Washington County Birds

["Rick Fridell" <rfridell at redrock dot net>]

Kristen Comella, Rob Dobbs, Kevin Wheeler and I went to Lytle Ranch Saturday
evening (7/21) through Sunday morning (7/22).  We heard a possible elf owl
in the vicinity of the large cottonwood below the first pond.  The owl
called briefly 3 times between 9:45 pm and 12:30 am. It was not the typical
elf owl call, but had a similar quality and did not sound like anything we
have heard from a W. Screech-owl.  Screech-Owls were chorusing in the area,
but seemed to ignore this bird. We are hoping to try again in a couple of
weeks. We did not use tapes or try to visually locate the owl.
Despite the heat on Sunday morning, we did very well at Lytle Ranch,
locating an adult male Indigo Bunting and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo.  The
bunting was feeding with Lazuli Buntings and House Finchs in a grassy area
in the vicinity of the first pond north of the ranch.  We observed the
Cuckoo upstream (and uptrail) of the upper picnic table and black hawk nest
area. The cuckoo was observed for 15-20 minutes slowly working through ashes
and cottonwoods. This bird was very silent, however we did hear it sing once
after it had moved up Beaver Dam Wash.
Also of potential interest at Lytle Ranch was an early Marsh Wren, as well
as many (15+) adult male Western Tanagers.
Last night (7/22) Rob and I also observed a Green Heron nest with four young
at Berry Springs Marsh.  Berry Springs Marsh is located along the Virgin
River across from the SR-9 (Hurricane) Sewer Ponds.

Rick Fridell


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