[Birdtalk] Scout Your CBC Sector!

[Kristin Purdy]

Today I began to scout my Ogden Christmas Bird Count sector by asking and 
receiving permission to scout and then do the survey on the 15th at 
Schneiter's Riverside Golf Course in Riverdale, Weber County. I met some 
very friendly people there last year after the count (after finding a Barn 
Owl in a spruce along the driving range) and I decided that instead of just 
birding the parking lot as we've done in the past, we'd try to get on the 
golf course.

I strongly encourage others participating in the count to consider new areas 
within your assigned areas that might have seemed off limits in the past, 
but just asking the question gets you "in", so to speak.

My rewards on the course were a mixed flock of BOHEMIAN and Cedar Waxwings, 
American Robins, Northern Flickers and a Townsend's Solitaire feeding on 
Russian Olives and Crabapples. Chickadees were in abundance and a 
Red-breasted Nuthatch was keeping company with them.

No owls today, but the place is popular with accipiters as I found three 
feather rings of robin feathers, one of Cedar Waxwing feathers, and an adult 
Cooper's Hawk tightly grasping the remains of another robin in one set of 
talons while being mobbed by 5-6 chickadees.

Most interesting to me was the behavior of the waxwings. Both species were 
landing on the very mossy horizontal branches of a mature tree and eating 
the moss. I watched for awhile to understand what they were doing, and I'm 
sure that's it. I've never seen waxwings eat moss like that before.

Kris