June, 2011
This campground, just a few miles away from our Boggs Lake field site, is where we camped throughout the field season. The facilities were nice – bathrooms with showers, a recreation room with wifi – and we had a permanent campground where we all set up our tents together. I usually spent about a week at a time up there, trading off as the field lead with my lab partner, Nicole. Since the turtles we were studying really only became active mid-afternoon, we spent quite a lot of time at the campground.
We saw many of the same birds that were seen up at the field site, including Acorn Woodpecker, with their squeaky-toy call, Northern Raven, and Black Phoebe. There were also birds seen only here, including Western Bluebird, Brewer’s Blackbird, and White-breasted Nuthatch. Steller’s Jay were common here, and were regular visitors to our campsite. Many mornings, I was awoken by their sharp calls from the tree directly above my tent. One morning, I heard an unfamiliar call from the trees near the camp office. I wasn’t sure what bird it was, and randomly guessed Green Heron. When I investigated and spotted the bird, imagine my surprise when I spotted the bird and discovered that my guess had been correct! Western Pond Turtles and American Bullfrogs are commonly seen in the little pond near the Recreation Center.
Striped Skunk were also regular visitors to our campsite, particularly after dark. While I don’t remember the date, I have a very clear memory of waking up in the middle of the night, and backlit by one of the streetlights that lit up the campground, the shadow of an extremely floofy tail was cast on the side of my tent. I was able to watch for a while as the skunk wandered around our campsite – super cute!
Another memorable sighting has a sad ending. A Pileated Woodpecker hit a window somewhere on site, and was pretty banged up. The staff asked me if there was anything I could do (as I was doing a lot of bird rehab at the time), so, I packed up the bird and arranged for one of the field assistants to take him to the Songbird Hospital where I worked at the time, but unfortunately, he was too badly injured to be rehabilitated.
Species List
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos), Northern Raven (Corvus corax clarionensis), Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri frontalis), Brewer’s Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus), Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus bairdi), Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans semiater), Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana occidentalis), White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis aculeata), Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus abieticola), Striped Skunk (Mephitis mephitis), Green Heron (Butorides virescens anthonyi), Oriole (Icterus sp), Botta’s Pocket Gopher (Thomomys bottae), Western Grey Squirrel (Sciurus griseus), Columbian Black-tailed Deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus), Western Pond Turtle (Actinemys marmorata), American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus)
Let me know what you think!