[Birdtalk] Spectacular San Juan County!

[Tim Avery]

Another long one...


Birding with Dave Slager is a lot like going to Disneyland. You know 
your going to see cool things, you will probably get yelled at by an 
authority figure for something ridiculous, you will probably get messy 
(or muddy in my case), and you will likely go home upset you didn’t get 
to see Mickey Mouse (or Scaled Quail on this adventure).

You also know its going to be an interesting/good weekend of birding 
when you start out getting less than 5 hours of sleep in 30 degree 
weather on the side of a dusty road. Dave and I headed to San Juan 
County this past Thursday evening to try for some Southeastern Utah 
specialties, and do a little exploring in Utah's largest county. The 
first bird in San Juan County was a Common Poorwill on Highway 191 
around 11:00pm Thursday. Dave missed the fire-eyed bird on account of a 
quick nap.

Friday morning we birded the Hickman flats area and got a brief look at 
a fly-by Gunnison Sage-Grouse, and were lucky to hear a male booming 
it's "saw-like" bounce a couple of times. There was a beautiful 
Rough-legged Hawk hanging around with an awesome white head, as well as 
several Golden Eagles, and a number of migrant sparrows.

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/april07/rlha_01.jpg

We birded Lloyd's lake just west of Monticello, but didn’t find much. A 
local told us that Lewis's Woodpecker had been hanging around. We drove 
up into the Abajo's where the snow was melting fast, and very few birds 
were hanging around.

After cleaning up on waterfowl at the Monticello Wastewater Treatment 
ponds, we headed to Devil's Canyon, and after a little work, got great 
looks at an Acorn Woodpecker, up close and personal.

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/april07/acwo_01.jpg

We recorded all three Nuthatches, with an abundance of Pygmy, including 
4 birds moving through the campground together. After a quick and 
uneventful stop at Recapture Reservoir we headed out to Montezuma Canyon 
to look for Scaled Quail. WE stopped at a pond along the road in the 
canyon at what looked like an old ranch. Dave spotted a Black Phoebe, 
and we quickly located a 2nd bird indicating a pair setting up to 
hopefully breed at this locale. A pair of Hooded Mergansers, 3 
Ring-necked Duck, a smattering of Violet-green Swallows, and 1 Northern 
Rough-winged Swallow all made the stop worth while.

We searched the entire draw where the quail had been reported for the 
previous 3 months, and never heard a peep. However, a pair of Red-tailed 
Hawks had taken up a nest in the canyon and a pair of Great Horned Owl's 
had as well. Looking closely at the picture linked below you can see a 
fuzz ball in front of and two to the right of the momma owl, 3 babies I 
didn’t notice at the time I took the shot!

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/april07/ghow_01.jpg

After deciding the quail weren't there we headed to the Hatch Trading 
Post to look around. 2 Lesser Goldfinch in the tree was new for the 
trip. We played Canyon Towhee tapes a few times hoping for a response, 
but moved onto Bluff to look for other birds.

On the road to Bluff Dave about had a heart attack when a Mourning Dove 
took off of the road and almost collided with the car. I looked over to 
find Dave covering his head as if a deadly car crash were eminent. No 
crash and no dead birds later we arrived in Bluff and birded cottonwood 
wash north of town. The ponds on the southeast edge of the wash had a 
singing Marsh Wren, but not much else. On the west end we relaxed in the 
shade after a long day of birding, and enjoyed White-throated Swift's 
checking out the cliffs for a place to roost for the night. I was lucky 
enough to see two birds grapple at about 250 feet up and free fall 
almost 230 feet before they parted just above the rock floor and flew 
off. Not sure if this was courtship or battle, but it was an awesome 
sight. Just as the light was getting dim Slager spotted a Falcon landing 
on the cliffs above us. A quick look through the scope and we added a 
beautiful Peregrine Falcon to our trip list!

After a long day I slept like a baby, only waking up to rain drops 
pelting my face at 7:00 am Saturday. Along the San Juan River in and 
around Bluff we added a few neat birds. We heard a Ring-necked Pheasant 
call from the south side of the river by the Sand Island and had a 
Great-tailed Grackle fly across the road in town. We decided to check 
out Hovenweep National Monument and along the way saw a heard of Wild 
Horses, which were a first for Dave, and put on quite a show for us, 
herding together and crossing the road.

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/april07/horse_04.jpg

Hovenweep was rather birdless, but historically intriguing. I hadn’t 
been since I was 12 and Dave hadn’t been period so it was a nice detour 
from the birding. We headed back to Montezuma Canyon which still proved 
to be quail-less. This was the biggest disappointment of the trip and 
likely a blunder I will regret down the road, looking back at all the 
sightings over the past 3 months.

Dave checking out the seep: 
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/april07/slager_01.jpg

We headed back to Bluff and Recapture Reservoir which was awash with 
waterfowl. Out first Western Grebes of the trip were on hand, as well as 
a Greater Scaup that Dave picked out on the water. We also had a flyover 
Pintail, 2 Common Goldeneye, 16 Redhead and a host of others. Again at 
the point of exhaustion we drove up the dirt road west of the reservoir 
to try for Juniper Titmouse. After trying a pygmy-owl tape with no 
response I started to whistle at a second stop and almost immediately 
got a response from a titmouse. The bird came in and Dave took a minute 
to admire its crest-iness.

