Still in California! And yet ANOTHER couple of days that I can dedicate for chasing birds around the Golden State. And if you recall my previous post, I couldn’t shut up about how much I loved the Sierras of California:) So, yeah. You can guess whereabouts I went.
In spite of weather warnings and some road closures at higher altitudes, I had set my eyes on “Lassen Volcanic National Park”. Prior to the trip I had a though time deciding between that and Yosemite NP but with the encouragement of the Palomarin field stations crew and with the thought “Yosemite is THE thing to visit in Cali, I will do it next time, I’d rather visit something less known”, I set off towards Lassen. I also had a specific bird in mind which seemed to be preferring Lassen rather than Yosemite according to eBird. What is it? You’ll see.
The drive towards Lassen was one for the books itself. Napa valley with its beautiful rolling hills in combination with the evening sun hitting them and lighting up the dried-out grass was making these hill sides look straight out of a pastel painting. Let’s just say that “Nowhere To Run” by Martha Reeves & The Vandellas was blasting on the aux and I was having a ball. Alright, to the birds. Along the way I stopped at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge to take in the stunning sights of hundreds of Snow Geese (Anser caerulescens) together with Ross’s Geese (Anser rossii) roosting in the open wetlands. What a sight! Possibly thousands of these birds were flying, roosting and creating the loudest atmosphere ever.
After an early wakeup the next morning I continued on towards the park. On the drive up I stopped at several places and enjoyed the mountainous scenery and its birds. Even such a well-known and fairly common bird as a Common Raven (Corvus corax), gliding on thermal winds across a valley with snowy peaks in the background is a joyous sight. Oak Titmouses (Baeolophus inornatus) were showing off closer then ever and I was very excited to observe a Rufous-crowned Sparrow (Aimophila ruficeps) which was a lifer for me, foraging almost by my feet. Although not the bird I came all this way for.
Finally having arrived at the Lassen Volcanic NP visitor centre, I packed my sketchbook, a warm jacket, my sound recorder, and set off on a trail. By the way, the snow was already about a meter thick, but the first part of the trail was fairly walked on so the snow was firm. An exquisite walk. Stunning scenery, accompanied by Mountain Chickadees (Poecile gambeli) which were present in great numbers and seemed quite annoyed with me and kept on pssshh-pssshhing all throughout my walk… And at last, amidst all this I heard the call that I was here for. A Clark´s Nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) was giving a faint call quite far uphill. At this point I was already quite excited although I really really wanted to actually see one. And well, that meant putting on snowshoes and going uphill. After quite a bit of stumbling through the forest I finally caught a glimpse of the nutcrakcker. The chase continued for another half an hour and finally settled once the bird found a tree which suited his desires. I was thrilled to get some sketches and audio recordings as the bird was jumping around branch to branch and flying to nearby trees. Such a great experience!
But way go through all this effort to see this one, grey, bird? I remember watching a video by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology when I was younger, about the Clark´s Nutcracker, which explained their habitat, behaviour and how scientists were tracking climate change through the shifting ranges and behaviours of this species. That being said, prior to coming to California, I knew that I had to see it. Another thing that prompted me to go up to the Sierras to try and find this species was just the thought of the chase. And boy, let me tell you, the chase was straight out of one of those BBC “Planet Earth” behind the scenes where the filmmakers trek through the arctic, enduring the elements, bears and frostbite. It was like that minus all of that. But sure did feel like it…:) So yeah, it is an overall grey bird but it was the experience that made it more colourful.
Lassen was great! Besides the nutcracker I got fantastic views on the White-headed Woodpecker (Dryobates albolarvatus) and many other high-altitude forest specialists. Special thanks once again to the nutcracker who kept flying uphill and then downhill and then threw some zig-zags, I had a nice 8 kilometre trek! Oh, and to put a little cherry on top I watched “The Big Year” for like the 20th time that evening and it was the perfect end of the day.
Great title of the post!