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On Saturday met Milton Moody,
Merrill Webb, Alton Thygerson, Reed Stone, and two members of the BYU
Ornithology Class, Connie and Carina, at Rock Canyon, where we birded for a
couple of hours. While there we saw a Steller's Jay,
Canyon Wren (2), Golden Eagle (2) flying
overhead, Brown Creeper, several illusive
Chukar, a Western Scrub-Jay and
Black-billed Magpie (2) high on the mountain to the
south. The Chukar were located were about 100 yds. past the 2nd gate on
the north slope of the canyon near the large rock slide. They were
very difficult to see, although we heard them calling for quite a while.
Finally we saw them fly and the folks with sharp eyes located them for the rest
of us.
Reed, Milt and Merrill had to
leave, so for Alton, Connie, Carina and I the next stop was Milt's feeder in
Indian Hills, where we were immediately greeted by a flock of about a dozen
beautiful California Quail feeding on the ground and in the
bushes underneath his feeders. While there we also a Pine
Siskin, House Finch, House Sparrow,
Dark-eyed Junco, and an American
Goldfinch. We got an excellent view of the Pine Siskin when it
landed on a spent small sun flower just in front of the kitchen window. On
a nearby neighbor's tree we saw an American Robin, along with a
few more California Quail.
Our next stop was Camelot
Woods. On the way, at PSCIPCO, we saw several Northern Flicker
and many European Starling.
At Camelot Woods we saw several
Song Sparrow in the cattails, Black-capped
Chickadee, and a lone Ruby-crowned Kinglet. We
ran into Larene Wyss, Eric, and KC, who were coming back from the lake.
They announced they had not been able to locate the Swamp Sparrow, but had seen
the Winter Wren. Fortunately we were again able to locate
it. What an active little bird! All got good looks. Before we
left we again saw many Starlings and a lone Red-tailed
Hawk.
We all went to Payson and after
seeing a Barn Owl and American Kestrel, we
left Larene, Eric and KC at Wendy's. We stopped to get some first aid
supplies to repair some wounds, then continued to Santiquin and
west through Goshen and Eureka, to the Tintic Mining District. Near
the Warm Springs area, just before Goshen, Carina spotted a Northern
Harrier. In the Tintic Mining area we were fortunate to get
a some very good looks at a flock of about a 12-15 Evening
Grosbeak feeding on a juniper tree on the western part
of the road. Along the way we also saw several Common
Raven flying in the distance along the way.
[There will be no expanded
comments about an encounter with vandals, whom were reported to the proper
authorities. Good choice, since we later determined they had
rifles.]
On to Vernon in Tooele County,
to see the Great Horned Owl--NOT. But, we got a great look at
a Rough-legged Hawk and a nearby very large flock of
Red-winged Blackbird.
Further north at Faust, at the
junction of the road to Cedar Valley and Fairfield, we immediately stop at
the residence right after the turn (on the right) and found the Great
Horned Owl sitting on south side of one of the trees. We had a
great view for some time, as the owl continued its rest. We also had a
nice conversation with the owners of the house and thanked them for allowing us
to view "their" owl. At the nearby wetlands we saw two Great
Blue Heron and some wintering ducks.
Traveling further east we
stopped at Cedar Fort, where before turning south we saw an adult Bald
Eagle in a tree to the north of the road. After turning south
past the museum, we were again greeted by a great view of another adult Bald
Eagle that was sitting in a large tree to the east, about 3-4 feet from a
beautiful Ferruginous Hawk (not a word was being exchanged, or
so it seemed).
We also saw some Song Sparrow,
Dark-eyed Junco, and White-crowned Sparrow in a bush near the
road.
This was a long, but great, day
where we were rewarded with good company and a count of 33 species
seen.
Glenn
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