PERSONAL TRIPS

Yuba Pass and Sierra Valley 07-02-04 to 07-04-04

This was Cricket's and my first trip to the Yuba Pass area. We stayed in a lovely bed and breakfast in Sierra City called the Holly House, which was just a 10 minute drive from the Yuba Pass campground. There we did the majority of our birding, obsessed with finding the only bird that would be a lifer for both of us... the Black-backed Woodpecker. Well, we never found it. Ten days earlier, the well documented nestlings had fledged, making it much harder to locate these nomadic birds. Apparently, the two adults and young typically disperse in different directions, to be seen again by only the very fortunate. Two such gentlemen had managed to get brief glimpses of a bird in the vicinity of the now abandoned nest but said the bird had remained only briefly. They described the experience as "just luck" which made me feel only slightly better. There's nothing worse than hearing "oh, it was just here an hour ago..." Oh, well, we'll just have to go again next year, and hopefully earlier in the season when the birds are still feeding the young in the nest and success is more likely.

That disappointment aside, the trip was a huge success! Almost all target birds were located, including many montane species, several of which were lifers for Cricket. When we arrived in the campground around noon, we were greeted by an extremely cooperative Western Tanager who posed for photographs right by the restrooms and just a few feet from our car! Not a bad start we thought. Over the course of the weekend we had over a dozen sightings of Tanager and they never once became tiresome... So beautiful. We then took the south trail out of the parking lot and located White-headed Woodpecker, Hammond's Flycatcher, Mountain Chickadee, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, Red Crossbill and a heard-only Clark's Nutcracker in the thick woods. The glorious song of Hermit Thrush was heard all around us, echoing mysteriously throught the conifers. "Lone-ly..." it seemed to sing, with the first syllable being drawn out and mournful. The nearby drumming announced the presence of a Sapsucker species and a moment later we found out which one. We saw the brilliant red colors of a Red-breasted Sapsucker in a nearby tree as it foraged unafraid. It wasn't the bird we were searching for, but it was still new for the day. Piciiformes abounded on this trip actually, with Williamson's Saspsucker feeding its young in a tree just 10 yards from the restroom, and Hairy Woodpecker flying overhead and landing in perfect view. White-headed Woodpeckers were probably the most numerous Woodpeckers we encountered with a nest in the front lawn of our lodging! Other climbing birds during the weekend included the White-breasted and Red-breasted Nuthatches, the latter of which could be heard constantly in the area, and Brown Creeper. The song Fox Sparrows became familiar after a few hours as they seemed to be at almost every stop we made. Its song reminded us of the Olive-sided Flycatcher, which was also common in th area, in that it began with "Quick! Free beer!" but it ended with something that sounded a bit like "...Come on an get 'em before they're all gone, you know!" Anyway, moving along... Chipping Sparrows were extremely easy to locate at the campground parking lot as well as their dry trill was everywhere and allowed easy comparison to the similar song of Dark-eyed Junco.

A walk along the trail that leads north out of the parking lot produced the first of several good looks at Williamson's Sapsucker. Evening Grosbeak was first seen here as well, but were located again along the road in the afternoon. As we walked down hill and through a beautiful old growth forest, the thunder began to clap. Brief sprinkles caused a noticeable slowdown of activity, after which birds resumed their song and continued to forage actively. In a small patch of willow-like plants we located several Warbler species, including Nashville, MacGillivrays, Orange-crowned and Black-throated Gray Warbler. Overhead a "Solitary" Vireo sang. Dang! We should have gotten a look at that bird as there's no telling for sure whether it was Cassin's or Plumbeous...

We continued exploring the general area in preparation for our first full day and visited the Sardine Campground, Sand Pond (a very beautiful boardwalk nature trail through a flooded stand of dead trees) and Salmon Creek Campground. All seemed too crowded with vacationers to bird effectively, so instead we simply scouted and made plans for the following day. We were also just too tired after the long drive to secure the area the way we would have liked. So after an exhausting day, we retired our binoculars a bit early and had dinner at Buckhorn's. I highly recommend the mushroom and bleu cheese burger, but Cricket was less satisfied with the chicken picatta.

