Looking For Spring

Indian Plum

Indian Plum is the first deciduous shrub to show signs of life in our yard after winter, and here is one that is getting close to blooming already.  This is one of the things that I anxiously look for in February as a sign that spring WILL be coming.  

Heron rookery at the Kenmore Park and Ride, 2/17/2012

The heron return to the rookery in Kenmore every year around the first week of February.  The rookery was definitely FULL Friday morning.  In the near future I'll post more pictures from my trip there.

Red-tailed hawk returns to nest in Kenmore's Wetland #3

A red-tailed hawk returns to the same nest in the cottonwood tree behind our fence every February.  There it was peaking out of the nest Friday afternoon.

So I have now seen all of the early signs of spring that I watch for along Little Swamp Creek.  Here are some other things we've seen along the stream in the last month or so -

Varied Thrush

Varied Thrush pair in a locust tree

Varied Thrushes were here in January but I haven't heard them lately.

Chickadees, of course

Flocks of (maybe?) Pine Siskins passed through and seemed to be pecking at alder cones

Towhee giving me the stink-eye because the bird feeder was empty

Stellar's Jay also pointing out that empty feeder

Flicker

Flicker looking guilty after hammering on our stove pipe

Bees were going crazy on a hellebore one unseasonably warm afternoon

Some of my first photos of the year of the red-tailed hawk in the tree across the field from us -

I could tell that the hawk had returned because of the fussing of crows.  Speaking of crows, I have noticed that the huge flocks of crows that would stop for a while in our neighborhood as they pass through at dusk all winter long are no longer showing up.  That also seems to happen every February.

I haven't seen the Kenmore deer herd for quite some time.

Summer Animals of Little Swamp Creek

Fawn siblings looking to their mom who jumped the fence

The most exciting creatures that we've seen in our yard so far this summer were probably these two sweet fawns passing through with their mother.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  Deer always seem to appear on drizzly, dark days (so unfortunately my photos of them are always a bit blurry).  They eventually headed north into the protection of the stream buffer across the street.

Mom and babies grazing in the stream-side native plantings

We've been seeing more rabbits than ever this year.  In fact, just this weekend our neighbors discovered a rabbit burrow complete with babies in the middle of their backyard lawn. Here's the cute little guy that was in our front yard earlier this summer -

I'm still wondering if the rabbit population has increased since the coyotes aren't around like they used to be.  

Oh, and they are "cute" as long as they aren't in our vegetable garden...

This song sparrow -

which had been singing to me all winter and spring from this tree, had babies.  It was hard to miss the presence of the young ones because they made such a racket, especially in the late afternoons.  They would hang out under the parent's favorite little tree and squawk.  I can't believe I managed to sneak out the door and get a photo of the parent feeding the juveniles, though it is a rather blurry shot...

Yes, the juveniles are bigger than the parent!

Every year we have a new robin's nest on either our grape or wisteria arbor.  Here's a parent sitting on this year's nest (this year it's the wisteria)  -

I love the brilliant head feathers of these sapsuckers.  I think there are matrices of their little pecked holes on ALL of our willow trees.

This is one of the Red-tailed hawks that inhabited the nest in a cottonwood in the wetland behind us.  I'm so disappointed that I can't take pictures of what happens in the nest once the leaves come out and block my view.

Sitting in the Douglas fir across the field

This, I believe, is one of the adults flying on a maiden voyage with it's fledgling in early July - 

Adult and juvenile Red-tailed hawk?

They were circling above our yard and one of them was making the screeching sounds that the young do in the nest.  The young one is like a dark shadow in all of my pictures - 

 

Then just a few days ago I realized that the juvenile hawk was sitting in the big fir tree across the field - 

Right after I took that picture it disappeared.  Only to reappear flying RIGHT over me (and the chicken run, which I'm sure was it's target).  My picture of it flying over the stream through the trees in our yard is just a blur, but you get the idea.  That was crazy.

OK, one last baby picture - 

Wads of tiny garden spiders were all over the place by the end of May.  Now I'm walking through their spider webs everywhere!

Next post -- focusing on the stream.

The creatures that lurk in the stream....

As a part of the stream restoration event held in our yard last week, the guys from Adopt-A-Stream put a few live traps in the stream overnight to get a feel for what is or is not living in this section of Little Swamp Creek. The traps were baited with punctured cans of cat food. I know that is a BAD picture, but I just had to put it on here anyway. Here's what those traps looked like out of the water -

This is a second style of trap that they used, and what it caught -

We had not seen any crayfish or any evidence of crayfish (parts left behind by raccoons, for example...) in the stream for several years, so we were pretty excited to see that they are still living in there.

Then we saw this from another trap -

Woo hoo! That is two crayfish, a sculpin and a Pacific giant salamander! What you have to realize is that all we see when looking in the stream during the day are some small (2-4") fish (probably cutthroat trout or coho fry) zipping around, caddisfly larvae crawling along the stream bottom, and water skeeters on top of the water. Those are great, but this was an amazing discovery and so encouraging as indicators of a relatively healthy stream!

Here's a SECOND salamander, from a different trap -

Mighty cute!

One trap caught only sculpin -

I probably must emphasize here that Adopt-A-Stream had a permit to trap and release in the stream. They didn't keep these creatures out for very long, but it was just the perfect thing for Eric and I and the students from The LEAF School to see what inhabits the stream.

Interestingly enough, there weren't any of the little fry that we see zipping around in the stream. Unfortunately they are food for these other creatures and if any were trapped they may have been eaten. Oops.

Later in the day, CK and Loren from Adopt-A-Stream collected macro-invertebrates from the stream bed so the LEAF School students could figure out what was there. I'll talk more about all of the amazing learning opportunities AAS set up in a later post, but for now here is a picture of some of what they found -

And finally, here is a critter that just happened to show up at the right place at the right time for some ooo-ing and ah-ing and a picture -

I'm afraid that it might be a young bullfrog, which I don't think is a good thing for the native amphibians. I haven't been able to identify it yet, so if anybody out there reading this can tell me what this is, please do!

Caddisfly Larvae Sighting

This morning I was happy to notice a couple tiny (1 1/2 - 2") fish swimming in the stream!  Then I noticed several caddis fly larvae slowly meandering along the stream bed.  That is exciting, because my understanding is that they can be a sign of healthy water.  Here are a few pictures of some of the little critters (I apologize for the quality of the photos.  It would be helpful to have a fancier digital camera with a polarizing lens.  I took these zoomed in as close as I could + I used the digital zoom setting.  That doesn't make for high quality) - 

I was happy to get two together in one shot here

Here is a link to a great web page about the caddisfly - 

www.uky.edu/Ag/CritterFiles/casefile/insects/caddisflies/caddisflies.htm

I had to take a picture of a good old water skeeter, too.  Don't they make the coolest shadow?  There are quite a few of them on the surface of the stream during the spring, summer and fall.

And here's a picture looking at the back/southern part of "our" stretch of stream - 

It's looking mighty green around here now!  I need to do a little weeding along the stream bed on the side that we planted.  I think I'll do a little weed research and post what I find on here one of these days....