Lassen

Today is another rain/data day, bringing me to the big city (Quincy), where a post is possible!

Last week I camped and point counted with Mr. Lipp in the northern regions of Lassen National Forest. We caught fish and got ripped to shreds by manzanita, so there were ups and downs to the week, but it was especially nice for me to switch things up by helping out with their project, getting to see slightly different birds and habitat for the week.

Mountain Quail are spectacular. Though they do not shout "CHICAGO" like their Cali Quail relatives, they sure can belt out a good "Quork!"


Barn Swallows were nesting under this bridge, which was over a creek full of highly uninterested trout.


There were SO MANY butterflies everywhere we went. We must have hit hundreds with our truck, as they seem to gravitate toward moist surfaces...like these sandals.


This year the Juncos here are actually able to nest, as compared to last year, when there were still multiple feet of snow at many of our sites.


From the top of Burney Mountain at sunset.




Listen for the background barks

About to fledge

BARS

We banded this second brood of barn swallows this weekend

More bluebirds

Still feeding young, which inhabit this hybrid cliff swallow nest tissue box

Cliffs

Cliff swallow fledglings begging for food


Building up a nest

BARS out

The barn swallow nest finally fledged. They still return occasionally, but they're out and about.

One fledgling clinging to the wall here as a parent swoops in


Two fledglings


Fledgling sitting on our weather equipment


Parent




Despite fledging, they still need and demand feeding

Here

Finally, the camera came, here are a first few pictures, no idea how to use this.

Best day so far

Today Amanda and I had a really great day banding at Redwood Creek. We caught a total of 41 birds, with 16 species. The highlights were 2 barn swallows, a tree swallow, a black-headed grosbeak, a warbling vireo, and mix of juvenile birds! We also ran into a female common merganser with 4 chicks, shortly before peeking into the hummingbird nest I found the week before, which now has two cute little raisin-like nestlings in it.

Female black-headed grosbeak


Steller's Jay


Barn swallow #1



Barn swallow #1, female


Barn swallow #2, male



Barn swallow #2, awesome tail, and with a couple of retained primaries in there


Barn swallow secondaries, very cool heart shape, which you don't see in other birds


Male California quail






All three of us, wearing hats


Tree swallow




Hummingbird raisins

23, but slow

We had about 23 birds today at Redwood Creek, but it felt pretty slow. We did catch a couple of very cute chickadee fledglings, and found a hummingbird nest.

Chickadee banding from Todd

A few more photos from the chickadee banding a while ago, all from Todd, thanks Todd!

Checking the box

Barn swallow nesting

Chickadee box

The babies have hatched and we are checking them frequently in order to make sure we don't missing the banding date for them. There turns out to be 6 of them and we had to take one out to see a couple that were at the bottom of the pile.