BW Teal, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Least Tern....

["Rick Fridell" <rfridell at redrock dot net>]

Hello,
This morning (5/31) Kevin Wheeler and I met to make another attempt at
locating the Brown Thrasher at the Red Hills Golf Course.  We arrived at
6:30 to find Larry Tripp already searching the area.  We did not find the
thrasher, but thought we might have seen the female Bronzed Cowbird (near
the end of 700 West). We could not get close enough to the cowbird to
confirm its identity, however we did see the female Vermilion Flycatcher and
had a Peregrine Falcon make a quick fly through the area. The only lingering
migrants we saw were a singing Plumbeous Vireo and Wilson's Warbler.

Larry left to go to Salt Lake, so Kevin and I went to Seegmiller Marsh.  We
saw a nice drake Blue-winged Teal on the Springs Estate Pond, and heard a
Crissal Thrasher singing near the river. At Seegmiller we watched a SW
Willow Flycatcher, and heard at least one more singing in the marsh. We
heard a singing Yellow-breasted Chat at Tonaquint Park, and saw another
Crissal Thrasher perched up and singing at Mathis Park.

It was around 11:30 and getting hot, so we decided to call it a day.  We
dropped by 700 West to get Kevin's Jeep and decided to briefly look around
for the cowbird.  Just as we got to the end of the street we heard a
Yellow-billed Cuckoo call from the cottonwoods and dense mulberries on the
golf course (just through the maintenance access gate).  It eventually flew
out and we lost it heading south down 700 West.

I got home and saw the Schijf's post about the Least Tern.  This morning
after Kevin and I left Seegmiller, we decided to drop by the golf course
pond along Bloomington Hills Drive. We just had a feeling there might be
something there to see. Well, we saw a Ruddy Duck, a couple Wigeons, and got
distracted by the usual noisy assortment of domestic barnyard ducks and
geese, and so we left.  Anyway, after arriving home, I saw Mike's post,
jumped back in the truck and went back to the pond to find a beautiful Least
Tern sitting on the island (just as described). I'm pretty sure it must have
been visiting another of the golf course's ponds when Kevin and I stopped by
earlier (at least that's my story, and I'm sticking to it).

Thanks Mike for posting your great find of the Tern.

Best Regards,

Rick Fridell
Hurricane, UT



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