Fwd: N. Arm Pineview Res. 5/22/03

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

Birdnet Email -- from the website

----Original Message Follows----
 It was submitted by Julie on Thursday, May 22, 2003 at 22:22:28
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Subject: N. Arm Pineview Res. 5/22/03

Email_Address:

Message: Pomera and I birded the north arm of Pineview Reservoir today and 
it was great!
We saw a couple of Chats, several Catbirds, a couple of Fox Sparrows, a 
Caliope Hummer, an Osprey, Downy Woodpeckers, a McGillivray's Warbler, lots 
of Yellow Warblers, some Bullock's Orioles, Black-headed Grosbeaks, a 
Black-chinned Hummer, several Cedar Waxwings, and some other common stuff.  
However, we did not see a single empid or any vireos.

Most interesting was the "berry-passing" behavior of the waxwings.  There 
were 3 birds engaged in this behavior.  The one in the middle would pass the 
berry to one of the other birds, who then passed it back; then the first 
bird passed it to the 3rd bird, who passed it back.  This continued for a 
minute or so until one bird was left out of the "game"; then it continued 
between just two birds with the 3rd watching for while and then flying 
away--"scorned," I guess.  The behavior continued for a while longer and the 
berry was getting pretty ragged-looking, and then one of the birds ate it!  
I assume this was some kind of pair-bonding behavior.

Then we watched a Downy Woodpecker in a tree cavity who chased away a female 
Downy who kept approaching the cavity--the bird in the cavity would peck at 
the approaching bird without getting out of the hole.  We coudln't tell if 
the bird in the cavity was male or female.  Very interesting!

We also saw an Eastern Kingbird on the north side of the reservoir as we 
left.

NOTE:  the dam is being worked on so the road is closed from 9 AM to 4 PM 
(weekdays only, I think).  We approached the north arm thru the road out of 
north Ogden into Eden.  We don't recommend this route.  It seems better, in 
our opinion, to go the Trapper's Loop route from I-84 in Morgan County, then 
turn east and go around the reservoir to north arm.

Good birding y'all,
Julie

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