We decided a relaxing afternoon would be a survey of a Hickman Flats, so 
we Started at 4:15 pm and drove east towards Colorado. After 12 miles 
and an hour and 38 minutes, we recorded 25 species of bird, and an 
unidentified swallow. Highlights included:

1 Greater Yellowlegs, 18 Vesper Sparrow, 1 Savannah Sparrow, 5 Sage 
Thrasher, 3 Sage Sparrow, 1 Bewick's Wren, and a number of species of 
Waterfowl on three bodies of water we checked out.

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/april07/sags_01.jpg

We spent the early evening taking pictures of scenery and doing a little 
digiscoping…

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/april07/me_02.jpg

We headed to Devils Canyon to camp for the night, and made it after 
playing "don’t hit the deer" on 191 for 12 some odd miles. After setting 
up camp and having a little dinner we sat heard a Saw-whet start calling 
off in the distance. I whistled a little bit and got a few responses, 
but never went out to chase the bird. Another long day in the books and 
it was off to bed.

Sunday morning started off with several hours of rains storms, soaking 
our tents and dampening our hopes of a nice day of birding. However two 
Saw-whet owls were calling at around 8:00 am, the latest I have heard 
them sing, making for an interesting time. A Dark-eyed Junco also 
started doing a display a few feet from Dave, and was quite interesting. 
We left Devil's Canyon and headed to Blanding for gas. Dave talked me 
into stopping at the Blanding Wastewater Treatment ponds, and for good 
reason. 7 Franklin's Gull and 1 adult Bonaparte's Gull in full hood were 
on hand for new trip birds. WE also added Yellow-headed Blackbird, 
putting us at 95 species for the county over the past days. We decided 
100 was still possible, and picked up # 96, a Northern Mockingbird, 
flying across highway 95 about 100 yards off Highway 191.

We stopped at Natural Bridged National Monument to look around. Again 
rather unbirdy so after the quick loop we headed off towards Hite. At mm 
69 on highway 95 4 Pinyon Jays flew across the road so we pulled over 
and took off on foot for better looks, and terrible pictures!

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/april07/pija_01.jpg

Another new county bird down we made it to Hite just after 1:00 pm and 
were glad to see hundreds of Swallow's over the Colorado River (we had 
only recorded Violet-green and NRW up to this point). The majority of 
the birds were Violet-green. However after spending some time watching 
them, we picked out a Northern Rough-winged and a Tree for a new bird. 
About this time Dave the Michigonian asked if the dark blobs down river 
were Ibises. I took a quick peek and was glad to see that they were 
indeed. Species 99! We drove to where the actual Marina used to be in 
hopes of closer looks. No such thing as the tamarisks were ridiculously 
tall. Dave did however spot 2 Red-breasted Mergs on the river, species 
100 for the trip.

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/april07/wfib_02.jpg

We headed back to the "boat launch" where we started and pulled out our 
scopes to look at the ibis. After some confusion as to what they were we 
worked our way closer to the birds for better looks and hopes of 
pictures. I of course ended up whipped in the eye by a tamarisk, ripping 
my contact in half, while on my eye (and hopefully the contact saved my 
eye from permanent damage), and of course what is a good bird chase 
without me or someone in the birding party ending up knee deep and shoe 
less in mud? Well of course it's not a birding trip without that, so I 
took the honors of stepping through the thin shell of dry dirt on the 
surface, into about 16 inches of what can only be described as the 
stickiest, most clay-like mud on the planet. After a few good expletives 
and some sand to dry off the mud, I was back on my way to looking at the 
ibis. Of course as luck would have it, a squall came across the river, 
blowing dust everywhere, and sending the birds into flight. We did 
manage some nice scope views before the birds took off and I snapped a 
few flight shots, of what appears to be at least one Glossy Ibis 
(however I believe there were two birds present).

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/april07/plegad_01.jpg

We also added a flyby Barn Swallow and Blue-winged Teal while on the 
prowl. Half blind, covered in mud, and ready to go home I headed back to 
the car. Dave followed shortly thereafter and we were on our way back to 
Salt Lake. 103 Species (in San Juan County), 1029 miles, and 71 hours 
later, I am back home, typing away and quite pleased with the weekend of 
birding.


If you are still reading at this point I applaud you, because I lost 
interest about 2 pages ago, that was until the part where I fell in the 
mud came up and now I am back at full interest level. A few pieces of 
advice based off happenings this weekend.

5. Don’t put random plants or vegetation in your icebox, even in a 
zip-lock bag to study for a later time, as they will inevitably smell 
worse than anything you can imagine. (THANKS DAVE!)

4. Don’t upset your personal weatherman as he will inevitably curse you 
with early morning rain showers, and laugh about it as he watches on 
weather.gov

3. Don’t speed along Highway 191 south of Monticello at night. You will 
hit a deer, thankfully we didn’t!

2. Don't wait three months to chase a mega-rarity, such as Scaled Quail. 
They will either be eaten by a hawk/owl, or be long gone by the time 
you're there.

1. When asked by a DWR officer, and I quote, "Where'd you find out about 
em'?", in reference to the Gunnison Sage-Grouse you are looking for, 
calmly reply, "I'm a birder, I just know these things…". It will not 
only confuse them, but also amuse those in the car with you!


Sorry for another novel, but this trip was well worth it! I will post a 
ton of pictures on my site this week, so stay tuned.

Good Birding

Tim
tanager at timaverybriding.com
http://www.timaverybirding.com
Salt Lake City, Utah