Red Polls

["Steve Coleman" <scoleman at tax dot state dot ut dot us>]

Yesterday I spent some quality time with my son, we went to Mantua in search of those red polls we drove around town for about 20 minutes and saw a lot of both cedar and bohemian waxwings, several downy woodpeckers, house finches, house sparrows and others, no sighting of the red polls. As we headed back out of town we stopped in front of the yellow house near the intersection of 1st South and main as I looked back down the little drive way that leads back to the barns I noticed a tree full of tiny birds. We got out and walked though the snow right up to the tree. We counted 30 red polls and several American gold finches. There are a lot of birds in this town. The Bohemian Waxwings are a new bird for my list, and I was able to confirm that the bird I sighted earlier this winter in my back yard was a red poll. 

We then went to Bear River Bird Refuge. Not a lot of action but saw rough legged hawks, many harriers including a couple of really nice males. several short eared owls, many blue herons, and horned larks. The horned larks are new for my list also.

Had a great day we saw 19 species in all

Happy birding Steve

PS the Harris' sparrow was still with the flock of house sparrows in my back yard yesterday.