April 1932

YOSEMITE NATURE NOTES APRIL,

1932 Volume XI Number 4

THE PUBLICATION OF THE YOSEMITE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT AND THE YOSEMITE NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION

Published Monthly Volume XI April 1932 Number 4 Hibernating Bears

C. A. HARWELL

Park Naturalist Late in January Dr. Don Tresidder and party returning from a ski trip to Mount Watkins reported the discovery of two hibernating bears. For a party of 14, so we were soon well taken care of. trip to Mount Watkins reported the Next morning Borrell and I discovery of two hibernating bears, started bear hunting, while the one at 7000 feet elevation near Snow Creek, the other at 8000 feet elevation near the summit of Mount Watkins. Meadows. Eight to 10 feet of snow had fallen since these bear dens Watkins. Reports of these dens were last seen and we were unable were given publicity through the to locate either of them, although newspapers and ever since that time I have been eager to check up on the stories and especially to get some photographs of such dens and possibly hibernating bears. We spent a day and a half searching. We did find fresh bear tracks the stories and especially to get near the summit of Mount Watkins. some photographs of such dens and

BEAR TRACKS FOUND

possibly hibernating bears. March 2 I had a second and better February 23, Ranger Naturalist opportunity to locate these hibernating A. E. Borrell and I armed ourselves bears. Paul Shoe, executive with three cameras and some other secretary of the company, arranged supplies and made the trip on snowshoes to send Ranger Ralph Anderson to Ski Lodge, in the vicinity and myself up the trail on of these dens. We were accompanied horses, which of course, saved us a by a snow-gauging party of lot of hard work, as our camera three rangers on this first day's equipment gave us each 30-pound trip. After a hard, though not dangerous packs to carry. A cold night had struggle up the trail we arrived left a marvelous crust on the snow at the lodge at 6 p. m. This so that, although we carried snowshoes, two-story cabin was so nearly buried we did not need to wear by snow that we had some difficulty them on the entire two-day trip. locating it—in fact we found March 3 Ski Instructor Jules our easiest entrance was through Frisch accompanied Ralph Anderson and me on a search for the upper bear den. Mr. Frisch was the one who had first observed this den. The Yosemite Park and Curry Company keeps this cabin well stocked with food, wood and comfortable beds

were unable to locate any trace of or was it the litter of pine needles: it. We returned to the cabin at 10:45 we could plainly see sticking from and, accompanied by Oscar Chase, the fir burl? He proved the hole we started on a search for the lower extended back in either direction at. den. Mr. Chase had passed this den February 10. At that time he was least three feet. With all his prodding and shouting we heard no attracted by noises which he sounds from the bear. We gave up thought came from newly-born and decided to have lunch. We sat cubs. At 11:30 Mr. Chase led us directly and very quietly to a living white fir tree, five feet in diameter. Quietly watching and listening for one hour, but no results. At 2 o'clock we decided we must and pointed to the hole in the snow leave on our homeward journey by At the base of the tree, on the uphill side, and whispered to us, "That the den." Use our snowshoes as shovels. 3 o'clock. Becoming more frantic hill side, and whispered to us, for positive results we decided to "That the den." use our snowshoes as shovels to dig out the bear. The bottom of

UNEARTHLY SOUNDS

the hole through the snow, which With as little noise as possible we measured four feet in depth and began setting up cameras. I chose about 18 inches in diameter at the my station the top of a dead fir bottom, showed that the bear had tree, 10 feet above the snow and traveled in and out 5 feet from the den. There were times, as it was very smooth and get an excellent view directly icy. There were no tracks on the through to the entrance of the den. top of the snow, so that we concluded the bear had not been out We took numbers of pictures, both still and movie. Now we planned of his den for at least two weeks. to scare the bear out while I would Our purpose in digging was to grind out movies of his exit from lower a camera by a string to the his winter quarters. We were all level of the entrance and then to ready to start our noise when a make an attempt to set off flash-sudden gust of wind struck the top light enough to get a photograph of the tree with such force that the of the interior of the tree to give heavy trunk was swayed. An unearthly noise came from the base of our tree. More positive evidence of its contents. of our tree. Three of us were scared to death to death, but only two of us could run—I was up a stump! As might Snow shoes proved to be poor be expected in such haste the men shovels. Broken pits of snow and soon fell head over heels in the ice kept falling and blocking the snow. Fortunately it was nothing entrance. When we had dug down more than the cracking of the ice. as far as it seemed possible to go We barked like dogs, threw sticks we found we would have to remove against the tree, but no sounds some of these blocks of snow. Snow came from the four-foot deep hole shoes wouldn't work, so Ralph Anderson through the snow. Ranger Anderson, armed with a long curved stick, decided he would cautiously became bolder. He thrust this into remove the largest of them with the den cavity of the tree. his hands. Down he stooped. As the den cavity of the tree. his hand neared the entrance When he pushed the stick straight back it seemed to run into something soft. The den a paw reached out at lightning speed so characteristic of thing soft. Was it a sleeping bear bear and Ralph came up holding

