[Birdnet] Northern Saw-whet Owl, Varied Thrush at Garr

[Kristin Purdy]

I visited Garr Ranch at Antelope Island State Park in Davis County today to 
watch for a mysterious sparrow that I saw briefly and poorly at the east end 
of the spring on Tuesday. In an hour and a half of watching, I didn't hear 
or see a sparrow, but I did see a NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL in the willow 
windfall in the northern-most spring channel, the one that channels water 
from the spring house. The bird perched on a horizontal branch, relatively 
exposed, and tried to ignore the juncos that came to chip at him 
occasionally. Paul Higgins arrived at about the same time to look for the 
male VARIED THRUSH again and photographed the owl; his images will be 
stellar and I look forward to his posting links.

Paul later found the thrush in the Russian Olives along the path from the 
south pasture to the base of the spring. Glenn Barlow and I returned in the 
afternoon and saw both birds in the same places at about 2:30.

I've seen the Varied Thrush in several places around the spring, in the 
grove and in the grass, but three times in one particular spot and that may 
denote a preference for that area. Walk north to the base of the spring from 
the south pasture. Just before you reach the water, there's a distinctive 
Russian Olive on the right. It runs south to north and forms a complete arch 
from where it grows out of the ground to where it touches the ground again. 
The bird likes the thick phragmites at the north end of the tree where it 
touches the ground again.

While I sat at the spring and watched for the no-show sparrow, light and 
fluffy feathers floated past me on the breeze. I tracked them to a pile of 
feathers on the ground and in small branches of the olive described above; 
they were the very recent remains of another Northern Saw-whet Owl. The 
feathers were so light and fluffy that the bird had to have been taken this 
morning, likely by an accipiter and not a mammal or Great Horned Owl (the 
saw-whet had been plucked on a thick olive branch that grows out of the 
arching tree about 15 feet above the ground).

Kris