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