Well here it is at the end of the summer and its time for me to head home. I have immensely enjoyed the opportunity to work with the cuckoos this summer as well as the traveling I have done down here. Most of this can be seen throughout this blog so I won't go into any long digressing here.This will most likely be my last blog entry on this site, seeing as I fly home in two days. I wanted to wrap up the blog with a few photos from the final weeks here to make this a little more interesting to whoever is still reading this. If I have a chance I may try to post photos from Las Vegas where I will be spending a night before I fly home, but I may not have the chance. The below photos are almost entirely from my point and shoot (Sony DSC W5) so forgive any lack of quality.On one of our recent routes near Parker, AZ Joe spotted this Lyside Sulphur! This is relatively uncommon in Arizona and represented a first county record for La Paz County.Simply to add a few more faces to this blog, here is Becca DeKay diligently working away on one of our recent surveys.Heres is Bob navigating a relatively treacherous route yesterday morning...well the rocks weren't to bad but the Western Diamondback in the bush ahead of him (unknown to him at this point) didn't make it any easier.This rare and attractive flower in Arizona is fairly common all along the Bill Williams. At the moment I have forgotten the name but I will post back with it later.Now for some photos for memory's sake! Here is the vast riparian that covers the Bill Williams National Wildlife Refuge, where most of our cuckoo surveys take place (a cuckoo was heard in the farthest tree from here the other day).I have no idea what this rock is called, but it has become fairly symbolic of Bill Williams NWR to me seeing as it is an obvious landmark every day.There was lightning here last night! It was amazing! Recently we have began to see actual CLOUDS in the sky, almost unheard of throughout the summer. I couldn't resist the chance to take some photos of this rare event.
Hello again, my apologies for a slow update this time around. Dave, Joe, and I packed up once again for another trip out of town. This time we took advantage of the boss's need to travel back to her home near Weldon, California so we could travel around the Kern Valley and into the mountains. I took _lots_ of pictures, way to many, so this will be a long one. So pop yourself a (root?) beer, grab some chips, and strap yourself in for another wild and crazy adventure...sorta.The Southern Sierra Research Station (who employees us) is located in the Kern Valley and this is where we stayed our first night up there. I found the station to be very comfortable and interesting, it seems like the kind of place you could spend lots of time just poking around. Certainly a different sort of field station compared to our "luxury" house in Havasu. Somehow I managed to convince the other two to wake up bright and early the first morning (even before many of the workers at the station) so we could search for Mountain Quail. As you might have noticed elsewhere on this blog/website, this is a bird I have had widespread failure with on other trips where I have looked for it. With very detailed and helpful directions from Bob Barnes (one of the founders of the research station) we made our way to Frog Springs to look for these elusive quail. We had to hike in due to the road being closed for fire danger, but we got to see lots of neat stuff along the way such as these Sage Sparrows that were very common.Interestingly enough it seemed like the sparrows were already starting to flock up. Brewer's Sparrows were present in smaller numbersWe very quickly kicked up the most common quail in the area, California Quail, which were roaming around in very large family groups. California Thrashers and Towhees were well represented in this area, as were Nuttall's Woodpeckers around the spring. If your curious about the sorta of habitat this was, there was a fairly good size Joshua Tree forest among the rocks hereI was very pleasantly surprised when our second sighting of quail in this area was not of California Quail, but of a small family of Mountain Quail! Our initial views of these birds were brief, but we soon tracked down a fairly good sized family group (~20 birds) and had some fantastic, but fairly far off, views. This is a heavily cropped shot of one of the distant adults. If you look closely you can see the long plum above the head, these are really very elegant birds and were quite enjoyable to watch.We were pleased with our success at the spring so we headed back north to the Kern Valley Preserve. This is where much of the work on Southwest Willow Flycatcher and Yellow-billed Cuckoos is done by the research station. I don't really have any pictures of the area, but the habitat was really interesting and different than the riparian where we work to the south. In contrast to the salt cedar and mesquite that plagues the understory of our cottonwood forests, these trees were almost completely open beneath them. However, unfortunately for the researchers here it sounds like the stinging nettle in the area can make surveys a lot more interesting. We watched the cuckoo crew up here do a little bit of banding, but it soon began to heat up enough to push us up into the mountains.We spent most of the next few days in the Sequoia National Forest. Our first stop this afternoon was along the Trail of 100 Giants, which promised views of the huge trees here. Pretty ridiculously large treesIt is difficult to depict how enormous the sequoias are here But the fact that you can walk inside them (in some areas to the north you can drive through them) should help somewhatBirds here included our first of many White-headed Woodpeckers, lots of Mountain Chickadees, Cassin's Vireo, Golden-crowned Kinglets, and an early migrant Townsend's Warbler. We drove around a bit looking for a campsite somewhere interesting and ended up driving a dirt road that passed by this cool waterfall. Unfortunately in an act of stupidity I forgot my tripod back in Havasu, so my sandals had to suffice for support.We camped overnight in an out of the way site not far from the Western Divide Hwy. The next morning I wandered a bit near the camp and was surprised to come across a large family group of Mountain Quail here as well. Pileated Woodpeckers called from the woods, as did Winter Wrens, Mac Warblers, more White-headed Woodpeckers, etc. Even though there were not Sequoias here, the rest of the trees were quite impressive as wellNot to mention the pine cones that drop off these things are ridiculous...Can you tell I hardly