Leopard Lily

Macro Monday

Yellow-billed Magpie

Wordless

Lassen

Zac and I camped near Warner Valley last week for a couple nights for work. Luckily, we were able to hit up Lassen National Park in the afternoon...and this time it was open! Perfect weather, too.

We hiked up to Lassen Peak (a little more than 10,000 feet). Good stuff. Unfortunately, no pikas were sighted which I was a little bummed about but it was still a fun time. There were two Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels (Norm's cousins) at the peak. I watched them dig up some of their food caches- peanuts, almonds and a freaking red M&M. Yup. I'm hoping no one actually fed that to the them, that it was dropped out of some trail mix and they gathered it up and cached it. But, I can't lie...this little guy does look pretty damn cute.

(above: the melting snow and ice made for some weird textures!)

Anyway, still a lot of snow on the trail as you can see. There was one particular spot that was a pretty insane drop-off that was mildly nerve-wracking to walk on. See the drop below, but that hardly does it justice.

The rocks below - prime Pika habitat but we didn't spot 'em. We were also there in the middle of the day, so they were likely hunkering down. Below that is the King of Lassen Peak.

I found a few areas that had some succulents like the one below. Didn't see many, but I always enjoy them.

There seemed to be a good number of people at the park, but luckily most of them turned out to be kinda lazy tourists, so the trail wasn't as crowded as I thought it might have been. I really can't stand crowded trails, so this was comforting. Zac loves hiking uphill, can't you tell!? My World

Backyard Friends

This Golden-crowned Kinglet and Steller's Jay decided to pose for a photo. Swell! Blue Monday

Early Morning Ode

I'm not really up on my Odes, so I can't identify this guy (if anyone can, please go for it). But either way, he was waiting for the sun to hit him so he could dry off - it was pretty early in the morning, just after sunrise. I went back to the car to grab the macro and was able to find him again in the meadow. Pretty sure he was happy when the sun came over the mountain! Scenic Sunday Camera Critters SOOC Macro Monday

Bears, Big Cats, and Yellow Rails

(Lassen Peak, view from one of our sites)

The Willow Flycatchers aren't doing so hot and this pisses me off. There have been 4 nest failures out of 16 in the past week. Freaking depressing. This is probably not the place for me to say what I really want and should say, so I'll focus on good stuff.

I did see three sets of fledglings right next to eachother the other day at one of the Warner Valley sites. Zac and I found 25 birds in a couple hours in a small area and it's a source of relief for me to know that they are at least doing well up there. (part of the reason is that there is no grazing and they don't have people up in their face all the time..they get to nest in peace.)

(this is a giant floating grass raft...horrifying to walk on, but the yellow rails dig it)

One of the sites we needed to go to was Willow Lake (where the now infamous Yellow Rail has been hanging out). I heard said bird calling on my way to the WIFL habitat and marked the utm. When I was watching a female wifl, I heard the rail calling. It was 500 meters from where I heard the 'first' one. Ohhh...two of 'em! Two Yellow Rails! How freaking awesome! So that made me happy. (side note: two birders also reported 2 Yellow Rails the day after we were there, so that's cool).

Willow Lake did however claim my GPS unit. Oh well, that thing was only working about 20 percent of the time anyway. Now the birds can navigate their way around the lake really well...

(fresh bear scratches on an Aspen at Tallac)

What else has been happening..BEAR! (the fifth one this season). I fell in a beaver trench and must have spooked it. He was only about 30-40 feet from me but deep in the willows. I think he just heard me, didn't actually see me. But I saw him and then I booked on out of there - which is hard to do in a wet meadow with beaver holes and yellow jackets swarming you, hmmm. So that was pretty cool.

I always see bear scat and bear tracks into the willows but haven't actually seen them IN the willows, so that a new one.

Speaking of large mammals...as I was heading into a thick willow clump recently at about 5 30 in the morning, I promptly stopped in my tracks because of this:

Yeah, some real nice fresh cougar prints heading right where I was going. I figured maybe I wouldn't wander in that way. Probably a good call.

Coyotes too! Yesterday as I was walking down the hill to one of the sites, I heard what sounded like a bunch of coyotes but ended up being only one. He was a good lookin' fellow. But he kept howling and barking for more than an hour about 150 meters from the wifl territory I was in which made it a little hard to the already extremely quite birds. He was pretty cool though. I hadn't seen a coyote since the beginning of the season, so I was glad to see him hanging around.

(Blackwood sunrise)

Other good sightings include marmots, beavers, a fair amount of bald eagles, lots of osprey, and all sorts of baby birds. Spotted Sandpiper babies are way too cute for their own good and they're all over the place now. Love 'em. Lots of Red-breasted Sapsuckers and Flicker fledglings too, among many many others.

