Airport Road

Mom and I tested out my new Ipod speakers synched with bird songs last week. It was especially cool to hear at least 3 or 4 diferent Sora respond to their calls. We found some warblers, but apparently the bird songs had 4 CDs and I only uploaded the first 3....so we didn't get to call out any of them.

We did see a pair of gnatcatchers that hung around us for about 15 minutes.

The Uintas

Last week I went on a 4 day camping / hiking trip with some family. It was amazing. We camped at the Trial Lake campground which as the name suggests, was right next to Trial Lake (one of the 20 or so lakes in the park). We were at roughly 10,000 feet at the campground. The view of the lake in front of miles of pine trees and mountain peaks was surreal.

Tuesday we hiked from bald mountain up to meadow lake. Then took the trail up to "The Notch" and back down the other side ending up back at our campground at Trial Lake. It was a spectacular hike. Not to dificult. I think we covered about 11 miles that day. We saw several people backpacking in to camp for a few days up at meadow lake. While we all agreed that packing in your gear would be fun, we were glad to only be carrying day packs.

Wednesday I stayed at the campsite while everyone else went back up into the lake country on a shorter 6 mile hike that took them up into basically the same area, but on a diferent trail. I enjoyed chopping wood and keeping a fire running all day. I also managed to track down a few birds including a Clark's nutcracker, several white-crowened sparrows, and some red crossbills. We also had a very brave Chipmunk take over our campsite on Wednesday. He would actually jump up in our laps and stand on his back legs and beg for food. I think we ended up giving him about a pound of peanuts.

Wednesday night, Dan, Lena, Cory, Daniel, and I hiked up Bald Mountain starting a little past sunset. By the time we reached the summit it was about as dark as you could imagine. The moonless sky at 12,000 feet is amazing! It was a rough hike to do so late at night, but it was well worth it.

Thursday, my cousin Daniel and I were driving home and just north of Heber, we saw 2 nesting Swainson's Hawks. We pulled over to the side of the road and watched them take off and soar around the feilds together for probably 15 minutes. It was a great finish to a great trip.

Mountains

Last Thursday, I went to meet up with the Utah County Birders to go owling. I took a little nap in the afternoon and was 10 or 15 min late, so I ended up missing them. Because I was all the way down in Payson, I decieded to go explore Payson Canyon instead of head home. WOW! Payson Canyon is so beautiful. There are several camp grounds, streams, trails, lakes, wildlife and everything else you would expect from a Utah canyon. It was pretty busy for being a thursday, but I didn't mind, it makes me happy to know so many people are out of their homes and enjoying our beautiful Utah scenery.

Saturday night my sister and I hiked up to the Y. Monday night we hiked up Y, but kept going and made it all the way to the top. About 3/4 of the way up you are able to see Provo peak. Provo peak has been my goal for a few years. This is the year I'm going to make it up there.

Owls, songbirds, and Eagles

Mom and I went with a group out west of Goshen, UT this morning. We saw a long-eared owl nest with 3 babies. They were so cool looking. We saw a bunch of sparrows, warblers, vireos, and some others. We road down through this canyon and ended up back in goshen. We then went out into the farmland in Goshen to a spot where golden eagles have been nesting for 15+ years. There was one juvenile that was maybe a year or 2 old. He flew off the nest and was attacked by 5 or 6 western kingbirds. One actually landed on his back and started pecking at him while hitching a ride for like 4 or 5 seconds.

Killdeer
Great-blue heron
Red-winged blackbird
White-faced Ibis
California Gull
Raven
Turkey Vulture
Virginia Warbler
Morning Dove
Long-eared Owl
Chipping Sparrow
Brewer's Sparrow
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Western Tanager
Warbling Vireo
Plumbus Viero
Am. Goldfinch
Gray flycather
Spotted towhee
Hermet Thrush
House finch
Juniper titmouse
Black-throated Gray warbler
Mountain Bluebird
Rock Wren
Barn Swallow
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Mockingbird
Lark sparrow
Western Kingbird
Brewere's Blackbird
Brown-headed cowbird
W. Meadowlark
Eur. Starling
Am. Kesteral
Eurasian Collared-dove
Am. robin
Bullock's oriole
House sparrow
Mallard
Golden Eagle
Snowy Egret
Scrub Jay
Northern Harrier

Rainy-Day Part 2

I took my mom out birding tonight. We basically took a loop around West mountain stopping at some farms and at lincoln beach. Highlights were seeing a Horned lark, Yellow warbler, and a flock of American Gold finches. It was really fun to go bird watching with mom. It's been a few years since we've gone on a birding field trip together. Hopefully we get to go on a few more over the next 2 months she is here.

Yellow Warbler

Mourning dove, Rock Dove, Red-winged blackbird, Barn swallow, Western Meadowlark*, American Kestral, Horned Lark*, Turkey Vulture, Western Kingbird, European Starling, Yellow-headed blackbird, American Robin, Black-necked stilt, Tree swallow, Redhead, Nrothern Shoveler, White-faced Ibis, Killdeer, American Coot, Black-crowned night heron, Eurasian Collared Dove, American White Pelican, Gadwall, Snowy Egret, Crismson Teal, American Avocet, Wilson's Phalarope, House Finch, Bullocks Oriole, clark's Grebe, Spotted sandpiper, Franklin's gull, Brown-headed cowbird, Cliff swallow, Grea-blue heron, Yellow Warbler, American Goldfinch*, California Quail, Snowy plover, House Sparrow

40 total in about 3 hours

Rainy-day Birding

I went out after dinner around 7:30 or so to see if I could add a few more birds to my list. It was kind of drizzly and rainy today so I didn't know how much luck I would have. It was also a bit too dark already to take the camera. I drove down by east bay and saw a Canada Goose or two and a few mallards which are cool, but not too exciting. I kept driving and ended up in springvill by walmart. I still hadn't seen much so I drove over the freeway and headed towards lincoln beach where Megan and I had seen some new birds a week or so ago.

