Fwd: NM birders in UT

["Eric Huish" <poorwill_ at hotmail dot com>]

Birdnet Email -- from the website

----Original Message Follows----
It was submitted by CJ Grimes cjgrimes@hotmail.com on Monday, April 28, 2003 
at 22:45:08
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Subject: NM birders in UT

Email_Address: cjgrimes@hotmail.com

Message: Sarah Beckwith and I had a full day of birding today, beginning 
with the Henefer grouse lek. On the way there we saw a couple Sage Grouse 
along the road shoulder, and 21 more at the booming ground itself. The big 
surprise was a Short-eared Owl fly-by. (Also, we had called the state 
department of wildlife last week and were told that we were too late to see 
any grouse. Good thing we didn't listen to them and called some local Utah 
birders!) Vesper Sparrows and meadowlarks sang plenty of background music.
Down the road Common Loons were calling at South Canyon Reservoir.
> From there we went to Bear River Refuge where we were impressed by the 
number of ibis, gulls and curlews, three of which were Whimbrels (on the 
entrance road just past the "10 miles" sign). 2 gulls were Bonaparte's, and 
we managed to find only one Forster's Tern in 3 hours. A lone Merlin zoomed 
past around mile 7 of the loop.
Antelope Island was our final destination, and although I was surprised by 
the lake level compared to previous visits, it was worthwhile. We found the 
reported thousands of Western Sanpipers with hundreds of Sanderlings - no 
Least's (in UT AZ or NM this spring!). A few Willets and Lesser Yellowlegs 
joined the throngs of avocets and stilts. About 6 Common Goldeneye mixed 
w/the Eared Grebes on the north side of the westernmost culvert. Finally, at 
the visitor center, a very cooperative Chukar sat atop the amphitheater and 
posed for digi-scoped photos.
A successful trip to some incredible places!

CJ Grimes



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