[birding] Iron Mountain 8/06

[howard bruner]

I stopped to do a rain hike on my way back from Utah.  RB nuts surrounded the trailhead parking
area. CB chickadees formed several distinct groups on the way up and were very
interested in me.  A creeper stuck tight
to one of the groups. The forest shone sterling from all surfaces brightening
the pewter air.  As I ascended the rain and
cloud increased and the veg leaned in to the trail dripping and more than happy
to share out the bounty to my pants.  A S
grouse half-heartedly bounced a few wing beats through the calm air.  

 

I had been in the desert with the temp in the high-nineties
for the past 10 days (I told everyone I was a refugee from the real heat of the
WV) so the cool wet was a most welcome change. 
These west forests are best experienced dripping wet.  The color is of saturated (pun intended)
emerald and jade.  A Mac warbler came up
out of the thickets to my splish and I marveled at the ability of these brush
dwellers to remain dry in such conditions. 
I was soaked within several minutes in the open meadows.  I was forced to turn around when the sky
opened with great vigor.  A thrush popped
up and made a very uncharacteristic Dreeeeet call over and over and in the
understory gloom I am fairly certain there were no breast spots or eye-ring.  The only reason I call it a thrush was the
dreeeeet call was occasionally followed by a loud cluck.  Definitely a hatch-year individual waiting
for parental care. 

 

Juncos seemed to still be nesting as I found a nervous pair
in the same spot as I came and went.  I
wanted to reach a mire that has been good for grass-of-Parnassus in the past
but turned back before I found it.  I had
seen grass-of-Parnassus at 8,750 feet in the Rockies and
was hoping to compare some of the morphology of the 2 populations.  I will hopefully find time to write up the
birding notes from extensive trips all over northern Utah with my 83 year-old
mother (I still find it a challenge to keep up with her) and post them on UBOL.

 

A final note for the invert aficionados out there……  I encountered a major movement of Anabrus
simplex (Mormon cricket) migrating across hundreds of square miles in Nevada
and Idaho.  At times the road was filled with the giant
insects and there were flashing road signs in many places warning slick driving
conditions.  It was a horrible scene
because the crickets are opportunistic cannibals (looking for protein and
salts) and so when one or more were run over many more would gather for the
feast and then they would be squished and so on until the road was covered with
giant black spots of mush and wiggling tarsus and then the next vehicle would
add to the size of the mark and more crickets would arrive at the death meal.  Some desert birds added to the madness of the
drive as they worked the bounty and I found myself very watchful for young
crazy flights into danger.  Not totally successfully
because I hit and killed a juv sage thrasher. 
When I went back to see if I could salvage the little one a parent took
off from the roadside fence.  I still wonder
how the parent makes such an immediate adjustment from nurturing to absolute
absence.  I moved the body to the side of
the road but did not like the look of the watching crickets. 

H



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