a bloody hand. The bear had struck Our past observations of bears a sharp blow and fortunately only in Yosemite have led us to believe one claw had taken effect, leaving that hibernation was often interrupted, a triangular flesh wound on the since bears are often seen back of his left hand. Our evidence abroad during the winter. This was positive. The cave was occupied theory was definitely confirmed by and we were satisfied. We the condition of the den on Snow quickly bandaged the hand, packed creek. The smooth, hard-packed our cameras and retreated to the entrance showed that the bear had valley, leaving the bear in possession kept his den open in spite of many of his den and his secrets. If heavy snowstorms; and evidences there were cubs in the hollow of of activity after each storm were the tree they certainly were silent. revealed by alternate layers of There was positively no odor about clean and soiled snow which we the den. Scratches on the tree exposed by digging alongside the showed that it had been climbed entrance, each layer showing bark many times to a limb about 30 feet and wood fragments, but no droppings. above the ground. However, the Further information concerning the ragged points of ice at snow level hibernation of bears showed that the tree had not been will be sought in the near future climbed for about a month. when we expect to make additional trips to this den. Water Ouzels Nesting at El Portal By C. C. PRESNALL Junior Park Naturalist An astonishing thing occurred February 29 at the Yosemite Museum. Bert Harwell, the park naturalist, and I were standing in a foot of snow at the back door of the museum, admiring the cold, forbidding aspect of the ice-covered cliffs in Indian canyon. Two months nearer to summer-time I went to a sunny river bank, where for four hours we sat listening to the incomparable song of the ouzel as he and his mate built their honeymoon cottage of moss. What a busy pair they were! Often they worked so fast that my wife and I could hardly record their activities. One of us would concentrate his attention on four rods of river bank, two birds, one nest, and one stop-watch, while the other would talk his rapid-fire dictation and try at the same time to make detailed observations through the binoculars. One bird, usually the female, would fly into the round oven-shaped nest, where we could indistinctly see her weaving the moss which her mate brought to her at short intervals, sometimes making a trip every half minute. where we could indistinctly see her The next day I went to see for weaving the moss which her mate myself and to experience the thrill brought to her at short intervals, of going from winter to spring in sometimes making a trip every half half an hour. Modern magic of minute. motor transportation carried us

SOLDIERS ON JOB

down 2000 feet nearer the sea and Once the male became tired and

neglected his duties, whereupon the afternoon and climbed back again female poked her head out of the to our wintery home in Yosemite. door, waited patiently for one minute, and then flew to the water's edge. Soon both birds returned to the way we stopped at three points along the Merced river and edge. Soon both birds returned to at each point saw an ouzel, none of the nest at once, remained inside which showed any symptoms of half a minute, then one flew out and resumed his "hod-carrier" role. spring romance. It will be interesting to follow the epidemic of spring The "bricks" he carried were bits fever which will spread slowly up, of moss torn loose from spray-filled, affecting each ouzel in turn, drenched rocks below the nest. until finally in late June the nest Usually he would wash the moss before carrying it to the nest, but once when gathering from a higher ledge, he neglected to do so. Building urge reaches the birds as they way up near timberline. once when gathering from a higher ledge, he neglected to do so. All the material gathered was used on the interior of the nest or at the entrance. Usually one bird stayed in the nest less than four minutes and often both would be making quick trips back and forth every minute. We could never distinguish the sexes, except when the male sang; then we would keep track of him for several trips, but sooner or later both birds would go into the nest at one time and we could never be sure which was which when they came out

FOUR BUILDING PERIODS

Is it any wonder that we breathed a sigh of relief whenever the ouzels ceased building to rest and feed awhile? This they did at intervals of from 15 to 35 minutes, so that during our four-hour vigil there were four building periods, four feeding periods of about the same duration and one long period, one hour and 18 minutes of feeding, singing and preening. Once during this period the male sang continuously for four minutes. It is interesting to note that the female preened her feathers over twice as long as did the male. To our dull eyes she looked as plain and drab as her spouse, but to him she must have been very beautiful. We left the happy pair late in the

