Species Diversity Observations at Alder Lake Recreation Site

Species Diversity Observations at Alder Lake Recreation Site

April 21^st, 2015

While car-camping at Alder Lake I observed the diversity of wildlife present during a two-hour period.  It was a sunny, warm morning with little to no wind or clouds and the campground was empty except for one neighbor several sites away.  The campground was surrounded by forest with the sites themselves bearing primarily deciduous trees with some conifers.  Substantial shrub and underbrush separated one site from the next. 

My first ever sighting of a white-crowned sparrow!

Before my field study project in class I had always enjoyed bird songs but never attempted to identify a species based on this song.  Now that I am preparing for a species richness study, every unique song captures my attention and I find myself wondering about the identity of its producer.  While walking to school earlier in the week a distinct song had caught my ear and I’d asked a classmate about it during our fieldwork that day.  She told me the song was from a white-crowned sparrow.  As I was refilling my water at the campground spigot, the unmistakable song of this sparrow danced across the morning air.  I followed the sound with my eyes and soon located the small creature singing his heart out on the branch of a large shrub.  The descriptive nature of the sparrow's name gave it away -- there was no mistaking that this was a white-crowned sparrow.

White-crowned sparrow perched on low shrub

I watched this sparrow fly between perches and sing until he finally landed on a low branch near a large sword fern, right next to a darkly colored, mottled bird of similar size.  I assumed this might be his mate.  Female white-crowned sparrows build their nests in shrubs, a few feet from the ground (N.A.S. 2015).  In our area, pairs will raise several broods in one year, with one or both of the parents caring for fledglings while the female prepares the next nest (Austin 1968; N.A.S. 2015).

A chipmunk grooms itself

Movement to my right caught my eye.  A few feet from me, perched on a large piece of woody debris, was a chipmunk.  Silently I watched the small mammal clean itself, extending each hind leg as it smoothed its chestnut colored hair.  Don’t let this mammal’s small size lead you to underestimate its importance -- chipmunks play a vital role in seed dispersal and are prey for birds, reptiles and larger mammals.  Although there are many, similar looking chipmunks inhabiting the area, after extensive searching, I believe this chipmunk was most likely a yellow-pine chipmunk due to its reddish color and prominent nose-to-eye stripe.

Spotted towhee scratches in the gravel

Focusing again on the birds in front of me, the two smaller sparrows were driven from the clearing in the brush when two larger birds swooped in.  These birds were about the size of robins with black-hooded heads, white spots on their black wings, red eyes, and rust-colored chests with thick white centers.  Spotted towhees.  I watched the two of them quickly give up the space in the brush in favor of the deserted campsite just over my shoulder.  The pair scratched in the gravel around the fire pit like two under-sized chickens, demonstrating their strong tendency for ground foraging (Collins 1959). 

Black-capped chickadee shredding a cigarette filter

In the far corner of this campground a tiny, chestnut-backed chickadee was busily shredding a cigarette filter.  This waste will likely be used nesting material since these chickadees are known to line their nest-holes with soft fibers and April marks the start of nest-building season (Stokes 1979).  While I was disturbed by the neglectful actions of the human who’d left the cigarette butt, I was impressed by the chickadee’s resourcefulness.      

          

Red-breasted sapsucker boring a hole in a snag

Back at my own campsite the persistent hammering of a woodpecker caught my attention.  Clinging by toes and tail to a tall snag in the brush behind the picnic table was a red-breasted sapsucker.  After hammering its beak on the decaying wood, the sapsucker would extend its long tongue into the newly created crevice searching for a meal.  Because this woodpecker was feeding on a dead tree, I assumed it was more likely feasting on insects than sap, the latter meal earning the bird its name.  I watched it move around the snag, woody debris cascading down, as it bored hole after hole.  On average, red-breasted sapsuckers will bore thirty holes a day (Danforth 1938).  Joy (2000) found that Red-breasted sapsuckers nest in dead trees, with almost perfectly circular nest holes, in nesting cavities averaging approximately seventeen meters above the ground.  The large hole near the top of the snag made me wonder if this particular bird was nesting here.

Red-breasted sapsucker feeding

Snag utilized by the red-breasted sapsucker

An american crow waits for my departure so it can clean up

I also observed a hummingbird zipping through the campsite, two crows carrying  beaks full of moss, bees and butterflies flittering from flower to flower, a black colored squirrel chattering at me from the trunk of a nearby tree, several beetles lumbering through the grass, robins patrolling for forage, a large, black spider resting under the cover of some leaves, and many annoyingly persistent flies.

One of the many flies that landed
on my belongings during the
 observation period.

Austin, O.L., Jr.  1968.  Life Histories of North American Cardinals, Grosbeaks, Buntings, Towhees, Finches, Sparrows and Allies.  Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

Collins, H.H.C.  1959. Complete Field Guide to American Wildlife.  Murray Printing Company, MA.

Danforth, C.G.  1938.  Some Feeding Habits of the Red-Breasted Sapsucker.  The Condor.  40:5.  219-224.

National Audubon Society (N.A.S.). 2015.  Audubon:  Guide to North American Birds.  https://www.audubon.org/birds

Stokes, D.W. 1979.  A Guide to Bird Behavior, Volume I.  Little, Brown and Company, MA.