[Birdtalk] Swainson's Hawk! and others from airport - SL CBC

[Colby Neuman]

Hi all,

Steve and Cindy Summerfield, Geoff Hardies, my dad and I had the task of
doing the airport section of the Salt Lake CBC that Mark et al. normally
do.  We ran into a few hiccups along the way that included having a hard
time gaining access to the duck club marshes just to the west of the
airport.  Fortunately, we finally did at 4pm with the help of an airport
security agent, which allowed us to pick up several great birds for the
count.

Highlights included an adult SWAINSON'S HAWK!!!, a FERRUGINEOUS HAWK, 1
PRAIRIE FALCON, 4 HOODED MERGANSERS, 2 COMMON MERGANSERS, 2 HERMIT THRUSHES,
1 AMERICAN CROW, 1 VIRGINIA RAIL, 3 RING-NECKED PHEASANTS, 12 GREAT-TAILED
GRACKLES and several small flocks of AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS.

We began the morning birding the westernmost property of the airport.  Here
we picked up our only KILLDEER of the day as well as a couple small flocks
of AMERICAN PIPITS and HORNED LARKS.  We also quickly noticed the large
numbers of RED-TAILED HAWKS, ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS, NORTHERN HARRIERS and
AMERICAN KESTRALS that were using the airport property and surrounding
countryside (we ended up with 15-30 individuals of each of these species for
the day!).  We came up with a couple ducks using the canals, but we didn't
find anything unexpected.  Our big disappointment came early in the day when
we realized we couldn't access the duck club? property to the west of the
airport due to several locks and chains on gates even though we had
permission to access the property.  At this point, we headed back around the
inaccessible land to the Salt Lake International Center and the property
that's just to the north of it.  We were hoping to gain access from the
east side of the property, but eventually came to another locked gate.
Fortunately, there was no barb wire surrounding the fence so we were at
least able to walk down the dirt road for a ways.  Here we came upon a
HERMIT THRUSH, a small flock of AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS, and a flyover
PRAIRIE FALCON.  Farther down the road we came to a point where we saw a
RING-NECKED PHEASANT fly across the canal while a VIRGINIA RAIL called on
its own from a small marsh patch on the opposite side of the canal.  At this
point, we were happy to have at least picked up a few hard to get birds for
the count so we knew (or least I felt) we hadn't completely failed.  On our
drive back into the Salt Lake International Center, we found an AMERICAN
CROW and a COMMON RAVEN perched on nearby poles.  After lunch, we birded the
east and north sides of the airport where we found a beautiful FERRUGINOUS
HAWK resting on a street lamp on the north side of the airport.

Finally, we dropped Geoff back off at his car at 3:15pm and decided to take
one last lap around the west side of the airport property in hopes of a
shrike or any new ducks.  We once again became rather frustrated after
seeing little in the way of new birds and not being able to access the
adjacent property.  As we were leaving at 4pm, we ran into an officer
because the airport security team had sent someone out to investigate our
vehicle.  Fortunately, the officer knew we were supposed to be out there.
He quickly became the hero of the day by allowing us access to the duck club
property with a magical key.  At this point we knew we had little time to
cover a significant amount of important ground (and water).  Just after
entering the property we came up on just 'another' hawk facing away from us
while resting in a tree next to the road.  As we slowly drove past the bird
I noticed the bird had a white throat with a dark chest with what appeared
to be an otherwise light underside.  While I did a double check, and for a
brief couple of seconds wondered is this really what I think it is, the bird
took off.  It then became immediately clear that it was an adult SWAINSON'S
HAWK.  I yelled this out to much disbelief, but that was until all four of
us had jumped out of the car and watched the bird fly and land in a tree a
couple hundred yards in front of us.  The bird afforded reasonable views
through a scope and was even nice enough to perch alongside a Red-tailed
Hawk to compare size and shape.  The grayish back along with the rusty
chest-ish color and white/buffy underside (with the scaly pattern to the
flanks) were all observed when perched as well as the white auxilleries and
dark primaries and secondaries when flying.  I was basically flipping out
this whole time because this bird should be in ARGENTINA (or at least South
America) by now?  I have absolutely no idea what this bird is doing given
their normal food requirements are grasshoppers, etc..  Anyway, I would love
to know what the late records are for this species in Utah (or even the
western United States for that matter).  I wonder if it's actually going to
winter out there?!  I suspect this bird could be seen from the northern end
of the Salt Lake International Center for those interested.

We eventually drove on and literally watched the butts of two HOODED
MERGANSERS fly away as we flushed them out of canal.  Fortunately, we came
across a pair in a pond later on.  Next we went to the night heron location
described by Mark.  We walked around a bit and did not see anything.
Eventually, my dad and I split off from the Summerfields.  This is when I
noticed a large flock of birds in the distance (~3/4-1 mile away) and sure
enough they were BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS (~45).  At this point, my dad
then ran down the road to check out a ditch for more night-herons.  On the
southern horizon I noticed a flock of birds heading my direction.  I then
noticed their long tails and really began wondering what in the world a
tightly packed flock of magpies were doing by acting like they were going
somewhere in a hurry.  It wasn't before too long that I realized they were a
flock of GREAT-TAILED GRACKLES with a couple BREWER'S BLACKBIRDS mixed in.
A minute or so later 2 more grackles flew on by.  Eventually we drove around
some more and picked up a few more common duck species like GADWALL,
RING-NECKED DUCK and AMERICAN WIGEON primarily based on shape because the
light was fading quickly at this point.  As a result, we probably missed a
species or two during this time, but we did the best we could.

Anyway, it was a fun day of exploring, I was surrounded by great people and
it was just nice to get out and see some good birds for the count.  Please
let me know if you have any info regarding Swainson's Hawks' average and
late departure dates for the state or elsewhere in the West.  Thanks.

Colby




We then dropped Geoff back off at his car before headin
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