[Birdnet] Uinta Basin

[Clay Johnson]

I meant to send this earlier in the week, but.

 

We finally have resident Eurasian Collared_doves this spring.two have been
daily feeder regulars since about 4/15/07.  Around 4/22 07 what appeared to
be a Ringed Turtle-dove showed twice in two days.  The Collared doves
harassed it until it left each time, and we haven't seen it since.
Unfortunately the only photo I got of the Ringed dove shows just a bit of
the vent area and the tail as the bird went behind a tree,  It was slightly
smaller than the collared doves, and appeared all white except the collar,
eyes, and dark band on the tail.  Although the collared doves quickly drove
off the Ringed dove, they seem to co-exist amicably with Mourning doves.  We
had our spring (whatever the opposite of exodus is.enterdus?) of Mourning
doves earlier this week.looked out and there were thirty at the feeder.  We
had seen one or two earlier but this looked like the main arrival.  We also
had our first (and maybe only?) Cassins finch of the season show up on
4/16/07.  Usually several pairs show up in late winter.  We still have not
seen the dark-lored White-Crowned sparrows this season, either, and they
usually show up about the same time as the Cassins finches.  Has anyone else
noted major differences?  We've seen several Western kingbirds already this
spring, although our home nesting pair haven't showed up yet. Our
goldfinches this winter (as usual, we had about 50) seem to be as much or
more Lesser than American, although I have a really hard time telling the
difference in mid-winter.  

 

We went to Pelican-Ouray Refuge for several hours on Sunday (4/15/07). The
Blue-winged teal and the Black-necked stilts have arrived.  We also saw a
Long-billed curlew (in the alfalfa field between Pelican and Ouray), and at
Ouray, besides the usual and obvious suspects, we saw Western sandpipers,
two Marbled godwits, a male turkey, Marsh wrens, Lots of Spotted towhees,
and best, a Hermit thrush.which was a new bird for both of us.  The thrush
was in the cottonwoods on the east side of the Sheppard Loop.  One neat
thing we saw was clusters of swallows resting on mid-pond vegetation:  they
had turned the vegetatio9n below them white-like it was frosted- and each
cluster contained four to five different swallow specirs (I sent a photo to
Milt).  If you go to Ouray, watch for and enjoy the porcupines and several
kinds of squirrels, too! 

 

Clay and Cliftia Johnson

 

 

 

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