Ash-throated Flycatcher, picture by

Calvin Lou. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I led a birdwalk from Klamath Bird Observatory on the slope of Lower Table Rock.  We were moving slowly so we didn’t make it up the 800 foot of elevation increase to the top. Wwe got about halfway up through the forest.   Too many birds, not enough hours.  The Ash-throateds were the first I’d seen this spring, and one provided good treetop views.  That’s what they like.  And he gave his cranky cough-like call three or four times.

The season and warming sun provided a birdsong symphony from sparrows to swallows, wrens to finches.  We were almost constantly within earshot of scolding Spotted Towhees.  Best aerial act of the day: Western Kingbirds.  On the lower, grassy part of the walk they were fly-catching and down into the grass.  Up in the denser oak forest they were zipping over the treetops.  The only bird seen fleetingly and never well were the orioles who stayed in the canopy and never perched within view.  Our special thanks to a very co-operative Nashville Warbler who was in open shade, and his bright colors were appreciated by the spectators.

our Hutton’s Vireo was just a voice in the leaves.  As often is the case.

FLOWERS

There were scads of windflowers in bloom.  The camas lilies were just beginning to open their tall stalks of deep blue flowers with the delicate yellow stamens.  They are officially Camassia leichlinii.  These are different from the white-flowered death camas.  The blue-flowered plants provided edible roots to the Native Americans of the region, and were even eaten in desparation by the starving men of the Lewis & Clark expedition during their first winter in the west. That was just over two centuries ago.  In the Rogue Valley the Takelma tribe depended onthe camas as a main source of food along with acorns, salmon and deer.  The latter were not hunted by bow-and-arrow, but hearded into enclosures.

Blooming in patches along the trail: blue-eyed Mary’s:

Collinsia grandiflora. 

Also known as “large innocence,”

a member of the figwort family and thus

related to the penstemons.  Other flowers included woodland star, sea blush and desert parsley. 

 

BIRD CHECKLIST,  Location:     Lower Table Rock
Observation date:     5/3/08
Notes:     Singing birds: all three finches that we saw, Grosbeak, Oriole, California Towhee, Spotted Towhee, Nashville and Yellow-reumped Warblers, Chipping Sparrow, Meadowlark, Bewicks; Wren.  Ash-throated Flycatcher was calling.
Number of species:     42

Canada Goose     2
Turkey Vulture     10
Cooper’s Hawk     1
Red-tailed Hawk     1
Mourning Dove     4
Anna’s Hummingbird     3
Rufous Hummingbird     2
Lewis’s Woodpecker     2
Acorn Woodpecker     15
Downy Woodpecker     1
Pacific-slope Flycatcher     1
Ash-throated Flycatcher     2
Western Kingbird     4
Hutton’s Vireo     1
Western Scrub-Jay     6
Common Raven     1
Tree Swallow     35
Violet-green Swallow     2
Black-capped Chickadee     1
Oak Titmouse     4
Bushtit     1
White-breasted Nuthatch     1
Bewick’s Wren     2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet     1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     2
Western Bluebird     6
European Starling     8
Orange-crowned Warbler     10
Nashville Warbler     1
Yellow-rumped Warbler     2
Wilson’s Warbler     5
Spotted Towhee     8
California Towhee     3
Chipping Sparrow     5
Lark Sparrow     1
Black-headed Grosbeak     6
Western Meadowlark     12
Brown-headed Cowbird     1
Bullock’s Oriole     4
Purple Finch     2
House Finch     6
Lesser Goldfinch     14