Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley.
| www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
R.E.Johnson
1967
Journal
82
July 16 Eagle Cap Pk, Wallowa Union Cos, Oregon (cont.)
coming from the south. I promptly got up & packed things in such a way as to keep them dry, but my sleeping bag was already fairly wet before. I got to it. Ate breakfast & then headed for Horton Pass to get a look in the direction of the storm (ie. Should I hike out to Two Pan or not).
Rain was light & off and on and continued all day.
At 8:30AM & saw one Rosy Finch east of Horton Pass & flying east low & dodging through tree tops & rock outcrops as if to keep out of the wind. This bird again appeared darker (black). At 9:30 AM encountered 2 Chipping Sparrows near the pass. A flock of 15 Imma Oregon Juncos fed on the ground & flew to the trees at the slightest disturbance. A Blue Grouse was flushed from a tree. A flock of 10-15 Red Crossbills flew over, circled and landed in tree tops.
A short while later they and the Imma Juncos & several Pine Siskins were feeding along & bathing in a small brook of melt water only 20 feet below the snow bank of origin. One Pine siskin fed standing on the tip of a Fir (Abies) branch and pecking between his feet.
The crossbills were variable in color: some red, some orange to yellow, and some brown striped. At 1030AM a W.C Sparrow sang from a White-bark pine top. An Audubon Warbler (&?) carried a green caterpillar in its beak. A Hummingbird (probably a g Rufous judging by size alone) seemed intrigued by my