Washington County Weekend

Friday, I drove down to Washington County for the weekend. I arrived after dark and camped on the Beaver Dam Slope, just above Lytle Ranch. Most of the night 2 Great Horned Owls hooted back and forth providing a little noise against the otherwise silent desert. Saturday Morning (01/16) I woke to cloudy skies and a rather quiet Mojave Desert. No Cactus Wren singing, no sparrow flocks moving through. Not even a flyover House Finch or Mountain Bluebird calling. I made my way down to the Lytle Ranch and was greeted by several singing Crissal Thrasher, which didn't mind posing for pictures.

Crissal Thrasher at Lytle Ranch, Utah

Several Phainopepla were also around the parking area, along with a Ladder-backed Woodpecker and surprisingly only 1 or 2 Verdin (usually quite a few can be heard). Leaving the housing area things got pretty quiet. There was a pretty big flock of juncos and White-crowned Sparrows near the brush pile in the orchard, and 2 Red-naped Sapsuckers were making their rounds. And that was about it. A single Mountain Bluebird was calling from near the river, but bird life was scarce.

Phainopepla and Verdin at Lytle Ranch, Utah

I left the ranch after only a couple hours and headed to Snow Canyon State Park. I visited the Campground, where a hummingbird flew off when I arrived. Several times I could here a male ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRD chattering, and giving alarm calls, and at one point I could see him
perched deep in the bushes near the camp hosts site. But the 45 minutes I was there, the bird refused to revisit the feeder. Leaving the state park there were around 10 Hooded Merganser on the ponds at Entrada Golf Course.

Hooded Mergansers at Entrada Golf Course, Ivins, Utah

Stopping at Tonaquint Park, several Abert's Towhees were heard calling, while a Great Blue Heron sat watch from the large cottonwood near the pond. On the pond were a handful
of Wood Ducks, 2 Bufflehead and a lone Scaup that was in a transition plumage, and has me stumped (rare for a duck to do this). It seemed quite large billed, but sat high in the water, and it head looked tall, but thick. It definitely had a Greater Scaup feel to it, but it was surely a strange duck. The lone Yellow-rumped Warbler I heard all weekend was also here.

At Southgate Golf Course were 2 GREAT EGRET along with pretty much every species of waterfowl you would expect in St. George in the winter. heading east made a stop at St. George Golf Course, where a couple hundred wigeon were very cooperative, allowing for great photos. I stopped briefly at Springs Estate Pond where there weren't any out of the ordinary birds, but I did spot a Rick Fridell playing hoops with Quinn (I knew Rick was a good birder, but his jump shot is pretty impressive too).

Made my way through the Washington Fields, where I couldn't manage to find Rick's Northern Shrike (looked again on Sunday without luck). There was a huge flock of 500 or so collared-doves in the area, along with the usual Savannah Sparrows, American Pipits, etc. There were 4 different Ferruginous Hawks present as well. Headed towards Hurricane, visiting Zions Gate RV Resort where I couldn't pick out any Inca Doves, there were a few collared-doves present, but that was all. Stratton Pond had the usual Hooded Mergansers and Greater Scaup
along with a smattering of other waterfowl.

I went over to Sky Mountain Golf Course to look for the reported Eurasian Wigeon. The flock there was huge, but the Eurasian stood out like a sore thumb amongst the other birds. However, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I believe this is actually a hybrid, not a pure Eurasian. It was impossible to tell with binoculars an camera, but through the scope and up close in the pictures I could make out green streaks near the base of the neck at the back of the birds head.
Take a look at the pictures and let me know what you think.

Hybrid Eurasian x American Wigeon at Sky Mountain Golf Course, Hurricane, Utah

The down side of birding in January is that it gets dark 4 hours earlier than in May, so I was headed back to the Beaver Dam Slope for the night before I knew it.

Sunday, I basically did the exact same route as before. Picked up a few more birds at Lytle, including, Black and Say's Phoebe. At Snow Canyon this time I was treated to great looks at the ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRD perched at the feeder, and perched atop several trees. Besides the 2 calls I had heard the day before I got to watch the bird do it's aerial display which ends in a strange click when the bird hits the bottom of it's arc. Talking to Colby he mentioned this is
actually made by the tail feathers, due to the speed the bird is moving. Way cool. Also managed a couple distant shots at the feeder.

