#nevadacountyca — Public Fediverse posts

Back to "working" (volunteering) on prepping my March workshop on invasive plants of #NevadaCountyCA.

Rather than presenting this bc I'm an expert (I'm not), I'm doing it bc I wanted to know the topic and there wasn't already a hyperlocal reference source.

I am learning so much. Am on the section now on practical control strategies. Starting with the Brooms bc they're so prolific and difficult to remove. They make the others look easy.

Pic shows Scotch Broom lining a trail in a public park here in December. In summer, these will be loaded with yellow flowers.
Broom crowds out natives and is flammable, so a wildfire hazard.

#InvasivePlants #NativePlants #Gardening #landstewardship

Gardened a bit today before the week of rain. Pruned the big Joseph's Coat climbing rose and cut back the flowering perennials inside the deer fence. For the third year, I was surprised to find that the native Hillside Gooseberry
(Ribes californicum) has begun blooming. I never remember to look for it in the "dead" of winter. The hummingbirds find it, though.

#CAbirds #gardening #nativePlants #NevadaCountyCA

Here's a female Downy Woodpecker using her stiff tail feathers for stability as she examines oak nooks and crannies for insects and spiders. She holds on with her zygodactyl feet – two toes pointing forward and two toes pointing backwards – a woodpecker characteristic that's uncommon in birds.

#Birds #CAbirds #BirdPhotography #NaturePhotography #BirdsOfNorthAmerica #NevadaCountyCA

...Also found while scouting for the Dec. 30 count: 12 White-throated Swifts, flycatching over the lake. Much less common than the Phoebe; hope they'll stick around a week.

Yes it did take a lot of frames to get this shot. Thank science for digital cameras.

These swifts remind me of orcas.

#NevadaCountyCA #birds #BirdPhotography #CAbirds

GM on #Solstice +2. Please enjoy this Black Phoebe, photographed while I was scouting for our Dec. 30 annual bird count. Here in #NevadaCountyCA, they are our only year-round resident flycatcher.

#birds #BirdPhotography #CAbirds

@ai6yr Our county library has a cool newerish service -- Open+ Access. They give you a code and you can enter the locked branch library when it's closed! #NevadaCountyCA #openlibrary #ilovelibraries

The birds were pretty quiet today on our women's birding group walk at Empire Mine State Park, when it was 37 F. at the outset. I like the way the Common Raven pic turned out, all gritty. It's not usual for this pigeon sp. to fly solo, but as we watched, admiring its crazy yellow feet, another came along. I found the White-breasted Nuthatch (facing down-tree) and the Nuttall's Woodpecker in a busy little thicket just outside the park. It was warmer then, and bugs were busy. I watched the Nuthatch catch a shield-shaped bug (stink bug maybe), and then either cache it in the bark, or hold it against the bark to eat it; couldn't tell.
#birding #CAbirds #birdphotography #NevadaCountyCA

Rain coming, just in time for the Marysville #ChristmasBirdCount on Monday. Would not be the first CBC I've done soaking wet. 🌧️

Sacramento NWS: "There is growing confidence that there will be multi-day event of rain and mountain snow sometime between Sunday and Wednesday. By Sunday night, there is a 30-50% chance the western portions of the Valley and across the Sierra will see greater than 0.25" of precipitation and 15-25% throughout the Valley and Northern Sacramento Valley."
https://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=STO&issuedby=STO&product=AFD&format=CI&version=1&glossary=1

Photo: This Red-shouldered Hawk was hunting earthworms in my #NevadaCountyCA yard in the rain. Dec 3 2022.

#CAbirds #birding #birdphotography #YubaCountyCA

@loren Despite the chant, my women's #birding group saw no Goshawk today. (No surprise) But we did see a lot of Golden-crowned Kinglets, lower in the trees than usual. (We may have seen enough GCKIs and Ruby-crowned Kinglets combined to equal a half Gos in weight.) Here are terrible pix of the Kinglets – bad light, bad branches, too far.

#CAbirds #naturephotography #NevadaCountyCA

GM from a point slightly NE of the Sacramento airport, where one can see the eastbound flights over the #nevadacountyCA foothills and be happy to be going #birding but not flying. #cabirds

First portrait this season of a Dark-eyed Junco. Looking very dapper this morning.

