Woods Lake and Carson Pass: A High Elevation Megapost

You know, I've done so little blogging this year that I could really blog about anything at this point, there's a lot to work with...I've been seeing some nice rarities this fall, clobbering county birds (my Santa Clara list will soon surpass my San Francisco list, which I know you don't care about in the slightest but is crazy to me), maintaining yard vigilance (Foxtrot Oscar Foxtrot Fox Sparrow for the yard this morning) and planting native goodness, and I finally watched Pelican Blood, probably the most interesting movie involving birding that I've seen...although despite ample drug use it did not surpass the amount of cocaine consumed in Rare Bird.

I could make fun of birders, which is always necessary and something readers love.

Those topics will have to wait though. I'm going to go with covering a trip I took to the Sierra Nevada this summer. It wasn't a full on birding trip but the avian haul was high grade. The original plan was to go back to Mono County with the fam, see some east side spots and hang out with The Grub, but the massive Ferguson fire was in full effect and the area was effectively smoked out. Considering we were bringing a toddler with us, that didn't sound so great (we will try again next year Grub) so I scrambled to find another area that would make for a good camping trip that both didn't need reservations and wasn't being besieged by smoke from wildfires. With the help of eBird (specifically looking at Pine Grosbeak observations), some web browsing and hitting up people on Foxtrot Bravo I settled on the Carson Pass area, camping at Woods Lake in Alpine County, an area I was totally unfamiliar with.

It worked out really well - some smoke moved in and out of the area each day but the air was leaps and bounds cleaner than the garbage air we drove through to get there, and there were even campsites available. Billy was pleased with the choice, and Annie was confused but eventually became pleased as well. Yet again #7 proved himself a master birding tactician, and great at family planning as well (get it???).

Let's jump into the birding. As expected at the beginning of August, some areas in the high country held numerous neotropical migrants staging for the long haul south, or already on their way. Wilson's Warblers (top and above) were one of the more common species. This one here has almost no black in the crown whatsoever, which I don't see often with this species.

There were Yellow-rumped Warblers galore, common breeders in the area. It's always a jolt to go from months of no Yellow-rumps to being back in the thick of them again, in a completely different habitat than where you see them the rest of the year. Many of the adult birds we encountered, Yellow-rumped and otherwise, were really haggard looking.

Lots of adult Yellow-rumps were toting around loud, begging juveniles like this one.

Fox Sparrows were not as numerous as I thought they would be but this one teed up nicely in response to my mediocre pishing. This is the thick-billed subspecies.

The nesting oriantha White-crowned Sparrows up there have black lores and reddish bills, and hold it down in mountain meadows. Stylish and bucolic.

A major target bird for me was Williamson's Sapsucker, because they are fantastic and I don't get to see them very often. As you can see, great success! I like sapsuckers and this is the best sapsucker. I'm glad I don't have to relive the time in my life when I had yet to see one, what with the constant gnashing of teeth and painful spasms that afflicted me, as well as most people who have yet to see this poignant species.

On the trail to Winnemucca Lake (from Carson Pass) I found this Empidonax, which I thought was a bright/fresh Gray at the time but looking at photos afterward I think is more likely a bright/fresh Dusky. The bill length, eyering, and head shape (in the first photo) all look better for Dusky to me, but opinions are welcome.

This trail was all very legit and scenic and flowery, but the trail got super crowded later in the morning. Do check it out but hit the trail early or later in the day if you go during summer.

One afternoon we drove down to Kirkwood Lake to check it out. Just off the highway, Billy spotted a pair of Sooty Grouse! Sooty Grouse is a bird that I have not encountered in a long time...a long time. It had been over a decade since I've seen one, which is far too long to go without seeing this splendid grouse. This is the first time I've seen them in the Sierras.

Even though they were just lurking on the shoulder of the road, I am absolutely sure I would not have noticed them Billy not called them out. So much for #7...anyhow, I was stoked to reconnect with these finely patterned friends. While they can't really be considered rare in most of their range in California, they are exceptionally unreliable in most areas. Even booming grouse are notoriously hard to spot. You don't find Sooty Grouse, Sooty Grouse finds you, and usually while you are in a car and unprepared.

