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Lassen Volcanic National Park Outing

By on July 14, 2017 in Events
Mount Lassen

Mount Lassen and Manzanita Lake

One of the best things about our annual Lassen Park campout is that we get to see several species of birds that are rarely, if ever, seen in the valley. Many of those species also nest in the park. According to their website, Lassen Volcanic National Park provides habitat for approximately 216 species of birds in which 96 have been known to actually breed in the park.

For those of you that have never been to Lassen Volcanic National Park, I thought I would post some photos I have taken inside the park of some of the bird and animal species we may encounter during our annual campout.

One of my favorite species is the Water Ouzel, more commonly known now as the American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus). This is a photo I took at King’s Creek picnic area of an adult feeding its nestlings. Click on photos for full sized images.

American Dipper

and a short video of the nestlings begging for food and being fed.

Of course, LVNP has a great variety of woodpeckers on their bird list, eight of them known to nest in the area, including the White-headed Woodpecker (Picoides albolarvatus.) This is a male with some treats for the youngsters.

White-headed Woodpecker Male

 and a short video of the adults feeding the nestling and drumming.

We will hopefully see the rare Black-backed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) as well.

Black-backed Woodpecker

and maybe hear it drum!

There are Pileated Woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) that hang out just adjacent to our campground in an old burn.

Pileated Woodpecker Male

And Red-breasted Sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus ruber) are common.

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Near Summit Lake we have been able to witness Williamson’s Sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus thyroideus) raising their young in a snag near the campground. The handsome male…

Williamson's Sapsucker Male

and the not as recognizable female.

Another of my favorite Lassen Park nesting birds is the Brown Creeper (Certhia americana)…

Brown Creeper

This is a video of the nesting activity of a pair of Brown Creepers at Summit Lake. Their nest is concealed in the narrow space behind loose bark on a tree.

Mountain Chickadees (Poecile sclateri) are one of the many secondary cavity nesters at the park. This is a nestling waiting to be fed at Hat Lake.

Mountain Chickadee Nestling

Also seen at Hat Creek, Red-breasted Nuthatches (Sitta canadensis) tending their nestlings.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

And the video accompaniment.

Other secondary cavity nesters at the park include the Pygmy Nuthatch (Sitta pygmaea)…

Pygmy Nuthatch

the Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides), the male seen here…

Mountain Bluebird Male

and the Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola).

Bufflehead Female with Young

Lassen Volcanic National Park is one of the few places that this incredible cavity nesting duck breeds in Northern California.

This is a video of a female Bufflehead searching Manzanita Lake for a cavity to nest in for the following nesting season. She is in a snag, at least forty feet up!

American Coots (Fulica americana) raise their young at the park also. If you have never seen a American Coot chick, Manzanita Lake is a good spot to find them.

American Coot Chick

Since we’re checking out the youngsters of the park, I found this juvenile Clark’s Nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) at Bumpass Hell. Note the remaining flesh colored gape below the eye at the corner of the beak.

Clark's Nutcracker Fledgling

Other species that nest at the park include the Cassin’s Finch (Carpodacus cassinii). The male seen here…

Cassin's Finch Male
and the female.

Cassin's Finch Female

You would be hard pressed to miss the boisterous Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri)

Steller's Jay

But if you are really lucky, you might find a young Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius) at Hat Lake!

Spotted Sandpiper Chick

You gotta see this…

Or a Green-tailed Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) that also nests here.

Green-tailed Towhee

Of course there are more than just birds at Lassen Volcanic National Park. The park is home to approximately 57 species of mammals ranging is size from the tiny shrew to the North American black bear. We are most likely to see the Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis)…

Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel

the American Pika (Ochotona princeps)…

American Pika

and the Yellow-bellied Marmot (Marmota flaviventris).

Yellow-bellied Marmot

I hope this post intrigues you enough to consider joining us this year at Lassen Volcanic National Park for our 2017 annual campout. As always we will be camping with our friends and fellow Audubon members from other Northern California chapters. As with all of our activities, the Lassen Park Campout is posted on our calendar for more information. You are welcome to campout beginning Friday, July 28th, anytime past noon, or drive up Saturday morning to join us for the hike around Manzanita Lake.

Want more information on Lassen Volcanic National Park? Visit their website! And here is an interactive map of the park.

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Vultures Soar to do the Dirty Work

By on July 3, 2017 in BirdWords

Turkey Vulture Adult and Juvenile

Summer is the season for soaring. Thermals, the warm air rising from the earth’s heated surface, can lift birds thousands of feet into the air with no more effort than spreading their wings. Larger birds, particularly raptors, for whom the quick flutter of small-bird wings would be physiologically impossible, are particularly famous for riding on thermals. The reigning champions of hot-air flight are, arguably, turkey vultures.

They’re ungainly, maybe disgusting. They can’t sing, only argue over food with a breathy hiss. They’re folklore symbols of doom and death. But supremacy in the air helps vultures prosper and decorate the sky through our sultry summer days. Some 90% of the soaring birds we see are apt to be not birds of prey but turkey vultures.

These vultures can be identified at a great distance. They hold their wings up in a V, a gift of their initial letter that hawks and eagles cannot replicate. The V shape, known in aviation as a dihedral, helps stabilize the birds in windy weather. When winter buffets the north state, the resident vultures ride the winds that replace the lazier-seeming currents of summer. Other turkey vultures will honor autumn tradition and head south—but they will still sail the winds, as they can ride as far down-continent as ever-blustery Tierra del Fuego.

Wherever they are, turkey vultures must soar to find their food with the most efficiency. Unlike most birds, they hunt with a keen sense of smell. Eagle-eyed predators can spot a salmon below the river’s ripple. Owls can hear a mouse squeak a football-field away. Vultures’ food, already dead, will not squeak or scurry for the ear or eye. Turkey vultures hunt mainly by smell. Their acute olfactory sense will not only find their carrion dinner, but will tell them whether it is too rotten to interest a civilized vulture. Indeed, while large owls, with their absent sense of smell, may gulp down a skunk, vultures will regularly discard at least the skunk’s scent gland.

But they really are not delicate diners. Vulture beaks are sharp and strong, but when particularly tough hides must be pierced, they may need to wait for early decay or a bigger predator to open the carcass. Since they will then be eating meals past their expiration date, and since they seem to prefer eating entrails from the anus up, vultures are heavily exposed to toxins. Fortunately, they are adapted to the dangers. Their naked heads not only keep feathers from being matted with contaminants, but also allow their skin bacteria, thicker and harsher than our own, to attack microbes in the meat, averting facial infection. The birds seem to be immune to effects from many biotoxins, and their own exceptionally virulent intestinal bacteria help them finish the job.

Their job is in fact a substantial service. Vultures find and scavenge about 90% of sizable dead animals in their range, reducing both disease and cleanup costs we would otherwise face.

Their condor cousins, with the rise of lead shot in carcasses and, longer term, no more mega-fauna to clean up, have been teetering on the edge of extinction for some time. Turkey vultures, on the other hand, perhaps responding to clearing of forests, an increase in roadkill, and a warming climate, have been extending both their breeding and wintering ranges northward.

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