Join us for a 3.5-mile easy birding hike at the Iron Canyon trail on the Sacramento River Bend in northern Tehama County. The trail is on the Tuscan Formation, a vast and ancient volcanic flow that carried volcanic rocks and boulders from the Cascade Mountains down toward the northeastern part of the Central Valley. Due to the mixture of rocky grasslands, oak and juniper woodlands, and high canyon cliffs overlooking the Sacramento Valley and the surrounding mountain ranges, the landscape is home to a
fascinating array of birds. We may expect to see any or all of 4 falcon species: Peregrine Falcon, Prairie Falcon, Merlin, and American Kestrel. Other species likely to be encountered are Lewis’s and Acorn Woodpecker, Western Meadowlark, Horned Lark, Rock Wren, American Pipit, Western or Mountain Bluebird, Bald or Golden Eagle. Stay a bit longer after the hike, and we will bird at Hog Lake for waterfowl, just a 2-minute drive up the road.
Meet at the Iron Canyon trailhead at 7:15 am. The hike is easy but due to the rocky terrain, please wear sturdy hiking shoes.
GoogleMaps link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/3DzLjyJu7vsPvj4x6
Directions from Red Bluff: From Highway 99, take Highway 36 East toward Susanville/Lassen Volcanic National Park. Continue for 5.2 miles until you reach the gravel parking lot on the left.
Located in the foothills below Mount Lassen, the 37,540-acre Gray Davis Dye Creek Preserve is an expansive landscape of blue oak woodlands, volcanic buttes, and rolling wildflower fields. The landscape is dissected dramatically by Dye Creek Canyon with its vertical cliffs, clear-water creek, and diverse riparian forests. The forest widens as it leaves the canyon mouth and flows westward, through wetlands, to its confluence with the Sacramento River. Join Michele Swartout, trip leader, for a hike up Dye Creek Canyon. Golden Eagles, Peregrine Falcons and Canyon Wrens are a possibility. Wild flowers should be abundant. The trail is rough and the stream was widened last Spring from the rains. Bring water, a lunch, and sturdy shoes for this all day outing. Meet at 7:30 sharp at the Kutras Park on Park Marina Drive to carpool and bring a lunch for this full-day trip.
The Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge is a national gem, well worth the short, 90 mile drive to Willows. Enormous numbers of waterfowl fill the sky and the impoundments in fall and winter. Snow, Ross’s and Greater White-fronted Geese, Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers and Gadwalls are assured. Possibilities are White-faced Ibis, Green-winged and Cinnamon Teal, Black-necked Stilts and various raptors, including Bald Eagle and Peregrine Falcon. Most of the birding is done from cars. We will provide 2-way radios to report sightings and alert people in other cars to look for them. Meet your leader at 7:30 am sharp at Kutras Park on Park Marina Drive to carpool and bring a lunch for this full-day trip. Fees to enter the refuge are $6 per car for the day. Most carpool drivers have senior lifetime passes and can enter for no additional fee. For more information call Larry Jordan @ 949-5266
The ten thousand species of birds in the world come with tremendous variety. The ostrich can stand nine feet tall, tip the scales at 280 pounds, and run at over forty miles per hour. The bee hummingbird is less than two and a half inches long, weighs one twentieth of an ounce, and can’t run at all, or even walk.
Bee Hummingbird
A red-breasted merganser flew even with a plane at an air speed of over 80 mph, ground speed over a hundred. Peregrine falcons stooping on prey have sped to at least 186 mph. Hummingbirds can hover in place, a flight achievement of zero mph.
The engine of a plane in Africa sucked in a Ruppell’s griffon vulture–at an altitude of 36,100 feet! Penguins “fly” only under water. New Zealand’s kiwi has stubby little wings, perhaps as useful as a T-rex’s hands; it cannot fly.
Killdeer nest in open flats, maybe gathering just a couple pebbles to mark the site. Orioles weave hanging baskets of plant fiber or other debris. Cliff swallows build with mud, swiftlets use saliva, and hummingbirds gather and form lichen and spider webs. Kingfishers nest in tunnels they dig, as much as eight feet into the ground. Emperor penguins’ feet serve as nests. Eagles build with sticks, adding more as they re-use the nest over years and generations; a nest in Florida was 9.5 feet across, 20 feet deep, and estimated to weigh over two tons. Gyrfalcons in Greenland use a cliff nest that is 2500 years old.
Chimney Swift on Nest
Osprey flap over water looking for fish to catch. The thick-billed murre has been found swimming 690 feet under water.
Goatsuckers and owls wear camouflage feathers that blend into the gray-brown bark they press against. Tanagers, orioles, and honeycreepers blaze brilliant colors with stunning richness and iridescence.
Western Screech-Owl
All this variety of behavior and physical features is the result of the distinctive habitats that grace our planet. The diverse opportunities, requirements, and happenstance of survival hone the qualities of plumage, flight, size, color, and nest building, as well as the shape and strength of feet and bills, flocking behavior, and everything else about the birds.
The thing about these adaptations is that they do not just permit living a certain way in a certain habitat; they require it. An eagle can’t catch flies from the air to have its dinner. A woodpecker can’t paddle like a duck and skim algae off the water. Like all living things, birds need the habitat they are designed for.
Amazon Fires
But now the world is changing. The Amazon is burning, the ice caps are melting, and the reefs are dying. What are the birds to do?
Many have begun the spiral toward extinction. Depending on how fast and how extremely the changes come, some will adapt, as they always have on the changing Earth.
The uneven pattern of evolution is normal. The biologist Stephen Jay Gould termed it punctuated equilibrium, long periods of relative stability “punctuated” by brief periods of rapid evolutionary change.
Generally speaking, when change comes fast, creatures with short generations do well. Bacteria, for instance, can “grow up” and reproduce–which in their case means divide in two–in as little as twenty minutes. The quick regeneration allows for more mutation and more rapid genetic development of adaptations to the new environment. We humans reproduce more slowly, so don’t do well by this measure. However, we are capable of considerable non-biological adaptation–say, build and operate an AC unit.
Located in the foothills below Mount Lassen, the 37,540-acre Gray Davis Dye Creek Preserve is an expansive landscape of blue oak woodlands, volcanic buttes, and rolling wildflower fields. The landscape is dissected dramatically by Dye Creek Canyon with its vertical cliffs, clear-water creek, and diverse riparian forests. The forest widens as it leaves the canyon mouth and flows westward, through wetlands, to its confluence with the Sacramento River. Join Larry Jordan, trip leader, for a hike up Dye Creek Canyon. Golden Eagles, Peregrine Falcons and Canyon Wrens are a possibility. Wild flowers should be abundant. The trail is rough and a small stream crossing should provide some excitement. Bring water, a lunch, and sturdy shoes for this all day outing. Meet at 7:30 sharp at the Kutras Park on Park Marina Drive to carpool and bring a lunch for this full-day trip.
