Birding and Flower-peeping, Titlow Hill Road

Elegant cat's ear

Today Holly, Pia, Kristin and I went up past Horse Mountain on Titlow Hill Road. We hoped to see a white-headed woodpecker. I had seen one up there a few years ago, and hoped they'd be nesting in the same spot.

Kristin brought along three feathered charges: one grosbeak and two American robin chicks. Kristin volunteers for the Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, and often cares for an injured or abandoned chick during breeding season. They got periodic meals of canned cat food and ground up bugs. Just like Mom used to regurgitate! The wee grosbeak would quiver when he saw Kristin, and peep sweetly when he heard her voice. The rest of us were as nothing to him. The robins are older, and watched us all with both a hungry and a wary eye.

We stopped at a few places along the way, such as when we saw a Townsend's solitaire fly across the road. It's a drab, but sweet thrush. We lingered at that area for a while, also seeing a red-breasted nuthatch preparing a nesting hole in an old snag. We saw a lovely yellow-rumped warbler in full breeding plumage and a ruby-crowned kinglet. At home, I've seen the "butter butts", but only in their winter drab.

When we got to the spot where I'd seen white-headed woodpeckers, we found western bluebirds nesting there. Mom & Dad bluebird were busily bringing insects to their little ones. They were shy of us, so we slowly backed up while watching them. We did see a handsome red-breasted sapsucker, hard to miss with his crimson head and breast. Steller's jays seemed to dominate the area, though this could have been purely by force of character. We were disappointed to see so few raptors: just one red-tailed hawk and some turkey vultures.


Holly

We took a leisurely stroll through the forest, spotting vociferous lazuli buntings, bright western tanagers, chipping sparrows, juncos and a golden-crowned kinglet. There are some nice places to camp, and we daydreamed about coming out of our tent in the morning and birding from a camp chair. Toward the end of our walk, we heard what we think is a mountain quail in a thick bit of trees. We also saw a mountain chickadee, and later heard the classic "cheeseburger" call.

The flowers on Titlow Hill Road, near Horse Mountain are mostly different from those I saw on Childs Hill Prairie along Bald Hills Road. There's a lot of serpentine soil, which can be toxic to some plants. Even so, there was a wide variety of flowers blooming. Many were tiny, and I couldn't photograph them with my humble point-and-shoot. There were at least three species of Viola, a fawn lily, mission bells fritillaria, bear grass, etc. I am impatiently awaiting the arrival of a Pacific Northwest flowers field guide, so I can better identify all there pretties.

We never did see the white-headed woodpecker, but still had a good day.

Vogel da!

Pretty flower photos on Picasa