Does it Count?

You might not know this, but not every bird I see in Cache County will count towards my list. If I manage to find the two Mandarin Ducks that have been seen around Logan, they won't count. In the last few months, I've seen a Red-crested Pochard; an Indian Peafowl, a Mute Swan; and several Swan Geese, Greylag Geese, and Domestic Chickens, but none of these are included in the list at right. Why not? Well, believe it or not, there are rules about these things. According to the American Birding Association, the standard for competitive listers in the US, a species cannot be listed in a competition unless the bird is "alive, wild, and unrestrained." The rules go into great detail to specify, basically, that the bird must either be a native species, a natural vagrant, or an established introduced species; and the rules for "establishment" are pretty strict. So, while all those birds may be interesting to find and to watch, they are not known to be established in the area. Even if they are free-living, they depend on human handouts for survival or have not been able to successfully breed long enough to be considered established, so they don't count.

The species above, California Quail, is a bit trickier. Their natural range comes close to here, but not quite to Utah. It is plausible that a lost bird could end up here, but unlikely. However, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has been planting them along the Wasatch Front to try to provide opportunities for hunters (don't get me started on the idea of introducing non-native species for sport . . . ). Populations along the Wasatch Front have been established and self-supporting for some time now, even if they are non-native. A sighting in that area would probably "count." But as far as I have heard, DWR has not been able to get the quail to establish in Cache County, despite repeated attempts. After no reports of California Quail from the county all winter, suddenly this week at least 40 showed up in Benson by the river. Where did they come from? Can they be counted? My guess is that they were shipped here by DWR, although I don't know that for sure. Either way, I'm not considering them countable for now. But they were still fun to see.

Winter Birds in Spring

Today I celebrated Easter with a great day of birding around Cache Valley. I was joined by Keith Archibald, John Barnes, Bryan Dixon, Craig Faulhaber, Craig Fosdick, Jean Lown, and Ron Ryel each for part or all of the day. Highlights included a pair of Hooded Mergansers at the Logan Fish Hatchery, a continuing Greater White-fronted Goose off of Sam Fellow Road, a pair of Trumpeter Swans near the Amalga Barrens, and a Common Redpoll at a feeder at a private residence in Richmond. Hooded Merganser was number four on my most-wanted list, and is a great bird to find. I was starting to think I was too late in the year to find one, since they are listed as rare in winter and absent in other seasons. I had definitely given up on Common Redpoll, having missed what was then the only one of the year a few weeks ago. This is another winter bird that must be on its way north just as the summering birds move back in. The migration was clearly evident today: other firsts of the year included American Avocet, Franklin's Gull, Savannah Sparrow, Double-crested Cormorant, Clark's Grebe, Ruddy Duck, Yellow-headed Blackbird, and Black-necked Stilt.

The photo above is a great comparison of the two swan species, with a Tundra Swan on the left and a Trumpeter Swan on the right. The pair of Trumpeters was a nice treat after scanning through hundreds of Tundras in the area. The photo below shows the Common Redpoll at a feeder with two American Goldfinches.

Did You Know?

Did you know that you can leave comments on here by logging in with your Gmail account? Blogger is owned by Google, and their accounts are interchangeable. I love to see comments on these posts because it tells me that someone is interested in what I'm writing about.

Halfway to 200!

This has been a great weekend for yard birds for me. First, there was a Ring-necked Pheasant in the yard yesterday. This bird set a new personal best in yard lists for me, surpassing my old record from Olympia of 41 species with the pheasant being number 42. Then this morning, Stephanie and I saw a Brown Creeper in the yard, a bird that is generally considered to be common but hard to find. Finally, this afternoon I added yard bird number 44, and at the same time my 100th species of the year, a flock of at least four Lesser Goldfinches! That's a male reaching out to defend its spot on the feeder from a Pine Siskin in the photo above. The other two birds on the feeder are also Lesser Goldfinches. This species is considered "occassional" in Cache County, meaning that is seen periodically but not even once a year. What a great way to reach the halfway mark! (If this is listed as 98 in my species list, how can I be halfway to 200? Because I still have two spuhs that are not yet included in the list: see the post from January 29.)

