Trinity/Six Rivers Natl. Forest

This week we visited the Trinity River sites. It is hard to believe it but breeding season is nearly over. Birds are definitely on the move, and singing has nearly stopped. We are capturing many molting birds.Juveniles are initiating their pre-formative molt (to replace lower quality juvenal body feathers but not flight feathers) and many adults are beginning their adult pre-basic molts (a yearly replacement of all body and flight feathers). It is interesting to catch birds in this molting process because you can get a feel for the sequence that feathers are molted. It also allow us to actually see the molt limits we have been using all season to age birds being created. A quick molt refresher:

I keep it straight this way. All North American songbirds replace all feathers once a year after breeding and this molt is called the prebasic molt. Some birds then have inserted molts within these yearly cycles. All juveniles have an inserted molt called a preformative whose job is to replace low quality juvenal feathers. This is not a complete molt and in most species does not include flight feathers. Some birds also have an inserted molt called an alternate molt which yields feathers we often associate with breeding plumage. These are also not complete molts and generally do not include flight feathers. Note that the yearly molt cycles are not interrupted by the inserted molts. All birds still molt all their feathers after breeding.

In this Yellow Warbler, the inner wing coverts are being replaced in the pre-formative molt. The molt limit is being created between the carpal covert and the alula in a pattern typical of warblers.





Yellow-breasted chat is the exception within the warbler family and often undergoes an eccentric pre-formative molt, that is it often replaces some of its outer primaries as seen in this photo. (Remember preformative molts in most North American passerines do not include flight feathers)



Another thing to consider is that we have to start being careful aging birds because we can no longer assume that the presence of a molt limit indicates a second year bird. It could be a juvenile that has gone through it's pre-formative molt, or an adult that has not yet initiated its adult prebasic molt. Feather wear can help us in aging these birds however, the way we can most accurately age these birds is by skulling it. This molt stuff can be a bit confusing and for anyone who is interested in learning more I highly recommend reading the introduction to Peter Pyle's bird identification book used by banders to age and sex birds. Beware that molt theory has been slightly modified recently and Part I of Pyle's book uses old terminology while Part II has been updated and includes new terminology.

Ok enough of that,
Highlights this week were good looks at a ruffed grouse, a California Quail in the net, and 7 species of warbler banded at Indian Valley.

Birds Banded:
Hamilton Ponds 7/21
Lesser Goldfinch 1
Orange-crowned Warbler 3
Macgillivray's Warbler 1
Yellow-breasted Chat 1
Pacific Slope Flycatcher 1
Anna's Hummingbird 1
Spotted Towhee 1
Wilson's Warbler 1
Swainson's Thrush 1

Indian Valley 7/22
Hermit Warlber 7
Yellow Warbler 5
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
Macgillivray's Warbler 1
Wilson's Warbler 1
Black-throated Grey Warbler 1
Audubon's Warbler 1
Cassin's Vireo 5
Mountain Chickadee 1
Purple Finch 3
Red-breasted Sapsucker 1
Spotted Towhee 2
Dusky Flycatchers 15
Anna's Hummingbird 2
Golden-Crowned Kinglet 2

Stiener Flat 7/23
Yellow-breasted Chat 2
Song Sparrow 2
Black-headed Grosbeak 1
Spotted Towhee 2
Pacific Slope Flycatcher 1

Hocker Flat 7/24
Macgillivray's Warbler 2
Song Sparrow 3
Yellow-breasted Chat 3
Wrentit 1
Bushtit 2
Western Tanager 5
Spotted Towhee 7
Red-breasted Sapsucker 1
Black-headed Grosbeak 8
Pacific Slope Flycatcher 1
California Quail 1

Photos...Enjoy!!

An adult male Black-headed Grosbeak captured at Steiner Flat, CA

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A hatch year (HY) Pacific Slope Flycatcher at Hamilton Ponds, CA

A Wilson's Warbler captured at Hamilton Ponds, CA. Any guidebook will tell you this is a male bird based upon the black crown patch however, this bird is a female!! (Brood patch present) The females of the pacific population seem to have extensive black on the head.

