Evanston WY/UT Christmas Bird Count
reported by Tim Gorman

(Held 4 Jan 2004)

Here are some highlights from the Fish Springs CBC (Juab County) today:

White-faced Ibis - 1 along the north side of Avocet unit
Snowy Egret - 1 immature along the north side of Avocet unit
Cinnamon Teal - a pair
Canvasback - a pair
EURASION WIGEON - 2 males roosting on the ice with a flock of ~2100 Northern
Pintails and American Wigeon on the east side of Shoveler unit.
Sage Sparrows - 15 - unusually common this year

Also, the Pony Express Road is currently closed due to snow. Until it warms up or the county decides to plow the Pony Express Road, one must go up through Delta and Sand Pass (4WD is needed on the Sand Pass portion due to deep snow drifts) in order to get to Fish Springs NWR.

Colby

Tooele Christmas Bird Count
reported by KC Childs

(Held 3 Jan 2004)
Today a grand total of 3 of us went out to do the Christmas Bird Count in Tooele. It was Eric Huish, Bruce Robinson and myself. Thanks to both of them for helping out. It was snowing all day in Tooele, and very cold with over 2 feet of snow on the ground making birding quite a challange. We did manage to see a total of 40 birds. If anyone ever wants to see Pinyon Jays, I recommend going to the town of Stockton and checking out the local feeders, or just driving around town. There are a lot of them. Also we were surprised to get four species of waterfowl. There is very little water in the count circle, and most of what water there is, it was frozen. Also much of the area was not accessable due to weather conditions, and road conditions. So mountain areas were not accessed. Below is a list of our forty birds. Hope to see some more people out to it next year. Thanks again Bruce and Eric

KC Childs

Canada Goose
Mallard
Lesser Scaup
Common Goldeneye
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Ferruginous Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk
American Kestrel
Wild Turkey
Killdeer
Wilson's Snipe
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Dove
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Loggerhead Shrike
Western-scrub Jay
Pinyon Jay
Black-billed Magpie
Common Raven
Horned Lark
Black-capped Chickadee
Bushtit
Marsh Wren
American Robin
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Spotted Towhee
American Tree Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
  

Dinosaur MN / Jensen Christmas Bird Count
reported by Kathy Paulin

We had 5 intrepid birders show up for the Dinosaur NM-Jensen CBC last Saturday, despite a snowstorm that lasted most of the morning. The weather cleared up before lunch and gave us a beautiful day to finish the count. One new species was seen for this circle - a northern mockingbird at Stewart Lake Waterfowl Mgmt area. I had a Harris's sparrow at my feeder the week of the count, but couldn't find one inside the circle. Ditto for a couple great horned owls that had been hanging
around Jensen, but hid themselves as soon as the count started. Still, we did slightly better than average with 38 species and 3138 individuals (mostly thanks to a huge flock of geese seen in fields along the Green River). The complete species list is given below.

Kathy


Canada goose            1200
Mallard                          54
Blue-winged teal            13
Common goldeneye         2
Bufflehead                       4
Common merganser         1
Bald eagle                      12 (7 adult, 2 juvenile, 3 unspecified)
Northern harrier               6
Red-tailed hawk               4
Rough-legged hawk         3
Golden eagle                    4
American kestrel              7
Prairie falcon                    2
Ring-necked pheasant      4
Sandhill crane               125 (feeding with the geese)
Rock Dove                   133
Northern flicker               10 (all red-shafted)
Northern shrike                 1
Say's phoebe                    1
Horned lark                  333
Western scrub jay             1
Black-billed magpie        62
Common raven                 4
Mountain bluebird           15
American robin                33
Northern mockingbird       1
Cedar waxwing               30
European starling           551
Am. Tree sparrow             7
Song sparrow                  26
WC sparrow                   20
Dark-eyed junco             91
RW blackbird                   5
Western meadowlark      67
Cassin's finch                    8
House finch                   122
American goldfinch          21
House sparrow              155