[Birdtalk] River Lane (UT county) birds

[Lu Giddings]

I visited River Lane this morning. Having not visited this site since
late May I was surprised to discover that fire has recently burned
several hundred linear yards of habitat along the north (right) side of
the road. This begins about 200 yards west of the cattle grate. Most of
the big trees were charred, some severely, but hopefully not so
seriously that they will not come back next spring. Nearly all of the
very dense undergrowth had been cleared by the fire but some
fast-growers were already shooting up; based on this I'd guess the fire
burned about 3-5 weeks ago.

At any rate, the habitat immediately along the river was unaffected by
the fire and birds were numerous on both sides of the road, except in
the burned area. Mourning doves were ubiquitous and western kingbirds
only slightly less so.  Swallows were also abundant and many tree, bank,
and northern rough-winged swallows were seen. I was hoping for warblers
and was not disappointed, but the only ones I got clean looks at were
yellow warblers. Several kettles of black-capped chickadees were spotted
but if there were any yellow-throated or chestnut-sided warblers in tow,
they kept themselves very well hidden. The best bird of the day for this
area was an osprey, seen in a tree where the road ends and the lake
begins. One "what was it?" bird appeared to be an eastern kingbird but
it passed into and out of my field of vision so quickly as to leave me
uncertain. Given the area it's certainly possible.

A pair of very handsome black mink were also seen cavorting in the
middle of the road.

Lu Giddings