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I birded Jefferson Hunt and Anderson Cove
Campgrounds in Ogden Valley, Weber County, over the past couple
days. Highlights of the trips included EVENING GROSBEAKS, VIRGINIA
RAILS, and a MUSKRAT...oops, I mean Muskrat, in Jefferson Hunt and RED
CROSSBILLS today at Anderson Cove.
The Evening Grosbeak sighting is probably not
a surprise to birders familiar with this area. Grosbeaks
have been frequenting Huntsville feeders all winter. However, they
were a BIG surprise to me because I forgot about the reports I've heard since
October. The grosbeaks perched in the treetops along the Winter Grove
Nature Trail that runs north-south through the campground. In
particular, they were about 1/2 mile north of the trailhead in trees along
a cattail marsh, and close to a residential neighborhood. Both males
and females were present. They frequently issued their single-note
"teewp" call, which is what attracted my attention to the treetops in
the first place.
I also heard three separate Virginia Rails sounding
off with their grating cranks in the marsh on the east side of the nature
trail. I hoped to coax the rails out by imitating their call, but I'm
afraid my rail impression came out sounding more like an oinking pig. I
must have sounded like Herbie the Dentist in Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer when
Herbie tried to lure The Abominable out of his snow cave. The rails did
not respond so I can safely assume they're not attracted by either spurious
porcine noises or puppet dentists.
On the way back to the parking lot I crossed
the bridge over one of the South Forks of the Ogden River. A muskrat
was swimming in the very clear water, 2-3 feet below the surface and with the
current. It disappeared under the bridge and I ran to the other side of
the road to see it again. The muskrat swam to an
undulating clump of bright green and curly-leafed plants among the
waving brown grass, snipped off a sprig, swirled around, and headed back
downstream with the leafy sprig sticking out the side of its
mouth. It was like a flammenco dancer holding a rose in its teeth.
The muskrat never surfaced. It was an interesting perspective and one
I haven't had before.
Other birds at Jefferson Hunt included Common
Mergansers and Goldeneyes at the mouth of the river, Bald Eagles, a Belted
Kingfisher, Downy Woodpeckers, several drumming Northern Flickers, Black-capped
Chickadees, a Brown Creeper, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Song Sparrows singing
lustily, White-crowned Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, Red-winged Blackbirds, House
Finches, Pine Siskins, and American Goldfinches.
Today's trip to Anderson Cove yielded small numbers
of Red Crossbills frequently and throughout the day. The
crossbills seemed to prefer the many Austrian Pines and spruce trees
throughout the campground. At one point I approached an Austrian
Pine that sounded like a bowl of Rice Crispies cereal--you know, "Snap!
Crackle! Pop!"? My first clue that the noise was produced by
birds was when a female Red-breasted Nuthatch floated down from a low branch to
hop around several fallen pine cones. Further investigation of the
noises revealed two greenish-yellow female crossbills, two bright red males, and
one orangy-yellow young male twisting the cone scales to access the seeds
ensconced within. Sometimes the crossbills talked to each other with low,
warbled "kip-kip-kip" notes; most of the time they simply saw to their
foraging. They caused the papery seed wings to float down to the
ground, spinning all the way. I was downwind and caught two of the paper
wings that the crossbills discarded. The plump round seeds had been
precisely cut out of the wings, leaving a round empty place at the narrow end of
the seed.
Other birds at Anderson Cove included many of those
I saw at Jefferson Hunt, a couple Townsend's Solitaires flirting and
warbling to each other, and an it's-about-time, first-of-the-year,
what-took-me-so-long-to-find-one,.Great Horned Owl.
A quick check of the open water at The North Arm
produced a Red-breasted Merganser (Yee-haw! A sign of spring!) among a
flock of Commons, Canada Geese, a Ring-necked Duck, Mallards, and Northern
Pintails.
A highlight not in either campground was a flock of
60 Wild Turkeys east of and below Trapper's Loop in the Hawkin's Creek
drainage. Several toms displayed, several toms did aerobics by
chasing others in great bounding strides, and the hens ignored them all.
The spot is approximately .7 miles south of the Trapper's/SR-39
junction.
Jefferson Hunt and Anderson Cove Campgrounds are
located on SR-39 along the south shore of Pineview Reservoir.
Kris |