Fun with Geese

Today Stephanie and I were having lunch on our way out to do some birding when I got a phone call. The caller ID said "Craig Fosdick," and I knew that what it meant was "Good Birds Have Been Found." Sure enough, Craig and Keith Archibald were scanning a flock of about a thousand Canada Geese and had also found Snow Geese, Tundra Swans, and a Ross's Goose in the mix! By the time we got there, the geese had moved a bit further from the road, but in the next hour or so we were also able to find three Cackling Geese and a Greater White-fronted Goose in the flock. Cackling Geese are a smaller version of the familiar Canada Goose, and were recognized as a distinct species in 2004. You can see one with Canada Geese in the photo above - can you find it? Perhaps it is only because they are a recent species which didn't have much attention paid to it when it was just a subspecies, but the new species is considered rare in Utah and is being tracked by the Utah Rare Birds Committee, who will be interested in a report about this sighting. White-fronted Geese are not considered as rare state-wide, but are apparently more rare in Cache Valley - Bob Atwood told me that he hadn't seen one in Cache Valley since the mid-1990s. It seems that the spring migration is finally underway, and my list is again picking up momentum, with four new species today!

In the News!

A few weeks ago, Stephanie and I saw a Mew Gull that was Cache County's second record, and its first record in 17 years. Last Thursday, our find was discussed in part of Bill Fenimore's "Bird Sightings" column in the Salt Lake Tribune! Here is a link to the article (6MB).

Since my last post, I've found two Wild Turkeys in Cove on my way to a conference in Montana, and four Sandhill Cranes with Stephanie after I got back. These may be the same four cranes that were seen in the area on the Christmas Bird Count. Since this species usually migrates to warmer climates during the winter, it is nice to know that they've made it through the worst of it!

A Glaucous Gull and More Signs of Spring

Things seem to be changing in the valley. Some of the water that was frozen over a week or two ago is now open. There seem to be many more gulls and Canada Geese around (no Cackling Geese that I could find, and I've been looking). In the past two months I've been seeing mostly Ring-billed Gulls with a few California Gulls mixed in and maybe a Herring Gull if I'm lucky. Today the Ring-billed Gulls and California Gulls were in about even numbers, but I'd estimate I saw about five times as many total gulls today than any other day in the last two months. Herring Gulls also seem to have increased not just in numbers but also in proportion to the rest. I saw at least ten, maybe twenty today. The biggest find of the day was an immature Glaucous Gull in Cutler Marsh, a first for the year and a find almost as rare as the Mew Gull I found a few weeks ago. The Glaucous Gull was seen at the landfill earlier this week by Keith Archibald, according to rumor, but was not reported online; I don't know why. You can see the Glaucous Gull on the right in the photo above, next to a Ring-billed Gull (left) and a Herring Gull (middle) for comparison. Other highlights in the last two days included a Short-eared Owl at Cutler Marsh last night, a Barn Owl at the Logan Airport, and a flock of about five American Tree Sparrows in Benson today. I also saw courtship displays by Common Goldeneyes and Ring-necked Ducks today. Spring must be on the way! Right?

Lunar Eclipse and Another Lifer

Tonight I went snowshoeing with my friends John, Stephanie, Stacey, and Sarah to watch the lunar eclipse and to play some owl calls. We started up Green Canyon, just outside of Logan, at dusk (6:30) and stopped every half hour or so to play owl calls. I mostly played the calls of Northern Pygmy-Owls and Northern Saw-whet Owls because I thought these would be the most likely for the habitat, but we also tried Western Screech-owl, Long-eared Owl, and Great Horned Owl calls. After about five stops to play owl calls, we finally got a response: my lifer Northern Pygmy-Owl calling from off in the distance - a simple hoot about once a second. It was a surreal hike, with the moon going into and out of eclipse as we hiked in the dark underneath it, and a Pygmy-Owl finally calling just as the moon emerged from the Earth's shadow.

The Walk Home

Trying to see 200 birds in Cache County this year has changed several of my day-to-day habits. I almost always have a pair of binoculars in my pocket. I don't listen to my mp3 player if I'm outside (so I can hear birds). And now, I take a new route walking to and from school. My new route takes me past the Logan Cemetery, which I think will be better habitat for finding birds than the apartments and homes along my old route.

The cemetery has been productive so far - I found my first Brown Creeper there a while ago, and I've been seeing other cool birds there lately, including Cedar and Bohemian Waxwings (the photo today is of one of these Cedar Waxwings), a Sharp-shinned Hawk, and a Merlin. Yesterday I found another first for the year on my walk home, although it was after the cemetery in a stand of trees near USU's Romney Stadium. I heard a raspy, weak chickadee call that I thought sounded like a Mountain Chickadee (I've mostly been seeing Black-capped Chickadees lately, especially in the valley). I went to get a closer look and was able to find three Mountain Chickadees, plus my first Red-breasted Nuthatch of the year.

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.