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I birded East Canyon Reservoir in Morgan County
today and came up with a slightly eclectic mix of goodies. First, three
juvenile SURF SCOTERS swam on the far side of the reservoir across from mile
16.5 on SR-65. This spot is just a little south of the Taylor's Hollow
area. Two of the three birds preened and dove, which allowed me to see
that their wings were completely dark. The third scoter did not show white
secondaries while resting in its head-tucked posture. The
juvenile birds aren't particularly beautiful, but I like researching the
species because I'm reminded that its taxonomic name is Melanitta
perspicillata. Go ahead, say it--the name just rolls off your
tongue.
I won the Merganser trifecta and logged all
three Merganser species. Six HOODED MERGANSERS (five of which were
males--gorgeous) swam down near the south end. I also saw a small
flotilla of Red-breasteds and Commons throughout. The Common Mergansers
tended to use the west shore and I saw many either swimming or resting.
The males are still in that transitional plumage stage between eclipse and
breeding that I believe is officially termed, 'funky'.
I came across four Red-naped Sapsuckers at the
state park's main recreation area and marina. One male sported a
heavy amount of red on the crown, nape, and throat; in fact, the red on the
throat looked more like a bib than it did a throat patch. In addition, the
white and black stripes on the side of the face were splattered with red as
if the bird passed through a red paint splash zone. My gut tells me this
was just a plain ol' Red-naped and not a hybrid, even though I couldn't validate
the presence of a black border where the red bib ended. This particular
sapsucker was also missing its retrices. The bird didn't seem to have any
difficulty hopping up the trunk without the tail prop.
The other sapsuckers working the same trees
were a neat-looking male, a neat-looking female, and what I believe was a
hatch-year female. She had both white on her throat and a
slightly murky cast to her head plumage. She was also very pale
across her back and wings. The location of all four sapsuckers
was between the two wooden buildings in the fenced area.
From the look of the extensive drilling and
scarring high on the tree limbs, this spot has long been a sapsucker stopover
(say that, three times, real fast!). I'm not sure I would have
thought to look/listen for sapsuckers this late had I not seen a Yellow-rumped
Warbler dipping into sap wells on a branch. A light bulb went off--a
warbler foraging from sap wells meant that somebody had drilled there
recently. As it turned out, those sapsuckers were pretty quiet and I had
to look hard to detect them.
Other birds in or around the reservoir
included Mallards; Pied-billed, Eared and Western Grebes; Common
Loons; a Red-tailed Hawk; a Bald Eagle; Wild Turkeys (in East Canyon);
Ruby-crowned Kinglets; Black-capped Chickadees; Cedar Waxwings and American
Goldfinches.
Finally, a request--could someone please go up to
East Canyon and inspect all the loons? I've looked for Pacifics until
my eyes are crossed and I'm dizzy, and I only see Commons!
Kris
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