Anna's Hummingbird at Snow Canyon State Park, Utah

At the rest of my stops the birds were pretty much the same, except the GREAT EGRETS were at Entrada Golf course instead of Southgate. My last stop before taking off before the bad weather, was at Quail Creek Reservoir, where the juvenile YELLOW-BILLED LOON was on the water out from the marina, while 3 Common Loon were near the dam, as well as around 150 Common Mergansers (seemed like a big flock).

Rosy-Finches... No. Mountain Goats... Yes!!!

Yesterday, Sam and I drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon to go look for Rosy-Finches at Alta. The birds were a no show, but it was nice to get above the inversion, into clean air, warmer temps and blue sky! We checked all the usual feeders and drove around a bit checking a few out of the way lanes. Most of the feeders around appeared to be empty( In fact the only birds heard or seen the entire time were around a half a dozen Mountain Chickadees. I also heard one Hairy Woodpecker break into rattle just below Snowbird.

View of Salt Lake Valley in the smog from Little Cottonwood Canyon

After driving back down the canyon we stopped so I could photograph the smog, Sam grabbed my binoculars and started looking in the cliffs to see if any Mountain Goats were around. It only took her a minute to find one, then another, and another. These were actually the first I have seen in Utah, despite having them so close to home. I wasn't able to get any killer pictures, but got a few okay shots, including this digiscoped one:

One of three Mountain Goats out in Little Cottonwood Canyon

However, I think the video i scoped kicks the photographs butt. Take a look below:

I also shot another shorter video which can be seen by clicking here.

Lesser Black-backed Gull Video

10 years ago Lesser Black-backed Gulls were almost impossible to find in Utah. A species expanding from the east, slowly creeping into the mountain west during the winter months, with 2 records from Utah. In 2001 a 3rd record was seen at the Bountiful Landfill, and after 2004, the flood gates opened with multiple records each winter, and as many as 4 being reported at a time in 2008. This winter has been a very fruitful one, with what appeared to be at least 2, and maybe 3 different LBBG's along the causeway in November. Then 3 or 4 at Decker Lake and Lee Kay Ponds in December. Finally, last week Cliff Weisse reported as many as 6 while birding Lee Kay, Lake Park and Decker Lake. Quite a difference from 10 years ago.

On January 9th while birding at Decker Lake, I was able to capture this video through my spotting scope with my digital camera. Fun bird, and a fun video:

Crawling through the 70's with a Western Gull

Jeff Bilsky and I birded around Salt Lake County this morning (01/09), visiting Lee Kay Ponds, 7200 West, Lake Park, Decker Lake, Nibley Park and Forest Dale Golf Courses, Old Farm, the Jordan River at 10200 South and 12600 South, Herriman, Yellow Fork/Rose Canyon and the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Along with a plethora of locations, came a "schmorgesborg" (Jeff's word to describe the day) of birds, and great sightings.

Lee Kay Ponds was as it has been as of late... dead. A Bald Eagle kept post keeping all other birds at bay. We decided to head where the action has been as of lately, back to the southeast--Lake Park and Decker Lake.

We entered Lake Park from the west side that Cliff mentioned, passing the "Fishing Pond" which had a lone Redhead on the water. Heading east we didn't see many geese and continued on towards Decker Lake, where we hit the mother-load of a a gull flock. Easily 3500 gulls today most crammed into the southwest corner. Despite the huge number of birds, it was mostly California (3000), with an okay showing or Ring-billed Gulls (490), a very limited number of Herring Gulls (6), a lone adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL, and a lone bird that appears to be a good fit for a 1st winter WESTERN GULL. Comparing to Cliff's pictures, I am not sure if it is the same bird. Ours appeared to have more white in the head, but the light was poor, and it really is hard to tell. It spent most of the time moving through the flock, often terrorizing other gulls. I got one shot of it flying past as the flock swirled, showing the "double-secondaries" with a thick white trailing-edge...

