McArthur-Burney Falls is the perfect destination to escape the heat of the valley, enjoy tremendous views, and to feel surrounded by nature. We will start our day with the Falls Loop Trail and after a break, we will venture north on the Rim Trail to see the sights on our way to Lake Britton. Please bring a lunch. We will have opportunities to see returning species like Black Swifts, Chestnut backed Chickadee, Pileated Woodpecker, Osprey, and Bald Eagle and many Warblers, Swallows, Flycatcher. Park’s Day-Use Fee is $10 per Vehicle.
We recommend for those from central to west Redding, to consider meeting up at Kutras Lake and depart @ 7:30 am and carpool up to Burney. I will be driving up from Red Bluff and cutting off at Anderson to take the Millville/Oak Run route and I am available to pick 1-2 people in the Anderson area at 7:00am. We all should meet up at Safeway in Burney by 8:40 before entering the park.
Please contact Dan Bye, by text/cell 530 228 9373 or email danbye56@gmail.com for more information.
Black swifts are birds of mystery. We know they’re fast, probably powering to over 100 mph. We know they’re fliers, apparently spending up to ten months a year in flight. But much that is known or speculated about them is based on only a few observations, so uncertainty is also part of our understanding.
Black Swift at Burney Falls photo courtesy Glen Tepke
Like the Redding eagles, black swifts seem comfortable, or at least unconcerned, with having people around; but unlike the eagles, their “around” doesn’t include downtown. They do their living in out-of-the-way places, and even there they are unobtrusive neighbors. They nest in dark crevices of waterfall or oceanside cliffs; they forage high above us, and never perch on wires or trees where we can see them; and they utterly neglect to announce themselves with colorful displays or loud songs. They are small, black-brown birds that flit by with the speed of their name, and their light chittering song is often lost to our ears in the roar of nearby water. They are variously reported as having stable local populations and as having declined 94% over the last fifty years.
Burney Falls
But here in the North State they give us this much: they nest at Burney Falls. Each spring, for longer than our history can testify, black swifts make their way to the torrent, where they build and repair nests in the protected nooks among braids of tumbling water. Working with mud and moss, they fashion a hand-sized crib, palm up to cradle their single egg. In the soggy damp of the falls, the egg will take four weeks to hatch, twice as long as most birds their size. Then, with continuing slow development, the chick will not fledge for another month and a half.
Black Swift on Nest photo courtesy of Julie Price
It is at nest-sites that we can best observe these wide-ranging birds. Both parents incubate and tend the young. There are reports of adults roosting near the nest while their mates warm the baby. But those are the only documented reports of these birds landing at all.
Swifts are in the family Apodidae, meaning those without feet. In fact, their feet and legs are reduced, capable of catching cliffside toeholds, but incapable of standing, perching upright, or walking. It is said that if they ever landed on the ground they would not be able to take off again. They go into flight by dropping from their cliff-hold.
Black Swifts at Burney Falls photo courtesy Glen Tepke
Once airborne, however, they are in their element. They zip through the air, often in loose flocks, catching and eating insects on the wing, often higher up than we can see them. They drink water by skimming open-billed at the surface of a lake or pool. They apparently mate on the wing, and almost certainly sleep in the air. Studies on oceanic frigatebirds show that some birds can sleep one hemisphere of the brain at a time–a sleep schedule that seems unappealing, but beats staying awake for ten months!
When young black swifts fledge, they have no trial flights. Most songbird fledglings flutter weakly and hide and rest, gradually building their flight muscles. But swifts are immediately on their way, catching insects and winging–where?
They will fledge in July. By September they are out of Shasta County. By mid-October they are out of the country. Until 2012 we could only guess where they went. That year researchers using ultra-light geolocators studied black swifts from Colorado. They learned that those swifts winter in the lowland rainforest of western Brazil, a land rich in vegetation and the flying insects these birds need.
Maybe our Burney Falls black swifts winter there, too. But we don’t know. They haven’t told us yet.
McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park sits on the eastern edge of the Cascade Range between two active volcanoes, Mount Shasta and Lassen Peak. The Cascade Range, part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, extends from Northern California to Southern British Columbia.
The park’s landscape was created by volcanic activity as well as erosion from weather and streams. This volcanic region is covered by black volcanic rock known as basalt. Created over a million years ago, the layered, porous basalt retains rainwater and snow melt forming huge subterranean rivers and reservoirs. One of these underground aquifers feeds Burney Creek and in turn Burney Falls, giving it a consistent flow of over 100 million gallons a day all year long.
Undoubtedly one of the most interesting aspects of Burney Falls for birders is that it is one of the few locations in California where nesting Black Swifts (Cypseloides niger) can be found.
