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I got back from a three-day birding escape (drive-about, if
you will) in my wee Daihatsu Charade. Finally at a computer with
e-mail. I visited the Flaming Gorge/Brown's Park areas, with a foray down
into the Basin (before the hot winds drove me back north). I was hoping
for some interesting Eastern migrants funneling around the eastern edge of the
Uintas, but, alas, I didn't see anything spectacularly rare. I did have
some soul-refreshing 'lone time, though, and saw a part of the world I'd not
seen before. Here are the birding highlights:
>Horned grebe: in breeding plumage
on Deseret Ranch north of Evanston (private property --contact Mark Stackhouse
if interested in pursuing this pretty bird--so much more spectacular than in
winter). 30 May. (Also: three species of owls nearby in
daylight --Great horned, Short-eared, and Burrowing)
>American bitterns: quite common in
the Leota Bottoms portion of Ouray NWR, Uintah Co. Despite it being
mid-afternoon on a sunny & windy day, I must have seen ten airborne at
one time or another, with four in the air at one point. I've never been
there this time of year without seeing those otherwise-difficult birds.
Just walk down the dike road. 31 May. The Ross'
goose previously reported was still there on the main auto loop
(but very flighty).
>Stilt sandpipers: three on the west
end of Pelican Lake, Uintah Co. In 3/4-breeding plumage. Access is
from the road that runs east-west north of the lake, and becomes a pretty nasty
dirt road by the time it reaches the end (where the shorebirds are in the
mini-delta of the creek that flows in there). 31 May.
>Eastern kingbird: more common than
Westerns at Stewart Lake WMA (by Jensen, Uintah Co.), which was otherwise
worthless.
Well, that's it for the more "unusual" things. I think
my favorite moments were watching some of the common species in perfect light
and seeing the spectacular geology and ecosystems of the area, seeing how it all
fits together. I found myself planning future family vacations,
trying to see the place through the eyes of an eight or six
year-old. A hanging bridge undulating in the wind, flowing water next to
throwable rocks, firewood for marshmallow torches, dirt roads for
bicycles...
David
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