“In August we frequently saw them about the Klamath Lakes, and early in September, while in the Cascade Mountains, in Oregon, the cranes were a constant feature of the scenery of the beautiful but lonely mountain meadows in which we camped.  We found them always exceedingly shy and difficult to approach, but not infrequently the files of their tall forms stretching above the tall grass, or their discordant and far-sounding screams, suggested the presence of the human inhabitants of the region, whose territopry was now, for the first time, invaded by the white man.  The cranes nest in these alpine meadows, and retreat to the milder climate of the valleys of California in winter.”   –Dr. Newberry, Report of the Pacific Railroad Surveys, 1852.

“Cranes are the stuff of magic, whose voices penetrate the atmosphere of the world’s wilderness areas, from arctic tundra to the South African veld, and whose footprints have been left on the wetlands of the world for the past sixty million years or more. They have served as models for human tribal dance in places as remote as the Aegean, Australia, and Siberia.”

–Paul Johnsgard, CRANE MUSIC, 1991

It’s 2009, but the cranes of today are like the cranes of millenia past.  Each year each adult pa9ir tries to raise one young. Just yesterday Steve Runnels and I saw one adult crane and the pint-sized, or gallon-sized, youngster feeding alongside at Hward Prairie.  Hope that the huanting  bugle call of the flying Sandhill Crane will echo over these mountains and those prairies for millenia to come.

A male Yellow-headed Blackhead along Wingwatchers Trail, Klamath Falls.

Saturday I birded a few spots around Klamath Lake and Klamath Falls with three other Ashland birders.  Some highlights include: numerous Redheads, a small flock of Bufflehead, young birds and nestlings from Yellow Warbler to MacGillivray’s fluttering after parents, from Black-headed Grosbeaks to Western Grebes.  There was a Pileated who showed up as soon we got out of our cars at Eagle Ridge, a dense fleet of White Pelicans seining Link River and a Black Tern who repeatedly floated past at close-up distance, not stopping for a photo.

Fishing pelicans in Link River, note relatively tiny DC Cormorant next to them.

 

 

 

 

White Pelican under full sail, Link River.  This is a youngster without the vertical wafer on its beak.

 

 

 

Forster’s Tern turning above Lake Ewauna.

 

 

 

The best of my many feeble attempts to capture the always moving, circling and swooping flight of the nearly tame Black Tern  at Rocky Point.   The Black Tern is elegant, lightweight, never perching nearshore.  The small tern is about half the size of the Forster’s only a small fraction of the Caspian’s bulk.   

A pair of female Yellow-headed Blackbird photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A male Yellow Warbler sings, willow topping at Eagle Ridge.

 

 

 

 

Look carefully through the leaves as we did.  There’s an adult Yellow Warbler atop a finely woven plant fiber nest.  The dark spot is the eye.  There were visible newborn chicks in the nest.

 

 

Here’s picture of the nest.  The nest was in the parking lot shubbery next to the boat dock at Rocky Point.

 

 

 

 

 Below: Western Grebe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

White-faced Ibis in flight formation over Lake Ewauna.  The species now breeds in Klamath Basin.  It is also possible the Bufflehead and Redheads we saw are breeding, along with several dozen Lesser Scaup we saw in a tight flock.  Baby ducks we saw: Mallards and Wood Duck and Gadwall.  There were breedig plumage Ruddy Ducks at Eagle Ridge  but no visible females.