As I mentioned, I wanted to find Pine Grosbeaks. Not just because I had a craving for Pine Grosbeak, but because it was my last "easy" bird I needed for the precious California list. After many years of waiting the bird gods had mercy on me, and I saw them over and over again on this trip. I saw them down by Woods Lake, in the Woods Lake campground, on the Woods Lake entrance road, and near the trailhead by Carson Pass. It was brilliant. The first one we saw flopped down to the ground a few feet away from us while we were standing next to a bathroom at the campground.

After that I made sure to take my crusher whenever I went to the bathroom, which ended up working perfectly when I found this confiding male cruising around on the ground. I've read that they are approachable and now I know it to be true. Few state birds have been so welcoming and affable, and their hospitality made me forget, however briefly, that life is pain.

The final Pine Grosbeak encounter featured a family group - here is one of the fresh juveniles.

Here is mom Pine Grosbeak stuffing it full of something while it flaps crazily.

Mom Pine Grosbeak is a lot more worn looking than her grosbeak child, with a more richly colored head.

Wow! Talk about getting the complete Pine Grosbeak experience. Things may never be the same...

Now that we covered the birds well, lets check out some small stuff. For example, this fly is small. And super hairy.

Looking at a plant book, I'm guessing the super hairy fly is on mountain-pennyroyal, but rest assured I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to plant ID.

Ranger's buttons were an abundant and becoming wildlflower. The pollinators also found them very becoming.

Ooooh waspy thing just shoving its face shamelessly into an inflorescence.

I know next to nothing about butterflies, but I do like them. Here is a pleasant small thing.

Another pleasant small thing.

Little elephant's head was a lifer flower. These were growing on the south side of Woods Lake.

These monkeyflowers looked happy about something. A little too happy if you ask me.

While there are a seemingly endless supply of smug looking yellow monkeyflowers out here in the west, I'm pretty sure this huge flashy lavender one was new for me. They probably aren't uncommon or anything (though we only saw a few, at one stream crossing) but they left an impression on me. I reckon this is Lewis's monkeyflower, or at least something very similar.

I don't reckon what this is whatsoever. No reckoning to be found here, just total ignorance. Found a tiny patch of whatever the hell this is on the south side of Woods Lake as well.

I think this is an alpine lily? Small blossoms, short petals, hella high elevation. A high quality wildflower.

Before I forget, yes Woods Lake was great; this epic rockslide is visible from the south side of the lake. Thanks everyone who recommended it. Good birding, easy Pine Grosbeaks, lots of trails, lots to explore nearby, heckof scenic, many wildflowers on the west and south sides of the lake. Mosquitoes were no problem either, though I can see that situation being different earlier in the summer....oh and there were a lot of different bats too, at least a couple kinds, including some big ones that were larger than hoary but smaller than Townsend's big-eared...pallid bats perhaps? Anyways really good batting and stargazing, which would have been even better had I not forgotten to bring bourbon....STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID.

Speaking of stupid, we had some total wankers camping next to us the entire time (hella loud, and I got to hear about how one of the kids thought the earth was flat because Kyrie Irving said so...at least the other loud kids thought he was crazy). That said on the last night I figured out they weren't that bad compared to the total nightmare camping apocalypse situation going on at a campsite further away, which I think would have driven me to do terrible things if I were unlucky enough to camp next to their "party", if it could be called that.

On the way to Meiss Meadows, a known wildflower mecca, we found these pinedrops, which apparently get their nutrients from fungi associated with the roost systems of plants. We were a little late for the peak wildflower scene this year (we were there the first week of August) but there was still a lot blooming. We probably could have found more in the way of wildflowers at Meiss but Annie was feeling the elevation so we didn't loiter for as long as we could have - the birding by that little pond was good though, featuring my first Wood Duck above treeline.

Good times and good views from up at Meiss, though the encroaching smoke didn't help.

My happy campers. Annie looks very impressed by it all.

Phew. I'm not sure if I've ever put this many photos in one post before, might be a BB&B first. Thanks for sticking with me, see you soon nerds.

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, County Birds

O, what I would not give to see a county bird!

I would part with my first child, my second child,
and quite willfully my third!

 Alameda, San Francisco, Marin,
I plunder your migrant traps with gleeful abandon,
whilst craving rarities like it should be sin!

