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The Daily Bucket. Back to Butterfly Valley, and I have a new bird species. [1]
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Date: 2025-07-28
Sunday, July 27, 2025
It being a Sunday and it having been since May when I was last up to Butterfly Valley, and my e-bike battery being fully charged this morning, and me wanting to get out and go somewhere and maybe get some good nature photos,
..I went up to Butterfly Valley again.
So, this is my fifth visit since I got my e-bike back in October of 2024. It’s about a twelve mile ride to get there, about eight miles of the way is on pavement and the last four miles is easy dirt road, very moderate slope and partly gravel.
Here are the links to my previous four trips:
California Pitcher Plant
Winter Visit, no snow. Ferruginous Hawk
Spring Visit, with snow. Juvenile Bald Eagle
Bear Grass blossom
For those who are not aware, Butterfly Valley is a special botanical preserve, home to insectivorous/carnivorous plants and uncommon orchid and lily species.
Butterfly Valley Botanical Area, in the northern Sierra Nevada, was designated a protected botanical area in 1976 due to its abundant, diverse plant life. It is located just north of Quincy, in Plumas County of northeastern California, United States. The unique plant community habitats of the nature reserve, thriving at elevations of 3,590–3,800 feet (1,090–1,160 m), are protected and managed by the Mt. Hough Ranger District of the Plumas National Forest. The rare native carnivorous plant, Darlingtonia californica ,makes a home here at the southern extreme of its range, a range that stretches in scattered bog habitats northwest across northern California then north along western Oregon. Butterfly Valley's singular plant community also includes other carnivorous plants, two dozen species of native lilies and tiger lilies that include Lilium washingtonianum and Lilium parvum, a dozen Piperia species of native orchids, many species of native California ferns, as well as other California native plants. --Wikipedia (links and footnotes omitted)
Here’s a reference photo from my trip back in May:
A nice place to visit, and wow, if I could, yeah, I’d like to live there.
Heh, I say I’d like to live there, but if I did I’d need a four-wheel-drive vehicle for the winter. And a snowmobile, just to be on the safe side.
This was April of this year. It is not inconceivable that this big sign could get buried under snow, although I think it’s been a long time since that could have happened. However, a foot or two of snow at this elevation would not be at all unusual.
..
Today’s ride yielded two separate chances to photograph the California Quail, and also a sighting of a Red-tailed Hawk, these birds within the first three miles of my ride.
8:50 a.m.
This power pole is a full one hundred yards off my road. But when this figure is so prominent you can’t miss its presence even at that distance.
A bit fuzzy, but acceptable
Ooohh, gotta gotta gotta scratch that itch.
Up in the valley now, about 9:40 a.m.
Northern Bluet damselfly
Common Whitetail dragonfly, male
As I walk one bird call I constantly hear is that of the Red-breasted Nuthatch, sort of a whreee-whreee-whreee-whreee, almost a background sound, not at all intrusive. But try as I might I can’t very often spot the bird. Today was an exception, and But Of Course my shots are right into the sun. I cleaned up the photos as best I could with my image editor.
After a full hour of walking the mile-round perimeter of the sixteen-acre site, I was nearly back to my e-bike when I spotted some more hustle bird flight going on between the branches of the pines and oaks. I sighted a large Pileated Woodpecker flying through, but was unable to get a photo. Sigh, but I do already have some photos of this species so I didn’t feel too bad. Then, on a bare oak,
..ahh, it’s just a Hairy Woodpecker, female. I’ve got lots of these.
And another one, on the trunk of a pine. I zoom in, and shazzamm! I know the bird immediately for what it is, and here’s my new bird species for my life list, now topping at #180.
White-headed Woodpecker
Dryobates albolarvatus
Same as above, but cropped in.
Note: no red nape or cap so it’s a female.
The White-headed Woodpecker is an unusual woodpecker restricted to mountainous pine forests of the western states and British Columbia. It’s a glossy black bird with a gleaming white head and neck, augmented in males with a red crown patch. White-headed Woodpeckers feed heavily on large pine seeds, and are most associated with old-growth ponderosa pine and sugar pine forests. They also often use recently burned areas. They tend not to drill into wood to get insects, but rather flake away bark or probe into needle clusters. All About Birds
And that was it, it flew off and disappeared. But my feelings were exultant. I even raised both arms in a victory gesture. It just feels so incredible to go out and see something brand-new, and all the more because it was a new bird species. Incidentally, my other two for this year were the Lewis’s Woodpecker (January) and the Fox Sparrow (July 9). I don’t think I’ll match 2024 for sheer number, but even three is a grand thing.
Last year’s haul:
New species for 2024 1. Cackling Goose, 16Mar24, Quincy Junction Road at Chandler Pond.
2. Eared Grebe, 10Apr24, Am. Vly. Quincy, wastewater treatment plant, Spanish Creek Rd.
3. Red Crossbill, 12Apr24, East High Street at Oddie Way, Quincy
4. Virginia Rail (no photo; audio only on video), 23Apr24, Dellinger’s Pond
5. Red-necked Phalarope, 05May24, Leonhardt Ranch
6. Brewer’s Sparrow, 11May24, Sierra Valley FRLT Land Preserve
7. Northern Pintail, ibid
8. Horned Lark, ibid
9. American Bittern, ibid
10. Black-necked Stilt, ibid
11. Willet, ibid
12. Vesper Sparrow, ibid
13. Gray Flycatcher, ibid
14. Barn Owl, 18May24, Roberti Ranch, Sierra Valley, CA
15. Great Horned Owl, ibid
16. Swainson’s Hawk, 19Sep24, Leonhardt Ranch/American Valley
17. Golden Eagle, 11Dec24, flying above Mt. Hough State Game Refuge
*****
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*****
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