mountain birds

["L. D. Giddings" <seldom74 at xmission dot com>]

I spent an hour or so yesterday afternoon checking Alta. Typical
mountain birds were observed. No sign of rosy finches. I'm sure I did
not see all of the feeders in town, but all of the feeders I saw - abt.
20-25 - were either empty or nearly so. Several feeders that have been
present over the last few years were missing.

The Mirror Lake Highway is still open and may be travelled up to about
the Provo River Falls (around mile 24) without too much difficulty. At
about mile 21 the road starts to get some snow, but it is not completely
snow-packed until above mile 24. This is a wonderful opportunity to
explore an area that is generally closed to car and truck traffic this
time of year. Very few birds were seen or heard up high, but they were
much more common between Samak and Soapstone. The best bird of the day
was a ruffed grouse, drumming for all it was worth, a few hundred yards
off the highway. I saw more Townsend's solitaires along this stretch of
road in an hour this afternoon than I have seen in the last four years
combined.

Lu Giddings


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