Eighty-Six Turkeys

["Kristin Purdy" <kristinpurdy at comcast dot net>]

I was pleased to see 8 Wild Turkeys as I came away from East Canyon Reservoir late this afternoon on UT 66 between the dam and the town of Morgan.  I stopped to count them carefully to make sure I saw all that were there.  Then I rounded the next curve and saw 78 more in a newly and cleanly mown wheat field on the east side of the road.  Wow!  The field and all the turkeys reminded me of a scene from the movie "Dances With Wolves", where a view of dark brown buffalo grazing in golden grass stretched as far as the eye could see.  The turkeys were accompanied by 6 deer and 13 more deer in the next field.  This location is between mile markers 7 and 8 on UT 66 close to the town of Porterville.  

Not much going on at Morgan and Weber County Reservoirs this afternoon.  Here's what I saw:

East Canyon Reservoir (Morgan County):
Golden Eagle
Bald Eagle
Canada Goose
Common Goldeneye
Ruddy Duck
Eared Grebe
Western Grebe
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Mallard
Common Loon (couldn't find a Pacific, and no scoters)
American Magpie
Ring-billed Gull
American Kestrel
Chukar (a covey of 11 on UT 65 around mm 20)

Causey Reservoir (Weber County)
Western Grebe
Common Goldeneye
Mallard
Townsend's Solitaire
Bald Eagle
Dark-eyed Junco
American Magpie
Northern Flicker (interesting to watch them today--a pair foraged on the sun-warmed face of a rocky precipice that consistently sent rocks rolling down to the road--you'd never know they were woodpeckers, based on what they were doing)

Pineview Reservoir (Weber County)
Pacific Loon (in the Narrows area, and unbelievably, the bird flew away while I watched it)
Common Loon
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Common Goldeneye
Bald Eagle
Ring-billed Gull
Western Grebe
Eared Grebe
Red-tailed Hawk

I was actually tired of looking at Common Goldeneyes, although the late afternoon sun made the last male's head shine out a dark, rich green.  Hope the night brings in a bigger variety.  

Kris