Birds up Heber way

["Jim Bailey" <jim at bailey dot aros dot net>]

Hi,

In response to Kris Purdy's appeal, here are some of the birds Judy and 
I saw Saturday in the Heber area.

A male AMERICAN REDSTART staking out his territory in the Jordanelle 
wetlands below the dam. Park your car in the north parking lot below the 
dam and take the walkway west toward the river. The walkway becomes a 
trail heading south. About midway between the first and second 
footbridges, scan the trees on the west side and you're very likely to 
see this bird. He was quite active and hard to miss. There's also a 
DOWNY WOODPECKER NEST on the east side of the trail in a tree stump 
that's easy to see. 

This is a wonderful area to bird this time of year. Birds I've seen 
and/or heard in the last week in this general area include COMMON 
YELLOWTHROAT, WILSON'S SNIPE, SORA, FOX SPARROW, CEDAR WAXWING, HOUSE 
WREN, WESTERN KINGBIRD, BULLOCK'S ORIOLE, AMERICAN ROBIN, BROAD-TAILED 
HUMMINGBIRD, BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK, YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD, RED-WINGED 
BLACKBIRD, CEDAR WAXWING, BELTED KINGFISHER, CALIFORNIA GULL, YELLOW 
WARBLER, OSPREY, AMERICAN GOLDFINCH, AMERICAN DIPPER, SANDHILL CRANE, 
and BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD. Sorry, no Purple Gallinule's :-(

The BOBOLINKS are back at the usual spot in Heber Fields. If you don't 
know where the usual spot is, take Highway 40 into Heber City. Take the 
Heber fields dirt road going west from the bar/restaurant on the right 
side of the road about a mile or so before you get into Heber city. I 
think it's called The Other End. There's a line of mature trees on the 
north side of the dirt road in about a half mile or so. Park under the 
trees and scan the fields on both sides. You're very likely to see one 
or more Bobolinks. When Judy and I were there Saturday, we could hear 
one singing directly overhead in the trees. After you hear one sing, 
it's quite obvious how they came up with the bobolink name. 

Another good place, with most of the same birds listed above, is the 
Rock Cliffs State Park on the way to Francis. There's some VIOLET-GREEN 
SWALLOWS hanging out on the east side of the visitor's center, making 
for easy photo ops. The feeders there are all stocked and providing a 
good variety of birds to observe.

Jim Bailey
2032 Ribbon Lane
Holladay, UT 84117
(801) 274-8034

A  hobby must be in a large degree useless, inefficient, laborious or
irrelevant -Aldo Leopold

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