2008 Off to a Good Start

Six (6) days into 2008 and it has thus far been a good week. Although I'm not out to see 350 species in Utah this year, I am working on my Salt Lake County list and have been working on picking up some of the winter specialty birds. I didn't go biridng at all on the 1st or 2nd, and my first bird of the year on the 3rd was a California Gull, followed by the other typical finds at Lee Kay Ponds. However, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Glaucous-winged and Thayer's Gulls all were present and were the highlights.

On the 4th I was able to pick up Bohemian Waxwing near the mouth of Parleys Canyon, at Foothill Drive and Parley's Way, where a flock of 70 were foraging in some ornamental juniper.

On the 5th I headed back out to Lee Kay and added Mew Gull for the year, before heading out to the Kennecott ISSR to conduct a survey where I picked up a Northern Shrike.

Northern Shrike at the ISSR, January 5, 2008

Before January is over I need to find a Merlin as well as Rosy-finches, plus spend some time looking for other winter specialties. Not a bad start at all to 2008!