Utah County Birders Newsletter
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Contents
December Meeting
Upcoming Field Trips
2014 Birding
Challenge reminder
Captain’s Log
Bird of the Month
Field Trip
Report - Beaver and Iron Counties
Backyard Bird of the Month
November Hotline Highlights
DECEMBER MEETING:
Thursday, December 11th,
2014 - 7:00 pm
Preparation for Provo Christmas Bird Count
Tour of the BYU bird collection, bird quiz, and preparation for the Provo
Christmas Bird Count.
Meet at 7pm at the Bean Museum.
17 December, 2014 (Wed). 9:00 am. - Location: Geniel Simpson's Home - 563 S. Canyon View Drive - Elk Ridge, Utah. - Led by Suzi Holt - We will be watching birds at her feeders from her beautiful "bird room". She has a great variety of winter birds and we would love to have any who want to get a little birding done in the indoors to join us. See you then!
19 December, 2014 (Fri). Salem Pond and vicinity - Led by Kay Stone - I am going to lead a field trip to Salem Pond this Friday the 19th of December. We will meet at Sam's Club parking lot at 8:15 A.M. and go to Salem Pond and check areas in the vicinity. It will be about a half day trip.
20 December, 2014 (Sat). Provo Christmas Bird Count: Contact Bryan Shirley or Dennis Shirley if you wish to participate. Evening Compilation Party - Potluck and collaboration (adding up the numbers of birds seen during the day) will be held at Milt Moody's house at 6:00 PM. 2795 Indian Hills Drive, Provo Utah (2780 North and 930 East) -- 801 373-2795 - Directions: From the main gates of the Provo Temple, go north about 6 blocks to the stop sign. The house is across the street on the right -- among the trees. Map
1 January, 2015 (Thur). Utah County Birders Field Trip - 9:30- early afternoon. New Year's Day birding, South Utah County. Meet at the East Bay Sam's Club in Provo at 9:30 am.
1 January (Thur). Jordan River Christmas
Bird Count - Leaders: Jeanne Le Ber and Ray Smith - Meet at 7am at Johanna’s
Kitchen, 9725 South State Street, Sandy (801-566-1762). Assignments will be
distributed and groups will start birding at 8am. Team reports and count tally
will begin at 6pm at the Sizzler on 9000 S. & State St. To sign up, or for more
information, call Jeanne or Ray at (801-532-7384).
3 January, 2015 (Sat).
Payson Christmas Bird Count. Details TBA
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 Bryan Shirley at -
bt_shirley@hotmail.com
Our 2014 Birding Challenge
is drawing to a close!
Please email Keeli Marvel (keeli.marvel@gmail.com) with your name and level of
the challenge achieved, if you have completed the challenge or anticipate doing
so by the end of the year so we can get an idea of the number of prizes we will
need.
Here is a link to the
2014 UCB Birding
Challenge.
UCB Captain’s Log:
December 2014
by Keeli Marvel
Well, it’s the end of the year again. The end of the year is a time when we look
back at the year that went by and wonder where the heck it went so fast.
I looked back over the past year, and it was a pretty good year as far as birds
are concerned. I added 12 species to my life list: A Scott’s Oriole at Dugway,
the Red-eyed Vireo that was hanging out at Red Butte, A Great-crested Flycatcher
and a Swallow-tailed Kite on a quick trip to Florida, six species of warblers
(Worm-eating, Hooded, Northern Parula, Chestnut-sided, Blackburnian, and
Magnolia) and a Scarlet Tanager in Virginia. My favorite sighting this year was
a toss-up between the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher that showed up at work back in
June, my lifer Swallow-tailed Kite in Florida, or the bright yellow goodness of
my first Hooded Warbler in Virginia.
