Transcribing the field notes of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Lassen Section (Mineral) Date: June 14, 1925 Page Number: 2464

zone is supposedly Upper Sonoran! I have heard no owls here yet, and seen only one hawk, the Sharp shinned. A Sierra Grouse, in dense growth of lodgepole pines of large size, "hoots" at intervals thruout the day, at least from 10 to 3 (not early or late); rather, he "boonts" - a low muffled "thump, thump, thump, thump"; at a distance one hears only about four of these notes. Dixon located the grouse, an old (long-tailed) female, but it flew when he was yet 70 yards off. I have spent a lot of time watching Ruby-crowned Kinglets, which are common enuf to be within hearing of almost wherever a person may be. This afternoon late, I heard the monotonous "dinge", yerrup, yerrup, yerrup, etc., minutes together, which means concern. I finally located the two Kinglets giving it, far above in the tops of some lodgepole pines and firs; but the foliage was too dense for me to see the cause. This was where I had previously seen the Sharpshin, and also whence I had hear a chickadee "chicken"; either, or something else, may have made threatening advances. A Kinglet I watched a little later foraged about at the end of branches close to the summit of a fir fully 150 feet tall, every now and then singing without stopping it its fluttering, zigzag course. Presently the bird flew to an equally tall dead fir

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Lassen Section (Mineral) Date: June 16, 1925 Page Number: 2469

feeding about our campsite. The male has frequently sung from a young fir tip scarcely ten feet directly above the nest, also from the brush all about it, and when hopping on the ground between or thru the bushes. The rim of the nest is 360 mm. above a mat of yellow pine needles; the nest itself is ensconced among the leaning stems of a rather sparse ceanothus integerrimus. It is a large structure, of much coarse pine and other twigs externally, and lined with shredded bark. There are two young, about 3 days old I think, helpless and downy rather than feathery. The old female is very solicitous, coming within 6 feet of us when at the nest; but the male shows little concern, and sings volubly immediately we leave, from within 20 feet of the nest. Mountain Chickadee's nest, with young, in woodpecker hole opening on under side of a leaning stub a foot in diameter and some 15 feet long. Entrance just my height from the ground - 5 ft., 7 in.; diameter of entrance, 44 mm. - so probably was made by a White-headed Woodpecker. Site open, surrounded by dry ceanothus slope; some very small yellow pines nearby, also two yellow pine stumps, sawed off so long ago they are rotting, cleft. The old chickadees come with food freely, altho I am only about 15 feet away under a bush on the dry (?) hill side. Each bird dives directly into the hole, as it arrives,

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

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Mineral Date: June 26 Page Number: 2498

9:14 a.m. - Just flushed a [female symbol] Sierra Grouse from the trail, and then from the brush adjacent two young, well enuf feathered so that they flew strongly. The [female symbol] went up into a fir 25 feet or so, and did considerable clucking, and then a [male symbol] "boonted" from unknown distance and direction. Heard another female clucking (sympathetically?) about 50 yards down the slope. Brush here is chinquapin and snow-bush.

9:35 a.m. - Modoc Hairy Woodpecker nest, young just leaving (one caught) and [female symbol] parent frantic; lower lip of opening 3540 mm. above ground; in dead-hearted, otherwise living, lodgepole pine a foot in diameter at base growing with others around swale in ridge top - Arctostaphylos nevadensis all about. Old [female symbol] gives long series of loud chuckling notes, hoarse and coaxing; young one, now perching vertically against stem of little pine with head and neck stretched up straight and depressed against stem, keeping perfectly quiet. When routed out, young one gives loud "spink." This is at about 7000 ft. alt. Just shot a full-grown juvenal Lutescent Warbler from tip of lodgepole pines. It came with chickadees, Kinglets, and other birds that responded to the hubbub of the woodpeckers.

10:30 a.m. - Turned back and now close to where Hammond Flycatcher was shot, at 6500 ft. Just shot an Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker (male, with

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: To Mineral Date: July 25 Page Number: 2528

Last spec. no. 6292

Stu and I in the machine left Berkeley at 4 yesterday afternoon, slept on the "badlands" midnight to 4:45 a.m., left Red Bluff at 6:15 a.m. and reached the family camp above Mineral at 9:45 a.m. Notable along the highway within 12 miles below Red Bluff were the Yellow-billed Magpies, 2 to 6 or 8 in sight at once and very tame, on the ground or roadside fences with autos passing close by. At Dale's on Paine Creek, although 7:30 a.m., hardly any birds now singing; a Wood Pewee was drawling, and a Chat singing fitfully, more so than normally. Within a mile above Dale's, a Roadrunner sped ahead of us a little ways, then made off among the boulders. From Dale's clean up to the first yellow pines (at 3200 about) I was impressed by the numbers of Douglas Ground Squirrels and Jack Rabbits; numbers of partly grown young of each species were seen. Below (west of) Battle Creek Meadows along the highway up the north wall of the canyon about the bridge, I saw at least 8 Callospermophilus, one of them not over 1/3 grown. An adult was seen at the roadside close to the north side of the Meadows. This species seems to come down with the fir belt from the high mountain immediately to the north. Here at camp I am impressed by the quietness of the birdlife. Once in a while there is the broken song of a Fox Sparrow; and the Chickadee's "tee-tee, too, too" is heard; but