I and the Bird #130

Well hello there! It's time for the 130th edition of I and the Bird. I suppose it's about time I hosted one of these, but I fear I failed to be terribly creative...I'm keeping it pretty simple, so I hope you don't mind.

I started working with birds in 2005 (Piping Plovers and American Oystercatchers), and in 2007 I started a three year project with the Golden-cheeked Warbler. Currently I'm working with Willow Flycatchers for the second time and I've done stuff with grassland birds as well. It's kinda nice because while I get paid to stare at birds, it's also what I do when I'm not working. Yeah, being a seasonal field biologist is a pretty sweet gig. Much to my surprise, I became a bird nerd. I have a list (egads, a list!) but this is my husband's fault (I should note that the first words he ever spoke to me were: "Are you a birder?" (at the time, I can't say that I was). Anyway, I never thought I'd be so into birds but it's the truth and I can't deny it. They're pretty spectacular. So, I enjoy when each new I and the Bird edition comes around.

Thanks to everyone who submitted entries for this edition. Please take the time to look at all the links -all sorts of great photos and information tucked away in each post!

I love Piping Plovers. You'll love them too. "Piping Plovers are PIPL too." Great saying. "PIPL" is the AOU banding code for these cutie pies. Thus the pun. Take a look at John's post at DC Birding Blog about these endangered birds. You'll see some adorable pictures and learn about some banded individuals. I also gotta add that Piping Plovers were, shall we say, my "gateway" bird into birding and bird research projects, so they'll always hold a little spot in my heart.

Greg (Greg's Laden Blog) has three articles on Oystercatchers (my second birdnerd gateway bird) - information about feeding, a bad experience with feeding (yikes!), and some really great info about how they forage. All three are definitely worth the read. These guys are in the family Haematopodidae. I think that means "red feet" but I might have made that up.

Nate suggests that Pelicans look like dinosaurs. I agree whole-heartedly - if you squint a little bit, it's pretty obvious. Cassowaries, on the other hand I think ARE dinosaurs. Check out a his blog entry of the recently de-listed Brown Pelican at the Drinking Bird., chock full of good stuff!

Gulls are challenging to ID for a lot of birdwatchers (like myself). If you don't have a spouse that knows 'em like the back of his hand, then fortunately if you need a better look, most of them will risk their life for a french-fry. Duncan's photos (Ben Cruachan Natural History) of the elegant Silver Gull are a perfect compliment to his poem.

Babies are white, and adults are purple, but for some reason they're called Little "Blue" Herons. Probably the same guy who named the Yellow (brown) Rail and the Purple (Gray) Sandpiper. Eva at The Flying Mullet was able to snag some up close and personal photographs of these herons - awesome head shots!

If you are a birder you should be very careful before reading this post. Take a deep breath and make sure you have some savings and at least a week free, because you'll for sure want to go to Iceland. Matthew at Backyard and Beyond added some excellent birds to his life list while scoping out some Icelandic Birds .

You need to check out "Buffy" the Fish Owl . A pretty cool video of this guy. He's got some serious eye-contact - he'd make a great public speaker. Y C Wee addresses the use of video as a research tool for birds in his entry. Lots of good info at Bird Ecology Study Group, read up!

Great Blue Herons must be near the top of the list of North Americas most recognizable and popular birds. They always put on a good show- especially this guy. Susannah at Wandering Weeta was able to get a very cool series of photos of a Great Blue snarfing something tasty for lunch.

Who doesn't get excited about baby birds? I definitely do. Joan had a great sighting of a juvenile Green Heron recently. The little guy posed pretty perfectly for some photos, look at his juvie cuteness at Anybody Seen My Focus.

I'm a bit too jealous to write a whole lot about Mike's (10,000 Birds) post about Panama Birding. Read the whole thing and note that he added 10 life birds in one hour. That's pretty snazzy stuff, lucky man!

Speaking of baby birds...Larry from the Birder's Report got some awesome action shots of fledgling Black Phoebes being fed by their parents. Don't miss the slow-mo video of a Phoebe eating a bug off of a tree, very "Life of Birds."

Unlike Turkey Vultures, Black Vultures have no sense of smell, which is probably a good thing because god knows how awful their breath is after eating carrion all day. At Wrenaissance Reflections, you'll see some really nice photos of a Black Vulture looking quite lovely without having to smell it's breath.

White-headed Woodpecker

This lovely gal stops for a drink most evenings (the male comes less often). I always get excited when she does...hoping soon maybe she'll bring fledglings? Wordless Nature Notes Bird Photography Weekly

"Cougar Prey, Almost" Revisited.