A BARN OWL IN YOSEMITE

By George M. Wright, Field Naturalist Happily enough, the list of rare birds reported from the slopes of Yosemite valley will never be complete. In 1931, on the evening of November 27, a barn owl, Tyto alba pratincola (Bonaparte), placed itself squarely in front of our headlights on the road, thus recording, insistently as it seemed to us, its right to be on the membership list for birds that have visited Yosemite. It was at 9:15 o'clock, about 100 yards from the entrance gate on the drive that leads to the Ahwahnee group to talus slope of the Royal Arches. The road was glistening from scraped snow after the storm. An owl of medium size flew down from the black night above into the yellow lighted by our car. It turned a monkey-face toward us and we knew it for a barn owl. The burnished yellow of its back and whitish underparts harmonized beautifully with the snowy scene. For about 12 seconds it gave us a cold stare, then floated away among the trees and rocks of the talus, as casually as though this were home in the lowlands and not the incomparable Yosemite.

YOSEMITE SCHOOL OF FIELD NATURAL HISTORY

Yosemite to Conduct Eighth Field School C. A. HARWELL, Park Naturalist Sixty interested students in the formed to keep the members in field of nature education have applied touch with each other and in touch for admittance to this summer with the progress of the naturalist session of the Yosemite program in our national parks. It School of Field Natural History, is, of course, impossible to get the June 23 to August 10. The selection whole group together at one time, of the twenty students for the so local organizations have been 1932 School has just been made. formed. Those living in the Los The purpose of this school is to Angeles region hold annual spring train young men and women to be and fall reunions. The San Francisco better qualified to take places in bay region group will meet the growing field of nature guiding. at Lokoya Lodge in Napa county National Park Service selects for their first reunion, February 27-28. An eastern group has planned temporary summer time ranger-naturalists, as well as to fill vacancies in the permanent naturalists positions. meet at Maine Woods this summer. in the permanent naturalists positions. Anyone interested in this course offered at Yosemite should address

ALUMNI ORGANIZED

C. A. Harwell, Park Naturalist. At The school now has 140 alumni least two years' college training and in over 20 different States. An a good science background is Alumni Association has been formed. required.

SIERRA CHICKAREE

ameter, and there was no indication CHANGES HIS DIET of feed being stored away. There

C. C. PRESNALL

were very few seeds in the pine cones examined along Chilnualna Junior Park Naturalist creek, which might explain the extensive The chickarees along Chilnualna use of this unusual food creek have this winter tapped a new and limitless food supply; they are emulating the porcupine—eating the bark from the slender twigs of the Lodgepole pines. In skiing through the dense pine forests of this region it is a common sight to see the snow beneath a Lodgepole pine littered with branch tips, cut off by the squirrels during their feast. I caught one little fellow in the very act. He was on the end of a slender branch about 1/4-inch in diameter, eating the bark off for a distance of 2 to 3 inches. About 2 inches from the end of the branch he bit clear through the wood and allowed the needle-covered tip to fall to the ground. Then, noticing my approach, he scampered down the tree and across an intervening snowbank to his home in a dead snag. Tracks indicated that he had made four trips between his home and the pine tree during the two and a half days elapsed since the last snowstorm. A close examination of his work showed some twigs girdled but not cut off; none of the twigs cut were over 1/4-inch in diameter, and there was no indication

DEER SEEN FEEDING IN DEEP SNOW

By C. C. Presnall, Junior Park Naturalist Along the lower borders of the snow fields which cover Yosemite National Park throughout the winter one may occasionally find signs indicating that the deer wintering on the grass-covered slopes of the adjacent foothills make excursions into the deep snow. We found such an instance near Chinquapin Ranger Station in late January while returning from an eight-day ski trip. The snow at that time measured 5.25 feet at Chinquapin, and at the point where we first saw deer tracks—a mile east of and 300 feet above Chinquapin–the snow must have been six feet deep—hard packed snow into which the deer sank only a foot. The fresh tracks roughly paralleled our course and it was not long until we saw the deer, two bucks and a doe, running from a.