Ruffed Grouse

Song Sparrow in juvenal plumage captured at Hocker Flat, CA

Bushtit, Hocker Flat

A HY California Quail captured at Hocker Flat, CA

Lassen National Forest

Seven hours of driving (one missed turn) brought us to Lassen National Forest and the banding sites of Big Springs and Burney Creek. We cut across the Trinity Range and into the central valley and then up the route 5 into the Sierras. These sites are typically more dry than the other banding sites and offer opportunities for slightly different avifauna than the coastal and Trinity sites. A YELLOW-BILLED MAGPIE, an endemic bird to the central valley of California flew right over the car as we headed north through the savannas dominated by blue oak. We arrived at the campground near Big Springs at about 10 and just threw down our tarps and crashed before waking at 4:45 to set up the banding station. This station is a riparian strip of willow on Big Springs Creek and consists of 8 nets that can at times be very birdy. From there it is another half hour drive to Burney Creek, a beautiful large meadow along the creek that stretches for miles under the shadow of a dormant volcano with snow capped Mt. Lassen off to the side.
We had many good birds in these two days. Highlights besides the magpie were: A GOLDEN EAGLE flyover at Burney Creek, a captured ACORN WOODPECKER, WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER, and OAK TITMOUSE in the nets at Burney Creek. as well as EVENING GROSBEAK and RED CROSSBILLS feeding at Big Springs and a single BLACK SWIFT at Burney Falls. However, the absolute hightlight of this trip was a GRAY FLYCATCHER captured in the net at Burney Creek. This bird, being in the genus empidonax is very similar to the other empid species that we capture but the dark dusky tipped bill and extensive gray wash nails it down as a Gray Flycatcher. We also took measurements of bill width and primary feather extension to determine 100% the species. A great find, and a life bird for me.

Complete lists of birds banded:
Big Springs
song sparrow 9
audubons warbler 6
orange crowned warbler 16
dark eyed junco oregon 4
western wood pewee 1
chipping sparrow 1
mountain chickadee 4
cassins vireo 3
hermit thrush 1
western tanager 1
fox sparrow thick billed race 1
spotted towhee 2
red breasted sapsucker 1
dusky flycatcher 1
rufous hummingbird 1

Burney Creek
dusky flycatcher 1
western wood pewee 1
song sparrow 4
white headed woodpecker 1
bushtit 9
black throated grey warbler 3
orange crowned warbler 5
dark eyed junco oregon 1
chipping sparrow 2
yellow warbler 1
audubons warbler 1
lesser goldfinch 1
purple finch 5
cassins vireo 1
oak titmouse 1
western tanager 1
spotted towhee 5
black headed grosbeak 1
acorn woodpecker 1
gray flycatcher 1
selasphous spp. 1 (released at the net before species determination was made)

An Acorn Woodpecker. The black stripe between the white and red on the head IDs this as a female bird. In the male the red extends all the way to the white.

Acorn Woodpeckers are very infrequently captured in nets due to their habit to stay high in the trees. Also interestingly, this bird (and some other woodpeckers) can be aged by iris color since it changes with age

An HY (hatch year) Western Tanager in full juvenal plumage. By the way juvenal is the word for plumage in a juvenile bird (not a misspelled word.)

HY Chipping Sparrow at Big Springs

A Western Wood Pewee captured at Big Springs

A Gray Flycatcher. Note the dusky tipped bill characteristic of this species.

White-Headed Woodpecker captured at Burney Creek

An Acorn Woodpecker captured at Burney Creek

Hands full of Woodpeckers!!!

Bird Factories

This week we visited Masterson Meadows and Plasket Meadows in the Mendecino National Forest. These high altitude sights consist of black alder and willow thickets nestled in mixed coniferous forest dominated by ponderosa pine, sugar pine and Douglas fir. The alder and willow as well as the abundance of native grasses and wildflowers provide abundant food sources for songbirds. Fledgling season has definitely arrived. Newly fledged birds are constantly moving and seeking sources of food. These high altitude meadows are extremely attractive to fledgling year birds. We caught an astounding 229 birds in two days of banding at the meadows of which 164 were hatch year birds. Incredibly these sites were banded 10 days ago yielding 188 birds of which we only recaptured 15. This demonstrates the amount of movement happening in these meadows and the number of birds hatching. These meadows truly are bird factories. We could have easily caught twice what we caught but we had to close some of the nets because we were totally overwhelmed. Some nets were catching 25-30 birds every half hour and birds continued to fly into the nets as we were extracting birds. I honed my extracting skills as I was elected principle extractor for the day and basically just did constant net rounds extracting birds, dropping them off at the banding station and leaving immediately to check the nets again. On several occasions I would find nets with more than 10 birds and have to call in back up.

The highlights this week were the incredible number of hatch year birds (including 22 nashville warblers and 59 orange crowned warblers!!). Additional birds of note were: white headed woodpecker, 4 ruffed grouse, another northern pygmy owl, northern flammulated owl, and a possible hermit warbler X townsend's warbler hybrid.

