04-03-14 Bird Field Note

04-03-14 Bird Field Note

April 3, 2014

Kate Stone's Bird Field Note describes owl surveys, mountain bluebird flocks, and eagles nesting.

04-03-14 Bird Field Note

Most of the Western Bluebirds we detected moved through the floodplain. I saw large flocks in the young cottonwood forests.

A Mountain Bluebird paused its migration to investigate a newly installed nest box.

The robins and bluebirds also gathered in recently harrowed and seeded areas.

At times it felt like it was raining robins.

robins. Hundreds of Dark-eyed Juncos flocked to the floodplain to feed on grass seed spread by the field crew.

crew. Debbie saw this lone American Tree Sparrow along Lower Woodchuck Creek.

Varied Thrushes move through riparian areas in mid- to late-March, on their way to breeding grounds in moister forests than ours. We heard two in Upper Woodchuck Creek, though we could not get more than a glimpse of them.

Two tiny Pacific Wrens darted through the streamside vegetation.

Townsend’s Solitaires began broadcasting their long, warbling songs.

We continued looking for Northern Pygmy-owls but had no luck. We planned to try using mice as bait for the pygmy-owls. Both of our young mice squeezed through the wire mesh of their cage and escaped. Amazingly, we recovered both of them. This one ran towards us after 10 minutes of freedom.

A Mountain Chickadee joined a flock of Black-capped Chickadees and Red-breasted Nuthatches in protest of our pygmy-owl surveys.

One of our mammalian respondents to the pygmy-owl call.

William’s owl surveys at upper elevations revealed high levels of snow that may limit owl foraging, and consequently, territory establishment. We may need to wait a few more weeks for the snow to melt. WB

Mountain lions use the road system on Mount Baldy during the winter. Sometimes coyotes, ravens, and lions all cross paths.

We also surveyed some of the shrubby draws for owls. We found fresh pellets and whitewash near one of our Long-eared Owl nests from last year. We flushed one Long-eared Owl from a dense thicket of shrubs 25 m from the old nest. We flushed a Great Horned Owl from an aspen stand.