Transcribing the field notes of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Lassen Section (Brokeoff Mt.) Date: June 17, 1925 Page Number: 2472

one in the distance); Hammond Flycatcher (one right now saying "see-Tuck" faintly in red fir over my head); Junco (I hear one now and then trilling in the distance); Nutcracker (I heard the nasal call and proceeded to give my usual "bluejay" call, when 5 came up, calling, one after another into the treetops close about, to see the cause; soon satisfied, they quietly departed); Chipping Sparrow (one keeps singing a little way off away young firs and hemlocks the only snow all about!); Audubon Warbler (one singing in the distance). 1:30 p.m. - In same vicinity; just heard a regulation "chorus" of two Hylas, seemingly from under the snow where the water is running noisily. A tributary comes from a snow-water pond hemmed in by rock, and with a snow bank on one side extending to the bottom, 3 feet or so, thru which the snow looks blue like ice. 1:50 p.m. - An unmistakable Red-Tailed Hawk circling above the tops of the red firs! Must be poor hunting right here. I have seen no signs of rabbits or conies; only 2 or 3 Amoenus Chipmunk, 2 chickadees, and a little sign of Thomomys monticola. No deer tracks above the first drifts of snow, but lots of them down thru the chaparral; saw track of a fawn with its mother in the trail. Saw last night's tracks of Marten and Red Fox in the snow, the former in 4's like a very large weasel's. 2:15 p.m. - Just found a Creeper's nest, about 9

Author: Grinnell-1925 Location: Mineral, 4800 ft. Date: June 19 Page Number: 2480

Later: found the Traill Flycatcher's nest some 7 feet up in a crotch of slender willow stem in the midst of an isolated willow clump in the meadow - just in process of construction. In a tract of old lodge pole pines a little farther along, a crowd of birds was distraught over something, tho I failed to find what the threatening danger was. The crowd included: Juncos, a pair of Robins, a Lincoln Sparrow, a Pigmy Nuthatch (the first I have seen in the Lassen "section"), a Hammond (or Wright) Flycatcher, several Chipping Sparrows, and a pair of Audubon Warblers. Nearby was a (female) White-headed Woodpecker.

As to mammals: winter earthcores of Thomomys monticola occur in places where the ground is well-drained at the sides of meadows but not out in them. The common chipmunk is Eutamias amoenus, about logs overgrown with snowbushes, but they are very quiet now; two visit camp, but so far are shy. A (female) Eutamias senex was trapped in a neighbor's camp yesterday morning at 5 o'clock. Last evening just before sundown, Dixon shot an old male jack-rabbit (Lepus c. californicus) in a tract of sparse snowbush. Mrs. G. has seen another partly grown one in the same vicinity. This must be the extreme easternmost limit of this subspecies in the "section". Also, Mrs. G. and Dixon have both seen individuals of the snow-shoe rabbit (Lepus w. klamathensis).

Collector: Grinnell-1925 Location: Mineral, 4800 ft. Date: June 19 Page Number: 2482

7:30 p.m. - Sultry today and thunderstorms around us but only a sprinkle here. First Pacific Nighthawk out at 6:45, in flight overheard - earlier than usual, probably because partly cloudy.

A Chipping Sparrow's nest at camp is (about) 18 feet up near the outer end of a horizontal limb of a middle-sized sickly yellow pine - about 6 feet out from bole of tree, pretty well concealed and sheltered by tufts of needles. On the 13th this nest contained two fresh eggs. It was discovered that morning early from my bed, by my seeing the bird spiral down from much higher in the tree and then go out on the limb to the nest - a very elusive mode of approach. Even now, after the bird has begun to sit closely, we rarely see her. Indeed for a day or two, I suspected the nest to belong to a warbler, since my first view of the bird was toward the bright sky light and disclosed only a smallish form in rapid motion.

June 20. A vagrant (?) [male symbol] Black-headed Grosbeak (only the second I have noted in the vicinity of Mineral) made himself conspicuous by singing loudly and continuously around camp before sun-up.

8:00 a.m. - At Hermit Thrushes' nest (see p. 2468). The young, all four, hatched on the 18th. They already look huge, but with eyes yet closed. Mrs. G. found the two segments of an eggshell about fifty feet

Collector: Grinnell-1925 Location: Mineral Date: June 22 Page Number: 2489

sitting closely, nearly touched before she flew off. Nest 1750 mm out to south of trunk of cedar, which is a small tree, 8 in. diam., growing beneath sugar pine and white fir. Taken; incubation of eggs ^^{well begun. (1/4).}

8:05 a.m. - Mt. Chickadee's nest, with well-feathered young, in old woodpecker (?) hole in barkless broken-off pine stub 2 ft. in diam.; lower edge of entrance, 1950 mm. above ground. Diam. of entrance 40 mm.; ^^{38 mm. nest diam.;} Both old birds are bringing food to young.

Just followed up a song which puzzled me. The producer would stay ^^still, perched 75 to 100 feet up in firs or yellow pines. Sang a sustained, vigorous, dry trill, but dropping toward end. Quietly chipping sparrow like, but this falling at the end made me suspect an orange crowned warbler. The bird, finally seen clearly, was a Chipping Sparrow.

One or more Golden-crowned Kinglets in a clump of young fir. A Solitaire "creaking" in the distance. A Pileated Woodpecker, flying thru the woods, giving its resonant "Kuk" slowly and irregularly in a long series. At least two singing Calaveras Warblers on this dry ridge in vicinity of some smallish black oaks, but singing from all sorts of places, up to 75 feet up in firs and cedars. Tho Ch Calif. Purple Finches in full song nearby.

10:12 a.m. - Solitaire's nest, on level of ground inside a cavity (old burn) in base of ^^living sugar pine 2 1/2 feet in diameter. The four young are wholly

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