Today a regular, UC Davis ecologist Susan Harrison, made a “save the site” contribution so this feature wouldn’t disappear (but, as usual, her photos are great). But I still importune readers to send in their photos, as we have only two or three days’ worth left.
Susan’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge her photos by clicking on them.
Miscellaneous birds and plants, April 2025
Most of today’s photos come from Upper Table Rock near Medford in southern Oregon. The Table Rocks are a pair of basalt plateaus formed when lava flowed down a valley between now-vanished ridges. Their flat tops support vernal pools (small seasonal wetlands) and swathes of spring wildflowers. Their steep sides are cloaked in a mixture of chaparral, oak woodland, and conifer forest.
Views across the top of Upper Table Rock, east to Mt. McLoughlin and southwest to the crest of the Siskiyou Mountains:
Lark Sparrows (Chondrestes grammaticus) in the table-top meadows, strolling in Goldfields (Lasthenia californica), eating the round seeds of Shining Peppergrass (Lepidium nitidum), and posing by a Rusty Popcornflower (Plagiobothrys nothofulvus):
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerula) singing on a Buckbrush (Ceanothus cuneatus):
Oak Titmouse (Baeolophus inornatus) on an Oregon Oak (Quercus garryana):
Bewick’s Wren (Thyromanes bewickii) on a blackberry (Rubus) and a bare branch:
Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) on a gnarled Madrone (Arbutus menziesii):
Spotted Towhee (Pipilio maculatus) among Oakmoss lichen (Evernia prunastri):
The last three photos are from the banks of our local waterway, Putah Creek, in northern California:
California Towhee (Melozone crissalis):
Swainson’s Hawk (Buteo swainsonii):
Yellow-billed Magpie (Pica nuttalli):
Amazing photos, especially the lark sparrow and the gnatcatcher. Thanks!
Readers’ Wildlife Photos is the best part of this web site. Many, many thanks to all the contributors!
Ahhh, I can feel the fresh air, and the photos match, ahhh…
A feature suggestion occurred to me for RWP … maybe not the first time :
For bird photos, add after the scientific binomial or common name, try to give one of the bird calls – maybe the one in the photo – in plain text form.
So for one example, for a white-throated sparrow, simply seep.
All About Birds has more detail :
“The general structure is a double- or sometimes triple-banded seep note, which can be broken into two parts: a slightly descending introduction followed by a wispily modulated ending”
A chickadee could be fee-bee or hey, sweetie
Just the plain-text though – not actual recordings or links to recordings, that seems to much.
That’s a fun idea! The Oak Titmouse has many vocalizations, two of which sound to me like “TEA-cher, TEA-cher!” and “Spew it, spew it!” 🙂
Right! Or Peter! Peter! Peter!
Presumably my hearing TEA-cher! instead of Peter is an example of confirmation bias, anthropomorphism, or whatever you call the reason why so many human interpretations of animal behavior are suspect…. 🙂
Thanks for the beautiful photos, and thereby helping to save the Readers’ Wildlife Photos feature, which I look forward to every day.
I look forward to it every day too. I only wish that I had something more to contribute than my appreciation.
Beautiful pictures. The clarity is astounding!
Great photos, Susan, thanks! I especially enjoy seeing the southern Cascades.
Beautiful.
Really enjoyed these close-ups. Thanks!
So many little brown jobbies!