Kolob Reservoir

[cldavis at xmission dot com]

Nicky and I had so much fun a couple of weeks ago we went down again this
weekend to St. George. We have seen life birds every day but today's sprint
up Kolob (by way of the town of Virgin) was spectacular.  We saw 52 species
total.  

On the drive up the canyon we saw, to name just a few species, American
pipits, glowing mountain bluebirds, plumbeous vireo, Virginia's warbler,
red-naped sapsucker, green towhee, red-breasted nuthatch, black-throated
sparrow, we heard a black-chinned sparrow, yellow-rumped warbler, house
wren (with a flapping fledgling), rock wren, black-throated gray warbler,
bc and mtn chickadees, white-breasted nuthatch, Steller's jay, scrub jay,
golden eagle, blue-gray gnatcatcher, white-throated swift (life birds),
lesser goldfinch, black-chinned hummer, another blue-gray gnatcatcher with
huge spectacles like a vireo, and a broad-tailed hummer .  

At Kolob reservoir were a lone loon, ten long-billed dowitchers walking in
a
row along the shore, an unknown peep, yellowlegs, blue-winged teal,
green-winged teal, wigeon, cinnamon teal, killdeer, ring-necked duck, and
western grebe.  And the "trash" birds of the day were the western bluebirds
which we saw multiple times along the road to the reservoir.  That male was
the most beautiful blue I have ever seen?-almost purple.  Nicky has only
seen one mountain bluebird and it was in l968 and as far as I can remember,
I've never seen one before.

Other birds of the last few days are black-throated gray warbler (life bird
for us) and many other birds at "short" Kolob canyon just off I-15.  Then
driving toor at Lytle ranch itself we saw phainopepla, red-tailed hawk,
Bell's vireo, summer tanager, black phoebe, Lucy's warbler, ash-throated
flycatcher, western kingbird, a six-foot long gopher snake, verdin, a
possible brown-crested flycatcher, and a large endangered (and not just
from my driving) desert tortise crossing the road; and at Cedar Pockets
campground we saw the ash-throated flycatcher, canyon wren, rock wren and a
cactus wren.  In Mesquite in the Beaver Dam Wash (I think it's called) we
saw a baby hawk in a nest (possibly a Black Hawk because one had been seen
there), a yellow warbler and a Wilson's warbler. At the confluence near
Bluff Street in St. George this morning we saw a black phoebe, a roadrunner
(thanks to a suggestion by Ed Leite), Gambel's quail and Bullock's oriole. 
Lots of life birds this trip so far\

C. Davis

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