Exploring the web of life

Photo by Tracy Taylor

Species of the Month:
California Quail

California Quail are plump birds with strong legs designed for life on the ground. They often run rather than fly to escape danger. The comma-shaped topknot on a California Quail's head is made up of not one but six feathers!
• During most of the year California Quail live in social groups called coveys. Coveys usually roost in trees at night to avoid danger, but sometimes they roost on the ground in outward-facing circles. They explode in flight when threatened, startling and confusing their predators.1
• To make sure they mature at the same rate, California Quail chicks "talk" to each other from inside their individual eggs with clicks, peeps, and tweets. They make a special "hatching call" just before breaking out!2
• Quail mothers develop bare areas of skin called "brood patches" for keeping eggs and chicks warm. Quail fathers who have lost a mate sometimes acquire brood patches so they can keep the chicks warm.3
• Sometimes Quail pairs engage in communal child rearing. Adults that do this live longer than non-communal adults.4
• There is no Quail song, but there are many calls – Assembly Calls; Advertisement and Aggression calls (made by males); Alarm Calls; Parental Calls; and Contact Food Calls (to attract young to food). Assembly Calls (cu-CA-cow) are given when individuals are separated from the covey and whenever the covey moves to a new spot. Mated pairs call back and forth, fitting the calls into a specific pattern.5
• Quail fathers boldly perch in exposed positions to watch for danger while the mother leads the chicks through grass and brush.6 If a chick falls behind it might join the next family group that comes along.7
• Quail rarely stray more than 50 feet from cover and have a range of about 2 square miles. They need habitat that includes annuals (for food) and nearby shrubs (for cover).8
• They forage in the morning and evening and take cover midday in dense vegetation, such as Coyote Bush, Toyon, Manzanita, Poison Oak, Willows, Himalayan Blackberry.9
• In winter and spring they eat the tender leaves of Filaree and Burclover. In other seasons they rely on seeds of legumes such as Lupine, Clover, Deer Vetch, Lotus, and Burclover, along with leaves and seeds of Fiddleneck, Turkey Mullein, Star Thistle, Pigweed, and annual grasses. They also eat acorns, and seeds or berries of Poison Oak, Manzanita, Toyon, Buckbrush, and Redberry. Small numbers of ants, beetles, ticks, and other bugs round out their diet.10
• During low-rainfall years California Quail produce fewer eggs. The prevailing theory is based on the knowledge that moisture-starved plants are known to produce compounds known as "phytoestrogens" (possibly to protect themselves from browsing). These plant estrogens interfere with uptake of animal estrogen, thus reducing egg production.11
• Despite living in dry climates, Quail need drinking water during periods of sustained heat.12
• Quail become food for lots of predators, especially Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawks. Ground squirrels, house cats, coyotes, and rattlesnakes often attack their nests, which are usually on the ground next to a rock or a log.13

The Quail population has been greatly reduced by hunting and use of pesticides and herbicides. We can help California Quail by creating high brush piles and providing dense bushes with space in between. We can also avoid spraying poisonous chemicals on the plants they eat (even the ones we don't like, such as Poison Oak and Star Thistle); by providing them with water (for handy rainwater catchers check out "Gallinaceous Guzzlers"), and by keeping cats indoors.

Exploring the Web of Life© is a monthly column written by Kate Marianchild of Ukiah, CA, with help from her friends. Go to www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/insideudj for sources and past columns. Click on “Exploring the Web of Life.”

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Photograph by T.W. Davies of the California Academy of Sciences

Species of the Month:
Mourningcloak Butterfly

This velvety beauty is the first "flying flower" to appear every spring. Its scientific name, Nymphalis antiope, compares it to young and beautiful nymphs of Greek mythology. The name "Mourningcloak" refers to its resemblance to cloaks once worn by people in mourning. I, on the other hand, would have named it after a pansy!