It's sad to have to fence all the gardens to keep the effing deer out, but it does give the birds a lot of perch options. Which gives me more photo ops, I suppose.

Have a pleasant Sunday, all.

#silverlinings #CAbirds #birds #naturephotography #NevadaCountyCA

GM from the Sierra foothills of #NevadaCountyCA. Please enjoy a coyote taking center stage for a good 2 a.m. scratch. Sound up for rustling leaves and toenails-on-guard-hairs.

First coyote I've gotten on the trail cam in its 3 years. Look out, you outside cats!

#wildlifephotography #coyote #naturephotography #keepcatsinside

GM, Mastofriends.

#birds #birdphotography #naturephotography #nevadaCountyCA #CAbirds

Yesterday, something unusual among the Belted Kingfishers: A female & a male chased each other above my house, which is about 1 km "inland" and 100' uphill from their usual spot on a freshwater lake.

In seven years, I've never seen a Kingfisher up here, away from the water. They kept it up for 3 hours.

They were making their typical loud, chattering call nonstop. Occasionally, one landed in a tall oak tree and the other dive-bombed it.

Here is the female, on her way to dive at the male in the tree.

Have you seen this behavior among Kingfishers before? Upslope and slightly away from the water source? This far outside breeding season?

#NevadaCountyCA #birds #CAbirds #NaturePhotography

There were a lot of birds active in the neighborhood this morning, including this California Scrub Jay doing its winter-prep acorn gathering.

Others included an unusual flock of 8 Yellow-rumped Warblers ("butterbutts") – they usually come in ones or twos.

Later, on Lake Wildwood, I found the first-of-season winter ducks: a dozen Common Mergansers (11 females and one male).

So, the winter residents are starting to arrive here in the Sierra foothills.

#NevadaCountyCA #birds #CAbirds #birdphotography #NaturePhotography #autumn

To fully appreciate this photo, you have to imagine me climbing onto a chair to get onto the kitchen counter to crouch awkwardly as I compose the image, leaning this way and that to reduce reflections on the inside of the window and optimize the background, but not startling the squirrel.

#squirrel #GraySquirrel #naturephotography #CAwildlife #NevadaCountyCA #nottoooldyet

I hung out at the 'Hot Lips' salvia for a while today, hoping to catch an interesting native species or event among the pollinators. With 1,600 species of native bees (that's just bees, not even including flies or wasps) found in California... ya think? But the bush was swarming with only (sorry, Ben) European honey bees. I did catch this nice moment when one sunlit bee was brushing against the anthers while nectaring.
#gardening #bees #pollinators #CAinsects #NevadaCountyCA @ai6yr

I see Red-breasted Sapsuckers here at 1,500 feet in #NevadaCountyCA only a few times a year, always in fall and winter.

Today this one foraged in the oak trees near the house long enough for me to get photos both through the double-paned glass and through an open door.

It was a good day 🍁. Hope yours was, too. #sapsuckersunday #birdphotography #naturephotography #CAbirds

Wore my grippy water shoes up on the roof to blow off leaves and clear the drain channels.

Satisfying to see the filter holes on the gutter covers re-emerge. And to return to the ground not as a ladder-accident statistic.

Ready for more #rain
#NevadaCountyCA #CAwx #CAinsects #insects #bugphotography #naturephotography

Meanwhile, the female #mantis I discovered last night is still hanging out by the garage door.

#SilentSunday southbound Sandhill Cranes, kettling upwards in a spiral on a thermal. (nb they weren't actually silent) #nevadacountyca #fallmigration #birdphotography

@croyle We had a wildfire sunset here in #NevadaCountyCA last night. #CAfires

#Hummingbird bonanza in #NevadaCountyCA this morning! Maybe #Hilary grounded them overnight? At least 5 Rufous and 10 or more Anna's. I suspended my personal rule against feeder photos bc, in the rain, they weren't visiting flowers, and I was really enjoying their interactions. And it's my birthday 🥳. The Rufous were feisty, as usual, but the Anna's were giving it back pretty well (even if it took two of them to one Rufous 😄). Here's a gallery. Enjoy! (Click to see the full pic) #CAbirds