Ohh, how exciting- I've kept this blog going for 2 years. I figured it would be appropriate and swell if I posted the first entry. And I must say, it is an exciting one. Zac and I almost got eaten by a Mountain Lion, so check it out below: (from 19 July 2008)

This story is a decent start to this bloggy thing. At least I think it is. ( edited a little bit from the email i sent out).

I'm currently in Southeastern, Oregon (middle of nowhere..nearest actual town is about 4 hours from here) doing some bat study stuffs for Humboldt State U. We're doing experiemental playbacks in attempt to deter the little guys from striking wind turbines. It's actually quite interesting.

It's night field work, and involves videotaping bats, etc. Usually the cameras run for 1 -2 hours at night, so there's that amount of down time.

We're working in Freemont National Forest, about 20 miles from 'town.' There are two different ponds/field sites, so sometimes I have to wait an hour or so to be picked up by Zac. Sometimes I take a walk (around dusk, til it gets too dark) and other times, I get all scared and sit in my tent like a freaking little pansy . Because you know, the dark is scary when you're solo.

So blah blah, last Sunday night (July 13th), we only had one site to do, so Zac and I set up the cameras, played a couple games of Yahtzee in the jeep. We are Yahtzee masters. We still had about an hour, so we decided to go for a casual night hike (much less scary with two people, right?) on a forest service road (no cars).

It was about 10 15pm , the moon was about 3/4 full, low 50's, little bit cloudy, no one around, fairly still, very quiet...we were sort of hoping to see a bear, because there were prints at that field site and evidence one had been there the night before. (We were also hoping to get it on the nighvision cameras we use...no luck).

Zac saw a pair of little eyes about 15 minutes in - probably a weasel or a marten. A few minutes later i noticed one very large eye shine with my headlamp, then the second eye. Then I noticed the head and the body. The normal human response was to shit oneself. I tried hard (and succeeded!) in not doing this.

With a little (lot?) bit of panic in my voice , I shoved Zac and told him to move his light to the giant white eyes. In a sad effort to ease my fright, Zac said "coyote." That was just silly.

We were both shining our lights directly at it, lurking there no more than 25-30 feet (in other words, one jump) away from us. It's eyes unblinking on it's huge freaking head, starring right at us. We were in a bit of shock I think, and just stood there looking back at it for a minute or two. When instinct finally set in, Zac started whistling. I started clapping and making loud noises (since I never learned how to whistle), still shining our lights at it. It was huge, and with the moonlight we could see the entire animal.

The thing did not flush, didn't freaking budge. We didn't turn around until about 2-3 (seemed a whole lot longer) minutes later, after it eventually turned it's head (which was totally creepy). But that entire time we just starred right at it's big old honkin' mountain lion self, with his or her huge bright white eyes, never blinking, never taking eyes off of us - all of THIRTY FEET AWAY!

Thirty feet away. Has that been mentioned?

The cougar was probably hunting at that time of night, and had likely been following us at some point during our hike. Unsettling. And also unsettling is that I walked by myself that way three times before in the week, and sat out in the dark in that exact area, when I forgot my tent, waiting for Zac to pick me up. Come on!

When we finally got the balls to start moving away, I almost peed on myself out of fright. The car wasn't that far away, probably just 12- 15 minutes at a fast pace, but it seemed to take forever. You're not supposed to turn your back on big cats, so we took turns walking backwards, yelling, having panic attacks, and clapping in the dark until we got back to the car.

Very cool. Very, very, cool. It's pretty rare to see these guys - and especially to see one that stares you down and doesn't flinch. Also incredibly spooky, and gets your nerves going (for apparently hours afterwards) when you're feet away from a cat that can weigh 270 pounds. Crazy.

..Since last year we've gone on little night hikes in Hill Country, Texas , hoping to see a mountain lion. Last year in Texas, we heard one scream (other than say, Dave Matthews or Coldplay, definitely the most awful noise you'll ever hear), but never saw one. There's plenty of scat and prints around our field sites in Texas also. And this May, on one of our transects, directly under some flagging tape, was a deer a cougar had killed (you can tell from the bite marks on the back of the neck, and the way they tear the carcass, and what parts of the kill they eat...intriguing).

So this is the second mountain lion i've seen. I'm glad I wasn't alone this time- last time (way back in 2000-01 I think) , I was hiking alone in Nowhereville, Southern Nevada when I saw one about 30-40 feet above me on a ledge.

Kinda rad.

Daily Dose of Cute

Lunch time! Shadow Shot

Nuthatch Nestlings

I took these a couple weeks ago and forgot to put 'em up. How dare I! The Pygmy Nuthatch parents were back and forth feeding their little guys, who appeared to be almost ready to fledge (yay!). That nestling in the picture above is about to snarf a big ol' spider - lucky him! Scenic Sunday Bird Photography Weekly