• Why is this butterfly the first to "flutter by" every spring? While most other species hang out all winter as eggs, larvae, or pupae, Mourningcloaks are able to pass the winter as adults. They hole up in snug hideaways called "hibernaculums" in tree crevices, leaf litter, or even buildings.
• They secrete an "anti-freeze" chemical that prevents ice from forming in their tissues and stopping the flow the blood.
• Butterflies have blood? Yup, but it's not red like ours because it doesn't carry oxygen. They get their oxygen through valves in their sides. It moves through their bodies in "air tunnels."
• Mourningcloaks emerge temporarily on warm winter days, but you'll rarely see one before January 25, according to U.C. Davis butterfly expert Arthur Shapiro.
• Most butterflies live only 2 weeks, so the Mourningcloaks we see in early spring are ancients – survivors from the previous year. Some live to the ripe old age of 10 ––– months, that is!
• Mourningcloaks drink nectar through long, double-barreled feeding tubes, including the nectar of Toyon flowers (see last column). But they prefer tree sap, especially from oak trees. The sap oozes from wounds in the tree or from holes made by woodpeckers. They also drink the liquid in dung and mud.
• Like other butterflies, Mourningcloaks aren't major pollinators. Pollen doesn't stick to their legs for transfer to other flowers as it does with bees, the primary pollinators.

• Mourningcloaks lay their eggs in the spring on twigs of willow, cottonwood, and California Buckeye. Look for a mass of eggs that completely encircles a twig.
• After the eggs hatch, the caterpillars remain in a cluster, unlike other caterpillars. When disturbed they thrash and vibrate as a group to frighten potential predators. That would be fun to see!
• Butterflies must be warm to fly, which is why you often
find them basking in the sun. Most spring butterflies such as Mourningcloaks have dark bodies, the better to absorb
sunlight.
• Listen for a sharp clicking sound from a Mourningcloak as it takes to the air. That means it has been disturbed.
• Along with many other California butterflies, Mourningcloak populations declined dramatically in 2006 due to unusual weather patterns. Mourningcloaks are also sensitive to pesticides and loss of their larval host trees (see above).
• Butterflies are at the bottom of the animal food chain. The eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults become food for numerous insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. We can help the entire food chain by protecting and nurturing our lovely "winged pansies."

Exploring the Web of Life© is a monthly column written by Kate Marianchild of Ukiah, CA, with help from her friends.

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Photo by Kate Marianchild

EXPLORING THE WEB OF LIFE
with Kate Marianchild

Species of the Month: TOYON

With its bright red berries TOYON warms the winter landscape like a blazing fire. One of very few native eateries that serve up fruit in winter, one might wonder why the berries don’t get munched more quickly. Here’s the scoop:

• Unlike most other berries, Toyon’s little green fruits don’t even begin to ripen until October.
• Before they are fully ripe, the berries protect the seeds inside with poisons in their pulp. If a bird takes the tiniest nibble, chemicals in the berry will mix and form a small amount of highly toxic cyanide gas, deterring the birds.
• Eventually the cyanide-producing chemicals retreat into the seed. The berries celebrate by turning red, signaling, “Time to eat!!” Because the berries have usually turned color by December, the plant is sometimes called “Christmasberry.”
• Robins, cedar waxwings, hermit thrushes, and California thrashers especially love the ripe berries, which are also gobbled up by western bluebirds (see last column), mockingbirds, band-tailed pigeons, towhees, California quail, western scrub jays, varied thrushes, and black-headed grosbeaks. Purple finches tear away the pulp and eat the seeds.
• Mammals also eat the berries. Bears, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, and humans consume mature Toyon berries. , , Humans find them slightly sweet when ripe, and sweeter when lightly roasted.

And since we’re talking Toyon, here are a few more interesting facts:
• The leaves also contain protective poisons – tannins and the cyanoglucosides that are found in the berries. The toxins reach the highest level in September and October – exactly when deer and other herbivores are most likely to want to graze them!
• Dusky-footed woodrats put Toyon leaves in special “ageing” chambers inside their tidy nests before moving them to their pantries! Ageing removes the toxins, making the leaves edible. They also put the green leaves on top of their nests, possibly to dry out or cure before being moved inside.
• Birds such as towhees and wrentits use Toyon’s dense foliage for hiding and nesting, both in branches and on the ground.
• Toyon and other shrubs common to the chaparral community have evolved to recover quickly from forest fires. After a fire Toyon sends up sprouts from its underground root crown. Deer like to munch the young sprouts.
• Thick, waxy leaves and a deep taproot help Toyon survive hot, dry summers.
• The branches of Toyon are so popular as a Christmas decoration that a 1920 law made it illegal to pick them.
• Many people believe that the town of Hollywood is named after the plentiful Toyon that used to grow there.
• Toyon’s Latin name is Heteromeles arbutifolia. Hetero = different; meles = apples; arbuti = Mexican madrone; folia = leaves. Together the name means “The plant with different apples and madrone-like leaves.”
• Unlike ornamental Pyracantha berries, Toyon berries don’t make birds drunk, as is commonly thought. Because tipsy birds near busy streets often end up as dead birds, consider planting Toyon instead of Pyracantha for winter color.
• Toyon is a cheerful drought-tolerant native plant that doesn’t need fertilizer, feeds and hides birds, attracts bees, is not terribly popular with deer, and controls erosion on hillsides. A perfect plant for the oak woodland landscape!