Photo from Wikipedia Commons taken by Terry Gray
Even though the Black Swift occurs widely throughout western North America in summer, with its breeding range extending as far north as southeastern Alaska, as far east as central Colorado, and south through Mexico and Central America to Costa Rica, with additional populations in the West Indies, only about 80 specific nesting localities have been documented1.
The Black Swift is considered a Species of Special Concern in California. Even though the overall breeding range remains largely unchanged from that in the 1940’s, the entire coastal population has been in recent severe decline. The entire California population appears to be composed of perhaps 200 pairs at 40 to 45 sites2.
Fortunately, Black Swifts have high nest site fidelity and traditional nest-site use by swifts is common. Most Black Swift nest sites are regularly, if not always, occupied year after year though the recent declines in the coastal populations has been a mystery.
McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park offers close viewing of these birds as well as interpretive signs throughout the park.
All of the following photos of Black Swifts were taken at Burney Falls by Glen Tepke who graciously gave me permission to use them (click on photos for full sized images).
Fortunately for me the Burney Falls Black Swift contingent consists of five to twenty pairs annually2. They can usually be seen foraging above the falls in the morning.
When I was there the first Black Swift I spotted was above the highest part of the falls heading down stream. It was obviously foraging on flying insects as it maneuvered through the air like a giant swallow with quick turns at the end of smooth arcing flights.
Apparently Black Swifts are in continuous flight when awake except when at or near the nest. I was closely observing this particular bird as it appeared and disappeared from my view until, all of a sudden, it appeared much lower and, banking down into the gorge, disappeared behind the falls into a small nest cave about a foot or two across.
These nest caves are described as “a niche on sheer rock cliffs, shaded and bathed in mist from the frigid splash of a nearby cascade often behind a rushing torrent of falling water and abundant spray1.”
This photo shows the location of the nest in relation to the full face of the falls.
Moss is the primary and sometimes only component used as nesting material by the Black Swift in inland locations. Pairs will also reuse the same nest in consecutive years, adding only a small amount of material to the nest.
The ecological requirements for Black Swifts to breed restrict them to a very limited supply of nesting locations.
Plus the fact that they only lay one egg per season which is incubated for about four weeks and the chicks don’t fledge for another fifty days gives you some notion as to why these birds are a Species of Special Concern.
This Black Swift with the white feather tips, photographed by Glen on the same day as the others above (July 5th), could be a juvenile or adult female but considering that they don’t usually begin nesting until the middle of May, it is most probably an adult female.
Of course Black Swifts are not the only reason to visit McArthur-Burney Memorial State Park. Over 130 bird species have been observed on the five miles of hiking trails that wind through evergreen and hardwood forests. The Pacific Crest Trail also passes through the park.
Burney Creek Trail follows Burney Creek through a forest of ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, incense cedar and a variety of oaks where American Dipper, White-headed and Pileated Woodpeckers, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Hermit, Black-throated Gray, McGillivray’s, Wilson’s, Nashville, Yellow-rumped and Yellow Warblers, Western Tanager, Cassin’s Vireo, Western Wood-Pewee, Evening Grosbeak, Steller’s Jay, Belted Kingfisher, Northern Flicker, Mountain Chickadee, Common Raven, Red-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, and Osprey can be seen, just to name a few.
A little over a mile from the falls, Burney Creek Trail terminates at a peninsula separating Burney Creek Cove from the main body of Lake Britton (see map above). This part of Lake Britton is actually part of the park and includes a boat launch facility at the cove and a sandy beach and swimming area on the lake.
Birds observed here include Common Merganser, Pied-billed, Western and Clark’s Grebes, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Canada Goose, Bald and Golden Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk and Common Loon.
Nesting Purple Martins can also be found on the northwestern side of the lake and Vaux’s Swifts can be seen above the tree tops over the highway outside the park.
Join State Park Interpretive Specialist Marlon Sloan on an exploration of the park, including Modoc Plateau forest areas, creek-side habitat and lakeside species near Lake Britton. We will likely have opportunities to see Osprey, Bald Eagles, Stellar Jays, Turkey Vultures, Robins, Crows, Hawks, Mergansers and the Park’s unique annual migration of Black Swifts who flit in and around the falls themselves. The falls are full and beautiful after this very wet spring! The walk will last for a couple of hours. Bring a lunch and enjoy the Park after the walk. Meet Wintu guides at the Kutras Lake Parking Area in Redding at 8 a.m., or meet at the Burney Safeway parking lot in Burney at 9:15 a.m. Contact Catherine Camp, 337-6874 for more information.
