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.