Utah County Birders Newsletter
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Contents
January Meeting
Upcoming Field Trips
Meet the New
Club President
Bird of the Month
Provo CBC
Report
Backyard Bird of the Month
December Hotline Highlights
JANUARY MEETING:
Thursday,
January 13th, 2011
This month's Utah County Birds meeting will be held at the
Golden Corral on University Parkway in Orem
(225 West 1300 South) starting at 7 PM. A back room has been reserved where we
can meeting, eat and have the awards program for this year's Birding Challenge
AND meet the new officers.
Everyone will pay for themselves as they
enter the restaurant.
Meet at 7:00 PM at the
Golden Corral on University Parkway in Orem (225 West 1300 South).
Tel: 801-225-6299
January 22nd (Sat):
Bryan Shirley will lead a
1/2 day trip in Utah County in search of
Rosy-Finches and other winter mountain birds. Meet at the Sam's Club Parking lot
in East Bay at 8:00 AM.
We are actively recruiting people to lead local half-day field
trips, any time, any place. If you would like to lead a field trip or if you
have any ideas for this year’s field trips, please contact Lu Giddings at -
seldom74@xmission.com.
Meet the new club President, Bryan
Shirley:
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Just to make sure all members of our club know who I am, I thought this month it would be good to tell you a bit about me. I was born in Provo and raised in the south end of Utah County. I was lucky to have a birder for a dad, so I was looking at birds as far back as I can remember. I remember going to meetings with my dad in the basement of the Bean Museum (back then it might have been an Audubon group). In the front of my dad's field guide there was a picture with silhouettes of a bunch of birds. I loved looking at it and trying to guess what all the birds were. I still can see the meadowlark in my mind.
For me birds were kind of just a part of life, but I never really went out of my way to see them until I was about 18. I moved to Hawaii after High School and there were birds I didn’t know everywhere I looked. I didn’t have binoculars, but I bought a field guide and started trying to figure out what all the birds were. From there I went to Japan as a missionary. I learned my lesson in Hawaii and as a missionary I always had a small pair of binos in my suit pocket. I bribed more than one companion into spending p-day at a nature preserve looking at birds.
After I got back from Japan I took a job in Kentucky. I didn’t like the job very much, but loved the birding– especially during migration. I saw nearly every Eastern Warbler while I was there and they are still my favorite bird group. My job kept me so busy that I got pretty burned out and decided to take a break from work and try guiding birders while I debated where to go to graduate school. That was about 10 years ago. I quit thinking about grad school a long time ago, but I am still guiding birders. I started out guiding mostly around the US, but it has slowly evolved to me guiding more and more in South America. Now I have birded in most countries in South or Central America and a few other places around the world. I love my job and I love birding. I can’t figure out what people that don’t bird do all day!
I live in Payson with my wife and 2 daughters, both named after birds (Tori, age 2.5, means bird in Japanese, and Elaenia, 13 months, is a kind of flycatcher.) Tori just got her first binos for Christmas and boy was I proud when she started trying to ID the gulls from a ferry in Seattle last week.
I am excited to serve as President of Utah County Birders and birding with you all.
No article this month.
If you would like to write an article for the Bird of the Month, please contact Junece Markham -- 373-2487.
Click here for past 'Birds of the Month'.
2010 Provo Christmas Bird Count Report
(taken from a list compiled by Ned Hill)
The Provo Christmas Bird Count was held on December 18. The day was snowy and rainy. The following is a list of birds seen:
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Canada
Goose 280 Wood Duck 26 Gadwall 43 American Wigeon 86 Mallard 989 Northern Shoveler 104 Northern Pintail 2 Green-winged Teal 153 Redhead 1 Ring-necked Duck 3 Bufflehead 11 Common Goldeneye 34 Common Merganser 1 Ruddy Duck 19 Ring-necked Pheasant 21 California Quail 338 Pied-billed Grebe 8 American White Pelican 1 Double-crested Cormorant 1 Great Blue Heron 4 Black-crowned Night-Heron 1 Bald Eagle 12 Northern Harrier 24 Sharp-shinned Hawk 17 Cooper's Hawk 6 Red-tailed Hawk 44 Rough-legged Hawk 2 Golden Eagle 2 American Kestrel 91 Merlin 6 Peregrine Falcon 2 Virginia Rail 2 American Coot 486 Killdeer 13 Greater Yellowlegs 5 Long-billed Dowitcher 1 Wilson's Snipe 13 Ring-billed Gull 553 California Gull 119 Herring Gull 4 Rock Pigeon 330 Eurasian Collared-Dove 266 Mourning Dove 85 Barn Owl 3 Western Screech-Owl 2 |
Great-horned Owl 3 Northern Pygmy-Owl 1 Belted Kingfisher 9 Downy Woodpecker 16 Northern Flicker 276 Northern Shrike 3 Steller's Jay 3 Western Scrub-Jay 61 Black-billed Magpie 185 American Crow 4 Common Raven 9 Horned Lark 168 Black-capped Chickadee 172 Mountain Chickadee 20 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch 2 Brown Creeper 11 Canyon Wren 3 Bewick's Wren 1 Marsh Wren 8 American Dipper 16 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 17 Townsend's Solitaire 17 Hermit Thrush 1 American Robin 1513 European Starling 8310 American Pipit 8 Cedar Waxwing 149 Orange-crowned Warbler 2 Yellow-rumped Warbler 30 Spotted Towhee 18 American Tree Sparrow 19 Song Sparrow 98 White-crowned Sparrow 819 Dark-eyed Junco 314 Red-winged Blackbird 5400 Western Meadowlark 4 Yellow-headed Blackbird 26 Brewer's Blackbird 85 Great-tailed Blackbird 55 Brown-headed Cowbird 4 House Finch 904 Lesser Goldfinch 26 American Goldfinch 86 House Sparrow 816 |
Total Individuals Reported 23907 Total Species Reported 90
December 2010
Steve Carr - Holladay
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 4 Audubon's and one Myrtle
enjoying the peanut butter.
Yvonne Carter - Highland
I have had lots of Black Capped Chickadees and
Juncos but was surprised the other day with a
Spotted Towhee
perched on one of my feeders.
Leila Ogden - Orem
I've had a Mountain Chickadee at my feeders for
several weeks. I don't see him every day, but often.
Bruce Robinson - West Jordan
Sharp-shined Hawk - The birds ignore my feeders when she is
around!
Milt Moody - Provo
Mountain Chickadees have started to come back after a long
absence.
Alton Thygerson – Provo
Sharp-shinned Hawk — a brief visitor and unsuccessful hunter around
backyard feeders
Eric Huish - Pleasant Grove
I have two different Dark-eyed Juncos with big splotches of pure
white feathering on their faces and head. Looks like they dipped their face
in the snow.
Harold Clayson - Salem
Christmas morning outside testing bicycles I saw an
American Crow.
Cheryl Peterson - Provo
A Sharp-shinned Hawk landed on the platform feeder (3
feet from the window -excellent view). It flew and an
American Kestrel
took its place a minute later.