Volume 8, number 2 of Western Birds, published 1977
I have known and photographed wildlife with Keith Axelson of Los Angeles for almost 20 years and during this friendship we have even photographed the same subjects together. And yet, when comparing results later I found that Keith had seen the subject from a much different mental perspective than I and this is what makes photography a truly creative art.
Nature photography, to me, should be approached with the idea in mind to capture your personal appraisal of the natural world around you. I believe almost all the technically perfect photographs have been taken. What’s left? Your own point of view—which no one can really imitate. Some execute it better than others, however. I also believe that the true artist (with the camera) is seldom completely satisfied with his work. This then creates a continuing drive throughout life.
The Warner Mountains occupy a narrow strip approximately 15 km wide and 160 km long running north and south in extreme northeastern California and southeastern Oregon. Geologically the range is the westernmost of the basin ranges which file eastward into Nevada and Utah and is characterized by tilted fault blocks of lake bed sediments interbedded with volcanic sediments and basalt (Oakeshott 1971). In contrast, affinities of its boreal avifauna lie most closely with the adjacent Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges (Miller 1951, Johnson 1970). The flora of the Warner Mountains is largely a mosaic of Great Basin and Sierra Nevada forms (D. Taylor pers. comm.). Summers in the range are hot and dry with occasional and local thunderstorms, and winters are cold with relatively sparse precipitation in at least the southern portion.
Little has been published on the birds of the Warner Mountains (Johnson 1970, 1975; Maillard 1927; Miller 1941, 1951). Distributional data and indications of relative abundances of species present are scattered and incomplete. The interrelationships of the bird species and the influences which the area’s unique geography and flora have had on bird communities in the range are just beginning to be explored. During the summer of 1975 a mapping census was carried out on the birds of a decadent stand of Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta) and Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) in the Skunk Cabbage Creek drainage of the extreme southern Warner Mountains. The study was undertaken to gather data on bird distribution in the southern area of the range and the importance of various habitat types to individual bird species.
A Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea) captured 19 August 1976 in a mist net at Blue Sky, 1920 m elevation on the east slope of Hart Mountain, on Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in Lake County is apparently the first record for Oregon. I took it from the net within 1 m of a small stream in riparian habitat dominated by Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa), Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides), and Mountain Alder (Alnus tenuifolia). This hatching-year (ca. 15% skull ossification) male in excellent plumage (no molt in progress), wing chord of 70 mm, and weight of 13.0 g (light fat) was banded, photographed (Figure 1), and released. Two color photographs showing the bright orange-yellow head and neck, the bluish-gray wing and tail feathers, white under tail coverts, and white inner webs of the tail feathers are on file with the Oregon Bird Records Committee and the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge.
At 1330 on 30 January 1975 we observed a Great Egret (Casmerodius albus) with a Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola) struggling in its bill near Arcata, Humboldt County, California. The egret was standing along the edge of a slough overgrown with Broad-leaved Cattail (Typha latifolia) and Water Parsley (Oenanthe sarmentosa). The egret held the rail by the neck for about 7 minutes until the rail ceased to struggle. Throughout the 7 minutes the egret shook its head violently from side to side for several seconds at intervals of approximately 10 seconds. After the rail ceased all signs of life, the egret unsuccessfully attempted to swallow the rail headfirst several times. It was then startled by our presence and, carrying the rail, flew out of sight several hundred meters to a nearby pasture. We walked into the pasture and found the egret again, but it did not have the rail, and its neck did not appear distended as if it had swallowed anything. A Rough-legged Hawk (Buteo lagopus) perched about 50 m from the egret was eating a bird approximately the size of the rail. Although we were unable to identify the hawk’s prey, we believe the hawk probably appropriated the rail from the egret.
Large-scale nocturnal migratory movements of many hundreds of land birds were observed at distances of 100–400 km off the southern California mainland during the period 4–15 September 1975. These observations were made from on board the R/V Alexander Agassiz, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, in the course of a marine biological research cruise to an area just south of the San Juan Seamount (located approximately 350 km west of San Diego, California near 33°N, 121°W) 4–10 September and to the southern end of the San Clemente Basin (located 90–110 km west of northern Baja California, Mexico, in the vicinity of 32°N, 118°W) 11–15 September.
The California Least Tern (Sterna albifrons browni) breeds from San Francisco Bay south along the coast of California to the Mexican border. It has also been reported earlier in the century breeding in Baja California, Mexico, at Scammons Lagoon (Bancroft 1927) and at the tip of the peninsula at San Jose del Cabo (Lamb 1927). There have, however, been no published reports of Mexican colonies in recent years.