Possible Western Gull with California Gull at Decker Lake

As we were leaving a Northern Harrier flew in sending everything air borne for a few minutes. If you choose to go, I highly recommend a scope to pick through, and maybe a rain jacket to protect form the falling excrement. Definitely don't look up in amazement with your jaw dropped--that may not end well.

After the gull frenzy we headed back to Lake Park and saw a number of geese we hadn't earlier. We stopped to take a look and just as we were headed back to the car, Jeff did a 2nd scan and spotted the tiny GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE off in the distance. We drove to a better
vantage point where I snapped a few shots before moving on. Passing the "Fishing Pond" again, it was gull-less as before. We head out to Lee Kay Ponds which was still barren. Along 7200 west we encountered flock of 15-20 American Goldfinches and a Bald Eagle which may have been the same one from the ponds earlier).

Greater White-fronted Goose at Lake Park

We made our way into the city and stopped at Nibley Park Golf Course, which was void of geese, and pretty much everything else. Swinging a couple blocks over to Forest Dale it was also void of geese, but did afford us looks at a darker than usual MERLIN near the corner of 2700 South and 900 East. Continuing south we stopped at Old Farm where the usual mallards were on the pond. A mixed flock of Cedar Waxwings and robins were making a racket at the tennis courts... No pun intended.

Has anyone seen Wood Ducks in Salt Lake County lately? This bird has become harder and harder to get aside from random encounters in the valley.

Moving further south we took the 10600 south exit off I-15 and headed to the Jordan River. We drove around the west side and up to 10200 south scanning the geese hoping for the Ross's (reported on the Jordan River CBC) or some other treat. None were found. We walked along the
river a little ways where a Belted Kingfisher sat watch over the river, and we flushed what looked to be a Wilson's Snipe from a muddy meadow, although Jeff never saw it, and my look was just the tail end as it flew away. A lone Bald Eagle flew over as well as a Red-tailed Hawk, and a Great Blue Heron.

We made a quick stop at 12600 south along the Jordan River, and walked south about 1/2 mile. Lots of Robins, juncos, and Yellow-rumped Warblers. Jeff did an imitation of a Rail along a marshy section. If you ever go birding with Jeff ask him to do his best rail imitation. It will either have you in awe or give you a good laugh. He swears that it works, I swear its something every birder needs to see in their lifetime. 2 Bald Eagles flew over while we were here--it's always nice to see these imposing raptors.

Heading west now, we passed through Herriman where we saw no collared-doves. We made our way up Rose/Yellow Fork Canyon stopping to look at a beautiful Golden Eagle perched atop a juniper. As we were watching the eagle get mobbed by magpies, a Juniper Titmouse rattled off up the road. After the eagle took flight, we found several (3-4) titmice in the area. Hiking a little ways up Yellow Fork Canyon we didn't find much. A few Scrub Jays and juncos, but nothing out of the ordinary, and very little of the ordinary. We headed back through Herriman, Jeff finally spotted a Eurasian Collared-Dove on a wire as we were leaving town.

Golden Eagle in Rose Canyon

After grabbing lunch and gas we headed back north and tried Lake Park and Lee Kay Ponds for gulls again. Neither location produced anything. Lee Kay 0/3 today... ouch. Anyways, we headed east to the city cemetery which was more dead than usual (seriously, I know, bad description). After making several stops and imitating pygmy-owls, we had only seen magpies and a lone Townsend's Solitaire. At what we decided was our last stop we lucked out finding a small group of BROWN CREEPERS working some spruce on the north side.

New County Year Birds:

68. Lesser Yellowlegs - Decker Lake
69. Western Gull - Decker Lake
70. Greater White-fronted Goose - Lake Park
71. Belted Kingfisher - Jordan River--10200 South
72. Wilson's Snipe - Jordan River--10200 South
73. Golden Eagle - Rose Canyon
74. Juniper Titmouse - Rose Canyon
75. Eurasian Collared-Dove - Herriman
76. Brown Creeper - Salt Lake City Cemetery

#67 American Dipper... at work?