Outdoor learning opportunities: Look to see how long Toyon berries last on bushes this spring. During nesting season peer carefully and quietly into Toyon bushes for nests. Check out woodrat nests to see what fresh foliage is lying around on top.

Exploring the Web of Life© is a monthly column written by Kate Marianchild of Ukiah, CA, with help from her friends. Permission required for duplication.

Caldwell, Jeff, Birds and Native Plants: “Berries for the Birds,” Santa Clara County Chapter, California Native Plant Society, www.stanford.edu/~rawlings/birds.html

• http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/hetarb/all.html
• California Flora Nursery: www.calfloranursery.com/pages_plants/ pages_h/hetarb.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyon,
• San Diego Natural History Museum Bird Atlas Project, www.sdnhm.org/research/birdatlas/focus/thrush.html
• http://www.laspilitas.com/California_birds/Mockingbirds_and
_Thrashers/California_thrashers_in_your_garden.htm
• www.laspilitas.com/California_birds/Jays_and_magpies/scrub_jay/
scrub_jay_in_your_garden.htm
• Caldwell, Jeff, Birds and Native Plants: “Berries for the Birds,” Santa Clara County Chapter, California Native Plant Society, www.stanford.edu/~rawlings/birds.html
• Sea and Sage Audubon, http://www.seaandsageaudubon.org/ BirdInfo/ birdinfoplantswildlife.html

Caldwell, Jeff, op. cit.
Langhans, Wendy, “A slash of red in the canyon,” in Valley News, 2/13/2007, http://valleynews.com/SantaClaritaValley/Stories/ Environment/General/Story~182839.aspx

Hunsaker, D., Mammals of Torrey Pines Reserve as quoted in http://www.torreypine.org/animals/mammals.html

http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/hetarb/all.html
Moerman, D, ., Native American Ethnobotany, Timber Press, Oregon, http://www.sdnhm.org/valentien/toyon.html

http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/hetarb/all.html
Kaplan, Alan, “At Home with the Packrats,” Bay Nature, Oct-Dec. 2007: Families Afield: Exploring Nature with Kids.

Kaplan, op. cit.
Moerman, op. cit.
Ibid.
Santa Barbara City College, Concepts of 100, Introduction to the Chaparral, Biology 100, http://www.biosbcc.net/b100plant/htm/toyon.htm

Caldwell, op. cit.

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Photo @1995 St. Mary's College of CA
by Brother Alfred Brousseau

