Recent Trip in SW Utah

[Jennifer Rycenga <gyrrlfalcon at earthlink dot net>]

Dear Utah Birders -

Since some of you offered advice, I offer back the sightings that Peggy and
I had on our recent trip to Utah.  We were in the state Monday and Tuesday
of this week.  On Monday, we explored the BLM roads near Lytle.  This
produced our lifer LUCY'S WARBLERS, in abundance!  It was fun to get to know
a life bird immediately, as they were engaging in feeding, courtship,
territorial claims, and singing.  We also had a pair of PHAINOPEPLA, a pair
of BLACK-TAILED GNATCATCHERS, and a few more common species.

Later on Monday (3/28), we were in St. George.  What is going on in this
town around riparian??  We had the SW Utah Birding map, and went to a number
of the sites listed, including Washington Meadows, Tonaquint Park and Mathes
Park.  We found the latter two closed, cranes sitting in the river, and
riparian being destroyed.  The Meadows were also clearly subject to
extensive development, and yielded very few new birds.  But we were
disturbed to see city parks closed - are these closures permanent?

Tuesday we headed to Zion NP.  We drove the road to Kolob as far as seemed
safe.  Lots of SPOTTED TOWHEEs in the higher elevations!  We heard more
Lucy's here, too.  While I assume it is not unusual for you, it was nice for
us to see so many TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIREs.  We had one unusual sighting back
on Route 9, heading east, when we saw and heard a CACTUS WREN!  In Zion
Canyon, nothing that unusual, but the scenery made up for that.  We did
enjoy a pair of RED-NAPED SAPSUCKERS calling to each other, and spotted a
pair of COMMON MERGANSERS from the shuttle bus.

Thanks for the advice, and hope we can get back to bird the SLC area.  We
ended up with 48 species total.

Jennifer Rycenga
Half Moon Bay, CA

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