California Condors at Pinnacles National Park

We had a geology field trip to Pinnacles National Park today. We spent most of the time on the rocks, of course, but I couldn't help but keep an eye out for birds, especially the elusive California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus). The nation's newest national park is one of the new homes for a bird that only thirty years ago was extinct in the wild.

The Condor once soared over much of the continent, but the extinction of the megafauna 12,000 years ago was the beginning of their decline. By the time of European occupation of the western United States, the population may have been down to a few hundred individuals. Habitat loss and ingestion of lead shot from dead carcasses decimated the remaining population and by the 1980s the entire population was down to a mere 27 individuals. The last of the wild population was captured in a desperate attempt to propagate the species through captive breeding.

The survival of the species hung by a thread, but very slowly the captive population grew and by the mid-1990s, the first of the captive-bred birds were released back into the wild. Populations were established in several widely separated localities in California, Arizona, and northern Mexico. The first Condors were released at Pinnacles National Park in 2003. In 2017, the total world population was 463, and there were more birds in the wild than there were in captivity.

As I noted before, I was watching for Condors, but I wasn't seeing any. It wasn't until we were gathered at the vans in the late afternoon preparing to leave the park that one of my students pointed up above, and there were five of them wheeling and soaring in the sky almost overhead. It was the closest I've been to them in California (I've had some close encounters at Grand Canyon National Park). It was a fine ending to a very nice day!

Happy as an Acorn Woodpecker in an Acorn Woodpecker Tree (with apologies to Randy Newman)

Really really sorry, Randy. It just doesn't flow like "Happy as a monkey in a monkey tree", but I kind of think of that song when I watch Acorn Woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) hard at work storing their acorn riches in a "granary tree". Granary trees are the storage warehouses for a flock of the very sociable woodpeckers. A single chosen tree might hold 50,000 of them, and a woodpecker is almost always there guarding it.

I was just starting a hike at Pinnacles National Park a few weeks ago in Bear Gulch when I heard the familiar waka-waka of the Acorn Woodpeckers over my head. There were three or four of them.

Acorn Woodpeckers are almost the textbook definition of socialists. They share in the work of food storage, but they also share in the raising of young. Females will even lay eggs as a group in a single next. They are a truly western species, being found in the coastal states in oak woodlands, ranging into Mexico and Central America.

California Quail at Pinnacles National Park

The California drought, five years and counting, has had a devastating effect on the state, but some areas in Northern California were a bit closer to normal precipitation this past year. One sign of improvement would be a rebound in bird populations. After five years of limited plant growth, a wet year would mean more food and shelter.

I have no idea if that is actually the explanation, but during our field studies journey through Pinnacles National Park this last weekend, I saw hundreds of California Quail (Callipepla californica), instead of the usual dozens. I saw most of them as we drove along the roads, but when I walked the lower part of Bear Gulch, this female stuck around just long enough for a picture.

The California Quail is the state bird of California, but its range extends from the southern tip of Baja California north to the Canadian border. They are mainly ground-dwellers, moving about in large coveys. By preference, they melt into the vegetation when an intruder comes near, but will fly for cover if startled.

Wrentit at Pinnacles National Park

I hope you enjoy this picture, because it was a lot of work to get it! It's my first sighting and first ever picture of a Wrentit (Chamaea fasciata). I got the picture while hiking in Pinnacles National Park in the Central California Coast Ranges. I was on the Six Bridges Nature Trail in lower Bear Gulch on the east side of the park when I noticed some small birds hopping through the shrubs next to the trail. Most of them flushed as I walked by, but one of them kept searching for bugs on the far side of the bush. I stood quietly, hoping it would move into view, because I could see it was a new species for me. The intense eyes were intriguing. I wasted ten shots as it moved around, and it finally came into view and I got the only picture I was happy with.

The guides describe the bird as hard to see, and I have to agree! It is a species of the west coast of North America, living in chaparral and thickets in the coastal mountains and Sierra Nevada foothills. Its range extends from Oregon to Mexico. Although the name mentions two different groups, the wrens and tits, it is actually related to neither. There are no similar species in North America. According to the Cornell bird site, their closest relatives are in Africa, Spain, India, and China. The site also mentions that they may be most sedentary bird in North America, as they tend to range no more than 1,300 feet from their birthplace.

It's always a thrill to add a new bird to your list!

Bird of the Day: What Else Could it Possibly Be?

Of course, the Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo). It's native to North America, but is mostly an introduced species in the western states. I was not aware that the Turkey was almost extirpated in the early 1900s when the wild population may have declined to as few as 30,000 individuals (hunting and habitat loss were the major culprits). It was the effort to bring the bird back from an endangered status that led to its introduction in the western states. The recovery effort has been successful and there are an estimated 7.8 million of them in the wilds of every state but Alaska.

As you enjoy your domestic version of the bird at the table tomorrow, give some thanks that there were those who made an effort to save the wild ones for posterity. The birds are an American original.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Just for the fun of it, take a look at the antics of the Turkeys I ran into last year near Morro Bay...

Bird of the Day: Hermit Thrush at Pinnacles National Park

THIS was a hard shot. We were in a deep canyon in the very late afternoon. We were tracking a small bird lurking in even darker bushes. I have no idea why this shot came out at all, because there were sixteen attempts that were blurry or unfocused.

Seriously, the bird was in that thicket...

The bird is a Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) that was foraging in the brush and poison ivy near the entrance of lower Bear Gulch Caves in Pinnacles National Park. Pinnacles is located in the central California Coast Ranges south of Hollister. It is our nation's newest national park (established in 2013), but it was one of our oldest national monuments, having been declared by Teddy Roosevelt in 1908 (parks are established by Congress, monuments by presidential proclamation).