three-toed woodpeckers, great grackles, horned grebe, and gray partridge

["L. D. Giddings" <seldom74 at xmission dot com>]

Yesterday (10/21) at about 11 a.m. a three-toed woodpecker was spotted
from the parking lot of the Nebo Bench trail on the Nebo loop, about 27
miles southeast of Payson. A large stone marker on the road before the
parking lot is labelled "Monument." This is roughly the same spot at
which three-toed woodpeckers were reported by K.C. Childs on 8/17/05.
The bird, or birds, were active and noisy, calling and drumming off and
on for about 45 minutes. One was watched for several minutes in the
large dead tree just beyond the northeast corner of the parking lot, and
also as it flew to several other snags in the immediate vicinity of the
parking lot.

Four great-tailed grackles were seen the grassy area immediately west of
the Flying-J in Willard (Exit 357?) at about 11 a.m. this morning. Two
were adult males, one was a female bird, and the fourth was a juvenile
bird. There may also have been others in the group but I did not
investigate. There was a lot of noise for just four birds. Given the
store's proximity to Willard Bay, I'd guess that this might be part of
the group commented on by Kris Purdy in a note posted on 8/26 of this
year. These may also be the great-tailed grackles observed by Betsy
Beneke on 6/16/05 and by Calvin Andrus on 5/5/05. It will be interesting
to see if these birds winter at this gas station or in its vicinity as
the small colony of East Bay grackles in Provo seem to favor the
fast-food franchises in the area.

A horned grebe was observed at about 2 p.m. swimming in the water
immediately west of the dikes that impound Willard Bay and about two
miles south of the place where the bay flows through the dike and into
the Great Salt Lake. I'm not sure if this area is considered part of
Willard Bay, Howard Crane WMA, Bear River MBR, or is simply a part of
the Great Salt Lake. The bird was in non-breeding plumage and swimming
about 10 yards out from shore. There were also some eared grebe and many
American coots in the area as well as a few snowy egrets and a lone,
straggling white-faced ibis. If you decide to look for this bird, you'll
want a high-clearance vehicle. The road was dry but heavily rutted and
would probably be difficult to negotiate in places in a low-clearance
vehicle. When the lake is high this road is probably under several feet
of water, but at its present level it provides access to a number of
areas that present some nice habitat for waders and shore birds. I wish
I'd thought to visit here in mid-September.

Finally, about a dozen gray partridge were seen at the north end of
White Valley at about 8 a.m. this morning. The little buggers were not
nearly as cooperative for me as for Kris Purdy in her report of
10/08/05. I had to follow them through the sage before I got
satisfactory looks, but I did finally see them. I realize that gray
partridge are not a rare bird and as such are not normally reportable on
Birdnet, but since they have successfully eluded me for the last two
years and six trips to the area, they've been pretty darn rare for me.

Lu Giddings


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