Tulelake – Four of us gathered to make our way to camp at Lava Beds National Park on Friday night. The weather was beginning to chill a bit, but camping was still quite comfortable. We slept in a bit on Saturday, but most of the birds were sleeping in as well, so that was OK. Townsend’s Solitaires and American Robins kept us company as we had our breakfast and coffee, and a Sharp-Shinned Hawk flew by looking to join us in our meal.

We then made our way to a consistent water source in the campground. One of the great things about watching wildlife in the desert is that if you find some water, eventually everything will find it’s way to you. It’s definitely the lazy person’s way to bird! As we sat by the water, waves of various sparrows, finches, and juncos made their way to the trees and bushes around the water, allowing us to study them at leisure. Several Cedar Waxwings also made a brief appearance. A laughing call behind us signaled the approach of a flock of over a hundred Pinyon Jays; for about 10 minutes they raucously monopolized the watering hole, giving us all great looks. We then walked around the campground a bit, coming up with Northern Flicker and Bewick’s Wren.

We then did a bit of driving, stopping at various spots in the monument to see some of the local avifauna, including Rock Wren, Golden-Crowned Kinglet, Loggerhead Shrike, and Western and Mountain Bluebirds. A distant Golden Eagle puzzled us for a few minutes on our way to the Lower Klamath, where we had fairly good numbers and variety of waterfowl including all the common geese, large numbers of Mallards, Pintails, and Shovelers, and lesser numbers of most of the other ducks that we’ll be seeing down here later this winter such as Gadwall, American Wigeon, and Green-Winged Teal. A fairly large group of American White Pelicans was also present. Northern Harriers, the most numerous raptor of the trip, hunted over the marshland. Continuing on, we found a puzzling group of 4 small ducks which we finally narrowed down to immature Blue-Winged Teal, which isn’t a common bird on this coast.

The Petroglyphs area proved a bust for the usual attraction of Prairie Falcon, but we found both Barn and Great Horned Owls there, which was a nice bonus.

Continuing around the water area, we turned up Horned, Eared, Pied-Billed, Western, and Clark’s grebes, and scared up a few Wood Ducks as well. We noticed a pair of birders scoping out a raptor; getting our scopes out, we got great looks at the Prairie Falcon which we had missed earlier. We then went to the visitor center (which was closed) and picked up a few more birds there.

The next morning, the local watering hole was quiet (the Sharp-Shinned Hawk had found it and set up shop), so we headed up to Hidden Valley, where we picked up several more species including Brown Creeper, Hairy Woodpecker, Mountain Chickadee, and Pygmy Nuthatch. For a change of pace, we grabbed some flashlights and checked out a few of the local caves (the park has over 300, of which around a dozen are developed). Most of us didn’t take our binoculars, so of course we ran across a Northern Shrike, which was a life bird for half of the group!

We then grabbed some lunch and started the uneventful but scenic drive home. The trip total was 82 species. – Skip Augur