Transcribing the field notes of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Lassen Section (Mineral) Date: June 13-14, 1925 Page Number: 2462

forenoon nest-hunting. Found several, to be reported upon later, in suitable locations for Dixon to photograph them. Fished in the afternoon, securing 7 Eastern Brook and 1 Rainbow Trout. Deer tracks abundant thru the willow bogs, forming trails; many fresh tracks along the streams, as also up on the dry slopes among the Ceanothus cordulatus mats, where one was jumped by Mrs. G at 10 a.m. Saw a Spotted Sandpiper on a scanty patch of gravel at the edge of one of the numerous meadow channels of Battle Creek - grassy meadows on willow jungles everywhere else. A Tree Swallow in full song flew overhead - the only swallow I have seen here. A curious association of birds was evidently established for birding in the willow bog, as follows: Russet-backed Thrush, Lincoln Sparrow, Song Sparrow (subsp.?), Traill Flycatcher, Yellow Warbler (subsp.), Golden-Pileolated Warbler, Western Warbling Vireo and Lazuli Bunting. Western Robins were, of course, in the open meadows, and plenty of Sierra Juncos along the edges of both the meadows and the willow bogs, where these are bordered by lodgepole pines. June 14 Mrs. G. and I out hunting birds' nests all the forenoon, finding only two, both unfinished. This seems exactly the right season for finding most small birds' nests; few are sitting yet.

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Mineral, 4800 Date: July 2 Page Number: 2513

With Mrs. G. around and thru [sic] willow bogs and thru [sic] adjacent tracts of lodgepole pines on "Battle Creek Meadows." Associates in one area of willow thickets, tall grass, blossoming herbs, and luxurious verotrum, with here and there fallen lodgepole pines, snags, and some standing trees of same species, were: Song Sparrow, Lincoln Sparrow, Lazuli Bunting, Traill Flycatcher, Sierra Junco, Golden Pileolated Warbler and Yellow Warbler. A nearby abundance of Labrador tea emphasized the Canadian Boreal complexion of this aggregation - and yet there were the Buntings and Song Sparrows. We spent a good deal of time in our efforts to collect males of the latter - I don't shoot females of adult birds now, for really all of them are obviously concerned for young, either in the nest or at large but still dependent. Heard a Grouse "hooting" in the same tract of lodgepoles where we found the young on the 20th (June). It appears that the males, at least here, do stay in the vicinity of their broods and that they continue to "hoot" long after the actual mating season.

In a tract of good-sized, much branched lodgepoles across the highway in the main big meadow, we found a Calliope Hummer's nest. I heard the hum overhead and caught sight of the female just in time to see her go on to the nest, where she staid a minute moving about. Later we watched her 50 yards or so off plucking web from dead branches in the shade 10 feet up, which web she took to the nest. She

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Mineral, 4800 ft. Date: July 2 Page Number: 2515

different from that of wrighti. Hammondi is a bird of the woods, both in nesting and foraging, and it stays high up; 25 feet up, in the tract of lodgepoles where today's nest was found, is quite equal to 90 feet up in the high sugar pines and white firs on the ridge up Viola Trail. Hammondi forages about among and through the branchwork of the trees well up, not in chaparral where wrighti is at home. The latter is much the noisier bird, too.

6277 Hammond Flycatcher [female symbol] ad. 11.2g. With nest, as above. ^^{Shot in lodgepole pine.} 6278 Yellow Warbler [male symbol] ad. testes [testes illustration]. 9.2g. Shot in white alder. 6279 Lincoln Sparrow [male symbol] ad. testes [testes illustration]. 18.3g. Shot in willow. 6280 Song Sparrow [male symbol] ad. testes [testes illustration]. 20.3g. Shot in willow. 6281 [Song] [Sparrow] [male symbol] ad. testes [testes illustration]. 20.4g. Shot in willow.