Almost to the beach by west mountain I saw a bunch of larger waterfowl of some sort off to the south of the road. They happened to be what we saw flying above us the last time we were there. We thought might be a crane of some sort, but cranes are white and these were brownish. I kept saying, they look so much like a crane or heron or something, but aren't the right color. I got to look at them for quite a while and figured out that they are White-faced Ibises. So finally we got a possitive I.D. on our mystery "crane."

Also hanging out with the flock of Ibises were several Snowy Egret which look like all white versions of the Ibis, with black legs and black bills, with a huge cool looking plumeage on the back of their heads. The other fun bird hanging out with them were 2 Black-necked Stilts. They have really reddish-orange legs.

After watching that group for 20 min I headed over to the beach while the sun was just setting. Even though the cloudy, overcast sky made it get dark pretty fast, I was able to see some of the birds we ID'd the last time we were there. The large willet was there along with the smaller Wilson's Phalarope. The Killdeers and the Yellow-headed blackbirds were going crazy and it was amazingly loud. Running around by some killdeer I saw a pair of Spotted sandpipers and the tiniest shorebirds I have seen: Snowy Plovers. There were also a few American Avocets hanging out right on the shore. So tonight was a great night. I added 8 more birds to my 2009 list.

On my way into the beach I almost ran over a bullock's oriole that was just hanging out in the road. On the way out of the park a Nighthawk flew right in front of my windsheild and I slowed down to where I was driving the same speed it was flying. I followed it for a good 200 or 300 yards. It was a pretty good way to end the night.

Ring-necked Phesant*
Turkey Vulture*
White-faced Ibis*
Snowy Egret*
Black-necked Stilt*
Mallard
W. Kinbird
Barn Swallow
Tree Swallow
Bullocks' Oriole
Y. H. Blackbird
Western Grebe
Willet
Wilson's Phalarope
Snowy Plover*
American Avocet*
Spotted Sandpiper*
A. Robin
Eur. Starling
Common NIghthawk*
C. Goose
Cinnamon Teal
Mourning Dove
Black-headed cowbird
Killdeer

Total species seen tonight: 25 - 8 new ones!

Hummers

We were at Grandma's house on sunday night and Megan got a few good shots of a little hummer that came to the feeder.

Lincoln Beach

There is a cool little state park on the southern end of Utah Lake. To get there you have to drive West of Springville through some beautiful farm country and Benjamin, Utah. We drove out there after diner tonight. Megan loved the scenery (I think it reminded her of home).

We also have a new gadget, or gizmo if you will. A new digital SLR canon (w/ a telephoto lens). WOOT! We took a ton of photos to mess around and start getting used to it. Also on our trip tonight we got some pics of what we thought were a few common birds. When we came home and looked them up we were surprised at what we found. 5 new birds to add to the list, a few of which were not on my life list.

Tree Swallow
Willet
Redhead
Northern Shoveler
Wilson's Phalarope
Gadwall

That puts us up to 43 species for the weekend (extended weekend).

Airport Dike Road Sitings

After dinner we took a quick drive down to Provo Airport. There is a road that goes all the way around the airport on top of the dike that was built to drain the area for the airport. It's mostly marsh land and there are tons of water birds. It's pretty crazy to find a marsh area in the middle of our Utah desert. Here's a list of what we saw today. We were both really excited to see the Black-crowned Night Heron. They are so other-wordly.

Megan had to work Monday morning, and I had the day off from school, so the boys and I went back and saw a few more things and this time brought binoculars to check a few I wasn't sure of from yesterday. On the way down I saw an Osprey with a huge branch in it's claws. It flew over the road and into some trees behind a farm. That was pretty amazing to see.

Black-billed Magpie
Franklin's Gull*
Cinnamon Teal *
House Finch *
American Great White Pelican *
Eastern Kingbird *
Western Grebe *
Black-crowned Night-Heron *
Bullock's Oriole *
American Coot
Redwinged Blackbird
Western Kingbird
Killdeer
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Mourning Dove
American Robin
Cliff Swallow
European Starling
House Sparrow

Sandhill crane*

Marsh Wren*

Osprey*

*New to our 2009 list

Eastern Kingbird

Places to go

Here is a list of places I'd like to visit this summer or some time some day:


Antelope Island
Fish Springs Wildlife Refuge
Provo Peak
Mt. Nebo - nebo scenic drive
Bryce Canyon
Zion Ntl. Park
Lone Peak
King's Peak
Goblin Valley St. Park

Birds

This last week I found my old lifelist that my mom had been keeping for me when I was younger. It got me interested in birding again. Since then I've started a new 2009 list.

Megan, the boys, and I went down to Utah Lake State Park this evening and sited about 20 species. We forgot to bring a bird book and binoculars though. Woopsy. Luckily we didn't see anything too dificult to ID. Here's our list for tonight:

Kildeer
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Coot
American Robin
Cliff Swallow
Rock Dove
House Sparrow
Canada Goose
Mourning Dove
California Quail
Great Blue Heron
Mallard
Western Kingbird
California Gull
European Starling
American Kestrel
Red-wing Blackbird
Black-billed magpie