Black Tern passing.  We got closer to them at Rocky Point than we could at Eagle Ridge.  They breed in the reeds at both locations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Checklist for the day:         Canada Goose     120
Wood Duck     6
Gadwall     12
Mallard     45
Redhead     20
Lesser Scaup     45
Bufflehead     12
Common Merganser     25
Ruddy Duck     10
Pied-billed Grebe     35
Eared Grebe     20
Western Grebe     340
Clark’s Grebe     50
American White Pelican     50
Double-crested Cormorant     60
Great Blue Heron     1
Great Egret     2
Green Heron     3
Black-crowned Night-Heron     4
White-faced Ibis     15
Turkey Vulture     6
Osprey     2
Bald Eagle     1
Red-tailed Hawk     4
American Coot     50 

Sandhill Crane     2
Killdeer     6
Ring-billed Gull     40
Herring Gull     1
Caspian Tern     2
Black Tern     40
Forster’s Tern     60
Rock Pigeon     8
Mourning Dove     3
Anna’s Hummingbird     1
Red-breasted Sapsucker     2
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)     8
Pileated Woodpecker     1
Olive-sided Flycatcher     2
Western Wood-Pewee     4
Western Kingbird     2
Cassin’s Vireo     1
Warbling Vireo     2
Steller’s Jay     3
Black-billed Magpie     1
Common Raven     4
Tree Swallow     12
Violet-green Swallow     2
Northern Rough-winged Swallow     2
Cliff Swallow     200
Barn Swallow     45
Mountain Chickadee     3
Pygmy Nuthatch     2
House Wren     4
Marsh Wren     1
American Robin     7
European Starling     12

Cedar Waxwing     12
Yellow Warbler     4
Hermit Warbler     1
MacGillivray’s Warbler     4
Spotted Towhee     2
Song Sparrow     4
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)     2
Black-headed Grosbeak     15
Red-winged Blackbird     100
Yellow-headed Blackbird     60
Brewer’s Blackbird     40
Brown-headed Cowbird     6
Bullock’s Oriole     20
Purple Finch     4
House Finch     6
Lesser Goldfinch     4
American Goldfinch     1
House Sparrow     50

Location:     Klamath County, OR, US
Observation date:     6/27/09
Notes:     Nests inc: Yellow Warbler, WW Pewee, Wood Duck, Western Grebe,RT Hawk, Cliff Swallows, Orioles. Juveniles inc. MacG Wrbler, grebes, Gadwall, Wood Duck, orioles, grosbeaks, Tree Swallows.
Number of species:     75

western columbine

Aquilegia formosa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

larkspur, it bloomed many months ago down here at 2000′

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

western trillium

Trillium ovatum

 

 

 

Polemonium carneum [foreground]

 

and larkspur

 

 

ballhead gilia

Gilia congesta

 

 

 

tall bugbane

Cimicifuga elata

 

 

 

 

Also present were delicate bluehead gilia and snowy mountain star with the serrated edge petals. 

 

White-breated Nuthatch working a utility pole at Cougar Run Ranch. White-breasted and gray backed.

 

 

Checking for cable-eating caterpillars, perhaps?

 

 

 

Male Junco up at Grizzly Peak trailhead.  They hills were alive with the sound of Juncos.

The trailhead elevation is about 5200 feet. Less than 800 feet below Grizzly Peak’s peak.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I sat on a log this male Junco was ticked and ticker.  He was ticked off that I was near his nest site on the ground somewhere.  He was ticking at me, “tik-tik-tik,” the warning note of the enraged Junco.  It is a sharp-pointed call made deep within the Junco, and it’s emitted through fleash and feather without ever needing an open beak.  I took his photo but the note continued.  For me it was a casual encounter of interest.  For him, evidently, I’d committed a dire trespass onto his chosen slice Grizzly Peak slope,  He was intolerant, strident, belligerent.  This tiny being was warning me off.  I have no reasont to think he would resorted to violence had I actually stepped into the brush beneath his perch.  How much violence would his 2/3 of an ounce afford him?  I did not want to be struck by this striking fellow.  he had his job to do, after all.  I withdrew before testing him further.  Left him victorious in his own mind.  Junco hyemalis oreganus, known to himself as “King of the Mountain.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gray fellow on the sun-warmed gravel:

I guess this is a western fence lizard.  he was about six inches long and loath to abandon his mid-road sunning spot.

