Utah County Birders Newsletter
|
 |
Contents
August Meeting
Upcoming Field Trips
President's Message
Bird of the Month
Field Trip Report
- Leidy Peak
Backyard Bird of the Month
July Hotline Highlights
AUGUST MEETING:
August 9th, 2012
It is time for our Annual Birder Social.
This year we are having the party at Dennis Shirley's house. We are having a pot
luck dinner so bring something to share. Paper plates, cups, and utensils will
be provided.
Date: August 9, 2012
Time: 7 PM
Where:
399 North Loafer Drive
Elk Ridge, Utah
Beginning birders are welcome.
August 25th, 2012
(Sat): 7:00am-11:00am - Provo Airport Dike.
Led by Eric Huish. Meet at the Provo River Parkway parking lot at the west end
of Provo Center Street.
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 Keeli Marvel at - keeli.marvel@gmail.com.
by Bryan Shirley, UCB President
My Bird Bucket List
 |
I think I started my “Bucket List” of birds I wanted to see some time in my life
when I was in 3rd grade. I had to do a report on some kind of living creature in
the world. My dad had just got home from Africa and with his help I ended up
choosing the Bateleur Eagle found in Africa. That report is one of the few
things that I can say I really remember from school. It has been 30+ years and I
still remember parts of it today. I finally saw one in Ghana a couple of years
ago. It was about a mile away and not a great look, but still one of my favorite
birds of the trip. A few of my other top Bucket List Birds I have seen in the
last few years are Harpy Eagle, Blakiston’s Fish Owl, Snowy Owl, and Jocotoco
Antpitta.
Today I crossed one more bird off my bucket list – the Okinawa Rail. I first
heard of the Okinawa Rail when I got a Japan bird book when I was 19. It has
been on the top of my wish list ever since.
When we Utah birders think rails, we think of the marshes, but the Okinawa Rail
lives in the mountains. It is practically flightless and lives in thick, primary
forest. Introduced Mongooses decimated the population and restricted the rail to
the nearly unpopulated northern tip of Okinawa. Add to that how secretive the
rails are, how thick the forest is, and the fact that nobody dares to go into
the forest because of an extremely poisonous snake called the Habu, and it is
easy to understand how the Okinawa Rail wasn’t even discovered until 1982. That,
of course, is exactly why it made it onto my wish list.
Most of the tour reports I could find involved a lot of time looking for rails,
then eventually catching a glimpse of one when it ran across the road. They
roost on logs or horizontal branches of trees, so a lot of people have more
success finding them at night than during the daytime. A couple of the reports I
read the people worked pretty hard and still never found one, so of course I was
a bit worried as I made my way to Okinawa. The fact that I was going in August,
peak typhoon season, had me worried too. As luck would have it, two typhoons
were working their way toward Okinawa just before I got there, but one crossed
just North of the island and one crossed just South of the island. Other than a
bit breezy and a little rain the weather wasn’t too bad.
Before our trip we got a tip from a birder friend about a small village on the
opposite side of the island from the historical areas that most birders look for
the rails. The area around the village has become the center of the fight to
save the rail. Thanks to a lot of mongoose traps, the rails are doing well in
the area. We arrived this afternoon and in a couple of hours today we were able
to see 11 rails! I was able to watch them feeding along the edge of the road and
even got some decent photos too. What an awesome day! Once I got back to the
room I could hardly wait to add a check mark by it in my bird book! Now that I
have seen it, what’s next? Not sure, but luckily I have a really long bucket
list I still need to work on.
No bird of the month this month.
If you would like to
write an article for the Bird of the Month, please contact Oliver Hansen --
801-378-4771 -
byucactus@gmail.com
.
Click here for past 'Birds of the Month'.
Field Trip Report
Ptarmigan at Leidy Peak - July 14th, 2012
 |
|
Photo by Brian Shirley |
by Bryan Shirley
13 birders made a quick trip to Leidy Peak to search for White-tailed Ptarmigan.
We met in Vernal at 7 AM under black and ominous skies. About half way up the
Red Cloud Loop toward Leidy Peak it started pouring rain. I admit at one point I
was thinking about giving up and heading back to Vernal, but as soon as we
reached the trailhead the rain had almost stopped and we could see patches of
blue sky around the mountain.
After seeing a few Gray Jays in the parking lot, we started up the trail toward
the mountain. We hadn’t gone far before we had birders going everywhere. We had
the mountain covered from top to bottom and all heading different directions,
but no Ptarmigan. Eventually a female was located with 6 chicks and thanks to
cell phones we were eventually able to get everybody there to get a look at the
birds.
July 2012
Yvonne Carter – Highland
A few Lazuli Buntings are still hanging around, and a first Rufus
Hummingbird.
Eric Huish - Pleasant Grove
Rufous Hummingbirds galore!
Milt Moody – Provo
Bullock's Orioles and Rufous Hummingbirds -- a tie!
Steve Carr - Holladay
Cooper's Hawk - Zooming in and scaring the dickens out of all the feeder
birds, but didn't catch any.
Dennis Shirley – Elk Ridge
Best yard bird(s) for July was a Plumbeous Vireo (7/11) and a Cassin's
Finch (male)(7/15).
Additionally, I counted 46 Black-billed Magpie in my yard on 7/17. What a
convention that was!