Week 27 – Clark’s Nutcrackers

 

A family of Clark’s Nutcrackers. Photograph by Neil Paprocki.

I still remember the first time I saw a Clark’s Nutcracker. Actually, I saw hundreds of them. I was in Zion National Park during the fall of 2007 and had just reached the top of Observation Point above the main canyon. Soon after, a huge flock of 100-200 Clark’s Nutcrackers flew overhead, raising a big raucous. These high alpine birds have fascinated me ever since.

Clark’s Nutcrackers have an amazing spatial memory capacity. They almost solely eat the seeds of various western pine species, storing these seeds in the summer and fall to survive the harsh mountain winter and spring. They store these seeds in small ‘caches’, remembering the exact location of up to 50,000 seeds for upwards of 9 months after storage. Some mornings I can’t even remember where I put my wallet the night before.

I spent the fourth of July weekend backpacking in the beautiful Eagle Cap Wilderness of eastern Oregon. While summiting a ridge above high alpine Lookingglass Lake on July 6th, I came across a small family of nutcrackers that allowed me to spend a few minutes in their presence. I had never been so close to these birds in such a scenic location before.

After a few minutes, one bird gave a squawk and they all took off down the ridge. They have a busy few months to store tens-of-thousands of seeds in preparation for winter.