Friends took my wife and I up to Dutchman’s Peak today, one of the higher spots in the Siskiyou at over 7400 feet.  We got all the way to the fire lookout tower at the peak.  Here’s what we saw from that vantage:

That’s Mount Shasta standing head and chest above the dense forest fire smoke from the fires still raging in northwestern California.  Here in southern Oreogn we’ve been breathing that stuff for weeks now.  Some birders have noticed signs of an early migration by birds.  Can’t blame ‘em.

Some fine birds: Mountain Quail on the roadway at about 4000 feet. Two Goshawk circling near the summit.  A Townsend’s Solitaire near the roadway.  The only decent bird picture I got:

Chipping Sparrow

 

 

 

 

 

Several of these were fluttering about. This is one of the orange and black fritillary of which the world has far too many for my limited butterflying skills to sort through.  It was in a wet montain meadow at about 6,000 feet elevation.

 

 

 

And this is the meadow where Mr. Fritillary was frittering about.  Those three figures are Kate Fuller in the center, Grace Murdoch (local Audubon pres.) nearest the road and her husband Norman at the rear of the group.  The meadow name; Kettle Belly Glade.  The only other folks around were some beef cattle, surprised at seeing bipeds in their open range.

Location:     Dutchman’s Peak
Observation date:     8/24/08
Number of species:     16

Mountain Quail     12
Cooper’s Hawk     1
Northern Goshawk     2
Red-tailed Hawk     3
Band-tailed Pigeon     3
Willow Flycatcher     1
Steller’s Jay     1
Common Raven     2
Townsend’s Solitaire     1
American Robin     2
Nashville Warbler     1
Spotted Towhee     1
Chipping Sparrow     2
Lincoln’s Sparrow     1
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)     35
Cassin’s Finch     6

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/Klamath-Siskiyou)