Sanpete County

[Bruce & Lynn Robinson <dbruce at prodigy dot net>]

I spent last week in the Mt Pleasant-Ephraim-Manti area and some of the highlight birds include:
Northern Goshawk (LIFER!) about 3 miles up Manti Canyon.  In this same area is a small grove of trees, next to the river, that had Brown Creepers, White Breasted Nuthatches, Townsend's Warbler, Ruby Crowned Kinglets, Cordilleran Flycatcher, three un-solitary Townsend's Solitaires, Swainson's Thrush and tons of Chipping Sparrows and Yellow Rumps.  (Interesting that 2 hours later there was not a bird to be found!).  Near the top of the canyon was a Cedar Waxwing, a Hermit Thrush, and a noisy Belted Kingfisher.
At the Sanpete County Fairgrounds in Manti was a Barn Owl.  In the past I've seen Great Horned Owls in the cemetery, but I could not locate any this trip.
In the campground I was parked in were several Plumbeus Vireos, a single Cassin's Vireo, Blue Gray Gnatcatchers, several Pewees, as well as tons of butter butts (someone posted that if you had to look through tons of Yellow Rumps to find other rarities--all I found was more Yellow Rumps!!)
West of the Pioneer Cemetery in Ephraim were 3 Burrowing Owls, a Sage Thrasher, and a Western Kingbird.
At Gunnison Reservoir were a lot of brown ducks, a single Western Grebe, a half dozen Pelicans, and of course my favorite, many Canada Geeses.
Wales Reservoir had 3 Snowy Egrets, 8 White Faced Ibis, a Willet, and more brown ducks.
Mount Pleasant sewage ponds held 9 Western Sandpipers (and more brown ducks).  Near the reservoir was a Ferruginous Hawk.  Within the city limits of Mount Pleasant I found 2 Eurasian Collared Doves (have they been reported in Sanpete Co. yet???)
The Ephraim sewage ponds held Avocets, Yellow Headed Blackbirds (the only ones I found this trip), Eared Grebes, and (you guessed it!) more brown ducks.
West and south of Mount Pleasant, on the road to the campground, was a Lewis's Woodpecker.
There is a small farmer's pond on the road between Mount Pleasant and Moroni that had both Red Necked and Wilson's Phalaropes, and Northern Shovelers (which were brown also!).
Maple Canyon was pretty quiet, although there was a kettle of about 40 Turkey Vultures riding the early morning thermals.  It was fun to watch them circle, then slowly peel off from the main group, one or two at a time.
"A bad day birding is better than a good day at work" but a good week birding is G-R-E-A-T!!!  

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