Nature Notes From Crater Lake
Volume 18, 1952
Two Interesting Ornithological
Observations
By Charles F. Yocom, Ranger-Naturalist
and Donald S. Farner, Assistant Park
Naturalist
During the month of August we recorded
two observations which are of considerable interest since they add
materially to our knowledge of the avifauna of the Park. On August 23,
1952, a juvenile English Sparrow,
Passer domesticus (Linnaeus), was seen near the Information Building
at the Rim Village. Since this is considerably out of the altitudinal
range and habitat of this species the possibility of this individual
having been liberated in the vicinity should not be precluded.
Farner (1952: 167) includes this
species in the supplemental list of birds of the Park on the basis of
observations by Joseph Dixon in 1945 near the South Boundary.
On August 31, 1952 we saw two
Band-tailed Pigeons, Columba fasciata (Say), perched in the dead
top of a mountain hemlock at about 7400 feet on Dutton Ridge. This is a
particularly significant record since this species was admitted to the
Park list (Farner, 1952: 50) solely on the basis of the remains of a
single bird found on July 24, 1945 by Joseph Dixon near the head of
Castle Creek. This species must still be regarded as a rare straggler in
Crater Lake National Park.
References
Dixon, Joseph. 1945. Field notes in the
files of the Regional Office of the National Park Service, San Francisco
Farner, Donald S. 1952. The Birds of
Crater Lake National Park,
University of Kansas Press, Lawrence. ix + 200 pp.