I Brake for TV's, Especially Stripped Tailed Ones!

["William J. Hunter" <dixiewili at redrock dot net>]

Hey! By gosh, we's still be kicking. I's had some other things on my plate
lately, but us Dixie Birders got out and saw the Reddish Egret and had a
great birding adventure last Thursday - 8/14. And then too, my absence has
partly been do to that Kristin Purdy gal. Boy, she sure do put this ol' boy
to shame with some of her "purdy" writings. Brings an ol' tear to my eye to
read her birdin' accounts.

Anyways, that Reddish Egret was there at the north end of Gunlock Reservoir
on Saturday morning, as well as on Sunday. Several of us birding types met
up there and located the bird on the west side of lake. We hiked out and
around, in the mud, to get a better look only to have this smart bird fly
and land on a spit at inlet with Santa Clara River, right below our parked
cars. We chased after the bird spending agonizing time eliminating
possibilities such as immature Sandhill or Great Blue.

Our consensus description of the bird is that it is a dark morph bird just
turning cinnamon on its head and neck, more "reddish" on head. It has a pale
eye with dark pupil. Rest of bird gray. It did exhibit the characteristic
"sprint" chase of prey once, with wings partially extended, "...spread in a
canopy". We determined it to be between a first and second year bird
(immature). Bill was dark, but in particularly good light you could see that
it was darker at the tip and lighter at the base. Picture in the American
Bird conservancy's field guide, "All The Birds of North America" shows an
immature bird which most closely resembles this bird, of all drawings and
illustrations in any of the guides I checked (5).

Great job Larry as this was a lifer for me, and in Washington County to
boot.

On Thursday the Dixie Birders hit the road visiting Baker Reservoir, Pine
Valley Reservoir, Newcastle Reservoir and Shoal Creek Reservoir (Pond) and
some of the environs in between. To make a long story short, we saw a total
of 53 species. Some of the better finds included 2 Green Herons (eat your
heart out Merrill) at Baker with fantastic looks as they flew from shore
line to trees and then out again; 13 Bushtits and a Lesser Yellowlegs.

At Pine Valley Reservoir and around the campgrounds we saw more Bushtits,
Western Tanagers, both Chickadees, Hairy Woodpecker, 5 W-b Nuthatches, Pine
Grosbeaks, and a couple of stellar Steller Jays.

Beryl Jct. had the usual agricultural species and 5 Swainson's Hawks, dark
form. A couple were intermediate. Word is there were three nests in the area
and all produced chicks this year.

Newcastle Reservoir had 7 Clark's Grebe, reported earlier, two of which did
their courtship dance on the water. First time I've ever seen that live.
Also there were a Forester's Tern, couple of Golden Eagles, assorted ducks,
"peeps", and waders, plus a nice Prairie Falcon.

Near Enterprise we found a stand of Sunflowers that produced 8 Lazuli
Buntings, an Orange-crowned Warbler, Logger-headed Shrike, and assorted
sparrows.

Last place visited was Shoal Creek Reservoir west of Enterprise. Pretty much
a long extended pond. There we encountered 19 White-faced Ibis, 48 Mallards,
7 Black-crowned Night Herons, 1 Green-winged Teal, 3 Blue-winged Teal and 2
Cinnamon Teal.

The rest of the species were pretty much what you would expect in the
various areas.

Here at SunRiver, Kevin Wheeler and I picked up a Common Moorhen down on our
silt pond a few weeks back. Last time I looked he had moved ponds, but was
still around. This is in addition to the one at Dixie Red Hills Golf Course.
Then a couple of Saturdays ago, I looked up to see numerous swifts, swiftly
flying over my house and fairway here on the course. They turned out to be
13 Vauxs Swifts. I tried to turn some into Blacks, but to no avail. I
watched them for nearly an hour.

So I's still here. Put together the folks necessary to turn a .3 of a mile
man made stream with three ponds into a serious, successful wetlands. Most
recently I had my first Marsh Wren and just this morning a Great Blue Heron
stopped by to say "Howdy". Ibis's have been here and of course the
ubiquitous "Honkers", pesky critters. Gonna rope and saddle them next time.
Not bad for a creek that runs 20' from my back door. They call me "Creek
Man" around these parts now.

Later,

Dixie Willie
St. George

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