 

 

 

We think of the Scrub-jay as blue, but they carry  both colors of the American Civil War, with gray on chest and back as well as the blue.  They are daily in our garden.

 

 

And so are these large gray fellows:

American ornithologist John Kirk Townsend was born two hndred years ago in Philadelphia.  He would be 200 years old next month.  In commemoration of that an article has just appeared in “Birder’s World.”  It’s  called “Birding the Townsend Trail.”

That trail, of course, ends at Astoria, Oregon, where Townsend settled briefly after he and Thomas Nuttall had walked across the U.S. from Independence, Missouri, with a company of fur-trappers.  That was in the 1830s.  Long before Oregon was settled, while California was still a Mexican territory, Hawaii still a kingdom of its own.

This article was written by Barbara and Richard Mearns who’ve written some of my favorite books on the history of American Ornithology.  Especially fine is their AUDUBON TO XANTUS.  It’s a summary of the lives of all men and women who have namesake birds in North America, from Anna to, well, Xantus.

Here’s my own short piece on Townsend’s role in the naming of a newly discovered western warbler for two different Scotsmen.  That would be Tolmie, the Latin name…and MacGillivray, the common name.

Don Lloyd was one of the folks who attended a weekend seminar on bird songs that I did for Pt. Reyes Field Seminars at the start of June.  He brought along his spiffy new birdsong recording set-up, nice two-foot diameter collecting dish, head-set, digital recorder.  Here are some of his excellent recordings.  Love the Swainson’s Thrushes that were singing and calling.

We’re not convinced that the “marsh wren” call is really from that bird.  And I think  Don’ s recording of the “mystery bird” is probably a calling Bewick’s Wren.

For me the highlight of that weekend, the nearly tame quail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Female Brewer’s Blackbird in our garden.  And here on their rare visit is her mate nearby:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesser Goldfinch on familiar perch.

 

 

 

 

Siskin hanging out.

 

 

 

 

Six Band-tailed Pigeons in a treetop in Lithia Park.

Only one was clearly an adult, the others bore the all-gray neck of the fledgling BTP.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ban-tails come into our garden daily.  They can become quite used to proferred sunflower seed and are not particularly wary despite being obviously large targets.

This species is in decline over much of its range.  It is rare east of the Rockies.  It is the heaviest native pigeon in America at about 5/6 of a pound and even bigger than the Rock Pigeon.  I can occasionally hear their deep-voiced cooing from treetops in the park across the street from our house.

Alos a busy family of House Wrens hunting along the edge of the park on Granitr St.

Location:     Lithia Park
Observation date:     6/24/09
Number of species:     13

Turkey Vulture     6

Band-tailed Pigeon 6
Vaux’s Swift     3
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)     2
Ash-throated Flycatcher     1
Steller’s Jay     4
Violet-green Swallow     4
Black-capped Chickadee     4
Marsh Wren     3
American Robin     4
Western Tanager     2
Spotted Towhee     2
Black-headed Grosbeak     4

The Steller’s Jays own our garden.  Just ask ‘em.  And they often can be heard screaming, like political pundits on a cable news channel.  When they find an owl or hawk, “Yay-Yay-Yay!  Shuk-shuk-shuk-shuk!”  Whenever I give them peanuts the first Steller into the garden gives out the news, and others gather.  So this loudness serves a collective survival purpose.

However, the jays do have more subtle communications.  They can whisper, ask soft questions from the willow, even sound a bit like a hen “crawwwww-crawwww.”  And up close they’re a delight to watch at the dining table: not every peanut is created equal to a discerning jay.  I can see them sending back the fish dish at a fancy restaurant, “not properly done.“

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love those fine line eyebrows on the Steller’s forehead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Georg Wilhelm Steller was the physician/naturalist on the exploration expedition of Capt. Bering, sent into the northern Pacific by the Russia’s Empress Anna.  He spent only a few hours on North American land, specifically Kayak Island, in 1741.  During that brief time he found several species of animals new to European science.  He was the first true naturalist to visit the Pacific Coast of North America.  He preceeded Captain Cook  by more than twenty years.

