Tim and Neil: two legendary mates, the kind that make birding the best possible activity. The kind that make Kenn Kaufman wish he'd had this kind of friendship to write about in his novel.
Separated for four years, our brotherly bird bond remains as glorious as in the days of camp Chiricahua. In celebration of our reunion, we set forth for the southern sierras. Through glen and glade, mountain tall and valley deep, we swam through montane streams, crossed great fords, escalated many cliffs, ledges and boulders, and raged down many roads in search of our quarry.
Day 1:
Neil arrived. He is about the same, except now his voice is less high-pitched (more manly if you will), and he now has vantage over shrubs.
Our transport of choice: the mighty Subaru:
Subaru is indestructable. She can rumble treacherous roads, bumps, road mounds, downed trees, ground squirrels, drive through crater-like potholes and even ram into giant boulders without taking damage.
We began our quest by heading straight for the greenhorns. THE CONIFEROUS FOREST, CHECK IT OUT!
We easily disposed of mountain quail and hermit warbler.
Mountain Quail
Hermit warbler (courtesy of Neil)
At our camp we ran into this guy in his truck who was looking for a black and white stray dog. A couple hours later we saw this dog about 10 miles up the mountain:
We tried to lure it in with some cheese, didn't work. It followed us back part of the way but then I think it gave up. Cougar food.
Day 2
We birded our way down the greenhorns and up to the giant sequoias, following the Kern River.
There were many insects along the way, mainly mud-puddling by the river, and an American Dipper. Awesome!
A gold hunter's hairstreak (courtesy of Neil)
And some tiger beetles going for a great ride
I LOVE BUTTERFLIES. Well this is the most action I could get out here.
3 ultimate birds for this trip: Flammulated owl, black swift, and williamson's sapsucker. To find out if we succeeded, you will have to read on.
One spot that the swifts sometimes fly over when we're not there is the Johnsondale bridge on a lively segment of the Kern River, which managed to harden my nipples quite nicely in its frigid waters.
While I prefer redwoods, Neil points out that the Giant Sequoia is a very patriotic tree. "It’s big and fat like Americans." Indeed, some of the tourists likewise impressed me with their DBH. If you ever get to walk through a grove, make sure to inhale the beautiful scent of these trees.
DAY 3
We wanted to find saw-whet, spotted and flammulated owls, so we got up at 2:30 and owled for the rest of the night, then birded into the dawn. We failed, so we decided to bird down the mountain as the sun came up. At that point I figured I may as well try for a western screech just for the heck of it. After one session, we heard one way down the road. We proceeded down the road and saw the crap out of it. Then, Subaru shined a mighty beam on a Poorwill. Not a bad night after all. The the screech’s home at dawn (courtesy of Neil):
We birded down the mountain, coming back fairly victorious, but this was only the beginning. We were headed for Black Rock ranger station along the Chimney peak highway, via the backcountry by-way.
Along the way we stopped at my work on the Kern Audubon Preserve. An interesting place, it’s a huge riparian area along the South Fork Kern River. We picked some of its specialties, like red-shouldered hawk, tricolored blackbird, blue grosbeak, Nuttal's woodpecker, and willow flycatcher, the subject of my work. Lake Isabella had some western and Clark's grebes and white pelicans.
Black rock and the road up are supposed to be ultimate for our 3 target birds.
We got some really neat stuff along the way, like pinyon jay, gray flycatcher, plumbeous vireo, wrentit and a bunch of other ones.
The pineapple of victory was butchered each time a lifer was had. In this instance, pinyon jays provided an opportunity to taste its sweet flesh.
Day 4
We couldn’t find any sapsuckers or swifts, so we went to bed and got up at 2 again to go flammulating and saw-wheting. This time, it was an early victory, with Neil’s tooting bringing in a real beaut.
No Flams again, so we figured we’d go for our compensatory western screech, which came in like a charm. He was PISSED.
We went back up to black rock at 5 am to look for williamson’s sapsucker again. Just as we were getting out of the car we heard a male drumming. One thing I learned about these birds, is that they are elusive bastards. We hung around where the drum came from for about 20 minutes – nothing! So we walked down the road to try and find more, and finally heard some drumming, maybe 3. We stalked it for about half an hour, until finally we had him right behind a tree so he couldn’t see us. Then he gave a killer view for a few seconds and that was the last male we saw. The pineapple of victory was butchered to one third.
Later, we went to get the tent and could not figure out where the tent bag was. Well, I guess you don't really need a tent bag for a tent. Actually, it had been blowing around on the highway about 100km away when we were watching the pinyon jays. I pointed it out to Neil as it happened. He said it even brushed against his leg. Since we were both lazy tits, it was lying somewhere on the road.
Since Sherman Pass road was closed due to imaginary snow by the Forest Service, we decided to walk it instead. Not a bad walk at 8500 ft. Goshawk, Nutcracker, and a female sapsucker:
This is what its like up there:
Neil-isms:
"Plunges into icy mountain streams are a mandatory component of mountain birding. In this particular instance, we staged an amphibious assault on a Cliff Swallow stronghold."
