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Frosty the Snowman and I birded Antarctic--I mean
Antelope Island Causeway from 7:00 to 11:30 this morning. Frosty did
pretty well until about 10:00 when the wind chill let up and he melted.
Here are our mile-by-mile sightings as we drove west:
MM 6 to about 2: Thousands of California
Gulls dallying along most of the Causeway. The days of dull winter
scruffiness are over. The gulls look fine, fresh and clean in their spring
plumage. The whites are the purest white and the grays the most sublime
shade of gray. The red gapes extend back and look like bright,
bloody slashes on both sides of each bird's white head. The red
orbital rings and bill spots offer nice complements to the
gapes. The gulls sprinkled themselves across mudflats and open water like
dense flotsam and piled up along the shore like rings of jetsam.
If you want to study some entertaining gull courtship behavior, now is the
time. Many gulls head-bobbed in pairs and gave long calls. My
favorite displays were those that involved gifts. It's obvious that in the
Laridae courtship world, sticks are a gull's best friend. Many
gatherers picked about in the weed patches that Horned Larks and Snow
Buntings favor in the winter. Gulls picked up many little branches and
then didn't seem to know what to do with them. Sometimes
they strutted around or carefully placed their treasures
among rocks. The gulls took full advantage of one spot in particular
that offered a blend of weeds and muck. Some of those gulls looked
like they had picked up entire mudflats. They casually strutted
around with big clods of mud and weeds hanging from their beaks, and I'm
sure I heard a chorus of, "Mine's bigger. Mine's bigger. Mine's
bigger." Some of the females must have been impressed enough with the
displays to accept the males as mates, because I saw several pairs mating as
well.
MM 6 to 5: American Avocets at the
limits of my binoculars resting in long, wavering lines off the south side of
the Causeway. A flock of 10-11 Franklin's Gulls flew west to east just
inches over the water and never slowed or flinched from their vector.
MM 4 to 3: A flock of 8 Sanderlings poking
along the north shore.
MM 2 to 1: Fragmented flocks of Sanderlings
that totaled about 200 birds poking along the north shore or coursing out
over the water in fast, boomerang loops. Along the water's edge,
they played chicken with flying blobs of Mr. Bubble whipped up by the stiff
breezes. I looked for early representatives of the other peep species and
found none. Only two Sanderlings even had a hint
of spring rusty streaks and edges of the lower scapulars and tertial
feathers.
Brian Currie, obviously made out of sterner stuff
than I am, wearing a short-sleeved shirt. Frosty hadn't even melted by
that time yet. Brrrr.
A Long-billed Curlew landing on the south side and
deliberately folding its tall wings. I saw the curlew angle its rapier
mandibles under a rock and quickly devour some hard-won morsel.
MM 1 to 0: Eared Grebes, one lone male Ruddy
Duck still in winter plumage among the grebes, a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers
and a lone male Common Goldeneye. All were on the south side. I also
saw two Horned Grebes in this area at different times. However, they
were obviously different grebes. The first one I saw stayed to the edge of
the Eared Grebe flotilla and sported only the gold head stripes with winter
plumage. The second one I saw later stayed to the same edge of an
Eared Grebe flock in the same place. This Horned Grebe was entirely
in spring plumage. The flock of grebes was about 1/4 mile from the
western end of the Causeway.
Mort and Carolyn Somer. While the three of us
had a little gabfest and chirped about our spring sightings, two Willets
casually plundered the south shore like we weren't talking 30 feet away. I
had just seen 7 other Willets at the northeast corner of the marina.
I saw a few other species this morning that just
sat around or flew over, looking birdy, but didn't really give me anything
to comment about: Canada Geese, Double-crested Cormorants, Great Blue
Herons, Killdeer, American Coots, two buffy-looking American Pipits, Rock Wrens
(audible only), a Chukar, a Ring-necked Pheasant, Common Ravens, American
Magpies, Western Meadowlarks, Yellow-headed Blackbirds and Red-winged
Blackbirds.
And finally, I saw the Island's namesake--two
Pronghorns--west of the Visitor's Center. I could tell the antelope sexes
apart not only because the buck sported larger, pronged horns, but also
because the doe was wearing stylin' yellow plastic earrings in both
ears. She was quite a hottie.
Kris
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