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Collector: Grinnell - 1925
Location: Lassen Section
Date: June 11, 1925
Page Number: 2458

Left Berkeley in the Ford with the "family" (Hilda,
Molly and Dick) at 5 a.m., reaching Red Bluff at 4 p.m.
on the highway near Gerber, Tehama Co. (and within
our "section") saw a smashed Boyle King Snake
(Lampropeltis boylii). At several of the culverts
beneath the highway (Corning to Red Bluff) were
Barn Swallows, a pair flying about each culvert.
Even when these were only about 2 1/2 feet in
height of space beneath, the swallows appeared
to be nesting within.
Continued on from Red Bluff east to Dale's,
where we had supper. Out of Red Bluff about
4 miles, just on to the lava country, saw a
Raven in flight overhead from direction of Tuscan
Buttes. At Dale's we were impressed with the
abundance of birds, just as last May. I saw,
among others: Western Yellowthroat; Long-tailed Chat (a
remarkable mimic - for instance, one gave the
"pe-ark" of a Pacific nighthawk perfectly, so that I
peered aloft for the author until the chat above
my head in an oak whistled); Willow Goldfinch
(several, males nearly fully yellow); Killdeer (nearly
fullgrown young in vegetable garden, tufts of down
on ends of tailfeathers showing plainly); etc.
Citellus douglasi seem more numerous along
the road than last year. Saw an Gray Squirrel
near the creek about a mile below Dale's,
near where Willard shot the one last winter.