It's always fun to find a bird you wouldn't suspect to find. Simple enough statement. Several months ago a senior vice president at my work asked me what the tiny charcoal colored birds were that ran under water. The SVP is a man from South Africa, who came to know of my interest in birds and wildlife quite some time after I came to work there. We had many differences, but it seemed the common bond between us was wildlife. Since, we have had the occasional chat about birds, and elk, and water buffalo, and lions, and rhinos. Needless, to say some interesting stuff. Anyways, back to the story. I explained that they were called American Dipper, and also referred to as the Water Ouzel. He then asked where he might see one. I told him that pretty much every canyon form the valley up into the mountains had them along their swift running streams. He had sort of laid a trap for me, then telling me that he didn't even need to go that far. In fact, he could walk out the back door of the building and walk along the Big Cottonwood Creek overflow where he had seen a couple during that week.

American Dipper, photographed near Alton, WY
Click Here to view more American Dipper Pictures

Ah yes, of course, it was October, so a bit on what I felt was the early side, but completely reasonable for them to already be down in the valleys. I had seen them in Memory Grove and Parley's Gulch in the winter, but never any in the late autumn this low. After this conversation, I always tried to keep an eye on the overflow. It usually had water in it (aside from mid-summer), and at times ran more swiftly than others (particularly the days following a storm). The overflow was boulder lined, and rocky, with a gravel bottom--perfect for the ouzel.

It wasn't until mid-December that I heard one calling as it flew upstream, and only a couple days later that I caught the tail end of one zipping away. I am sure that if I spent some time walking along the creek, I would come across more, but usually my path led me only to cross it on a foot bridge, and then back to the concrete jungle of parking plazas and lots. I did this 4 times a day. Twice from my car to the office and twice from the office to my car. Granted this has only been for the past month and a half, but that is still conservatively 120 trips across the river, and only 2 dipper sightings. I figured I would have heard them more often or seen them, but oh well they aren't exactly a rarity.

Well tonight, as I strolled out of the office, chatting with Sam on the phone, I looked west as I crossed the bridge, and low and behold, there was a Dipper, bobbing up and down on a boulder. It quickly took flight, zipping under the bridge and upstream as a I excitedly told Sam I just had a dipper! Yippee!

A new bird for the month and the year, and a fun story to go along!

67. American Dipper - Cottonwood Heights

Mid-week Lull

Tuesday - Thursday is the mid-week lull. At least this time of year when birds around my house and work are scarce. It's impossible to go birding in the middles of the week with the sun setting around 5:30pm and limited time during the day because of work. So it is the mid-week lull. On Tuesday I took Sam to North Salt Lake to deliver a truckload of donations to the Utah Animal Adoption Center. We drove by Warm Springs Ponds on the northern edge of the county. There were several hundred American Coots and several hundred Ring-necked Ducks on the west most pond. See map below if you are unfamiliar with this area:

Click Here to View Interactive Map in Google Maps

Warm Springs Ponds is just off Interstate 15 near 2200 North, barely inside the county line. The area is rarely birded and was primarily checked during the early 2000's as a fall shorebird stop. Salt Lake County does not have a great deal of accessible shorebird habitat, and the ponds provided a small area of water and mudflats that never tuned up anything rare, but made it easy to get the regularly occurring shorebirds without leaving the valley.

Currently the gate going into the property appears to be closed, so it may be off limits now. In any event it is a unique area, few by what else, but warm springs, keeping the water open year round.

Long-eared Owl - A Tough Salt Lake County Bird

Today I had most of the afternoon off so I took advantage of the sun and did a little birding. I started on the Jordan River at 12600 South where I found a single LONG-EARED OWL in a Russian Olive patch about 1/2 mile south of 12600 South. 100's of American Robins, plenty of chickadees, juncos and a good number of Yellow-rumped Warbler were also present. A small flock of Cedar Waxwings flew over as well as a few American Goldfinches.

