Nov., 1907 185 



A COI.I.ECTING TRIP BY WAGON TO EAGIvE I^AKE, SIERRA 



NEVADA MOUNTAINS 



By HARRY H. SHELDON 



ON the morning of June 5, 1905, in company with Jim and Stanley Taylor, 

 both enthusiasts in bird-study, I started from Marin County equipped for a 

 three months trip by wagon to Eagle L,ake, California. We purposed to 

 collect some of the birds of the I^ake and intervening region, and at the same time 

 to enjoy the wilderness that abounds in the northern counties of California. 



We had a trip of four hundred miles before us, a trip which proved to be one 

 of the roughest we had ever experienced. A tedious fourteen hours of navigation 

 up the Sacramento River brought us to the capitol city at 4 a. m. We were soon 

 beyond the outskirts of Sacramento and into the big wheat fields of the valley, 

 where after not more than three miles of travel we took our first specimen, a young 

 Yellow-billed Magpie. 



Having secured a permit from the Fish Commissioners we were not so wary of 

 being molested by the "don't shoot here" property owners, that were numerous 

 enough along the county roads of the valley. From the second day on we began 

 to take notes, and the long evenings were spent in putting up skins of birds we had 

 anticipated putting in our cabinets. On the fourth day, after traveling thru the 

 intense heat of the valley, we arrived at a beautiful spot at the base of the "table" 

 mountains, the commencement of the Sierras. Here bird-life was at its height. It 

 seemed like entering a large aviary as we walked thru the thick foliage that grew 

 on either side of the creek. Tree Swallows, Kingbirds, Chats, Gnatcatchers, 

 Woodpeckers, Vireos and others were all nesting in numbers; most nests found 

 either contained young, or eggs advanced in incubation. 



The thickets of blackberry vines and thistles seemed to be there but for the 

 purpose of a building-site for the Russet-backed Thrush and the Chat. The lat- 

 ter's pleasing whistle was ever to be heard, and above the din, from the throats of 

 the numerous other birds, we would intently listen, at long intervals, to the melo- 

 dious notes of the California Cuckoo. 



After staying a day in this place, having procured some desirable specimens, 

 we moved on to Chico, our last town south of the Sierras. Twenty miles of travel 

 up the oak-covered hills brought us into the big cool timber; here our trip began in 

 earnest, for nature was seen in all shapes and forms, and the names of the moun- 

 tain dwellers were daily registered in our note books. The tin-horn song (as it im- 

 pressed us) of the Red-Breasted Nuthatch was the first conspicuous bird-note we 

 heard upon entering the timber, and close scrutiny would find him clinging a hun- 

 dred or two feet up, on a dead pine. Chickadees, Tanagers, Kinglets, Warblers 

 and Woodpeckers (many varieties of the latter) were seen in numbers, and on rare 

 occasions a Pileated Woodpecker would give vent to his far-reaching call. 



After several mishaps that occurred to us especially on the last fifteen miles to 

 the lake, we passed Papoose Valley, a home of the Wilson Phalarope, Wilson 

 Snipe and numerous other water fowl. Three miles from here thru the gigantic 

 pine timber, traveling on nature's path alone, put us on the shore of Eagle L^ake, 

 June 26. 



Well was it named, for above us, soaring in circles, was a solitary eagle, with 

 his prominent white head and tail, and his dark body outlined against the prover- 

 bial turquoise sky. 



