RECORD BROKEN!

Today I had an amazing day of birding around Cache County with Craig Fosdick and Stephanie Cobbold. Craig and I started at Tony Grove where we leisurely worked our way through the campground and around Tony Grove Lake. The highlight here was certainly the Northern Pygmy-Owl (photo above) that we heard calling and then were able to locate as it flew around looking for a small bird to join it for lunch. I heard my first Northern Pygmy-Owl earlier this year in Cache County, and this is only the second time I've seen one. It was neat to see Cache County's largest and smallest raptors at almost the same time: a juvenile Golden Eagle was circling high overhead as we heard the owl. Other birds here were pretty much as expected, but crossbills were suprisingly absent. We were hoping for a White-winged Crossbill, which had been reported here a couple of times but which I had still not seen.

We met up with Stephanie and headed up Swan Flat Road from Logan Canyon towards Idaho. Along the road (still in Cache County) we stopped for a large flock of crossbills that we could hear and see in the treetops. After scanning for several minutes, I was able to locate my lifer White-winged Crossbill in the flock of about 40 crossbills; as far as I could tell all the rest were Red Crossbills. The White-winged Crossbill (photo at right) was a very exciting bird for me because I have spent a lot of time looking for this species in the county this year and had not been able to find it so far. In addition, this was my 235th species of the year in Cache County, tying the record held by Keith Archibald and Ron Ryel for a Cache County year.

After a quick drive to Swan Lake just across the border in Idaho, we went back down the valley to Sue's Ponds in search of gulls. Only one gull, a Ring-billed Gull, was there when we arrived (later joined by a few more), compared to hundreds of gulls just a day earlier. After a few minutes of watching a large group of Long-billed Dowitchers feeding at close range, I scanned the back side of the pond again and spotted something we had all missed the first time through: an American Golden-Plover (photo below) foraging on the mud with the Killdeer. With this bird, a lifer and a rare find in Utah, let alone Cache County, I set the record for the most number of birds seen in Cache County in one year at 236. Wohoo! But don't worry, the blogging's not done yet. Of course, I'm going to keep birding until the end of the year, and I'm going to see as many new birds as I can. Stay tuned. . . .

A Relaxing Day of Birding

It seems like making a birding goal sometimes takes the relaxation out of the hobby - it is even a little stressful to think about the birds that I missed or might be missing each time I go birding. But, now that I've reached 200 and I'm still far from 236, today I was able to enjoy a very relaxing day of birding. First, I did the LBCA point count again, this time with Craig Fosdick (above left) and Keith Archibald (above right). We saw a total of 47 species, including my first Hairy Woodpecker of the year. We also saw a Golden Eagle nest with a chick, a Vesper Sparrow nest with eggs, and a Grasshopper Sparrow. Grasshopper sparrows are pretty rare in the county, but probably occur in some numbers every year. I think the highlight for me was actually a mammal, though: I saw my first live Badger!

After an afternoon barbecue with Stephanie and her housemates and housemate's family, we went canoeing on the Bear River. I only picked up one new species, a Common Nighthawk, and missed American Bittern yet again, a species that should be common but is proving to be hard to find. It didn't seem to matter much, though, because the canoeing itself was so enjoyable.

A Bird in the Hand

To celebrate my 30th birthday, Stephanie Cobbold and I took off from school around noon to go birding. We started with a loop around the Benson Marina area which produced only about a dozen or two Horned Larks with nothing else mixed in. Perhaps partly explaining the shortage was a single Peregrine Falcon which was perched on the ground, feeding on something until we scared it off.

The Bear River as it goes under Highway 30 was finally open (it was frozen over as recently as Sunday), and had attracted a smattering of gulls (all Ring-billed Gulls and California Gulls as far as we could tell) along with some Gadwall. While checking the other side of the road for more birds, I found a Barn Owl in the reeds. We soon realized that it had a broken wing; presumably the bird had been hit by a car. I captured it and we took it to a vet that rehabilitates wildlife.

From there, we went to the Logan Landfill where we could also only find California and Ring-billed Gulls (we have seen a Mew Gull and at least one Herring Gull in the area in the last week). Then we drove up to Spring Hollow Campground above Third Dam in Logan Canyon and took about a 2 mile round-trip hike. The hike wasn't too productive: our total list here included about 15 Cedar Waxwings, one Townsend's Solitaire, one Belted Kingfisher, one Green-winged Teal, one adult Golden Eagle, and about six Common Goldeneye. Although our total list of species for the day probably wouldn't be too impressive (if I were to actually write it out), the day will be memorable not only for adding two new species to my year list, Peregrine Falcon and Barn Owl, but especially because one of the new species was in the hand! After the birds had been entertaining me for the last month and a half, it was nice to be able to do something to help a bird.

Lapland Longspurs, etc.

I've been searching flocks of Horned Larks for Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs periodically for years and for several hours a week since the new year with no luck. Today my effort finally paid off, when I found my lifer Lapland Longspurs - two of them - in a flock of Horned Larks near the Benson Marina.

I also saw my first Golden Eagle of the year as a beautiful adult flew low over my car in the west side of Cache Valley, and my first Eurasian Collared-doves in Newton. I tried to photograph the doves, but just as I was focusing a Red-tailed Hawk flew over and spooked them.