Long-eared Owl in Salt Lake County, Utah

Long-eared Owl is a bit of a tricky species in Salt Lake County. It is a breeder, but good luck finding a Long-eared Owl nest. It is a migrant through the county, but coming across one at a trap or park, is just a matter of luck. And it is a wintering species, using patches of Russian Olives in the valley bottom to roost in, but there is no particular patch that one can just go to and find a Long-eared Owl--as with migration a great deal of luck is in order. That's not to say there aren't areas that are more likely to have them than others, but finding them is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

In 2008 when I did my county Big Year, I didn't have a Long-eared Owl in the county. I had one about 1/4 mile outside the county on Big Mountain, during the breeding season hooting in the middle of the night. Last year I chased a similar report in the county without finding any owls. After yesterday's debacle I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to find one, but decided to give it a try. It only took about 5 minutes of following the sounds of chickadees and yellow-rumps calling away that I finally tracked down a single Long-eared perched on a snag on the edge of a patch of Russian Olives about 200 feet from the Jordan River. This was probably within a 1/2 mile of where the report from the Jordan River CBC put the birds It was very satisfying to pick up the bird for the county and the year!

Yellow-rumped Warbler (picking up some color in the head)
in Salt Lake County, Utah

After making a lunch stop, I headed out to Lee Kay Ponds which had ZERO gulls on the ponds. I decided to head towards Decker Lake, stopping at Lake Park, where I probably scanned through 2,000 Canada Geese hoping to find the Greater White-fronted that continues to elude me through 3 stops there this year. During the scanning I was able to pick out 2 CACKLING GEESE again.

As I pulled up to Decker Lake there were probably about 2,500 gulls on the lake. As I was walking towards the area they were at, a Red-tailed Hawk flew over, and everything took flight. About 1/2 of the birds landed again, while the other half headed in the direction of Lee Kay/The Landfill. Scanning through I only saw 2 Herring Gulls in what was mostly California Gulls with a small number of Ring-billed. There were 2 Common Merganser present today.

I headed back to Lee Kay Ponds, where there were still no gulls present. Heading out to 7200 West and up towards I-80 there was a lone MERLIN perched on a power pole.

Merlin in Salt Lake County Utah

Lastly I swung through the International Center where there was a NORTHERN SHRIKE just west of Hunter-Douglas on the Frontage Road where Jeff Bilsky and I had one last week.

Not a bad day, adding 6 species for the year.

61. Long-eared Owl - Jordan River--12600 South
62. Cedar Waxwing - Jordan River--12600 South
63. American Goldfinch - Jordan River--12600 South
64. Killdeer - Decker Lake
65. Common Merganser - Decker Lake
66. Northern Shrike - SLIC

#60 - Marsh Wren... That's About It.

The plan today was to try and pick up a hard to get Salt Lake County species, without doing any "real" birding. I asked Sam if she wanted to go for a walk along the Jordan River, hoping that I would come across the Long-eared Owls reported on the Jordan River CBC earlier in the week. It took some coaxing to convince her to drive to Draper to go for a walk, and the compromise was bringing her dog Hank along. It was a bit of a battle, since I didn't want to bring the dog in fear of bothering the owls, but in the end, I knew that could be avoided.

After the short drive across valley we showed up in a slight breeze, dropping the feel of the air to below freezing. Luckily we were bundled, and shortly on our way south along the River near 12600 South. Birds were scarce, but the occasional Song Sparrow chipped while a Yellow-rumped Warbler called here and then there. As we got to the spot I thought most promising to search I heard Sam gasp in horror. She told me Hank was bleeding and Sam doesn't really deal with blood all that well. So I went over to see what was going on and to my surprise there were little spots of blood all over the asphalt. I grabbed his feet and started checking them, finally seeing it was his rear right paw and the pad was completely red, I decided it was time to turn back. We were only 15 minutes in to what I hoped would be about an hour or so walk, but the dog wouldn't get any better, and I can always find birds another day.

Sam and Hank Posing... And Hank Skulking along the trail.

So after a short meltdown (that included pants ripping, dog hair all over my jacket, a growling canine upset that I was holding his leg to put a glove on his foot, and blood all over my hands--which all led to me letting a a few expletives fly and Sam getting upset because her poor dog was hurt, and I was upset) we were on our way back to the car. I was owl-less for the day, but the dog did take priority in this situation. Nearing the parking area, I did pick up a new year bird as I could hear 2 MARSH WREN chattering at one another. So all was not lost as I now have only 190 species to go for the year in the county.