The following morning we got an early start in the campground again, after a nice hot breakfast, and located several Pine Grosbeak near the entrance and a Selasphorus species of Hummingbird, presumably Rufous Hummingbird, buzzing through the forest. A thorough exploration of the area produced no additional species however. Then we drove west to the Bassett's Station to check the feeders for Hummingbirds. We were rewarded with excellent looks at Anna's and Calliope Hummingbirds. After picking up some soft drinks, we opted to go directly to Lower Sardine Lake and hike up toward the Upper Sardine Lake instead of revisiting the Salmon Creek or Sardine campgrounds as we had originally planned. The views here are stunning and the 30 minute walk to the upper lake is highly recommended. New birds for this area included an Osprey circling above the lake, Dusky Flycatcher on the slope above us, Yellow Warbler and Spotted Towhee in the undergrowth. We half expected to see Green-tailed Towhee here, but were not so fortunate. Again, the view was stunning and the hike quite easy. We then made quick and unproductive stops along the road leading to Packer Lake in areas that had burned or dying trees, as well as Salmon Creek Campground to scour the willows.

Before returning to Holly House, we made a brief stop along the Yuba River to look for American Dipper. Within a minute we saw two adults and a young bird begging for food. After the disappointment of not finding our tarket Woodpecker, finding something EXACTLY where we expected it was really satisfying...

Last day began a bit earlier. We were out the door and on the road by 7:00. Again, we tried the campground, hoping with diminishing optimism, that we might find the bird before we left. Well, we didn't and I started to sulk. Cricket tried to cheer me up and said nicely, "Don't worry. We have our entire lives to find this bird." Wise words, I suppose, but I still felt defeated. So off we went to the Sierra Valley to pick up some guaranteed east slope birds. We found the Sandhill Cranes, White-faced Ibis, and Yellow-headed Blackbirds fairly easily as well as chattering Marsh Wrens and numerous American Coot. The habitat along Marble Hot Springs road was, as should be aparent by the species list, a flooded plain. In the distance drier habitat could be seen, but by the famous metal bridge, things were wet. We continued along this same road just far enough to get into the sage scrub where we located a family of Sage Thrasher, Horned Lark, Western Meadowlark and Brewer's Sparrow. After locating these we decided to head toward home. Along Hwy A23 we came across a group of Black-billed Magpie which we had hoped to find somewhere in the valley. Ahhhhhh...

Things seemed to be picking up as far as our success was concerned, so we took a chance and made the drive from Sattley back up Hwy 49 to reach the Yuba Pass campground ONE MORE TIME for the damn Woodpecker. A quick look down the species list below will show that this desperate last effort was also unsuccessful. I should have just admitted defeat that morning, but I'm a sucker for that kind of punishment. I couldn't leave knowing that we hadn't tried our best. At least we had another opportunity to see that beautiful Western Tanager in the parking lot, poised near the restrooms as if he'd been waiting for us to return.

Pied-billed Grebe (SV)
American White Pelican (SV)
Great Blue Heron (SV)
Black-crowned Night Heron (SV)
White-faced Ibis (SV)
Mallard
Gadwall (SV)
Ruddy Duck (SV)
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Swainson's Hawk (along I-5)
American Kestrel (along I-5)
Peregrine Falcon (880/580 interchange)
Mountain Quail (heard only)
American Coot (SV)
Sandhill Crane (SV)
Rock Pigeon
Band-tailed Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Vaux's Swift (along Hwy 80)
Anna's Hummingbird
Caliope Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Williamson's Sapsucker
Hairy Woodpecker
White-headed Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Western Wood Pewee
Hammond's Flycatcher
Dusky Flycatcher
Western Kingbird (along I-5)
Horned Lark (SV)
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Cliff Swallow (SV)
Barn Swallow (SV)
Steller's Jay
Clark's Nutcracker (heard only)
Black-billed Mapgie (SV)
American Crow (along I-5)
Common Raven
Mountain Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Bewick's Wren (heard only)
House Wren (heard only)
Marsh Wren (SV)
American Dipper
Golden-crowned Kinglet (heard only)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (heard only)
Townsend's Solitaire
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Sage Thrasher (SV)
European Starling
"Solitary" Vireo (heard only)
Warbing Vireo
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Gray Warbler (heard only)
Hermit Warbler
MacGillivray's Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Western Tanager
Black-headed Grosbeak
Lazuli Bunting (heard only)
Spotted Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Brewer's Sparrow (SV)
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird (SV)
Western Meadowlark (SV)
Yellow-headed Blackbird (SV)
Brewer's Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Pine Grosbeak
Purple Finch
Cassin's Finch
House Finch
Red Crossbill
Pine Siskin
Lesser Goldfinch
Evening Grosbeak
House Sparrow