[Birdtalk] Bear River Refuge trip - no mountain plover, but...

[birderbetsy at comcast.net]

Hi All,

I made a trip around the auto tour route loop at Bear River Refuge this morning from about 8am to 10am.  No MOUNTAIN PLOVER found!

There was an adult and two SNOWY PLOVER chicks on the south side of the road, 2.1 miles west of the beginning of the loop - odometer set to "0" at the double bridges in front of the maintenance building.  That's driving counter-clockwise  They were running across the dried mud flat, just at the vegetation line.  I picked up their light-colored bodies running across the dark brown mud without binocs or scope - just watching for movement.

OH MY GOSH, it's a shorebird party out there!  There are a lot of birds to sort through  on the tour, I was almost cross-eyed after two hours of panning through the birds with my scope.  Oh to have "young" eyes again!  On the western most part of the loop, between 5.2 and 5.8 miles, I found two STILT SANDPIPERS and three SOLITARY SANDPIPERS.  Many, many phalaropes, mostly Wilson's, but some red-necked as well.

On the south part of the loop, near the water control structures, the western and Clark's grebes congregate and there are LOTS of baby grebes.  Some riding on the parent's back, some bigger and beginning to dive on their own.  What a great show!

And the numbers of birds seen from the south and southeast parts of the route are just incredible - ibis, stilts, avocets, pelicans, yellowlegs, dowitchers, godwits, phalaropes, grebes, gulls, terns (including black), ducks...it's pretty fun!!!

We have a female ruddy duck with three 1/2 grown little ones diving daily below the accessible board walk on the north side of the wildlife education center.  They seem to tolerate visitors just fine, and we all enjoy watching how they have to jump up a little bit before diving headfirst into the water.  They have enough down on them yet, that they need a little extra "umph" in their dive to get below the water surface.

And there was a prairie falcon sitting on top of the light pole outside my office window this morning - at the wildlife education center.  It's one near the flag pole and the accessible boardwalk.  I had a prairie falcon on the light pole last year at this time too - I'm wondering if it's the same one.

I have a pretty cool job, don't I?  Although I want you all to know that today was my regular day off, so I wasn't "birding" during work hours...I'd never do that...

Betsy Beneke
Perry, Utah
Box Elder County
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