Went over to Harts Pass area this weekend. Ugh. Pretty smoky, big smoke
stacks to the North and East. To my disappointment the lovely Meadows
Campground up at Harts Pass was burned up last year or before, it's like
camping in a fire pit. There was a consolation prize however, a Black-backed
woodpecker working the campground, several easy sightings right from my camp
chair in site #1. The next day, we dropped down to Mazama, very smoky and
through the haze there were these lumps on 3 cottonwoods between Mazama and
Winthrop. Turned out to be 62 Turkey vultures, looking spooky and vulturish
in the haze. I was wondering, since TV's are one of the few birds with a
sense of smell, do they get bothered or change their habits due to forest
fires?

On the Pacific Crest trail north of Slate Peak road end, an ambitious
prairie falcon tried stooping on a raven, which slide slipped and gave
several sharp, short yelps sort like, hey, Hey, HEY! The falcon chased
after the much bigger raven and came at it from behind, again causing the
Raven to sharply maneuver and squawk and protest. Later watched as a similar
falcon rode the wind up the steep ridge to the east of the Slate Peak
lookout, moving incredibly fast and maybe 6 feet off the ground. When it
went over the top of the ridge I expected to hear a sonic boom it was moving
so fast. Also there was a White-tailed ptarmigan family group at Bensen
Meadow, which is about 2 miles North of Slate peak on the Pacific Crest
Trail.

Final bird of the trip was a CA quail, road kill along 97 which wedged
itself between my car top carrier and roof as a grisly door prize to
returning home.

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer
The Environmental Science School
HYPERLINK
"http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm"http://www.nonprofitpages.com/ni
ca/SVE.htm
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