The Pine Siskins are almost as plentiful around Grace’s thistle feeders as the Lesser Goldfinches.  And slightly bigger.  Hard to believe any finch is smaller than a siskin but it’s true.

 

 

Below is the view these siskins have from their feeders.  Do birds see landscapes as we do?  Do they ever stop to wonder at majestic distances?  Or do they simply see how far it would be if they had to fly on a wingspan of less than six inches?

That’s Dutchman’s Peak, at over 7000′ elevation, disppearing into those clouds on the horizon.  One of the taller mountains in the Siskiyous.

 

Common as dirt, or perhaps here I should say common as granite.  Some areas hereabouts have precious little soil of any kind.  Western Scrub-jay.  Bird of oak forest, brushland, riparian cottonwoods, yards and feeders, garden and parks.  Doesn’t do truly high elevations.  Is larger than the Steller’s Jay which often overlaps in range.  This guy was at Grace’s but we have them in our garden in Ashland where the Steller’s outnumber them three-to-one.

 

 

Continuing a blue theme:

This Blue Heron was on a hunting perch alongside Ashland Pond.

This female Black-headed Grosbeak was singing loudly at Ashland Pond, near the heron.  She would not face me for a snapshot but her voice carries well beyond the pond, louder than the Red-winged Blackbirds and equal in volume to the Yellow-breasted Chats.  OK, so here’s a Chat, taken by a real photog, Calvin Lou.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This view is up near Pilot Rock, looking south from Oregon into California.  Note the sparse forest cover.  The soil here is heavy with serpentine and peridotite.  Two rocks that contain a lot of heavy metals.

 

 

Here is a photo of some stunted oaks that are found in dwarf forests scattered across the Siskiyous.  That road on the left is about twelve feet wide so that gives you some scale.  None of these oaks reach 20′ in height.  They face heavy sun on this south slope, wind and drought every summer and little nutrition from the thin soil.

 

Some plants thrive in these conditions:

This is a member of the phlox family, found above 4000 feet.  It’s Polemonium carneum.  The short, dense mounded plants are one of several species that bloom along the Pacific Crest Trail in our area, making it a great spring hike.