Complete lists:
Masterson Meadows:
lincoln sparrow 10 (5 hatch year)
dark eyed junco oregon 43 (31 hatch year)
fox sparrow thick 3 (1 hatch year)
orange crowned warbler 8 (6 hatch year)
golden crowned kinglet 2
nashville warbler 5
audubons warbler 17 (11 hatch year)
wilsons warbler 1
mountain chickadee 8 (5 hatch year)
red breasted nuthatch 1 (hatch year)
cassins vireo 3 (2 hatch year)
lazuli bunting 1
western tanager 1
black headed grosbeak 7 (1 hatch year)
dusky flycatcher 2
113 total birds

Plasket Meadows
lincoln sparrow 7 (5 hatch year)
orange crowned warbler 31 (28 hatch year)
wilsons warbler 2
dark eyed junco oregon 26 (22 hatch year)
nashville warbler 17 (17 hatch year)
golden crowned kinglet 3 (3 hatch year)
red breasted nuthatch 1 (hatch year)
audubons warbler 12 (7 hatch year)
pine siskin 1 (hatch year)
mountain chickadee 4 (4 hatch year)
lazuli bunting 1 (hatch year)
cassins vireo 8 (8 hatch year)
black headed grosbeak 8 (2 hatch year)
american robin 1 (hatch year)
dusky flycatcher 1
allens hummingbird 3 (hatch year)
126 total birds

Salmon Creek:
black Phoebe 2 (2 hatch year)
american Goldfinch 2
swainson's Thrush 5
song Sparrow 8 (5 hatch year)
wilson's warbler 1

Corn Lilly flowers provide food for newly hatched birds. Oregon Juncos often nest on the ground at the base of this plant.

Masterson Meadows

Plasket Meadows

A hatch year Audubon's Warbler captured at Masterson Meadows, CA 7-7-2009

Outstreched wing of a black phoebe. Notice the cinnamon buffy tips of the inner greater and secondary coverts diagnostic of a hatch year bird.

A HY Black Phoebe captured at Salmon Creek, CA 7-10-2009

Allen's Hummingbird at Masterson Meadow, CA

Allen's Hummingbird at Masterson Meadow, CA

Brandt - Clam Beach, CA

Brandt seen at Clam Beach, CA

In other news, shorebird migration is really getting underway here in Samoa. Today's counts were

1500 western sandpiper
450 least sandpiper
800 marbled godwit
15 black bellied plovers
25 long-billed curlews
50 long billed dowitchers
10 greater yellowlegs
10 whimbrel
Still waiting for avocets and phalaropes
Good Birding,
Chris

Distant Shorebirds seen from my porch

N California day trip

So we headed out of Arcata towards the southeastern portion of Humboldt County. The goal was to find a few birds that could only be located in one spot within the county. County birding is big here, that is locating as many birds as possible within certain counties. Some of the top California birders have achieved incredible feats and I was told that a few have found 200 birds in all counties, and 300 in the southern counties. Our goals for the day however, were much more modest Ash-Throated Flycatcher, California Towhee, and Rufous-crowned Sparrow were the birds we had hoped to find. After crossing Humboldt Redwoods State Park,we arrived at Alder Point Rd. and headed up through the mountains. The temperature was scorching hot as we made our way along the road and ticked off birds. Grasshopper sparrows were heard as were Lark sparrows, and Chipping sparrows. A california towhee was calling and later located representing the first target bird of the day. We parked in Alder Point and headed down the railroad tracks along the Eel River. Yellow-breasted chats and blue gray gnatcatchers were abundant along the river as were common mergansers with chicks. The we walked about a mile down the tracks and there was talk of a bridge crossing the river that would lead us to our destination however, I was in no way prepared for what would have to be done to find these birds. We rounded the final corner and then...


Hmm... Anyone know when the next train is due? Having seen the movie Stand By Me several times all I could think about was Vern crawling across the tracks scared half to death and then black smoke rising from the approaching train just around the corner. But that was not a real concern. The tracks were not in service and judging by the condition of the bridge I don't think it could carry the weight of the train much more than I questioned whether it could carry the weight of the 7 of us that were about to cross. I wanted to see those birds though and they were on the other side and there was only one way across.

The view from the beginning of the bridge across to the other side.



Don't look down, except to take a picture of your feet many feet above the river below. On second thought, you better look down because not all the railroad ties are there.

The view from the bridge looking down on the Eel River. I sure hope there isn't an earthquake right now. One nice thing was that Northern Rough-winged Swallows were nesting under the bridge and I got close up looks as they flew by inspecting me.

We all made it safely to the other side and were treated almost immediately by singing Ash-throated flycatchers including fledgling birds that were food begging. We located the young one and then watched as the parents flew in with food. Nearby were many cliff swallows that had built their nests on a cliff (imagine that) and were soaring over the river collecting insects before returning to the nests to feed the young. Below on the river's banks spotted sandpipers were also tending their nests. It is an exciting time of year to be a birder. Everything is raising young and I feel lucky to be able to spend my summer in the outdoors working with birds.