clump of incense cedars. Going to The scarcity of crows in Yosemite the spot, we found that they had aroused my curiosity, but inquiries been feeding on the tender leaves produced only a meager array of and staminate flowers of the cedars. facts. Charles Michael's records, Although several shrubs of kept since 1920, show that from one Ceanothus cordulatus (snow-bush) to eight crows have been seen protruded above the snow nearby, nearly every spring and fall, but the deer had not touched them. only for a few days at a time. Other As we continued our homeward observers report that crows are journey, we noticed six well-defined deer trails crossing the road spring and down river in the fall between Chinquapin and the upper tunnel portal (about 4620 feet This suggests the interesting possibility of a trans-mountain migration elevation, just below Inspiration by a few pioneer crows. Banding Point). All these trails showed is the only way to corroborate fresh tracks going both up and this theory, but observations along down hill, and one led to some possible fly ways in the higher sheltering-like oaks, where there were indications of a sleeping place. Tenaya lake would probably be a good observation station. The presence of deer at these WHAT RECORDS SHOW elevations (4600 to 6500) is readily The following tabulation, taken explained by the proximity of their largely from Charles Michael's records, winter range. The steep slopes shows the occurrence of American crows near Chinquapin bring regions of in Yosemite valley to green grass and heavy snow so date: close together that the deer can go 1920, October; 1921, March, April from the Upper Sonoran Zone and November; 1922, March, April (their normal winter habitat) to October and November; 1923, April. the Canadian Zone without traveling very many miles. May and October; 1924, March. April and November; 1925, March; 1926, October and November; 1927 March; 1928, April; 1929, none; 1930,

CROWS IN YOSEMITE VALLEY

March and October; 1931, October: By C. C. Presnall, Junior Park 1932, March. Naturalist Other authentic observations are The American crow, noted for its needed. Anyone having noted crows ubiquity, is relatively uncommon in anywhere in Yosemite National California, many areas of the State Park is asked to communicate with Park Naturalist C. A. Harwell, giving dates, places and pertinent facts. Being almost free from the harsh noisy clamor of this bird. Small facts. wonder, then, that I should remain a resident of Yosemite valley for three years before seeing one. It was on the morning of March 26 that I heard him cawing as he flew up the valley; soon he appeared. stopped for a minute in an oak tree in the new village, then continued his flight up the valley, Auto Caravans are now conducted daily to points of interest on the floor of the valley.

SAY PHOEBE (SAYORNIS

He is flat-headed, with a suggestion

SAYUS)

of a crest at the back of his crown. By Enid Michael, Ranger Naturalist

The call-note of this phoebe is not Naturalist short and choppy, but plaintive and drawn out like a softly whistled He was recognized by the flit of note on a reed pipe. This note is his tail. As I looked at him I realized remindful of the single plaintive that he was garbed in the colors note of the killdee, but softer and so fashionable among the female more pleasing to the ear. robins. His back was smoke This brown flycatcher with the gray, his tail dark, and his underbody dark tail is a rare bird in Yosemite a rich buff. As he perched on valley. From our 10-year record it the fence wire he continually turned would seem that an individual, or his head from side to side. Out into perhaps a few individuals, pass the air he dived, sweeping low over through the valley at the late end the ground. There came the sound of winter or early in spring. Hardly of snapping mandibles, a quick a March month passed during the turn, and back he came to his last 10 years that we did not see the perch on the fence. After alighting one lovely Say phoebe. And today he flicked his tail five or six times as though trying to catch his balance. But he was not really trying to catch his balance, he has the tailflicking habit. All of our flycatchers and many other kinds of birds have the habit of flitting their tails or wings when they come to perch, but each different species has its own peculiar manner of so doing, and, if sufficiently well known, may be recognized by the flit of the tail. The Say phoebe, my bird of today (March 20, 1932), brought his tail down with a slow jerk and at the same time fanning it out. Just when it was fanned the widest it flashed shut and came up with a snap.

LOOKING FOR MORE FOOD

After the tail-flicking episode the Say Phoebe wiped his bill on the foot-rail, lifted his head and came to poise, except for the constant turning of his head. He was on the lookout for another insect and then he would have to wipe his bill again. In silhouette the Say phoebe has a rakish, low-browed appearance.

NOTELETS

Nightly Bear lectures were started at the Bear feeding platforms on April 9, with eight bears on hand to enjoy the banquet. The heavy winter seemingly has had little effect on the activities of our birds. Spring arrivals are coming on time and nesting activities are under way. On March 24, the Water Ouzels at Valley View had their nest practically completed. Sierra Creepers were observed building a nest April 13. "Oh, Ranger!", a book full of interesting stories about our National Parks, by Albright and Taylor, has been reduced in price from $2.50 to $1.00. You should take advantage of this big reduction. Order a copy now from the Museum.

Digitized by Yosemite Online Library Dan Anderson