Other sunday birds and misc. notes

[Colby Neuman <crn230 at gmail dot com>]

Hi all,
 First off, I have sent two emails in the last week that have yet to go 
through so please realize that when (or if) they go through to the listserv
.
 Sunday birding for me started around midnight (Saturday/Sunday). When 
walking back from a friends house near the U of U, I heard several nocturna
l 
flight calls. In about a 10 minute period I heard four different birds fly
 
over...all gave soft 'zseeps' (most likely some kind of warbler). Because I
 
thought the U was in the 'shadow' of the avenues I decided to hop in my car
 
at 12:30 am and listen at the top of the avenues for anything migrating 
overhead. I heard nothing in about a 10 minute period. As a result, I then
 
decided to try my luck at Warm Spings (the valley floor). I listened for 
about 15 minutes and heard one sparrow (sounded good for Savannah Sparrow)
 
fly overhead. I then decided that it was best I go home and sleep a little
 
before waking up at 5:15 am.
 Tim Avery and I arrived at Harold Crane/Willard Bay by 6:45-7am on Sunday.
 
We found the jaeger relatively quickly and then watched the bird off and on
 
for the next several hours while being joined by Paul Higgins, the 
Sommerfields and Pomera Fronce. However, before the others arrived we were
 
fortunate (or unfortunate depending on your view) enough to watch a 
Peregrine Falcon almost kill the jaeger before our very eyes. While Tim was
 
photographing the jaeger, he noticed a bird swoop down at the jaeger into
 
his field of view (through the camera). He asked me (it was more an 
exclamation) what that blackbird was doing, and I quickly responded that th
e 
bird was no blackbird...it was a Peregrine Falcon! The jaeger then took off
 
and began flying for its life...probably just as quickly, Tim and I jumped
 
out of the car screaming in disbelief that we were about to watch the jaege
r 
die in front of us. For about 10 minutes, we watched the falcon dive and 
pursue the jaeger before we lost the jaeger in a sea of flying gulls, ducks
, 
cormorants, and pelicans that realized they did not want to meet the 
Peregrine Falcon either. Soon thereafter, we ran into Paul Higgins, the 
Sommerfields and Pomera Fronce, and we were able to relocate the jaeger 
(still alive) back in its usual location (resting on the dirt road).
 Other birds observed along the road that runs along the western and 
northern edges of the Willard Bay dike included...
 Common Loon - 1 basic plumage bird on Willard Bay
Common Goldeneye - 2 females 
Marbled Godwit - a flock of at least 90 birds
Western Sandpiper - 10
Least Sandpiper - 3
Bonaparte's Gull - 1 basic plumage bird
Common Tern - 11 - not quite a 1:1 ratio of Forster's Terns to Common Terns
, 
but it was certainly close
Black Tern ~ 250 - ~90% in basic plumage, ~9% in some transitional plumage
 
and ~1% in alternate plumage
 Tim Avery, the Sommerfields, Pomera Fronce and I then headed to Willard Ba
y 
State Park where it was relatively quiet...migrants included...
 Hammond's Flycatcher ~ 6
Western Wood-Pewee - 1
Warbling Vireo - 2 - 1 singing
Plumbeous Vireo - 6 - 1 singing
Gray Catbird - 4
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 1 heard
Orange-crowned Warbler - 5
Yellow Warbler - 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler 12
Townsend's Warbler - 1
MacGillivray's Warbler - 7
Wilson's Warbler - 1 male
Western Tanager - 11 - all females
 Cheers,
 Colby

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