Grasshopper Sparrow in Heber

[cldavis at xmission dot com]

We had an interesting day heading up to the Mirror Lake area on Sunday.  Our
first strange encounter was at the second turnout just after passing over
the dam at Deer Creek.  A fledgling kingfisher almost flew into the car
window on one of its first flights but managed instead to just clear the
glass and land on top of the car with a screech of bird nails.  Then it was
off again to safely land in a tree over the edge of the cliff. Its mouth
was hanging open the whole time in terror (or sheer exhaustion.)

Our second strange encounter was a grasshopper sparrow in the Heber Valley
fields. He posed for some great photos and we recorded his song, or rather
songs, since occasionally he would end his tune in a little warble.  Very
festive! Also there were many sandhill cranes (in one field about 12),
snipes, bobolinks, savannah sparrows, Wilson's phalaropes, and cedar
waxwings.

There were pine grosbeaks, hairy woodpeckers, yellow-rumped warblers and
3-toed woodpeckers on the highline trail, along with the usual ruby-crowned
kinglets and chickadees. We saw a Lincoln's sparrow, fox sparrow, and Song
sparrow in the Beaver Creek campground area.

Carol and Nicky

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