had my telephoto on my camera up here? Most of the birds were so high it wasn't even worth having it on, so for now you'll mostly see some scenic shots. Today was a very lazy day and we hardly wandered very far from the campsite. In the afternoon we drove out to Dome Rock to the north which was very awesome indeed.I spent the better part of this evening and the next morning (we camped nearby here, the stars were amazing from the rock at night!) photographing the rock and views here. The most exciting event that occurred here otherwise was finding a imm female Hermit Warbler amongst a flock of Black-throated Gray, Nashville, and Orange-crowned Warblers! Hermit being a bird I have only seen in Mexico, this was very exciting for me. In the early early AM on Sunday a Northern Pygmy Owl called from far below the rock, a flock of Evening Grosbeaks passed overhead, a few Townsend's Solitaire's called from around, and small numbers of migrants moved through the woods. I was also very excited to see my first "Thick-billed" Fox Sparrows here. I picked out a few of my favorite shots from here, you'll notice the haze in many of these photos which is caused by the recent fires in California. Pictured here is the Needles Rocks to the north.To ansel?The Dome in the early morningThe "Thick-billed" Fox Sparrows were quite common around the campsite.Nearby the camp was a large patch of wildflowers (tall red tube things, I've forgotten the name) where a large gathering of migrant Rufous Hummingbirds had gathered. These violent little guys shattered our hopes of seeing any of the tiny Calliope here, but it was enjoyable to see some of the Rufous fight so violently that one bird was continuously pining another on the ground.We packed up our campsite and headed out to the north where we hoped to hike out to the needles (pictured in the distance above). A sign at the trail head for the Needles Rocks said it was a 2.5 mile hike, but it was a very pleasant hike that did not seem to far at all. There were not many birds along the way, but there were lots of fantastic views. One of the few reptiles of the trip was what we believed to be the Sierra Mountains population of Western Fence Lizard, which were very large and common. Upon reaching the end of the trail we realized that the lookout tower was closed and we were unable to see the needles at all (without climbing gear anyway). Nonetheless it was a nice place to sit and we enjoyed what view there was. Dave on the left, Joe on the right, Erik behind the lens (turn around and maybe you'll see me??)As we hiked down the trail to the car we could see some storm clouds brewing in the distance.There were a lot of butterflies hanging around meadow next to the parking lot so we poked around here for awhile. Pale Swallowtails were pretty common here, there was a single Purplish Copper, an American Lady, more Boisduval's Blues, and a comma that I believe was Satyr Comma. I say these names with confidence, but I could be totally off...at some point I'll post pictures of these. While poking through the bflies here we heard a strange cooing noise from a nearby tree. Closer inspection revealed this female Sooty Grouse!She preened in this tree for awhile while calling back to an unseen bird across the meadow. The likely identity of this bird was revealed when I accidentally scared up two young birds from only a few feet from where we were standing! We made our way down the mountains this afternoon to return to the Kern Valley for the night. A few water birds and a tasty mexican meal in Lake Isabella later put us back at the Southern Sierra Research Station. We dropped off a few items we had borrowed from them and continued eastward to Walker Pass where we spent the night on the ground. Upon opening my eyes in the morning the first thing I saw was a fabulous view of junipers stretching for miles across a distant hilly landscape, very cool! We wandered around a bit looking for LeConte's Thrashers in the town of Inyokern, but unfortunately we were unsuccessful with these. Costa's Hummingbirds were fairly common here and certainly nothing to scoff at!After this stop we drove back down to Havasu, a six or so hour drive. This was yet another very enjoyable trip and we got to see some really great stuff along the way. As with the past trips it was really nice to feel cold again, it made sleeping in our bags very comfortable. Thanks again to the people who provided useful tips to birding and hiking this area as it was all very helpful. In Havasu it is hot as usual and the birds seem to be becoming less active. Another nest was found while we were gone bringing the total for the season up to 3. To those interested at home I will be home a few days earlier then I had originally planned, so look for me after August 11th! Oh and there was one brief advertising point I would like to make. I have always bought UV filters for my lenses simply because it has always been strongly suggested, but I've never even came close to having a lens break. I was surprised mid-way through this trip to pull out my 17-85mm and realize the filter was completely shattered! Needless to say it was a relief that this was not the lens...You stay classy, blogosphere
Find it sitting on a nest!How to get an unobstructed photo of a cuckoo...kidnap the babies!Aww. These are about 3-5 day old babies...and they loved to poop everywhere! A few days earlier another person in the crew found this cuckoo nest on a restoration site in the southern part of the Lower Colorado. This is especially exciting, because this was the first nest found on a restoration site along the Lower Colorado River. We stopped by to attempt to band the adults and band the young, we were unsuccessful with the adults. In addition, I have been almost completely unsuccessful in photographing the adults. They are very intelligent and secretive so this is really the best I've done outside of the nest. Notice this one is working up his broken wing display to get me away from the (currently empty) nest.We had to hideaway pretty well when we were trying to catch the adults. Here is another field tech, Amanda (not yet featured in the blog!), not doing such a great job hidingthis is a little more like itWe were very close to catching the adults at one point...an adult flew into the net and got out before it was reached. Otherwise we also got to pluck out some interesting birds like ground doves, Blue Grosbeaks, Ash-throats, and cowbirds.I saw batman today and it was awesome. Thats about it, its still hot and my computer is up and working again...wooOh and I almost forgot, here is a photo of my office again from our kayak route today
