Northern Rough-winged Swallows on the Tuolumne River

These birds had me fooled last year, but never again (yeah, sure...). The Northern Rough-winged Swallows (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) I photographed looked to me like juveniles of something else, but I was quickly corrected, and I figured out their identity right away this week when I walked the Tuolumne River Parkway Trail in Waterford (in retrospect I wonder if last year's birds could have been Bank Swallows?). They've been soaring over the raging Tuolumne (and I'm not kidding about that; it's been at flood stage for 4 months now), but a number of them seem to be nesting in a high embankment over the river about midway along the trail between Reinway and the water treatment plant. I can't tell for sure; the cliff is sheer, and there is nowhere to get a view below without having a very good chance of plunging into the river.

I worry about the embankment a little. It's a steep drop of 15-20 feet to the river, and the base has been soaking in the flood for four months now, so sapping is causing nearly continuous collapse of the cliff. If they are using burrows there, I wouldn't be surprised if some nests have been lost.

The Northern Rough-winged Swallows are bit less colorful than their swallow cousins, but they are the equal of the others in every other way. They are fabulous aerial acrobats, flying inches above the water chasing bugs. They are relatively common across the United States during the spring and summer, but like the others they migrate to Mexico and Central America during the winter months.

Hooded Orioles at Fox Grove

After my unsuccessful attempt at sighting Hooded Orioles in Hemet last week (I found Acorn Woodpeckers instead), I wanted about the closest thing to a sure thing as I could get. That would be Fox Grove on the Tuolumne River between Waterford and Modesto. They regularly nest in the palms around the Wildlife Center, and I've seen them there a few times in past years.

The Hooded Orioles (Icterus cucullatus) are a species of the southwest and Mexico, coming north in spring to breed. They build interesting hanging nests out of fibers of the palm fronds (of which I haven't yet captured images).

I was picking up dinner at the BBQ joint up the highway and stopped in and found a couple of the Orioles flitting from palm to palm. As usual, I have yet to capture a sharp shot, but these are among the best yet that I've gotten.

The females are not nearly as showy as the males, but I did manage to catch a shot of one of them.

Acorn Woodpecker in a Not Expected Tree

Sometimes bird-hunting happens when we're not expecting it. I was briefly in Southern California last week and we were in downtown Hemet waiting for dinner to be packed up at a Greek delicatessen. Palm trees of course are the iconic tree of Southern California, and there were a dozen or so in the vacant lot across the street. I was watching the birds, expecting Starlings, hoping for Hooded Orioles, but seeing something else entirely: Acorn Woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus).

Of course in retrospect, a palm tree isn't a bad location for a woodpecker. The bark is soft, perhaps allowing for the easy storage of acorns gathered elsewhere, and as it turns out, for quarrying nest openings. I first noticed the birds hanging upside down where the nest was apparently located.

Acorn Woodpeckers are common in oak woodlands across the Pacific Coast states and Baja, so they aren't an unusual sight. It was just a bit odd to see them on a tree that makes dates rather than acorns...

Southern California, where the tropical mingles with the alpine (San Jacinto Peak is nearly 11,000 feet high and covered with snow in winter).

Ospreys Nesting on the Tuolumne River

It's spring and the big birds are nesting. We've kept an eye on four or five Osprey nests that we know of in our region on the Tuolumne, Stanislaus and Merced Rivers. One by the Roberts Ferry Bridge didn't have any occupants last we looked, but another nest between Turlock Lake and the Tuolumne River was certainly occupied last week. Both mom and dad were hanging out nearby. I'm sure we'll check up on the chick's progress as the weeks roll on.

The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) is one of the few success stories in the bird world in the sense that we just about wiped them out with DDT last century and finally came to our senses. They have expanded their range and their population has grown, especially when posts have been provided where they can build their humungous nests.

It was certainly a pretty day last week when we went hunting birds in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The snowy high country contrasted strongly with the green slopes around the reservoir.

Northern Flicker Hard at Work on the Tuolumne River

I see Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus) quite often along the Tuolumne River Parkway Trail in Waterford, but they are usually quite busy flying from one tree to another. For a woodpecker, they spend a lot of time on the ground instead of pecking away at trees. It turns out they like to eat ants and other insects and will peck at the ground to get them. That's what made today's sighting a bit interesting. This one was working very hard at a gash in the cottonwood. I'm guessing it was excavating a nesting hollow. I was getting frustrated trying to get a clear shot of the bird at work and finally realized I would maybe have better luck with a video, so here you go...

Phainopepla on the Tuolumne River Parkway Trail

It's been a few weeks since I've been able to get down to the river trail on the Tuolumne. There've been business and field trips, and the last week of the semester, so things have been hectic. The river is still flooded as it has been for four months now. There's a lot of snow upstream. The river floodplain will be a much changed place when it's once again exposed.

In any case, I saw little of consequence during the first part of the walk upriver, but on the way back I saw yet another black bird fly off through the bushes. But it wasn't a Starling or a Brewer's Blackbird. It was moving wrong. I stopped and searched the branches of the Cottonwood, and there it was: a Phainopepla! Phainopeplas (Phainopepla nitens) are native around here, but it is the far northern edge of their range. They are really a desert species from Mexico and the southwest. They don't normally drink water, for instance, instead relying on moisture in the mistletoe berries that they love eating. I've only seen them here on the Tuolumne twice, but I've also seen them in the Death Valley region a couple of times.

I'm reasonably happy with the shots I got of this male (not perfect yet, but better than previous efforts). The females look much the same but are gray in color. I shot a few seconds of this male jumping along the branches on video. Enjoy!
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Great-tailed Grackles Invade Central California!

Something changed around here a couple of years ago. I teach an occasional class at CSU Stanislaus in Turlock, and there is a large pond adjacent to the Science Building. I had always noticed the egrets, ducks, and geese who took up residence there, but in the last few years I noticed a new arrival, a black bird with a ridiculously audacious tail and a piercing call. I found out eventually that they were Great-tailed Grackles (Quiscalus mexicanus) and that they were indeed a new species in the area, expanding their range from the south.

The Grackle barely ranged into southern Texas a century ago, but they do very well around irrigated fields, and thus have expanded north with agricultural development. The "official" range map doesn't even show them as residents in the north half of the Great Valley yet, but sightings have even reached northern Oregon and Washington.

I don't know why, but the grackles remind me more of theropod dinosaurs (the raptors and other meat-eaters) more than most birds. The theropods were indeed their ancestors, as they are for all birds. Something in their vivid eyes, perhaps.

The females barely look to be the same species. They are a dull brown color and are only half the size of the males. I got a shot of one that looked like it was collecting nesting material along the pond shore. The eyes, though. The dinosaurian eyes were the same. Thanks a lot Steven Spielberg!