A Brit abroad

Sierras clean-up!

Today I joined Marcel Holyoak and John Williams for a truly superb day's birding in the high Sierras. Our first stop was the Donner Summit rest area on I-80, where we quickly located singing Lincoln's Sparrow, Wilson's Warbler and Western Pewees. Our first piece of amazing luck was a close encounter with a male and two female Pine Grosbeaks (notoriously tricky to run into), shortly followed by my life Evening Grosbeak!

Further up the road, the Donner picnic area also had excellent birding, including my life Clark's Nutcracker,....

... Green-tailed Towhee,...

and Williamson's Sapsucker, along with calling Olive-sided Flycatcher and this Pygmy Nuthatch emerging from its nest in the Donner Tree.

Next stop was Perazzo Meadows, where this territorial male Calliope Hummingbird (another lifer) gave excellent views.

Up by the stream we found our target of Willow Flycatcher, plus a bonus life bird (Hairy Woodpecker), good views of 3 Ospreys and a flyover Spotted Sandpiper. Our route to Chapman's Saddle took us through a portion of the Sierra Valley, where several smart Wilson's Phalaropes were added to the trip list. Chapman's Saddle itself produced the goods, and we all had excellent close views of singing Cassin's Vireo, Nashville, Hermit and my life MacGillivray's Warbler. Other interesting wildlife noted here included this Snow Plant (a non-photosynthetic root parasite),

several Eight-spotted Skimmers

and this Snake Fly.

We took our lunch stop at Yuba Pass. Our amazing luck continued as another of our target birds, a female Black-backed Woodpecker, flew into trees adjacent to the car. In a walk through the woods and picnic area we notched up both Hammond's and Dusky Flycatcher, and had excellent views of a nesting male Williamson's Sapsucker. I also managed to locate (and photograph) the male Black-backed Woodpecker visiting his nest hole:

The roadside grit at this site attracts a wide variety of songbirds, which ingest the grit to grind up food in their gizzards. Visitors here included my life Cassin's Finch and Pine Siskin,...

... but pride of place had to go to this showy Evening Grosbeak. I like the way a Mountain Chickadee managed to sneak into the back of the second photo!

We rounded off our day with a drive around the Sierra Valley. Birds of note in the drier parts included Black-billed Magpie and Sage Thrasher, as well as fine views of singing Vesper Sparrow

and Brewer's Sparrow.

Waterbirds were also plentiful here: we noted several species of duck, hundreds of White-faced Ibis, Yellow-headed Blackbird and breeding-plumaged Willet.

Pride of place has to go to the handful of majestic Sandhill Cranes which breed in the area.

This was one of those rare days when everything went exactly to plan - I had great views of 11 life birds, pushed my US list over 400 and my California list comfortably into the 300s! Thanks to Marcel for his expertise and to John for his ace driving - I'm celebrating our success with red mole tamales and a well-earned beer!

Posted by rjhall at June 6, 2004 06:37 AM