6:50 p.m. - At Hammond Flycatcher's nest again. Stu up the tree - sees young in the nest, he thinks. With string, we find the nest to be 28 ft. 9 in. above the ground (guessed this morning at 25 feet). Stu does the tree work, tying a rope out as far as he can reach, taking a couple of turns on a limb above, and then chopping off the nest limb, which latter is then lowered slowly, the branches below helping to ease the process. In spite of considerable tilting the nest, and four small young it contained, reached the ground without injury. The nest [taken] proved to be 13 feet out from the trunk of the tree. I heard the male call from the treetops in the vicinity, but he did not come to the nest while after

MUSEUM OF VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY

CENSUS SHEET

Locality: Vicinity of Battle Creek Meadows	Nature of Route(zone,fauna, associations):
Date: July 31, 1925	Across meadows and willow
Observer: J. & H.W. Grinnell	bogs, streamside, adjacent ^coniferous woods;
Time in Field: 4 hrs.	Transition and Canadian zones
Approximate no. miles: 7	Weather: clear, warm

Species Hours[arrow symbol pointing right]	8-9	9-10	10-11	11-12		Totals
Unknown	-	3	-	4		7
Western Tanager	8	9	3	8		28
Wright Flycatcher	1	-	-	1		2
Mountain Chickadee	4	3	6	1		14
Warbling Vireo	1	1	0	1		3
Western Robin	6	10	2	6		24
Fox Sparrow	1	0	0	0		1
Wood Pewee	5	8	5	6		24
Canada Nuthatch	1	2	0	0		3

Tolmie Warbler|2|1|0|0|3 Yellow Warbler|1|0|0|1|2 White-headed Woodpecker|1|0|0|0|1 Traill Flycatcher|3|1|0|3|7 Sierra Grouse|1|0|0|0|1 Lazuli Bunting|1|1|0|5|7 Lincoln Sparrow|2|1|0|0|3 Sierra Junco|3|5|2|3|13 Song Sparrow|2|0|0|3|5 Crossbill|1|1|0|0|2 Red-tailed Hawk|1|0|2|3|6 Red-shafted Flicker|1|5|0|1|7 Brewer Blackbird|2|0|0|0|3 Chipping Sparrow|0|7|4|8|19 Audubon Warbler|0|1|4|2|7 Blue-fronted Jay|0|2|1|0|3 Hammond Flycatcher|0|1|1|0|2 Calliope Hummer|0|1|0|0|1 Sierra Creeper|0|0|1|0|1 Lewis Woodpecker|0|0|0|4|4 Pine Siskin|0|0|0|6|6 Green-backed Goldfinch|0|0|0|1|1 California Purple Finch|0|0|0|1|1

TOTALS (hourly and grand)|49|63|31|68|211

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: to Colnett, Sat. 31 degrees Date: Oct. 28 Page Number: 2608

6641 Savannah Sparrow (female sign) im. 16.7g. Shot in salicornia. 6642 “ “ (female sign) im. 16.8.g. Shot on stem of clump of juncus.

Was out early 5:15 to 6:30, and again 9:20 to 11:30, the last time to the beach, the bluff, and the salt flats. Saw following birds: Turkey Vulture (4+); Poorwill (heard calling last evening); Valley Quail (2 large coveys near camp); Cactus Woodpecker (one heard); Say Phoebe (2); Anna Hummer (2, around blossoming Lycium); Brown Towhee (4+); Spotted Towhee (2); Rufous-crowned Sparrow (2); Intermediate Sparrow (12±); Calif. Thrasher (2, singing); Linnet (6±); Wren-tit (4+); Black-Tailed Gnatcatcher (2); Bewick Wren (2); Red-winged Blackbird (a pair visited camp, and others in small companies in flight out in the valley); Raven (within hearing most of the time); Meadowlark (4 or more, out in salt flat); Marsh Wren (common, a dozen or more, in dense mats of Salicornia (unknown 1) sloughs just back of the cobble-stone beach-barrier (which is fully 8 feet higher than the flats inland from it)); Savannah Sparrow (scattered troupes on open ground among small bushes back from the salicornia); Belding and Large-billed Sparrows (on salicornia marshes, not many, the latter also on beach at high-tide line of drift); Pipit (flock of 10± on bare alkali flat); Killdeer (one heard - the only wader, where we saw so many on the beach when we were here in September); Song Sparrow (2, in big juncus clumps up the valley from the salicornia. Of mammals, I saw one Jack Rabbit on salt flat and 2 or more Brush Rabbits.