60. Marsh Wren - Jordan River-- 12600 South

"Pacific" Winter Wren and a few Sharpies

Jeff Bilsky and I birded around Salt Lake County today (01/02). We started the day at Lee Kay Ponds where gulls were just starting to filter into the west pond. After about 10 minutes, we decided to take off and comeback later hoping more gulls would join the party. An adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL was a highlight, along with several Canvasback and Redhead. We drove along the south end of the landfill to 7200 West where we came across a PRAIRIE FALCON. Along 7200 west was a flock of ~100 Horned Lark, with nothing mixed in. We drove the Frontage Road from 7200 West to Saltair with very few birds, but one nice group of Pronghorn at about 8800 west or so.

Pronghorn along the south shore of the Great Salt Lake

Saltair/Great Salt Lake State Park was pretty dead. A lone Loggerhead Shrike was seen along the road in. We headed back to Lee Kay to find even less gulls than before, with a Bald Eagle watching over the open water. Out over the landfill several 1000 gulls were swarming, along with 1000's of starlings. Next we headed to Lake Park to see if we could pick out any specialty geese. There were probably around 1,500 geese present today, and a lone CACKLING GOOSE made up for the only out of the ordinary find. Moving on we made our way to Decker Lake where there were probably 1500 or so gulls on the lake. About 1/2 Ring-billed and 1/2 California with a handful of Herring, and surprisingly the same LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL that was at Lee Kay earlier in the day. Also of note here was a pair of Beyer's (The Joel and Kathy variety).

We decided to try our luck in some different habitats, so we headed to City Creek Canyon, and hiked up to around picnic area 9 where we found a "Pacific" WINTER WREN on a south facing slope where a spring was running out of the hill. On the way up we passed 4 birders, who I guess hadn't seen to much, they seemed in a hurry and past with just a slight hello. As we were watching the Wren, Megan Dalton and a couple of friends came down the canyon and got to see the wren as well. Jeff and I continued up the canyon a little bit, but due to time constraints decided to head out and visit the cemetery. We did come across 3 different Sharp-shinned Hawks here as well--but not much else.

Sharp-shinned Hawk in City Creek Canyon

At the cemetery we went to the spot where the Pygmy Nuthatches were hanging out last year, but none were found this go around. We got into a nice flock of chickadees, and Red-breasted Nuthatch while I was imitating a pygmy-owl. A inquisitive Townsend's Solitaire came into see what was going on. And lastly I caught a glimpse of a Merlin streaking east near the hills above the cemetery.

Towsend's Solitaire and Spotted Towhee in Salt Lake County

Nice day to be out. I tallied 47 species, one short of the 48 from yesterday. I ended the day at 59 species for the year, adding California Quail at Sam's house right before dusk.

New County Birds for the Year
49. Redhead - Lee Kay Ponds
50. Prairie Falcon - 7200 West
51. Loggerhead Shrike - Salt Air Marina
52. Dark-eyed Junco - Lake Park Facility
53. Northern Flicker - City Creek Canyon
54. Spotted Towhee - City Creek Canyon
55. Winter Wren - City Creek Canyon
56. Yellow-rumped Warbler - Salt Lake City Cemetery
57. Red-breasted Nuthatch - Salt Lake City Cemetery
58. Townsend's Solitaire - Salt Lake City Cemetery
59. California Quail - Cottonwood Heights

Good Birding

Tim

Nice start to the year

Picked up 48 species today (January 1st) to start the year. Not a bad number for not having left Salt Lake County. Let's see that leaves 202 species for the county for the year. Haha.

Some highlights:
2 Cackling Goose
1 Canvasback
7 Barrow's Goldeneye
1 Rough-legged Hawk
1 Merlin
1 Peregrine Falcon
4 or 5 Thayer's Gull
1 possible Iceland Gull (Kumliens)
2 Lesser Black-backed Gull
1 Great Horned Owl
Black-billed Magpie (1st species of the year - not really a highlight...)

Cackling Goose with Canada Goose (Canada on left)
view more Cacklers: Click Here

That's it for today!