Page:Condor9(6).djvu/7

 Nov., I9O7 I73 FROM BOULDER TO THE SEA By MILTON S. RAY With Photos By OLUF J. HEINEMANN I HAVE traveled with pack, afoot and on horses, with team and wagon and even in an automobile; but the most care-free trip I have ever taken was in May of the present year (1907) when Heinemann and I set forth from Boulder Creek carrying practically nothing except a film-pack camera and some tools of taxidermy. For board and lodging we trusted to the. usual hospitality of Cali- fornians, altho we had for emergency a few Italian biscuits called "galletta" which while little known are a positive boon to the camper. What impressed us most as we walked along that grand mountain road, built by the State, which leads to the Big Basin, was the devastation of the timber. Lumber mills were cutting everything in the tree line, "as long," as one of the hands stated, 'Las would make a three by four," while the shingle makers bringing up in the rear and utilizing the stumps, left only a brush-covered waste in their wake. Boulder itself no longer possesses any of the magnificent groves it did in the past and in time it seems the Big Basin Reserve will be all of the great woods that will remain. On starting, in a weed patch, on the ground, we came upon a nest of a typical bird of the region, the Point PinGs Junco (Junco hyemalis p/nosus), with four large young. But this find was soon forgotten when we discovered. on the head- waters of Boulder Creek the most beautiful nest of the American Water Ouzel (Cinclus mexicanus)that it has ever been my good fortune to locate. A great ball of rich green moss placed against a mossy bank, overhung with leaves and just above a miniature waterfall, it made so perfect a picture that it seemed unreal. The stream is not deep, the water cold, nor the current swift, when one has a nest like this to photograph. After the tripod was placed in two positions in the water and the views were taken, the nest was reached and found to be just com- pleted. The owners who flew back and forth lit so close at times that we were almost tempted to try a film or so on them. On returning to the road and meeting a band of bare-looted urchins I feared for the safety of the pretty little nest by the waterway for there are many still who disregard the ukase of Vogelsang. Altho we rambled along with a lazy, careless stride and stopped and inspected everything worthy of notice we finally crossed, however, the ridge which walls the California State Redwood Park, better known as the Big Basin, on the east. The recent forest fire while it swept over a large area luckily did not destroy much State timber. On the edge of this burnt section I saw about fifty yards away two birds running thru the brush that appeared very much like grouse. I ran forward, but with a sudden whir of wings, also grouse-like, the birds took flight and dis- appeared in the thick forest. I have seen grouse in the high Sierras and in Men- docino County, which is a type of country very similar to this; still I hesitate to record the bird for Santa Cruz County on this evidence alone, but feel confident future workers will verify it. At the Governor's Camp, as the settlement is called, in the heart of the Park, we spent the close of day, the night and some hours in the morning. This point lies twelve miles from Boulder Creek at an elevation of 1002 feet. Here in the clearings we met with bands of Santa Cruz Chickadees (Parus rulescerts barlowi), a few California Quail (o23hortyx cahfornicus calbrnicus), and Western Blue-