Wintu Audubon Society
Wintu Audubon Trip Logs
Reports of the Wintu Audubon birding trips in chronological order.
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We birded Manzanita Lake Saturday morning with beautiful but ominous looking clouds to the west and occasional thunder. By afternoon the clouds moved in followed by intense but short-lived showers, hale and lightning strikes within half a mile that interrupted lunch and setting up camp. As the showers tapered off we birded Hat Lake and Summit Lake.
By late afternoon the sky cleared and we were set for a restful night. However, at breakfast Sunday morning two tenters reported strange and frightful growling in the middle of the night. Was it a bear or just a deer as suggested by a few sympathetic souls? Older, half-deaf members of the group chalked it up to over active imaginations.
Sunday dawned cloudless, with mild temperatures, albeit a bit smokey. We birded Kings Creek Meadows and various turnouts almost to the Sulphur Works.
Now to birding. We tallied 59 species and most interestingly, 10 species were observed nesting. A pair of Pileated Woodpeckers nested right in our camp site as probably did a pair of Evening Grosbeaks. We got excellent views of Pygmy Nuthatches at their nest holes at Manzanita Lake and of Black-backed Woodpeckers at Hat Lake. Red Modeen compiled the trip list (see below) and Ken Bachman supplied the photos.
All agreed that we should make this an annual event always inviting a neighboring Audubon group to join us. There’s nothing like a campout to build camaraderie.
Lassen Volcanic National Park Trip, June 21 & 22, 2008
The weekend trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park by the Wintu Audubon Society and the Redwood Region Audubon Society on June 21 and 22 was memorable both for the birding and the camping. Eleven Wintu members were joined on Saturday by two from Redwood Region---Sheryl and Kathleen. Nine camped Saturday night at the Lost Creek Group Campground. Here is a photo of the group taken by Ken Bachman. Left to right: Mike Damoth, Laurie Damoth, Larry Jordan, Claudia Yerion, Red Modeen, Nancy Modeen, Debbie Anderson, Kathleen and Sheryl from Eureka, Bill Oliver and Ken Bachman.
Species Identified:
1. Birds listed as nesting were actually seen entering or on the nest and/or gathering nest material.
2. The empidonax flycatcher may have been Willow, it was hawking insects in the willows at Manzanita Lake, but no scope, no consensus.
3. All expected mountain woodpecker species except Williamson’s Sapsucker which was mysteriously quiet.
4. Strangely missing were a few more raptors, and a few more warblers, (Hermit, etc.).
5. Unexpected was a pair of Wilson’s Snipe at King’s Meadow with a male winnowing.
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