Friday, December 21, 2007
As I spent the afternoon trying to finish up with my Christmas shopping for 2007, I didn't expect to do any birding until the weekend... But when my phone rang and Bryan Shirley explained that he had a Chestnut-collared Longspur at Farmington Bay WMA, I knew that I needed to get up there as fast as I could to not only tick the bird off my year list, but add it to my Utah life list. I called Colby Neuman to see if he was up for it but got no answer, so I called the Sommerfeld's who just so happened to be home and wanted to go. I just so happened to be a few blocks away and asked if I could tag along. Of course I had no camera equipment or optics, so I was going into it blind.
In any event we made it up but found out as we were arriving that Bryan had lost track of the bird as it finally flew off due to the traffic on the rather busy dirt road at the bay. He said it had come back each time it left earlier so we had high hopes. We were soon joined by Paul Higgins, and later both Larene Wyss and Pat Jividen. For about an hour and a half, Paul, the Sommerfeld's and I worked our way around Egg Island, up and down the main dike at the bay and checked out every Song, White-crowned and American Tree Sparrow, as well as a number of Pipits and a lone Horned Lark looking for the bird... unsuccessfully...
Finally, we decided to head towards Glovers Lane as the bird was last seen flying out around the northwest side of Egg Island. We drove out to the ponds, and then up to the turn around at the north end near the giant "ball". We flipped around and headed back south towards the 90 degree turn onto Glovers Lane. As we got to the corner a small bird took off, with the white tail edging flashing. I yelled to stop the car and managed to wiggle out and see the bird land behind the car behind us which had Larene Wyss in it. I managed to get up to Larene and get her on the the bird as Steve tried to get Cindy on the bird, while Paul got his looks in. At this point we took to watching the bird while Paul started shooting away. The bird was amazingly cooperative and didn't seem to mind the group of people that were watching it. Paul being the generous guy he is, allowed me to shoot several shots through his camera, so I could have one for my big year. A big thanks to Paul for that, and thanks to Steve and Cindy for the ride, and of course thanks to Bryan for a great find and my 352nd species for 2007 in Utah!
Chestnut-collared Longspur at Farmington Bay WMA, 12-21-07
In any event we made it up but found out as we were arriving that Bryan had lost track of the bird as it finally flew off due to the traffic on the rather busy dirt road at the bay. He said it had come back each time it left earlier so we had high hopes. We were soon joined by Paul Higgins, and later both Larene Wyss and Pat Jividen. For about an hour and a half, Paul, the Sommerfeld's and I worked our way around Egg Island, up and down the main dike at the bay and checked out every Song, White-crowned and American Tree Sparrow, as well as a number of Pipits and a lone Horned Lark looking for the bird... unsuccessfully...
Finally, we decided to head towards Glovers Lane as the bird was last seen flying out around the northwest side of Egg Island. We drove out to the ponds, and then up to the turn around at the north end near the giant "ball". We flipped around and headed back south towards the 90 degree turn onto Glovers Lane. As we got to the corner a small bird took off, with the white tail edging flashing. I yelled to stop the car and managed to wiggle out and see the bird land behind the car behind us which had Larene Wyss in it. I managed to get up to Larene and get her on the the bird as Steve tried to get Cindy on the bird, while Paul got his looks in. At this point we took to watching the bird while Paul started shooting away. The bird was amazingly cooperative and didn't seem to mind the group of people that were watching it. Paul being the generous guy he is, allowed me to shoot several shots through his camera, so I could have one for my big year. A big thanks to Paul for that, and thanks to Steve and Cindy for the ride, and of course thanks to Bryan for a great find and my 352nd species for 2007 in Utah!
Chestnut-collared Longspur at Farmington Bay WMA, 12-21-07
posted by Tim Avery at
6:33 PM
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