I finished the birding challenge this week picking up my last two species in
Carbon County. They really made me work for it, too. I thought…I’ll just run up
Spanish Fork Canyon until I hit the Carbon County line, and I’ll pull over and
find a couple of chickadees and a nuthatch or something. I headed up the canyon
Saturday afternoon, hit the county line, and pulled off at the (closed) entrance
to the Price Canyon Recreation Area. I walked up the road a ways listening for
birds, but after half an hour of hearing absolutely nothing but silence and the
traffic on the highway below, I gave up and drove down Hwy 6 to the turn off for
the Price Water Conservancy District facilities. I drove over the railroad
tracks and down the access road to the river and parked hoping I could find a
Dipper or something along the river. Didn’t find one, but there were
Black-capped Chickadees calling and foraging in the trees next to the river.
(One species down!) I wandered up the river a short ways and found a beaver hard
at work gnawing trees along the side of the river, but no birds. The sun had
gone down behind the mountain at this point and I was feeling pressed for time
and remaining light so after about half an hour of absolutely zero bird
activity, I drove down river even further, scanning for Dippers. Finally, a
Belted Kingfisher flew up the river with a small fish in its mouth. With that
second species down, my last county was finally completed! It only took about 2
hours to find 2 birds. Glad the rest of the year hadn’t gone at that pace!
After many miles and many trips, I saw at least 29 species in all 29 counties in
Utah, and some interesting corners of Utah I’ve never seen before (if anyone has
the list from our Millard County trip, let me know- I’m still missing it
somehow). There were some moments where I wondered if I would manage to complete
the challenge at the Gold level, but I did it with a month to spare! I hope
everyone has had a good time participating in the challenge field trips this
year – I’ve really enjoyed seeing parts of the state I’ve never seen before, and
getting to know Utah County birders better. I’d like to focus on more local
field trips in the coming year- to include some folks that maybe couldn’t make
it out to the far reaches of the state this year. Hope to see you all out at one
of our local Christmas Bird Counts, and I wish all of you a happy holiday
season!
Happy birding!
Keeli Marvel
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Photos by Amanda Holt. |
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Killdeer
Charadrius Vociferus
by Amanda Holt
The Scientific name: Charadrius Vociferus
(The name Vociferus comes from noisy very loud.)
I chose to write about the killdeer because it is one of my favorite birds. I
have gotten to know what their call is very quickly and I can pick it out
wherever I go. Around July we went up to Goshen Canyon to take some of my
neighbors birding. As we were driving along I heard the little high pitched
sound my alarm makes when it goes off in the morning. I knew it was a killdeer.
As we looked around for the killdeer we looked for some water. There was a
little bit of water left in front of someone’s house and there was the killdeer,
she seemed to have little babies following right behind her. Those babies were
one of the cutest things I have seen! I have seen the killdeer by Utah Lake and
even when we were down in Sand Hollow they were there.
These birds average 10.5 inches long in size with a wingspan of 24 inches, so
more like a sandpiper size. The killdeer colors are brown, black, and white in
the air and on the ground. While on the ground he has two neck bands that are
black on the front of them. The killdeers habitat is usually right in front of
driveways, golf courses, lawns, by water, the airport, or sandy areas, but don’t
be surprised if you find one in dry areas. The killdeer likes open places so
they get lots of insects. Killdeers also blend into muddy areas too. The
killdeers are so hard sometimes to find but listen for the high pitched
screaming and you will be able to locate them anywhere. Killdeer also find
places to nest their babies before they have hatched. The killdeer make their
nests out of small rocks, shells, sticks, and sometimes trash. The eggs blend
right in. The eggs are sort of a chocolate color. The baby is incubated for
about 26 to 28 days until hatched and they follow their mom around until they
are old enough to be on there own. The momma killdeer is protective like all
mothers, but the killdeer mommy flies at your head like a jet plane.
The killdeer eats beetles, grasshoppers, earthworms, spiders, snails, and a few
different seeds. That is why killdeer can live pretty much anywhere if these
things are there. While searching for food as they walk their head bobs up and
down, almost like hiccups. When the killdeer is in flight you will know, this
bird flies swiftly and erratic. When in flight they have “V” shaped wings. The
killdeer can migrate and survive anywhere it wants but usually doesn’t go to
cold wintery places. killdeer are in Utah all year-round. The killdeer has lots
of different habitats to survive in different areas.
