Birds of the Sierras - Part 2: Sierra Valley

Sierra Valley early in the morning, photo by Kelly Wohlwend

Yellow-headed blackbird, photo by Kelly W

The Sierra Valley was one of the most amazing places for birds that we visited during our nature journaling course with Jack Laws.  Sierra Valley is at 4,850 feet in elevation and can be reached by traveling east along Hwy 49, north along 89 or east on 70.  It's a huge valley...you can't miss it!  If you travel into the heart of the valley most of the roads are compact dirt and be careful where you park because farm equipment use these roads often.

We got to the Valley really early to catch the morning birds, around 7:00am.  Some of the first birds we saw were yellow-headed (left) and red-winged blackbirds (mostly the bicolored form, which means the red patch on the wing is only red and not red and yellow/orange.)  I wasn't seeing many tri-colored blackbirds or my vision is just that bad...but other people were saying they were out there (these blackbirds have red and white covert feathers on the wings).

The loud, croaky, scratchy call of yellow-headed blackbirds were the lead singers in the Valley that morning mixed with the "concureee" of the red-winged blackbirds.  Some other birds were able to get their say, such as a noisy marsh wren, irritated we were near the nest, American coots and their featherless, red-faced, weird but cute babies and sandhill cranes in the distance. 

American coots, photo by Kelly Wohlwend

Being in a nature journaling class, I naturally picked up my pencils and began sketching...after I got the bird shots I wanted, of course!  Species, after species, I was adding birds to my life list.  Seeing the white-faced ibis flying in the sky with its shallow wing beats and vocalizing its strange squawk/quack as I call it, was a life first for me!  Later, I watched them quarrel in the tall grass, hopping up into the air, flapping their wings lightly and landing pretty much in the same spot.  It was definitely humorous watching the birds appear and then disappear as they hopped into the air.

Marsh wren nest, photo by Kelly Wohlwend

After we got our fill of blackbirds, cute (maybe?) baby coots, a screaming marsh wren and barn swallows, we moved deeper into the valley...

Cliff swallow nest, photo by Kelly Wohlwend

Cliff swallow, photo by Kelly Wohlwend

We moved to a bridge where we had breakfast and an earful of chirping cliff swallows, which had claimed the bridge as their home base.  Fortunately, we were not disturbing the birds at all, they merely kept close to the bridge as they fed.  Swallows are incredibly frustrating to photograph.  They rarely land and when they're in the air they swoop and turn rapidly and it's nearly impossible to follow them with a zoomed in camera lens.  And when they do land, they stay perched for only moments before they return to the wing.  I did manage to get a few swallow shots.  Maybe the heat of the day was forcing them to land more often.

American bittern, photo by Kelly Wohlwend

Sample from my nature journal

One of the most memorable experiences in the Valley was my interaction with an American bittern.  It was the first time I had ever seen one and it is a delightfully strange bird.  It blended in so well with the reeds that were as tall as the bird that it was really hard to spot and even when I had my sights on it, it disappeared really easy, back into the grass.

Sandhill cranes, photo by Kelly Wohlwend

Then its hunger brought it out to the slough that ran along the edge of the road, teaming with vegetation and I guess bullfrog tadpoles, after watching the bittern hunt for a while.  I learned a lot from watching the bittern for almost an hour.  It has some strange, almost eerie, hunting techniques.  Like a heron it stalks its prey, moving its feet so slowly and with such care in water that it doesn't even create a ripple.  When it has its sights on a prey item, it extends its neck to almost grotesque lengths, lowers its head close to the surface of the water, wobbles its neck while keeping its head perfectly still and then it strikes.  I watched it swallow a slimy, wiggly tadpole, the large lump moving quickly down its throat.  The bittern gorged itself on multiple tadpoles and even a small fish or two paying little attention to the 15 or so people watching it, mesmerized by it.

Sample from my nature journal at the ranch

As we left the Sierra Valley a few of us were treated to sandhill cranes only feet from the road.  Over the last few hours we had listed to their extremely loud and beautiful "whooping" call.  They travel in pairs throughout the valley and spotting them is always a treat.  Their dark, red heads are very distinctive and their movements are fluid and very heron like.





 

Our next spot in the Sierra Valley was Maddalena Ranch, which is normally a lush, freshwater marsh in early summer.  However, the Sierras were experiencing one of their driest seasons on record...so very little water was there.  The communal red canoe sat dry docked and unused.  No ducks or waterfowl were using the area, lacking precious water to wade, drink and feed from so the area was rather desolate.  Only the wind kept us company at first...until I saw the elusive sage thrasher!  (More to come on this bird in a bit).  We were also greeted by a savannah sparrow, which serenaded us for a short time and a female northern harrier kiting for prey over the valley.  Without the typical bird distraction I took the time to sketch (right).  I have recently been experimenting with using ink pens during my sketching (after first using my non-photo blue pencil as a baseline).  I love the way the pen brings out the colored pencil.

Sage thrasher, photo by Kelly Wohlwend

Photo by Kelly Wohlwend

After some sketching we were ready to head out.  The sage thrasher had been making multiple appearances along the fence posts so a fellow birder and I hunkered down in the sage brush.  My nostrils were immediately overpowered by the potent smell of sage.  I had to take a second to breathe before I could even focus on using my camera.  After settling down in the sand and among the sage, quickly getting used to the smell, we waited.  We watched the thrasher tease us by hopping up on a post very far away, waiting, looking and then flying back down into the sage only to reappear one post closer (literally).  It moved post by post, closer and closer to our hiding spot.  I'm sure it saw us and knew we were there.  This sage thrasher had an inquisitive nature to it.  Once it got nearly close enough for photos it would fly back into the sage only to appear to our right just at a distance a photo wasn't going to turn out to our liking.  I couldn't help but smile and wait with baited anticipation for the thrasher to land on the perfect fence post right in front of us.  Sure enough, after about 15 minutes of waiting the thrasher took center stage.

It was definitely a thrilling stake out!  The thrasher was beautiful, I got some great shots and to top it off I smelled really good afterwards!

Thank you for continuing on with me on this journey as we explore the birds of the Sierras.  Next time we will be looking at some of the amazing birds of South Lake Tahoe!  Including...cute baby common mergansers!  Stay tuned!