Aspen Bibliography

Summer Birds of A Lodgepole-Aspen Forest In The Southern Warner Mountains, California

D.W. Winkler

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Western Birds

Volume

8

Issue

2

First Page

45

Last Page

62

Publication Date

1977

Abstract

The Warner Mountains occupy a narrow strip approximately 15 km wide and 160 km long running north and south in extreme northeastern California and southeastern Oregon. Geologically the range is the westernmost of the basin ranges which file eastward into Nevada and Utah and is characterized by tilted fault blocks of lake bed sediments interbedded with volcanic sediments and basalt (Oakeshott 1971). In contrast, affinities of its boreal avifauna lie most closely with the adjacent Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges (Miller 1951, Johnson 1970). The flora of the Warner Mountains is largely a mosaic of Great Basin and Sierra Nevada forms (D. Taylor pers. comm.). Summers in the range are hot and dry with occasional and local thunderstorms, and winters are cold with relatively sparse precipitation in at least the southern portion. Little has been published on the birds of the Warner Mountains (Johnson 1970, 1975; Maillard 1927; Miller 1941, 1951). Distributional data and indications of relative abundances of species present are scattered and incomplete. The interrelationships of the bird species and the influences which the area's unique geography and flora have had on bird communities in the range are just beginning to be explored. During the summer of 1975 a mapping census was carried out on the birds of a decadent stand of Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta) and Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) in the Skunk Cabbage Creek drainage of the extreme southern Warner Mountains. The study was undertaken to gather data on bird distribution in the southern area of the range and the importance of various habitat types to individual bird species.

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