That phrase, of course, is from the twisted mind of deranged poet-ornithologist, Felonious Jive. He has had a lot of kids, but strangely I've never met any of them. He seems to see a lot of good birds though.

It is the end of September, and birders have been out flogging the brush like there is no tomorrow. It is the season for Vague Runts all across the land...anything can happen. You never know. Birding is hard and often ponderous, but it gets a little bit easier this time of year. Here on the west coast, the more hours in the field you spend in September and October, the more you will be rewarded. You don't have to be #7 to know that.

Unlike with Felonious Jive, the Great Ornithologist, the Vague Runt gods have not been heaping rewards on me lately...which is ok, because I have not been getting totally stiffed. I've seen some birds...nothing good enough to soil myself, but one cannot go around soiling themselves every day while birding. In the name of county birding, here's a few bay area birds I've recently been introduced to.

This Indigo Bunting in heavy molt has been holding it down in Golden Gate Park for over a month now. It was a sweet sweet San Francisco County bird. There was a juicy little eBird/listserv rumour that started getting out of hand, where birders were thinking that more and more Indigo Buntings were actually at this site, even nesting! This never occurred. I was happy with this one bird, for I am a humble birder who needs not bend to sinful cravings of rarities.

This Mew Gull is certainly not a county bird, but it is rare as fuck this time of year. This bird summered at Lake Merced...I did not believe all the eBird reports I saw of it for weeks, but lo and behold it is bona fide. Most late summer "Mew Gulls" that get reported here are young Ring-billed Gulls with wittle itty bitty bills.

This San Francisco county bird (!!!) was one I've been searching for a long time, a long time. I can cruise out to Point Reyes and see thousands of this declining and wonderful bird, but their abundance is a whole different story on the other side of the Golden Gate. This bird was at Lake Merced, where they turn up intermittently.

Blackbirds undergo their big molt in fall, so this scaly bird is a pretty typical looking adult male for this time of year. The famous white epaulet edge often looks quite buffy for a few months, which can confound those not familiar with Tricolored Blackbird molt (99.9999% of living humans).

This is a male Bicolored Blackbird, our local form of Red-winged Blackbird. He has no extravagant contrasting epaulet border. Note the shorter, stouter bill he has compared to the Tricolored above.

Now that September has come (and almost gone...what the fuck?), we finally have a nice variety of warblers around. Unlike last year, but very much like two years ago, this fall hasn't been very big on eastern Vague Runts in the bay area, so I must give pause when a friendly Wilson's Warbler chooses to lurk nearby. Coyote Hills Regional Park, CA.

Local birders perk up when they see a Black-throated Gray Warbler, and I sure as fuck did when I saw this nectary COUNTY BIRD...my Alameda list isn't really worth bragging about, I'll be the first one to admit that. Black-throated Grays are uncommon, sometimes fairly common fall migrants in the bay area when they get up the gumption to not overfly us.

This confiding bird spent several minutes flogging a large moth to death on the ground in front of me. I love confiding birds. Photographed at Coyote Hills Regional Park.

Let's keep the stripey-face theme going. Up until last week, this was the rarest terrestrial bird I've seen this fall. This Black-throated Sparrow, a hell of a bird in both appearance and rarity, spent a number of days at Coyote Hills Regional Park.

It's not a crush by any means, but I was more than happy to see one of these birds (which many birders describe as "handsome", have you noticed that?) without going to the middle of fucking nowhere, which is where they prefer to spend their time here in California. I didn't expect an adult to drift all the way up here, it should know better, but who am I to question a Vague Runt who clearly migrated all the way to Alameda County for me to see it? This is a juicy county bird.

This Lesser Yellowlegs has three legs! Photographed at Coyote Hills.

A Warbler of Unrivaled Facemelt...Imvireoation...An Unabominable Oriole

Blackburnian Warbler resides in a league of it's own. It's particular brand of facemelt is unrivaled by any other bird on the continent, and that includes all the fancy tropical stuff. It borrows the colors of the classic oriole palate (orange, black, white) and mixes them with brilliance. It is a bird of Great Success.

