Transcribing the field notes of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Lassen Section Date: June 12, 1925 Page Number: 2460

slopes of Inskip Hill); Calif. Woodpecker; Nuttall Woodpecker; Calif. Purple Finch (very common and in full song here in the black oaks); Linnet (equally common and in full song); Western Tanager (one in full song, as I write); Cassins Vireo and Western Warbling Vireo (equally in evidence); Wood Pewee (common); Ash-Throated Flycatcher ( "buckaroo" song heard early in the morning from slopes of Inskip Hill; Black-Throated Gray Warbler (several singing males); Lutescent Warbler (one singing male) Western Lark Sparrow (several); Western Chipping sparrow (common and singing); Green-backed Goldfinch (singing birds almost continually within hearing); Wren-tit (heard song from bushy slopes of Inskip Hill; Valley Quail (sentinel call of male in distance); Plain Tit (one pair, in black oaks); Slender-billed Nuthatch (very common); Bullock Oriole (one heard); Morning Dove (several have flown past); The "stream" right here is now dry - all the water taken out for the ranches around Payne Creek P.O. But down below here a few rods a narrow canyon begins, cut down thru the lava cap, and there, there are potholes with water, the source, apparently, for the birds of these woods. Along the ravine are luxurious golden oaks, densely blooming syringia (Philadelphus), ash trees, etc. Up in the rocky walls are bushes of Cercis and Rhus Trilobata.

Collector: Grinnell-1925 Location: Mineral, 4800 ft. Date: June 19 Page Number: 2479

and the structure is ensconced in a tangle of dead twiggery in part supported by slanting ceanothus cordulatus stems - in a thicket of same - well shaded by green leafage above.

9:30 a.m. - Just followed a Ruby-crowned Kinglet's "yerruping," and found a pair upon the summit of a fir assaulting vigorously a Blue-fronted Jay. Nearby, a (female) Western Tanager was flying about and at another jay in the top of a fir. One of the Blue-fronted Jays seen plainly was a full-grown young-of-the-year.

10: a.m. - Mrs. G. just found a Yellow Warbler's nest, 8 feet up, saddled on crossing stems in midst of willow thicket on meadow - perfectly typical site and construction for the species. Contents, 2 fresh eggs.

10:45 a.m. - Across the highway from camp, on a portion of Battle Creek Meadows that has had no cattle on it yet this year; grass and flowers a foot high; blue camas abundant in places; here and there clumps of willow; and many lodgepole pines, singly now and then, or in tracts. Birds I hear are: Western Meadowlark, two in full song; Robin, 2 or more in song; Lazuli Bunting, 2 singing; Warbling Vireo (one singing); Audubon Warbler (a (female) close by in a l-p pine); Calif. Purple Finch (one singing); Junco (one singing); Traill Flycatcher (pair close to me, and Mrs. G has seen one carrying a billfull of something into the midst of a willow thicket and in investigating); Lincoln Sparrow (a singing male centers within 3 acres about us).

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Mineral Date: June 23 Page Number: 2493

Mt. Chickadee (2); Western Tanager (5); Fox Sparrow (2); Chipping Sparrow (18); Hermit Warbler (3); Tolmie Warbler (1); Calaveras Warbler (1); Warbling Vireo (8); Calif. Purple Finch (4); Wood Pewee (13); Lazuli Bunting (3) Pileated Warbler (1); Spotted Sandpiper (2, along sparsely pebbled margins of creek); Traill Flycatcher (1); Yellow Warbler (2); Robin (29+, one seen carrying mud up to nest 50 feet above and on lowermost branch of huge yellow pine); Cassin Vireo (1); Audubon Warbler (7); Blue-fronted Jay (1); Turkey Vulture (2, one circling above vicinity of store (?), and one above woods at this end of the meadow) Brewer Blackbird (1, [female symbol] bathing and preening, as if just off nest); Pine Siskin (1); Ruby-crowned Kinglet (2); Canada Nuthatch (1); Crossbill (1, loud "chup" note heard from tips of yellow pine, given persistently, until bird flew, and also then); Killdeer (2); Meadowlark (2); Sierra Creeper (1); Western Bluebird (2); Western Lark Sparrow (1, [male symbol] singing volubly from well up in yellow pine at edge of meadow); Wright Flycatcher (2); Olive-sided Flycatcher (1); Solitaire (1); Pygmy Nuthatch (2, in different places, in upper parts of large yellow pines); White-headed Woodpecker (2); Modoc Hairy Woodpecker (2); Red-winged Blackbird (1+, heard from willows along stream, far out in meadows); Cassin Purple Finch (2, mating pair).