Species of the Month (December, 2007) : Oak Mistletoe

OAK MISTLETOE is an exciting plant. Not only do we humans get to kiss under it, but an amazing number of other species rely on it for food and shelter.
• The leaves of mistletoe provide rich protein for ring-tailed cats, chipmunks, porcupines, deer, and elk.
• Birds and small mammals burrow into mistletoe for warmth in winter. Martens are known to take cover in it, and dozens of birds, including Western Bluebirds and Golden-crowned Sparrows, have been seen huddling in clumps of mistletoe on a cold winter day.
• Common Bushtits, American Robins, and White-tailed Kites sometimes nest in Oak Mistletoe. Of four White-tailed Kite nests seen in Mendocino County by reliable observers, three were in the tops of clumps of mistletoe. (Dwarf Mistletoe, the spiky mistletoe seen on conifers, is home to even more bird nests: 43% of all Spotted Owl nests and, in northeast Oregon, a whopping 64% of all Cooper’s Hawk nests – as well as the nests of many other birds).1
• Mistletoe plants are either male or female. The male plants produce what may be the first nectar and pollen available in the spring for our native bees and honeybees.2
• Female mistletoe plants produce white berries that are an important cold season food for lots of birds, including Western Bluebirds, American Robins, Cedar Waxwings, Blue Grouse, American Crows, Common Ravens, California Thrashers, Mourning Doves, Band-tailed Pigeons, Phainopeplas, Varied Thrushes, and Hermit Thrushes. In the central valley Western Bluebirds choose their winter territories based on the availability of Oak Mistletoe berries!3 We don’t know the extent to which this is also true in counties west of the central valley.
• Mistletoe’s Latin name, “Phoradendron,” means “thief of the tree,” but in fact mistletoe harms trees very slowly. It synthesizes some of its own food through photo-synthesis, and sends a root-like structure called a “haustoria” down the limbs and trunks of trees to gather moisture and minerals. It is classified as a “hemi-parasite” and is an important part of healthy ecosystems. The more mistletoe in a forest, the more species of mammals and birds will live there, especially cavity-nesting birds.4
• Mistletoe is most likely to be found in places where birds like to perch, often in the tops of mature trees. Birds spread the sticky seeds by excreting them on branches or wiping them off their bills onto branches. They are sometimes transported on the feathers or fur of birds or mammals.
• Pomo Indians had ways of using mistletoe medicinally, though in most forms it is poisonous to humans. They particularly liked the Oak Mistletoe that grew on California Buckeye trees.5
• There are 1,300 species of mistletoe in the world, more than 20 of which are endangered. Excavations of Dusky-footed Woodrat middens (in which organic material is often preserved in a dark, hardened crystalline-like substance formed from urine) show that mistletoe has been around for 20,000 years.6 (Woodrats are also known as packrats, for good reason. Their urine-preserved nests serve as fascinating time capsules).
• The tradition of kissing under mistletoe may come from ancient Scandinavia, where mistletoe was considered a plant of peace. Enemies could declare truce under it, and spouses could kiss and make up.7 May mistletoe thrive and spread!

Exploring the Web of Life© is a monthly column written by Kate Marianchild of Ukiah, CA, with lots of help from her friends.

Sources:
1,2,4,6 “Not Just for Kissing: Mistletoe and Birds, Bees, and other Beasts,” USGS article: www.usgs.gov/newsroom/special/mistletoe.
3 “Winter resource wealth drives delayed dispersal and family-group living in western bluebirds,” Janis
L Dickinson and Andrew McGowan, www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1559973.
5 Plants used by the Indians of Mendocino County by V. K. Chestnut,Mendocino County Historical Society, 1974.
7 “Mistletoe,” by Sara Williams, University of Sasketchewan, Extension Division, the Department of Plant Sciences and the Provincial Government, www.gardenline.usask.ca/misc/mistleto.html
Also:
• U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service: Mistletoes on Hardwoods in the United States,
www.fs.fed.us/r6/nr/fid/fidls/147.html
• Hastings Reserve, Oak Woodlands, Mistletoe: www.hastingsreserve.org/OakStory/Mistletoe2.html
• Bir Sur Chamber of Commerce, “Ring-tailed Cat,” www.bigsurcalifornia.org/ringtailedcat.html
• American Wildlife and Plants, A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits by Martin, Zim, and Nelson, 1951 (out of print but available online).
• Personal observations and personal communications with Jon Klein, Chuck Vaughn, and Bob Keiffer.

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(Scroll down below the photographs for the Exploring the Web of Life column).