Hi birders. Welcome to summer. Migration in the hemisphere has ground to a standstill, and birds have gotten down to the business of grinding something else...cloacas. How does that grab you?

I haven't seen any migrants oscar mike for quite some time now, and that's ok. South Texas was very rewarding this year. I don't even require a fallout experience to say that. Hell, I didn't even realize how consistently good South Padre Island could be until I got out there for the first time. Anyways, I am grateful for getting the chance to flog the migrant-laden shrubbery so much, and so I offer you another glut of migrants. 

Sadly, I only saw a handful of Blackburnian Warblers this spring, which may not be enough to hold me over for very long. It's an addicting bird.

In contrast, Blue-winged Warblers were much easier to come by. They are fidgety little bastards though...the ratio of Blue-winged Warblers seen to Blue-winged Warblers crushed is heavily skewed toward photographic failure. This bird was a bottlebrush junkie though, and it's nectar-lust quickly overrode any misgivings about having to lurk too closely to a human being. 

I was left rather chuffed in the aftermath of this observation.

Chestnut-sided Warbler anyone? This bird has furnished many cherished memories for me over the years, from Humboldt County's Patrick's Point to the talons of a Pearl Kite on a Costa Rican coast; from the bucolic Berkshires to the migrant traps of South Padre Island. It is the Warbler of Nostalgia.






Only the most anesthetized birder, bloated with hubris, can ignore such a bird...even one in sub-crippling plumage such as this one. 

The very first time I came out to South Padre Island, a blooming bottlebrush was completely surrounded by a phalanx of photogs, who were standing guard around the tree and generally being in everyone's way. The mood of a major twitch was in the air. I thought that there absolutely had to be something facemelty in that tree, or something rare. As you can see, I was wrong. They were in heat over Ruby-throated Hummingbirds...not that there is anything wrong with that, but when I am in heat over Ruby-throated Hummingbirds I prefer to ride it out in privacy.

Ah, the Solitary Vireo. It is a variable bird. Plumbeous and Cassin's get mistaken for each other. So do Cassin's and Blue-headed. This is a dull Blue-headed, which is doing a convincing impersonation (imvireoation?) of a bright Cassin's. How many Cassin's Vireos get passed off as uninspiring Blue-headeds? How many dismal Blue-headeds get passed off as bright Cassin's? It is an ongoing tragedy to be sure.

Here is what a Blue-headed is supposed to look like...allegedly.

Bullock's Oriole is a western species, no doubt. In south Texas, their distribution in the Lower Rio Grande Valley is solidly clinal...the further east you go, the more uncommon they become. In the Falcon Reservoir area they are fairly common, but it's a rare bird on the coast. This female is one of two Bullock's I saw at South Padre Island.

In California, vagrant-hunting birders aren't overly concerned about telling apart female Bullock's from female Baltimore (female/imm. Hooded vs. Orchard is a more frequent dilemma). However, I get the impression that birders in the eastern U.S. seem to struggle with this ID...they get more intermediate-looking Baltimores than we do, I reckon. At any rate, this a typical female Bullock's...a dull, almost lifeless yellow is confined to the upper breast, head and tail, dark "tooth marks" extend into the top of the white wing bars, and relatively pale wings do not contrast sharply with the white wing bar and edgings of flight feathers. For the record, I did see my lifer Bullock's X Baltimore Oriole there this May (an adult male), which was an abomination and not actually very spiffy.

A male Bullock's Oriole, on the other hand, is an unabominable oriole. It's one of those spring arrivals that makes you think, "Shit. I forgot that birds look like this. It's amazing". Shortly afterward, your knees buckle and you collapse to the ground in an awesome agony. Then two weeks later they are practically invisible because you are a jaded birder and cannot appreciate beauty.

Oranges upon brilliant oranges with this bird.

This is the one and only Prothonotary Warbler that I met this spring. She hung around the convention center for quite a while, feasting on oranges with reckless abandon.

Look at the heavy bill of this bird. Compared to the bill of something like a Wilson's Warbler, this thing is like a fucking toucan. Also, the fact that this bird has managed to appear pear-shaped is yet another amazing accomplishment.

Did someone say Wilson's Warbler? Behold one here, in all it's mellow glory. All photos in today's post were taken on South Padre Island, TX.