"You look like a blond rambo"
"I hate cows, everything about them. Except I like eating them, that's about it".
Here are just a few great pictures of Neil doing various activities that he does. They are stand-alone.
The Peterson Guide to Western Birds makes an excellent cutting board. In this instance, it proves its worth by supporting a cheese-slicing on its hard bound cover.
The pineapple of victory provisioned us with unnatural energy and powers.
The alien starship came through a trans galactic energon portal, searching for their lost comrade Neil.
Like David Attenborough, we can find birds even where the land seems to harbour no life.
THE TENT BAG
On the way back, we figured we'd stop where the jays were and have a crack at that tent bag. Maybe it was still kicking around. I found it in a nearby ditch! VICTORY!
We read in the birder's guide that some LeConte's Thrashers come to a feeder in the nearby town of Inyokern, so we checked it out. What a shitty town. No LeConte's, and it was tit-blisteringly hot (100F!), but somehow there were still birds, like this roadrunner which thought it could hide from us.
But seriously, why do Americans insist on living in towns in the shitty mojave desert?
Our list topped off at 128, not bad for almost only landbirds. Nine woodpeckers, how bout that? HOWEVER, the black swift and flammulated owl still remain unseen. Not to mention the elusive blue grouse.
They may have won this battle, but the war has just begun. Next time, the pineapple of victory will be devoured in two halves until our tongues are raw and furrowed.
1. Mallard
2. Common merganser
3. Mountain quail
4. California quail
5. Western grebe
6. Clark’s grebe
7. White pelican
8. Cormorant
9. Great blue heron
10. Turkey vulture
11. Northern goshawk
12. Red-shouldered hawk
13. Red-tailed hawk
14. American kestrel
15. American coot
16. California gull
17. Band-tailed pigeon
18. Collared dove
19. Mourning dove
20. Roadrunner
21. Western screech owl
22. Saw whet owl
23. Common nighthawk
24. Common poorwill
25. White-throated swift
26. Black-chinned hummingbird
27. Anna’s hummingbird
28. Costa’s hummingbird
29. Calliope hummingbird
30. Acorn woodpecker
31. Williamson’s sapsucker
32. Red-breasted sapsucker
33. Nuttall’s woodpecker
34. Downy woodpecker
35. Hairy woodpecker
36. White-headed woodpecker
37. Northern flicker
38. Pileated woodpecker
39. Olive-sided flycatcher
40. Western wood pewee
41. Willow flycatcher
42. Gray flycatcher
43. Dusky flycatcher
44. Black phoebe
45. Say’s phoebe
46. Ash-throated flycatcher
47. Western kingbird
48. Loggerhead shrike
49. Plumbeous vireo
50. Cassin’s vireo
51. Warbling vireo
52. Steller’s jay
53. Scrub jay
54. Pinyon jay
55. Clark’s nutcracker
56. Common raven
57. Tree swallow
58. Rough winged swallow
59. Cliff swallow
60. Mountain chickadee
61. Oak titmouse
62. Verdin
63. Bushtit
64. Red-breasted nuthatch
65. Pygmy nuthatch
66. White-breasted nuthatch
67. Brown creeper
68. Rock wren
69. Canyon wren
70. Bewick’s wren
71. House wren
72. Dipper
73. Golden-crowned kinglet
74. Ruby-crowned kinglet
75. Blue-gray gnatcatcher
76. Western bluebird
77. Mountain bluebird
78. Townsend’s solitaire
79. Hermit thrush
80. American robin
81. Mockingbird
82. California thrasher
83. Starling
84. Nashville warbler
85. Yellow warbler
86. Yellow-rumped warbler
87. Black-throated gray warbler
88. Hermit warbler
89. Yellowthroat
90. Wilson’s warbler
91. Western tanager
92. Green-tailed towhee
93. Spotted towhee
94. California towhee
95. Chipping sparrow
96. Brewer’s sparrow
97. Black-chinned sparrow
98. Lark sparrow
99. Black-throated sparrow
100. Sage sparrow
101. Savannah sparrow
102. Fox sparrow
103. Song sparrow
104. Lincoln’s sparrow
105. White-crowned sparrow
106. Dark eyed junco
107. Black-headed grosbeak
108. Blue grosbeak
109. Lazuli bunting
110. Red-winged blackbird
111. Tricolored blackbird
112. Western meadowlark
113. Brewer’s blackbird
114. Great-tailed grackle
115. Cowbird
116. Hooded oriole
117. Bullock’s oriole
118. Scott’s oriole
119. Purple finch
120. Cassin’s finch
121. House finch
122. Red crossbill
123. Pine siskin
124. Lesser goldfinch
125. Lawrence’s goldfinch
126. House sparrow
127. Horned lark
128. Wrentit