Photo by Ron LeValley



Western Bluebird at nest hole. Photo by Jon Klein

EXPLORING THE WEB OF LIFE
with Kate Marianchild

January, 2008 Species of the Month: WESTERN BLUEBIRD

Species of the Month: Western Bluebird

WESTERN BLUEBIRDS bring flashes of color to tree branches, fence posts, telephone wires, and grassy fields. They like open woodlands, edges of forests, hedgerows, native grasslands, and grazed fields.
• Bluebirds don’t kiss under mistletoe (see last column), but it provides essential winter warmth and food. In winter, if you see a tree with lots of mistletoe, you’ll probably find the “owners” nearby–a family of bluebirds.
• Bluebirds spend the fall and winter in family groups of 7 or so. They bathe, forage, and sleep together. Whole families sometimes squeeze into one nest box or clump of mistletoe in cold weather.
• A family group consist of the parents, 1-2 sons from the summer’s brood, and one or more daughters of another family. Frequently the sons and newcomer females end up getting hitched–their version of arranged marriage!
• The young adult birds in the family are “helpers” who often stay through the next spring and help raise the nestlings. The helping sons stick around partly to help themselves to the family fortune–mistletoe berries! 1,2
• Bluebird couples stay together so long they’ve been thought to be monogamous. But actually both males and females get a little on the side. Someone other than the resident dad–often the guy next door–fathers one fifth of the babies.3
• The guys with the brightest and most iridescent feathers are the best at preening feather bacteria.4 They’re extra-popular with the girls and make the best providers. And those blue feathers? They’re really brown. The blue is a trick of light! 5
• In addition to Mistletoe, bluebirds also dine on berries of Elderberry, Juniper, Poison Oak, Toyon, and others. In summer they stop eating berries and dart around catching insects–mainly grasshoppers–and also caterpillars, beetles, ants, bees, and wasps.6 Even though bluebirds are related to robins, eating earthworms makes them sick. 7
• Adult birds get eaten by hawks, owls, House Sparrows, and domestic and feral cats. They have to defend their nestlings from European Starlings, House Sparrows, gopher snakes, king snakes, weasels, and squirrels.8
• One of the jobs of the adults is to remove baby poop from the nest. The babies’ poop comes out in little white sacks that the adults carry away from the nest in their beaks. 9
• Bluebirds usually nest in cavities in dead trees and snags, or in nest boxes provided by humans. Those boxes, which are available online, are an enormous help to them. If you put some up, proper maintenance is critical (see www.sialis.org/myths).
• Forest fires help bluebirds by providing dead trees in which woodpeckers and nuthatches can excavate cavities. (Bluebirds can’t peck their own holes). Fires also keep fir trees from crowding out meadow habitat. 10,11
• Bluebirds like grass tall enough to harbor insects and provide cover but short enough that they can see the insects and also see predators. Non-native grasses often grow too high, so bluebirds benefit from grazing, mowing, weeding, and planting of native grasses. 12
• Western Bluebird populations have declined drastically, mainly due to theft of their nest cavities by House Sparrows and European Starlings. Pesticides, fire suppression, and loss of open space (due to expansion of residential and industrial areas), have also contributed.13 In northwestern California, however, they’re doing pretty well. Let’s keep it that way!
• If you get up early, listen for Western Bluebirds in the dawn chorus during breeding season. They are often the second species, after Tree Swallows, to chime in, starting longer and longer before daylight as the nights get shorter. 14 They have a special song they sing only at dawn. 15

Exploring the Web of Life© is a monthly column written by Kate Marianchild of Ukiah, CA, with lots of help from her friends. www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/insideudj for more info on BB’s, and citations. Click on Exploring the Web of Life.

Sources:
1 Kraajveld, Ken and Dickinson, Janis L, “Family-based winter territoriality in western bluebirds, Sialia mexicana: the structure and dynamics of winter groups,” Hastings Natural History Reservation and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California at Berkeley
2Britt, Robert Roy, “Meet the Bluebirds: Wealth, Nepotism and Ungrateful Offspring,” LiveScience Managing Editor www.livescience.com/animals/051025_bird_wealth
3 Among birds, only 10% of socially monogamous species (species that form long-term pair bonds) are also genetically monogamous. – BBC News Online, SciTech section, “Infidelity is Natural,” 9/25/1998, http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1799883a
4 Shawkey, Pillai, Hill, Siefferman, and Roberts, “Bacteria as an agent for change in structural plumage color, correlational and experimental evidence,” American Naturalist, University of Chicago Press, January, 2007; and http://mainebirds.blogspot.com/2007/06/comfort-behavior-in-birds-as-spring.html
5 Sieferman, Lynn and Hill, Geoffrey E, “Structural and melanin coloration indicate parental effort and reproductive success in male eastern bluebirds” Behavioral Ecology Vol. 14 No. 6: 855-861, © 2003 International Society for Behavioral Ecology
6 www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/animals/bird/sime/all
7Sialis (website): www.sialis.org/myths
8 www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/animals/bird/sime/all
9 Guinan, Judith A., Patricia A. Gowaty, and Elsie K. Eltzroth. 2000. Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/510
doi:bna.510
10 Guinan et al, op. cit.
11www.birdweb.org
12 www.laspilitas.com/bluebird
13www.sialis.org/myth.
14 Guinan, Gowaty, and Eltzroth, op. cit.
15 Personal communication with Bob Keiffer of Hopland Research and Extension Center, Hopland, CA.

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