Antelope Island

[Brian Currie <bcurrie33 at hotmail dot com>]

I went to Antelope Island on Friday (3/12) to see if I could locate the
Long-eared Owl.  I first went through the barn, looked up in the rafters,
nothing.  Then I went all around the trail, very nice day, saw a Wilson's
Snipe by the newly formed marsh area south of the ranch.  Plenty of the
usual birds.  By this time it was almost 5:00 so I headed back.  Thinking
that I was again "shut out" (I went up last weekend to see the Northern
Hawk Owl, it was not there) I was about to head to my car.  I happened to
do a very unmale type thing.  I actually asked one of the rangers if he
had seen it.  Sure enough he had, and it was right in the barn and I
probably looked right at it the first time.  There was only one.  It was
on the eastern most part of the barn, at the top of the "A" part of the
roof.  It was very dark, but I managed to get some decent photos (at least
I think they are).

The Northern Shrike was not there.  However, a beautifully colored
Meadowlark was and that alone was worth the trip.  On my way out I headed
on the road by the visitor's center.  At the first parking area NORTH of
the visitor's center (NOT the one closest to egg island, the next one just
south of there), a flock of Starlings flew in front of me.  However, I
also saw a flash of blue.  I got out the scope and found two male and one
female Mountain Bluebirds.  I was amazed as I had never seen these on
Antelope Island before.  I watched for at least 10 minutes.  They stayed
with the flock of Starlings whenever they flushed, never going too far.
I observed them southwest of that parking lot, but they had flew from an
area just northwest of the visitor's center.

Just an FYI, the same ranger who showed me the LE Owl told me that he
knows that the Burrowing Owls are back.  He said they found an injured one
by the road the other day and they took it to a rehab center.  I did look
in the usual spots (my reason for being near the visitor's center) but did
not see any.

Good birding!

Brian Currie

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