Total, for 1 1/2 hrs., 8:15-9:45: 38 species, 133 individuals.

1 p.m. Still at west end of Battle Creek Meadows. Have heard a Black-headed Grosbeak singing, and a Red-shafted Flicker. Just saw a Black-tailed Jack Rabbit (Lepus c. californicus) lope up the hill thru the snow bushes, from

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Mineral Date: June 26 Page Number: 2499

glandular abdomen and hence sitting) from bole of red fir about 60 feet up. It was actively pecking at the fissured bark and dislodging tufts of the conspicuous yellow lichen which grows profusely on the trunks of some of the trees. Saw also a Red-breasted Sapsucker, and punctured red fir in the vicinity. Can hear from this point: Solitaire, Tanager, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Mt. Chickadee, Canada Nuthatch, Warbling Vireo, and Audubon Warbler. Saw a [female symbol] Calliope Hummingbird at snow-plant (Sarcodes); these plants now coming up commonly under red firs and of brilliant colors.

6265 Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker [male symbol] testes [illustration] [therefore long past functioning] wt. 73.5g.; iris dark hazel brown. Note "spurious" outer ^^(?) tail feathers!

6266 Hammond Flycatcher [male symbol] testes [illustration]; wt. 10.2g. [see p. 2497].

6267 Pileolated Warbler [male symbol] wt. 7.1g. [see p. 2497].

6268 Lutescent (?) Warbler [female symbol] jv. wt. 7.8g. [see p. 2498].

5:00p.m., at camp: collected a set of four eggs 4/4, nest and female parent, of Wright Flycatcher. Rim of nest 1130mm above ground; nest on nearly upright stem of snow-bush, supported in part by accessory twiggery; 600 mm. more of snow bush, living leafy branch, above nest. Site in sea of snowbush on gently sloping hillside; two tall cedars 75 feet away, nearest trees; but firs and pines farther away. Eggs nearly fresh;

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Mineral, 4800 ft. Date: June 29 Page Number: 2510

6273 Traill Flycatcher [female symbol] ad. 13.0 g. with set 3/4 (see p. 2508). 6274 Traill] [Flycatcher] [female symbol] ad. 12.7 g. [with] [set] 3/4 (see p. 2509).

First up - mountain Western House Wren in snow brush by camp at 4 p.m.

June 30 Have come with family up Viola trail towards Brokeoff Mountain, and now (12:30) we are lunching at first snow - only meagre remains of drifts - at rock slide, about 7500 feet, where I found conies on the 17th. Now, I hear them in two directions, close by, but have failed to see one. The day is perfectly clear, and the sun beats down perfervidly. The trees about me are: red fir, predominating; hemlock, a few; mountain pine (P. monticola), more. The "chaparral" is: scattered flat mats of arctostaphylos nevadensis and scrawny chinquapin; most of the ground is perfectly bare of living vegetation. What sounded like a veritable troup of Crossbills flew overhead a while ago - at least there was a chorus of sharp "chup-chup's"; I caught sight of just two birds thru the trees, in undulating, linnet-like flight. Other birds seen ^^{or heard here} the past hour (now 1 o'clock) have been: Hammond Flycatcher, Ruby-crown Kinglet, Solitaire, Audubon Warbler, Western Tanager, Calliope Hummer,^ ^{Mountain Chickadee, Rock Wren,} Clark Nutcracker. I consider this extreme upper Canadian zone.

At about 6500-foot level, saw two Callospermophilus chrysodeirus, the only two ground squirrels of this species