Cliff swallows feeding young in nests constructed on a cliff face.

We did not find the rufous-crowned sparrow but all in all it was a good day of birding with lots of adventure and a little bit of danger. We headed home and stopped off to see the Redwoods. They are truly amazing. Some are reported to be 2000 years old and it is strange to imagine that many of these giants I was photographing were flourishing as the same time that the Maya were flourishing in Central America. It is nice to know that many of these trees still exist and are protected.


Lucy Rowe and I admiring a fallen redwood. A fallen redwood is an important part of the ecosystem often lasting as long as 400 years before returning to the soil.




The Redwoods have endured while this Mayan city in Guatemala (Tikal) was born, flourished, collapsed, lost in the jungle and refound for us to enjoy.

This week's highlights include an adult male Calliope hummingbird, an adult male Western Tanager, a fledgling Western-scrub Jay, and a Male Downy Woodpecker all captured in the nets. Other interesting birds were a flyover flock of yellow-headed blackbirds, townsend solitaires and 2 groups of mountain quail with babies.

This week we set out of Arcata to band at some of the sites on the Trinity and the Klamath rivers. We had an interesting week and we are seeing more and more fledgling birds captured in the nets. The rivers flow through the mountains of northern California and several national parks including Six Rivers National Forest, and Trinity/Shasta national forests before they converge and flow into the Pacific Ocean north of Humboldt bay. The sites that we band at on the rivers usually consist of willow patches on the rivers edge. Alder is also abundant. The willows provide nesting area, and food resources to many species of migratory songbirds. The position of the nets is important and usually located between willow thickets and near flowing water. A poorly placed net will have very low capture rates or may fail to capture any birds at all. Some of the busier nets will catch birds consistently throughout the day. After we open the nets just after sunrise, we check the nets every half hour. We will decrease this to 20 minutes if the capture rates are high, or the temperature is too cold. If the capture rates are slow we may increase the time, but never more than 40 minutes as the longer the birds are in the net the more severely they can become entangled. The risk of predation also increases when birds are in the nets. When we take a bird back to the station, under ideal conditions we can process a bird in about a minute. This includes checking for breeding characteristics, fat stores, wing and tail wear, body or flight feather molt, and determining the age and sex of the bird. We also swab birds quickly to contribute samples to an avian influenza study that is being conducted. After that we weigh the birds and release them. This continues for 5 hours every day until we close the nets and take them down and drive to the next site.

birds banded:

Red Cap Creek (13 birds banded)
Yellow-breasted chat 3 (1 fledgling)
Yellow warbler 1
Spotted Towhee 3 (1 fledgling)
Macgillivray's warbler 3
Orange-crowned warbler 3

Hamilton Ponds (13 birds banded)
Yellow warbler 3
Bewick's wren 2
Yellow-breasted chat 2
Spotted towhee 5

Indian Valley (44 birds banded)
GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET 2 (both fledglings)
Hermit warbler 2
Macgillivray's warbler 2
Warbling vireo 1
Orange-crowned warbler 3
Mountain chickadee 2
Pine siskin 5 (4 fledglings)
Oregon Junco 5 (1 fledgling)
Chipping sparrow 1
Purple finch 1
WESTERN TANAGER 1 (beautiful after second year male)
Red-breasted sapsucker 3
Thick-billed fox Sparrow 3
Black-headed grosbeak 1
Spotted towhee 3 (s fledglings)
Yellow warbler 1
Wrentit 2 (including the same individual captured 4 times)
CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD 1 (the smallest bird in North America!!)
Rufous Hummingbird 1
Allen's Hummingbird 1
Dusky flycatcher 3 (1 fledgling)

Hocker Flat (19 birds banded)
WESTERN SCRUB-JAY 1 (fledgling)
BLACK-THROATED GREY WARBLER 1
Macgillivray's warbler 3 (1 fledgling)
Song sparrow 5 (3 fledglings)
DOWNY WOODPECKER 1
Wrentit 2 (1 fledgling)
Yellow-breasted chat 4 (2 fledglings)
Anna's Hummingbird 1
Bewick's wren 1

And now some pictures:

A fledgling Western-scrub Jay at Hocker Flat

A fledgling Golden-crowned kinglet at Indian Valley

An adult male Downy woodpecker at Hocker Flat

An adult male (ASY) Calliope hummingbird captured at Indian Valley

An adult male (ASY) Western tanager captured at Indian Valley

Black-throated grey and Macgillivray's warblers

Me with western-scrub jay and funny shadows on my face