog. I leaned over for a closer look, it hopped again, and at second glance, it still seemed like a tiny frog. I slowly moved over to examine it closer again, and realized that it was… an insect? I watched it for a few minutes, and I finally saw its legs as it crawled out onto these small pebbles. What in the world is this amazing little animal?! I just had to watch it hop again, so I nudged it with a leaf. It seriously hopped just like a frog or a toad.

Meet the Toad Bug! It has a small, oval shape. It is 3/8” long and is two-thirds as wide as it is long. It could easily fit within the space of my thumbnail. It has bulging eyes at the sides of the head and the sides of the prothorax are projecting. Its legs are yellowish with brownish bands. Its mottled dark gray color blends in well with the surrounding stones and gives it great camouflage. Its diet consists of smaller insects which there are plenty of along the shore.

Seeing this interesting creature was a reminder that I never really know what wondrous lifeforms I will encounter or the inspiring experiences I will have every time I am out in nature. I hope to see you out there.

Resource
Milne, Lorus Johnson, and Margery Milne. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders. Knopf : distributed by Random House, 1980.

Grasshoppers

By the River
I found this grasshopper on a stone down by the river. It seems more like a rockhopper rather than a grasshopper. Maybe I’ll name it the River Rockhopper. Along with moths, grasshoppers have superb camouflage, and most often, they are hopping away as I unknowingly walk up on them. There is plenty of grass and small forbs growing in between the rocks, so it should be easy for this grasshopper to stay on or close to the rocks to hide in plain sight.

Out in the Meadow
I have been seeing lots of grasshoppers out in the meadow and they blend in well with the dry, yellow grass. This one reminds me of a grass seed head. Notice that the wings on this grasshopper are not completely developed. Robins were scattered throughout the meadow this morning. They were scurrying about lunging for grasshoppers. They were successful too. It is hard to see, but the one in the photo just caught one and has it in its beak.

Planaria Eating a Crawdad

I was down by the river today poking around and found what looks like a dead crawdad being devoured by planaria. I thought this would be a nice follow-up video to the July 23rd post. Remember that their mouths are about halfway down their bodies.

Water Penny Beetle

Lately, I have been poking around the edge of the river turning over stones, watching birds, listening to the river, and whatnot. There are many aquatic animals living and hiding out underneath rocks. My latest discovery is the water penny beetle. Along with the stonefly (posted on Aug. 1), this is another animal that is an indication of good water quality. The water penny thrives in flowing, unpolluted water that is also free from lots of sediments and algae. You will find them clinging to the undersides of rocks and logs in the water because they need to stay moist, stay hidden from predators, and are sensitive to light. That said, they will come out from hiding at night to eat on the upper surface. The larvae’s diet consists mostly of algae which are scraped off using rasps on their legs. They have dome-shaped bodies with flexible plates that allow them to hug closely to the surface and hold on. They have feathered gills under the abdomen that take in dissolved oxygen from the water.

It is interesting to realize that a larval stage of a beetle can be aquatic because I usually imagine it as a terrestrial grub underground or tunneling through the wood of a distressed or dead tree.

The adults resemble typical beetles. They are black or brown, oval, and have somewhat flattened bodies. The lifespan of the adults only lasts up to a couple of weeks—long enough to mate and for the female to lay eggs. Not only is there a short window in which to find an adult, they are only 4-6 mm long. I imagine it could be kind of tricky finding and identifying one.

As always, I hope this short post sparks your curiosity to do more research, go out to find one, and make more discoveries along the way.

Resources
Bug o’the Week – Water Penny Redux – Riveredge Nature Center. https://www.riveredgenaturecenter.org/bug-othe-week-water-penny-redux/#:~:text=The%20larvae%20of%20some%20species,into%20adults%20the%20next%20year. Accessed 15 Aug. 2023.

Hammond, George. “Psephenidae (Water-Penny Beetles).” Animal Diversity Web, https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Psephenidae/. Accessed 15 Aug. 2023.

“Water Penny Beetle Larvae.” Missouri Department of Conservation, https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/water-penny-beetle-larvae. Accessed 15 Aug. 2023.

Skippers

Skippers are butterflies that partially resemble a moth because of their hairy bodies and small, triangular wings. They have noticeably large eyes and short antennae. When they perched, they would either hold their wings flat and parallel to their bodies or open with the forewings angled above the hind wings like a plane. The yellow-orange color of the underside of their wings was so beautiful and captured the warmth of the summer sun. It allowed them to blend well with the surrounding dry vegetation. I liked the contrast between their soft, quiet bodies and the crispy, crunchy grass. I often stirred them up from the ground before I saw them. They quickly skipped through the air and lit nearby. They were friendly and gave me a feeling of levity when I was around them. If I moved slowly, they allowed me to kneel down to get a closer look. I found them drinking nectar on small flowers like the nonnative teasel that has spread out across the south meadow.

Sources
Family Hesperiidae (Skippers) | Butterflies and Moths of North America. https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/taxonomy/Hesperiidae. Accessed 11 Aug. 2023.

Inosculation

Inosculation is a natural phenomenon in which trunks, branches, or roots of two trees grow together. This event usually occurs between trees of the same species but can also happen between trees of different species.

In the first photo to the right, you can see what looks like a clump of oak trees. This photo shows two limbs or trunks of this cluster fusing together. There are many examples out at the arboretum where there are multiple trunks of an oak tree that are joined at the base. I haven’t been walking around the arboretum over the past hundred years to watch all of these trees grow, but I imagine that a small cache of acorns sprouted, grew up together, and literally grew together.

In the next three photos, there is an example of two different species. I have walked past this Oregon oak tree and Douglas-fir many times. The other day I noticed that they appear to have grown together at the base. They look to be about the same size so they probably sprouted at the same time. This pair is just past the barn on the left. The Douglas-fir winds up through the canopy of the oak tree and has an interesting wavy trunk. Both of their canopies lovingly intertwine with each other.

The word inosculation is derived from the Latin word osculum, which translates as “to kiss.” I recommend reading the biology behind how inosculation works. In a nutshell, it is about the bark layers coming in contact with each other, especially the cambium layer which is the tissue responsible for growth. The bark layers wear away and can come in contact with each other as they slightly rub together from the movement of the wind. My understanding is that it also happens through the pressure of trees growing into each other as they expand. The two touching parts can be two branches, two trunks, or a branch to a trunk. It can happen between roots too. To me, it essentially sounds like grafting trees together which is done all the time with fruit trees.