Uintah county birds

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

In celebration of National Migratory Bird Day - which I found out last
night was today - I spent yesterday afternoon and evening and this
morning and afternoon birding in Uintah county. I first visited Pelican
Lake and spent several hours birding along the various shoreline roads.
The highlight here was seeing 9 black terns sharing a long, narrow spit
of land with Forster's terns.

I next visited the Ouray refuge, even though it was getting late. There
is water in the Sheppard Bottom (?) units, and bird life was abundant
there. But most of the Leota Bottoms units were bone dry and without
birds. This was quite a surprise and deeply disappointing.

After dark I drove into Vernal and then out to the Jones Holes National
Fish Hatchery. Camping is not permitted here so I spent the night in the
hills several miles away. Jones Hole is one of the more beautiful spots
in the state. The hatchery sits on Jones Creek which flows through a
deep narrow sandstone canyon to the Green River, roughly four miles
distant. A very well tended hiking trail follows the stream, and I
walked down it for a mile or so. It reminded me of walking in Zion's, or
over in the Cedar Mesa region in San Juan county. It was sufficiently
gentle so as to treat my out-of-shape legs and lungs very kindly. Bird
life was abundant in the riparian vegetation, with yellow warblers,
black-throated gray warblers, and lazuli buntings being almost
obnoxiously common.

I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon exploring the road
out to Brown's Hole and the adjacent area. This is a graded, maintained
dirt road but about 10 miles from the highway it became very deeply
muddy and heavily rutted, to the extent that I doubted the ability of my
four-wheel drive pickup to make it the rest of the way. It should be dry
by the end of the month. Green-tailed towhees, chipping sparrows,
brewer's sparrows, and mountain bluebirds were fairly common. And it was
out here that I spotted the American golden plover that I reported
earlier on birdnet.

Finally, as I drove home late this afternoon, I spotted a great egret
standing next to the willows along the White River between Colton and
Soldier Summit. I did not see any great egrets at Pelican Lake or Ouray,
and yet here one was up in the mountains. Some of these birds show up in
the darnedest places!

Lu Giddings

trip list - 89 species

Pied-billed Grebe
Western Grebe
Clark's Grebe
American White Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
White-faced Ibis
Turkey Vulture
Canada Goose
Gadwall
Mallard
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Common Goldeneye
Ruddy Duck
Northern Harrier
Cooper's Hawk
Swainson's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Golden Eagle
American Kestrel
Ring-necked Pheasant
California Quail
Virginia Rail
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
American Golden-Plover
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Willet
Spotted Sandpiper
Long-billed Curlew
Marbled Godwit
Western Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Wilson's Phalarope
Ring-billed Gull
Caspian Tern
Forster's Tern
Black Tern
Mourning Dove
White-throated Swift
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Northern Flicker
Gray Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
Plumbeous Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Pinyon Jay
Black-billed Magpie
Common Raven
Barn Swallow
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Rock Wren
Canyon Wren
Marsh Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Mountain Bluebird
American Robin
European Starling
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Western Tanager
Green-tailed Towhee
Spotted Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Brewer's Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Black-headed Grosbeak
Lazuli Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Bullock's Oriole
Pine Siskin

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