Washington Co: Blue Jay, WW Scoters, etc.

["Rick Fridell" <rfridell at redrock dot net>]

Hello,

Today (11/23) Kevin Wheeler and I put in a good day of birding (instead of a
long day of working).  We visited Quail Creek and Sand Hollow State Parks,
Springdale and Zion Canyon.  The highlights were a pair of female
WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS at Sand Hollow SP, near the north dam, and the BLUE JAY
in Springdale.
The Springdale Pond area was noisy with birds, however we walked the area
for an hour and half without seeing or hearing the Blue Jay. We had given up
and were returning to the truck when we heard its raucous calls coming from
the thicket behind the Zion Park Inn.  We quickly located the bird and
managed to get a few photos. We watched it cache a pecan in the thicket
before it headed off to the north.
We also saw 20 species of waterfowl today.  Which means I might have to
count today as my "Second Annual Quest for 20 Species of Waterfowl in
Washington County on Thanksgiving Day", even though it's a couple days
early.  Anyway, 18 of these were at Sand Hollow SP (we added Hooded
Mergansers at Quail and in Springdale, and Wood Ducks at the Wilson Pond in
LaVerkin).

We saw some other good stuff as well, but that's pretty much the highlights.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Rick Fridell
Hurricane, UT

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