Friday 08/15/03

[Roostertael at aol dot com]

Perhaps others can hear the distant call. Something in the predawn sky is drawing me to it. I can't define it, but it is there. Is it just over the mountains, or in the sky beyond? It is hard to tell, but I can hear it. Beckoning, urging me on. It seems to be rooted deep in the universe. Stronger now, I am having trouble resisting it. Wait a minute, its my alarm clock. It is time to go birding.

Sunrise has overtaken me, and I am still on the freeway. Finally, ahead I see exit 32 for White's Valley. After I exit, I pull over to get my camera and binoculars from the back seat as a Mourning Dove rockets by. Now with an eye on the rear view mirror, I can drive at a snail's pace and stop in the middle of the road when necessary. As I leave the asphalt I see a flock of what must be Chukars. They are half-hidden in the grass, and I can't pick out an adult. When I drive up to get a better look, they fly up to a large rocky outcropping. They are too far to identify now. I can't find any identification of juveniles, but the one I got a picture of had a gray beak. Further down the road I see a Loggerhead Shrike leapfrogging on fence posts trying to stay ahead of me. There's some sparrows, but not enough light to ID them. I pass the Burrowing Owl nest/den, but none around. They must be at Antelope Island. A Sage Thrasher flies from the fence and disappears into a sagebrush. There is a Vesper Sparrow on the fence. It almost lets me get close enough for a picture, but no. Drab Brewer's Blackbirds sit on the roadside. A mule deer doe bounces across a field of alfalfa. Here come a couple of dogs to chase it. Luckily they are not successful in their chase. A Northern Harrier glides over the wheat stubble. As I start to leave the valley to the West, I see a Peregrine Falcon and another Northern Harrier. They are sizing up a flock of Gray Partridges. The harrier actually hovers over them about ten feet high. I am surprised he doesn't try to take one. The partridges are only 40 feet from me and I must have discouraged him. I have lost track of the peregrine. Off to my right is a small cottontail sitting in the shade. Too far for a picture, but I take one anyway. I am now going over the hill westward back to the freeway. I see a couple of Horned Larks and more rabbits. Close to the freeway two Swainson's Hawks circle over some trees. I cross the freeway and head for Providence. The road has some traffic, so I drive at a moderate speed. I pull over to watch two does and a fawn cross the road. I am jolted back to birding by three Blue Grouse in a harvested grain field. 

Oh-oh trouble ahead. Out in a flooded field is a Barn Owl. It is close to the road and obviously injured. I whistle and it looks at me. I grab a sweat shirt from the back-seat and wade out to capture him. Looks like the end of my birding day. I manage to catch him and wrap him in the sweatshirt. No trunk in my pathfinder, so I put him on the passenger side floor still wrapped in the shirt. Things go okay for most of the way home until he decides to sit with me. I stick my arm out and he goes back on the floor. At work I call the Wildlife Services and get some names of rehabilitators. They take him and give me some info to check back. That finishes my trip, but its okay, I'll set my alarm another day.      Jack