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.

Two Lifers in One Flock

Today Stephanie Cobbold and I birded around Cache Valley. Three new birds today included my first Prairie Falcon of the year, spotted by Stephanie flying over the Willow Park Zoo, my first Ring-billed Gulls of the year, at the Fish Hatchery, and my first Wood Ducks of the year, a pair at the 20-20 ponds. But the highlight was certainly a flock of 400+ Horned Larks which included about 30 Lapland Longspurs, 10 Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches, and at least 2 Snow Buntings. This one flock made for my best day of birding in quite a while. Both the Snow Buntings and the Rosy-Finches were lifers which I have been looking for for years, and so they were also on my list of top five most wanted birds (see the revised list to the right). It almost felt like a waste because I would have been so excited about seeing either one that I wish they had been on separate days to spread it out! I took some photos but the birds were so far away that you can't really tell what they are in the photos. (I forgot to bring my point-and-shoot for digiscoping.) Instead, I've included a photo of a Rough-legged Hawk today.

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.

Tundra Swans and My New Camera

Today I birded with Stephanie Cobbold and Sarah Mohlman. We started with one more attempt for Craig Fosdick's White-throated Sparrow, which I missed again. I think I'm giving up on this bird. It is supposed to be hanging out in an area pretty close to my house, so I keep going back for it, but I think this was my fifth failed attempt, which is getting ridiculous.

Next we went to the 20-20 ponds, where I added my only new bird of the day, a small family of Tundra Swans. We saw a bunch of other cool birds here, including two Bald Eagles, a Sharp-shinned Hawk being mobbed by Brewer's Blackbirds, and Sarah's lifer Canvasbacks. After the ponds, we drove around the valley a bit, from Mendon to Benson, primarily on the lookout for Horned Lark flocks. We found about five different flocks with an average of about 20 birds each, but couldn't find anything other than Horned Larks in the flocks. I also photographed the Western Meadowlark above while we were searching for Horned Larks.

Finally, we drove up Logan Canyon to try for a Winter Wren where we had looked on the January 1st trip. We saw Townsend's Solitaire, American Dipper, and Common Goldeneyes here, but no wrens. I also got a poor look at a jay flying away, but I wasn't able to relocate it when it landed and from the looks I got I couldn't be certain what species it was, although I suspect it was a Steller's Jay. It's too bad I missed that bird, because I don't have any jays yet this year, but on the other hand I am not too worried about finding them later.