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 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: Broke-off Mt. Date: July 27 Page Number: 2533

foliage which the breeze kept in disconcerting agitation); Cassin Purple Finch (2 or more, distantly heard and seen in tops of hemlocks); Sierra Grouse (2, as above); Hammond Flycatcher (2 immatures, separately, seen closely in hemlocks at 8000 to 9000 ft.); Junco (2, in hemlocks).*

In the red-fir belt (Canadian), 8000 ft., about, down to 7000 ft., where we left the machine, noted: Deer (doe and fawn at edge of alder thicket); Callospermophilus (2 or more); Thomomys monticola (sign common); Fox Sparrow (one immature near patch of heather along little stream at 8000 ft., and others heard in alder patches); Juncos (commonest bird, one [male symbol] singing at tip of lofty red fir - many full-grown young in scattering troupes); Evening Grosbeak (one family of 5 or so alighted on dead lower branches of a fir and notes of others were heard now and then); Solitaire (one flushed from ground); Siskin (notes of 2 or 3 heard overhead); Blue-fronted Jay (heard several times); Cassin Vireo (2 immatures closely seen in a jungle of white alders); Hammond Flycatcher (weak call notes heard often, and one bird seen, 30 feet or so up in densely shaded branchwork of fir); Wood Pewee (pair at 7000 ft.); Pileated Warbler (song of one heard from alders); Robin (a pair at a little ^^moraine lake in the fir woods was noisily concerned at our presence); Audubon Warbler (a family, male singing, in trees at this same lake); Canada Nuthatch (notes heard in the distance).