Steller saw his namesake jay on that remote island, along with Steller’s sea cow, Steller’s sealion, Steller’s Eider.  Steller himself barely survived the expedition when Bering led their ship aground and most other expedition members perished.  Even the hardy Steller died in Siberia, never returning to Europe with his drawings and specimens.  Other scientists in St. Petersburg later went over his notes and gave him discovery credit.

It was the third Sunday bird walk, and there were more birds than birders.  Steven Runnels and I were immediately greeted by Bullock’s Orioles struggling to keep their nearly grown young fed.  The first nest we saw was in a tree next to the dog park’s carlot.  On the backside of the toilet building there was another oriole nest in a young oak.  All along Ashland Creek and Bear Creek orioles were to-ing and fro-ing, chattering and food-gathering.

Male Bullock’s Oriole and Northern Flicker share a dead treetop on the cold, gray-skied morning that was supposed to be the start of summer. We think of spring and summer moving slowly northward up the Northern Hemisphere each year.  Somehow it seems to have stalled down in California this year because we’ve had cold, gray, wet weather here for weeks.  Despite that, flowers bloom, baby birds fledge.  Like the young Red-tailed Hawks above Bear Creek.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And one still in the nest.

 

 

 

 

 

Bullock’s Oriole male.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Female Bullock’s Oriole next to Ashland Pond.

 

 

 

 

Much of the bird song of spring is past.  But this male Chat was still calling and aggressively patrolling his patch.  Also we heard a lone Wrentit and a couple of Bewick’s Wrens.  Song Sparrows were probably plentiful in the brambles, saw one and heard none.  Along the edge of Ashland Pond a male California Quail calling from a willow-top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the pond itself we found a family of Green Heron feeding.  Swallows and Vaux’s Swifts swooped back and forth.  The swift is named for William Vaux who was a member of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, and a friend of fellow member John Townsend.  Townsend found the first known specimen of this smallswift during his stay in Oregon in the 1830s and named it in honor of his friend.  Vaux became the pre-eminent mineralogist in 19th Century America and  bequeathed his collections, archaeological collection and much money to the Academy on his death in 1882.  Wm. Sansom Vaux (1811-1882).  It is not known if he ever saw his namesake swift in the wild, most of his travels were in Europe.

DANDY BUTTERFLY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This insect gets nectar from thistles, fruit trees, mustard, yarrow, and dogbane.  The caterpillars eat aspen, willow, cottonwood, apple, cherry, spirea, serviceberry–not surprising this butterfly was in the riparian thicket next to Ashland Pond and Ashland Creek.

Location:     Bear Creek Greenway–Ashland
Observation date:     6/21/09
Notes:     Fledglings include: RT Hawks, Robin, Scrub-Jay, House Finch.
Number of species:     35

Mallard     5
California Quail     1
Turkey Vulture     1
Red-tailed Hawk     2
American Kestrel     1
Rock Pigeon     4
Mourning Dove     2
Vaux’s Swift     4
Rufous Hummingbird     1
Acorn Woodpecker     1
Downy Woodpecker     2
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)     3
Western Wood-Pewee     2
Western Scrub-Jay     6
American Crow     4
Common Raven     2
Tree Swallow     16
Violet-green Swallow     3
Northern Rough-winged Swallow     1
Barn Swallow     8
Bewick’s Wren     2
American Robin     4
European Starling     8
Yellow-breasted Chat     4
Spotted Towhee     12
Song Sparrow     2
Black-headed Grosbeak     3
Red-winged Blackbird     12
Western Meadowlark     1

Brewer’s Blackbird     10
Brown-headed Cowbird     4
Bullock’s Oriole     16
House Finch     4
Lesser Goldfinch     4
House Sparrow     10