[Birdtalk] San Juan county - May 2006

[L. D. Giddings]

I just returned from several days in San Juan county. I intended to try
to catch the Spring migration with especial emphasis on warblers and had
some luck. The weather wasn't always particularly cooperative. It was
generally breezy to down right windy, and it rained hard enough to make
raingear necessary on Tuesday. But it still turned out to be a geat
trip. This is a wonderful time of year to visit San Juan county, before
it gets too buggy or too hot to enjoy it.

Trip highlights in no particular order:
- a greater scaup on one of the Halchita sewage lagoon ponds
- a pair of Cassin's vireos in Kane Creek canyon in Cedar Mesa
- more red crossbills than you could shake a stick at in the Elk Ridge
country
- Williamson sapsuckers in four different locations, again in Elk Ridge
and the Abajos
- a Grace's warbler near a spring in the Elk Ridge country
- two black phoebes in Montezuma canyon
- Cassin's kingbirds outnumbering western kingbirds by at least a 6-1
margin in the south Montezuma Canyon and Bug Canyon areas
- a Lucy's warbler in Bluff
- a pair of summer tanagers in Bluff
- what I believe to be a clay-colored sparrow in the same place one was
seen last month by the UOS group, in Bluff
- what I am reasonably certain were grasshopper sparrows calling from
the short grass along Hickman Flats road, on two different occasions

Lu Giddings

Trip list:
Number of Species Observed:   150

 Pied-billed Grebe
 Eared Grebe
 Western Grebe
 Great Blue Heron
 Snowy Egret
 Cattle Egret
 White-faced Ibis
 Turkey Vulture
 Canada Goose
 Wood Duck
 Gadwall
 Mallard
 Blue-winged Teal
 Cinnamon Teal
 Northern Shoveler
 Northern Pintail
 Green-winged Teal
 Redhead
 Ring-necked Duck
 Greater Scaup
 Lesser Scaup
 Red-breasted Merganser
 Ruddy Duck
 Northern Harrier
 Northern Goshawk
 Red-tailed Hawk
 Golden Eagle
 American Kestrel
 Peregrine Falcon
 Prairie Falcon
 Ring-necked Pheasant
 Blue Grouse
 Wild Turkey
 Virginia Rail
 Sora
 American Coot
 Killdeer
 Black-necked Stilt
 American Avocet
 Willet
 Spotted Sandpiper
 Marbled Godwit
 Semipalmated Sandpiper
 Baird's Sandpiper
 Long-billed Dowitcher
 Wilson's Phalarope
 Franklin's Gull
 Bonaparte's Gull
 Rock Dove
 Eurasian Collared-Dove
 Mourning Dove
 Flammulated Owl
 Western Screech-Owl
 Great Horned Owl
 White-throated Swift
 Black-chinned Hummingbird
 Broad-tailed Hummingbird
 Belted Kingfisher
 Williamson's Sapsucker
 Red-naped Sapsucker
 Downy Woodpecker
 Hairy Woodpecker
 Northern Flicker
 Western Wood-Pewee
 Gray Flycatcher
 Black Phoebe
 Say's Phoebe
 Ash-throated Flycatcher
 Cassin's Kingbird
 Western Kingbird
 Loggerhead Shrike
 Gray Vireo
 Plumbeous Vireo
 Cassin's Vireo
 Warbling Vireo
 Steller's Jay
 Western Scrub-Jay
 Pinyon Jay
 Clark's Nutcracker
 Black-billed Magpie
 American Crow
 Common Raven
 Horned Lark
 Tree Swallow
 Violet-green Swallow
 Northern Rough-winged Swallow
 Cliff Swallow
 Barn Swallow
 Black-capped Chickadee
 Mountain Chickadee
 Juniper Titmouse
 Bushtit
 Red-breasted Nuthatch
 White-breasted Nuthatch
 Pygmy Nuthatch
 Rock Wren
 Canyon Wren
 Bewick's Wren
 House Wren
 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
 Western Bluebird
 Mountain Bluebird
 Townsend's Solitaire
 Hermit Thrush
 American Robin
 Northern Mockingbird
 European Starling
 Cedar Waxwing
 Orange-crowned Warbler
 Virginia's Warbler
 Lucy's Warbler
 Yellow Warbler
 Yellow-rumped Warbler
 Black-throated Gray Warbler
 Grace's Warbler
 MacGillivray's Warbler
 Common Yellowthroat
 Yellow-breasted Chat
 Summer Tanager
 Western Tanager
 Green-tailed Towhee
 Spotted Towhee
 Chipping Sparrow
 Clay-colored Sparrow
 Brewer's Sparrow
 Vesper Sparrow
 Lark Sparrow
 Black-throated Sparrow
 Sage Sparrow
 Grasshopper Sparrow
 Song Sparrow
 White-crowned Sparrow
 Dark-eyed Junco
 Black-headed Grosbeak
 Lazuli Bunting
 Red-winged Blackbird
 Western Meadowlark
 Yellow-headed Blackbird
 Brewer's Blackbird
 Great-tailed Grackle
 Brown-headed Cowbird
 Bullock's Oriole
 Cassin's Finch
 House Finch
 Red Crossbill
 Pine Siskin
 Lesser Goldfinch
 American Goldfinch
 House Sparrow