[Birdtalk] Friday birds

[L. D. Giddings]

I spent some time in Heber and Kamas valleys today hoping to find flocks
of Bohemian waxwings and common redpolls but alas, it was not to be.
There were still a few highlights.

The Mirror Lake highway is closed at Soapstone - as one might expect
this time of year - but the road is plowed and dry from Kamas to
Soapstone. There is about 6"-12" of snow on both sides of the road from
about Mile 6, the Yellow Pine area, to Soapstone at Mile 14. Townsend's
solitaires were abundant along the way, and mountain chickadees,
red-breasted nuthatches, and American robins weren't too hard to find. I
though I heard red crossbills on two occasions but I never did see them.

Three Eurasian-collared doves were spotted in Kamas, in the northwest
part of town. I'm not sure if that is a highlight or not.

I saw a juvenile bald eagle perched in a tree between Rock Cliff state
park and Francis this morning and watched an adult bird soar overhead at
Jordanelle reservoir this afternoon. Jordanelle was also notable for a
raft of 31 buffleheads, 17 males and 14 females, and for the large
number of Wilson's snipe feeding on the mud flats at the inlet end of
the lake. I counted 33 snipe and undoubtedly miss others due to the
terrain.

An adult bald eagle was seen flying across Deer Creek reservoir near the
state park. A lone American white pelican was keeping company with a
flock of gulls on the flats at the inlet end of the lake. A pair of
common loons was spotted in this same area. There were actually quite a
few birds on the water but the majority of them were hugging the far
shore and nearly impossible to identify.

Finally. That ugly stretch of road between Rock Cliff and Francis that
no one likes is finally being developed by Victory Ranches. I'm so glad
to know that poor homeless millionaires will finally have a place to
build their houses and golf, since no where else will have them and
there's no place else for them to go.

Lu Giddings