[Birdtalk] Southern Utah Wrap up and pics

Sun Aug 5 16:49:48 MDT 2007

Spent a total of about 50 days working in southern Utah over the past 3 months.
Tallied 206 species south of I-70 in the span, drove almost 8,000 miles, and
took nearly 14,000 pictures.  My kind of summer!  In any event, the last week
of work was last week and it wrapped up quite nicely.  Here is a recap of the
last week:

July 30 (Monday) - Conducted a veg survey in Capitol Reef NP.  No migrants seen,
and most of the breeders were silent.  Apparently flash floods last week sent
the Fremont River over the road in places.  The water appeared to have been
about 6 or 7 feet above normal flow for this time of year.  A ton of debris was
washed down stream and the canyon was quite messy.  In the evening we set up
camp
on Boulder Mountain near MM 100 (off hwy 12).  A flyover of 4 EVENING GROSBEAK
was the highlight.  Numerous Nutcrackers were seen flying over, and Olive-sided
Flycatchers and Western Wood-Pewees were numerous.

Common Raven at Capitol reef NP:
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/cora_01.jpg

July 31 (Tuesday) - Surveyed along the Escalante River just west of Highway 12
(south of Boulder).  A flash flood took out lots of riverside vegetation
(mostly willow) and the water was still cloudy.  The water looked to have been
about 4 feet above the rivers normal flow.  A hybrid INDIGO x Lazuli Bunting
was seen about 2 miles from the trailhead at hwy 12.  Rufous Hummingbirds were
in the area
terrorizing the Black-chinned.

August 1 (Wednesday) - Around 8:00 am an INDIGO BUNTING was seen in Capitol Reef
NP along the road, near the schoolhouse. Conducted a survey along the Fremont
River just outside of Hanksville.  The flooding from the past week had washed
away lots of veg along the river, and the water was still a muddy mess.  In the
evening birded the Starr Springs Campground on the south end of the Henry
Mountains along the hwy to Bullfrog.  3 Cooper's Hawk young were making a
racket and flying all over the campground.  Otherwise it was rather unbirdy.

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/coha_01.jpg

August 2 (Thursday) - While conducting a veg survey in the area, the 3 Cooper's
Hawks were seen nearly 3/4 mile from where they were the day before. Juniper
Titmouse, Bushtit, Black-throated Gray Warbler, and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher were
abundant.  Late in the day made a quick stop at Hite Crossing were there were
between 10 and 15 BLUE GROSBEAK's in the tami's at the old public boat launch. 
There were lots of mudflats but no shorebirds were seen. I made a stop in
BLanding in the vicinity of Dr. Redd's place where the most numerous birds were
cowbirds (unfortunately).  There were around  6 Black-chinned Hummingbirds
using a field with some still blooming flowers.  One bird struck me as having
overly short primaries and "magenta" in the gorget:

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/hummer_01.jpg
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/hummer_02.jpg

Could be the light?  Any thoughts... Didn't get to study the primary shape and
the picture looks more Black-chinned so...

I headed up to Devil's Canyon Campground in the evening and was treated to
several ACORN WOODPECKER, around 20 PYGMY NUTHATCH, 1 WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH,
3 RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, numerous GRACE'S, BLACK-THROATED GRAY and YELLOW-RUMPER
WARBLERS, and around 50 RED CROSSBILL'S.

Pygmy Nuthatch pictures:
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/pynu_01.jpg
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/pynu_02.jpg
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/pynu_03.jpg
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/pynu_04.jpg

August 3 (Friday) - Woke up early and drove Hickman Flats till around 7:30 am. 
Numerous Vesper, Lark, and Sage Sparrows.  Brewer's and Savannah Sparrow's
were present in smaller numbers.  Lost of Meadowlarks, a few Sage Thrashers, and
numerous Black-billed Magpies.  Several 100 Ravens were seen as well as
Red-tailed Hawk and Golden Eagle.  Perhaps the most interesting bird was a raven
that had white feather bases, and looks like a good
candidate for Chihuahuan Raven.

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/raven_01.jpg
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/raven_02.jpg
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/raven_03.jpg
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/raven_04.jpg

Clouds over the Abajos:
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/abajos_01.jpg

Red-tailed Hawk:
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/rtha_01.jpg

Had a veg survey across the highway from Hole-n-the-Rock along hwy 191.  THe
area was birdy as usual and did not dissappoint.  We believe that SUMMER
TANAGER may have bred in this area this summer as one was seen earlier by a
coworker doing a bird survey, and an adult male was seen on the 3rd.  A flock
of 25 BUSHTIT moved nearly 1.5 miles along the river over the course of several
hours.  Lots of Yellow and LUCY'S WARBLER were seen and heard, and numerous
Hummingbirds including RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD were seen throughout the day.  2 BLACK
PHOEBE were also seen in the area.

In the evening we headed up to the Dolores River near the confluence with the
Colorado River.  Blu Grosbeak were numerous here as well and provided for
some great photo ops:

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/blgr_01.jpg
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/blgr_02.jpg
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/blgr_03.jpg
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/blgr_04.jpg

August 4 (Saturday) - After surveying the Dolores area, headed into the
Bookcliffs near Diamond Canyon.  Birds were sparse but the huge buck Antelope
was definitely a highlight:

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/pronghorn_01.jpg
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/pronghorn_02.jpg

Now  its time to go chase some birds...  Oh and does anyone know what species of
Spider this is?

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/aug07/spider_01.jpg

Good Birding

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