The name Killdeer is from the shrill of their call.
If you would like to
write an article for the Bird of the Month, please contact
Machelle -
machelle13johnson@yahoo.com
Click here for past 'Birds of the Month'.
Field Trip Report
Beaver and Iron Counties
- 8 November 2014
by Bryan Shirley
Last
Saturday 5 of us made the trip down to Beaver & Iron Counties to work on the UCB
Challenge. We started at Minersville where we were able to locate over 40
species on the reservoir and the surrounding areas. There was a good variety of
wterfowl on the lake, plus a couple of Pelicans and Common Loons as well. The
area below the dam was very active with Cedar Waxwings, White-crowned & Song
Sparrows, Spotted Towhee, etc.
From there we headed south into Iron County. Our first stop was to enjoy the
petroglyphs at Parowan Gap. It was a fun stop since none of us had ever been
there. There weren't a lot of birds there but we did see a Canyon Wren and had a
pair of Golden Eagles Soar past. After lunch we found a Red-Shouldered Hawk on a
wire just west of Cedar City on the hwy toward New Castle (right at milepot 58).
It was sitting on the telephone wire and every so often would jump off the wire
and dive into the brush on the side of the road. Definately the highlight of the
trip! Quichipa had quite a few birds at the far South end, but the distance and
heat waves made it tough to ID most of them. New Castle Res. had a Common Loon &
Horned Grebe, plus a few species of common waterfowl. Iron took a bit longer to
complete the challenge than Beaver, but still not bad and we made it back home
just after dark. I think we ended up with about 44 species in Beaver County and
a bit over 30 in Iron.
Good Birding,
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Red-Breasted Nuthatch in Jack's Backyard. Photo by Jack Binch. |
November 2014
Jack Binch - Sandy
I had a
Red-breasted Nuthatch in November. Second one ever at home.
Yvonne Carter - American Fork
The Western Scrub Jays, Chickadees, a Hairy Woodpecker and Lesser Goldfinches have been busy and even a Junco showed up!
Jeff Cooper - Pleasant Grove
Nineteen California Quail made a showing in the yard during November. It's the largest covey I've had in my yard and it was the first visit of quail for the season. It was nice to have them join the ubiquitous Juncos as they cleaned up the seeds around the base of the feeders.
Eric Huish - Pleasant Grove
Mountain Chickadees - Chickadees are a yard favorite and
seldom see mountains down in my yard.
Milt Moody - Provo
Is that a butterfly in by backyard in Provo in the middle of November? No, just
a Ruby-crowned Kinglet fluttering around -- always fun to see.
Leena Rogers - Provo
Best backyard bird for November was a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Such busy,
energetic little guys! They seem to prefer our old apple tree on the patio.
Dennis Shirley -
Elk Ridge
White-breasted Nuthatch and Brown Creeper. Both in the same pine
tree on 11/22/2014 in our Elk Ridge front yard and both new yard birds!
Alton Thygerson - Provo
White-breasted Nuthatch - First one seen in my yard in 10 or more years.
Report your favorite backyard
bird each month to Eric Huish at 801-360-8777 or
erichuish@gmail.com
The Utah County Birders Newsletter is now online only/mostly.
We've decided to stop the regular paper mail version of the UCB Newsletter. This will save our club on Printing, Postage and Paper. If you would like an email notice each month when the Newsletter is posted online please send an email to Eric Huish at erichuish@gmail.com.
We are willing to print the online version of the newsletter and mail it out to anyone who still wants a paper copy or who doesn't have internet access. If you know of anyone who enjoys the UCB Newsletter but doesn't have internet access please let Eric Huish or Keeli Marvel know and we will make sure they get a copy.
Printable Version of this UCB Newsletter