Mar., 1918 



SIX WEEKS IN THE HIGH SIERRAS IX NESTING TIME 



71 



drove me back to camp. The next day I observed a pair of California Jays 

 (Aphelocoma calif ornica calif ornica) , a new bird for Bijou and Lake Valley and 

 whose occurrence here is really remarkable when one considers the fact that a 

 high mountain area of between fifty and sixty miles separated these birds from 

 their usual haunts (the western Sierran foot-hills), while to the east, only a few 

 miles over the range, the Woodhouse Jay is to be found in not greatly dissimilar 

 country. Although residents told me the birds had been seen about for several 

 weeks, they were apparently not nesting. 



At Bijou, with its more open and mostly second growth timber, the season 

 was earlier than at the northern end of the lake, but here, as along the Truckee 

 River, the aspens and willows were still bare, and, although the snow was present 

 only in patches, the brown turf beneath showed as yet no sign of the coming 

 grass. Only two pairs of birds were noted engaged in nest-building — Mountain 

 Chickadees (Potthestes gam- 

 beli) in a stump and Cassin 

 Purple Finches {Carpodacus 

 cassini) in a tall, unclimba- 

 ble Jeffrey pine. 



The next day, May 15, a 

 trip was taken to Rowland's 

 Marsh. Here, on an island, 

 I witnessed the arrival of 

 thousands of Tree Swallows 

 (Iridoprocne Incolor). A hun- 

 dred pairs or so took up 

 homes in the vicinity, while 

 the others flying north and 

 northwest, continued on 

 after a short rest. In the 

 marsh pond lilies were just 

 budding out beneath the 

 water, the tules, flattened 

 and brown, were lying dead, 

 while the marsh grass, in 

 places where the snow had 

 retreated along the shore, 

 was making its first feeble 



appearance after the long winter sleep. The trip to the marsh was taken 

 primarily for the purpose of investigating the nesting of the Canada Goose, 

 which I have treated in a previous article (Condor, xiv, 1912, p. 70). 



Sleet fell on May 16 and the day was dark, windy and cold. Near Lakeside 

 Park (Stateline P. 0.) I noted a Western Evening Grosbeak (Hesperiphona ves- 

 pertiua montana) the first I have recorded for Lake Valley. Not far distant, for 

 some time I watched the tactics of rival pairs of Mountain Chickadees and West- 

 ern Bluebirds (Sialia mexicana occidentalis) , both trying to build in the same 

 cavity, while from an aspen a Modoc Woodpecker (Dryobates villosus orius) was 

 flushed from a nest-cavity twenty feet from the ground and holding four fresh 

 eggs. 



On the way to Cave Rock next day, near Edgewood (Nevada) I noted a col- 

 ony of Cliff Swallows (Petrochelidon lunifrons lunifrons) engaged in plastering 



Fig. 6. Belted Kingfisher which met death by 

 becoming entangled in wire fencing; bljou, at 

 Lake Tahoe, May 18. 



