More Bear River

[cldavis at xmission dot com]

Well, since I only made it part of the way into Bear River BR last week
because I was afraid my little Saturn would float away when I crossed the
"river-road", I went again this week.  The road was dry.  I got a life bird
as I turned the corner to go the long stretch towards the gun club.  On the
left hand side in the muddy area, which was filled with gulls, stood one
lonely AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER. This is the area before the stream crosses
under the road.  He was out there quite a ways so the photo was awful but
you can see the black goes all the way to the tail. When I came back out
from the refuge I looked for him again but was unable to find him.

Also, today at the refuge I saw my first fledgling YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD. 
What a hoot!  He had long fine hairs poking out all over his head which
blended beautifully with the habitat.

At Promontory I found 4 separate BURROWING OWLS right off around 5:00 pm but
it took until 7:00 pm for the SHORT-EARED OWLS to show up.  Three separate
ones started hunting the fields and avoiding my camera.

Other birds seen at Bear River today that I didn't post last week: EASTERN
KINGBIRD, WILSON'S PHALAROPE, BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON, PIED-BILLED GREBE,
LONG-BILLED CURLEW, CATTLE EGRET, WILLET, and SAVANNAH SPARROW.  Also, I
also saw a "mulligan stew" of SWAINSON'S HAWKS and TURKEY VULTURES circling
over the fields by the cut-off to TREMONTON.

It's hard to imagine how the road to the refuge must have looked back in the
80's when it flooded because I'm in amazed at how much water there is now.
At least this week you can differentiate the river from the fields. Does
anyone have photos posted on the web of the 1982-83 flood period?

Carol




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