Re: Nebo loop purple martins

[Merrill Webb <merrill_webb at yahoo dot com>]

     As a follow-up to Lu's comments on the Santaquin
Canyon road accessibility I would like to provide
additional information on the road closures on the
Spanish Fork Ranger District of the Uinta National
Forest as well as conditions on a couple of other
popular roads on other parts of the forest as you
consider your future birding plans.  
     The road up Santaquin Canyon is open as far up as
the Trumbolt Picnic Area but between there and the
Tinney Flat Campground the road is closed, and
probably will be all summer due to an unstable bridge
which was damaged by an avalanche.  The popular Nebo
Loop Road is closed and probably will be all summer
due to a slump that has  covered part of the road
between Devils Kitchen Geologic Overlook and the Salt
Creek Junction.  So, if you want to go to Bear Canyon
or Ponderosa Campgounds you can go to Nephi, turn east
on State Highway 132 towards Moroni and then take the
Salt Creek Road up to those campgrounds.  You just
can't go all the way up and over the Nebo Loop road to
Payson.  If you want to go to Tinney Flat Campground
or Santaquin Meadows you can, but you will have to go
from Payson instead of Santaquin.  The road into
Payson Lakes is open and also to Blackhawk Campround,
you just have to come back the way you went up, and
that is back to Payson.
     The Hall's Fork Road at the north end of Diamond
Fork Canyon is totally washed out and probably will be
closed to traffic all summer due to a lack of funds to
repair it.  
     On the Pleasant Grove Ranger District the road
past the Timpanooke Campgrounds around to the front of
Mt. Timpanogos is closed due to heavy snow.
  The Squaw Peak Road from Provo Canyon to Hobble
Creek Canyon is closed between Hope and Rock Canyon
Campgrounds due to avalanche problems.  Prediction of
when the road will be open is "when the snow melts."
     On the Heber Ranger District the road up to and
across Dock Flats from Highway 40 is in "terrible
condition."  Trout Creek and Co-Op Creek roads north
of Strawberry Reservoir are both closed to traffic,
the latter due to elk calving restrictions.  Lake
Creek Road east of Heber City is also closed due to
snow pack. One of the most scenic routes on the forest
and one of my BBS routes from Wolf Creek Summit in
Wasatch County along the Duchesne Ridge to Heber Mt.
is totally closed by six foot snow drifts, and
according to personnel in the Heber Ranger District
"probably won't be open until well after the 4th of
July".  
     The Alpine Loop from American Fork Canyon to
Provo Canyon is open and free from snow.  It is a
beautiful drive with water flowing out of every
drainage and the vegetation is the most lush I have
seen during my fifteen years of seasonal work on the
Uinta.
     The only birds worthy of note I have seen during
the last week of surveys on the forest are Purple
Martins (2) at Racetrack Hollow south of Strawberry
Reservoir in Wasatch County, a Ruffed Grouse and a
couple of Three-toed Woodpeckers west of Strawberry in
an area that is being logged.     
     Hope this information will be useful to any
birders going to the Uinta National Forest areas.
Merrill Webb
--- "L. D. Giddings" <seldom74@xmission.com> wrote:

> About a dozen purple martins were observed perching
> in the aspen and on
> the wing about 5.5 miles above the Santaquin Canyon
> road at 7 a.m. this
> morning. The male-female ratio was about 1:2. The
> road is now open 5.25
> miles above the Santaquin Canyon road; the drift
> that currently blocks
> further passage will probably be negotiable in 4-7
> days and possibly
> sooner. The road is mostly dry, and it is easy to
> walk from the drift
> that blocks further passage to the stand of aspen
> the purple martins are
> commonly found in. The road has not yet been plowed
> or cleaned between
> Santaquin canyon and its current terminus, so watch
> for rocks and for
> drifts that partially block the road. Some of the
> larger drifts that
> currently cover a portion of the road will last well
> into July unless
> they are plowed, but they can be by-passed with
> ease.
> 
> Lu Giddings
> 
> p.s. - this is the same place the birds have been
> seen the last two
> years.
> 
> Other birds seen in the area:
> purple martin
> violet-green swallow
> hairy woodpecker
> downy woodpecker
> northern flicker
> yellow-rumped warbler
> orange-crowned warbler
> house wren
> dark-eyed junco
> white-crowned sparrow
> chipping sparrow
> green-tailed towhee
> red-breasted nuthatch
> mountain bluebird
> Townsend's solitaire
> American robin
> hermit thrush
> warbling vireo
> American kestrel
> red-tailed hawk
> western wood peewee
> western tanager
> ruby-crowned kinglet
> common raven
> pine siskin
> mourning dove
> spotted sandpiper
> 
> 
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