[Birdtalk] a few Utah county birds

[Lu Giddings]

There have been a few sightings of interest in southern Utah county over
the last days. In our portion of the Provo CBC yesterday Bryan and
Justin Shirley and I turned up a few species of interest including a
white-faced ibis, a vesper's sparrow, 17 sandhill cranes, American tree
sparrows, a yellow-headed blackbird, a northern shrike, and a merlin. We
observed seven rough-legged hawks in our area. And at least one of the
two mute swans that has been seen more or less regularly in the Sandy
Beach area since August is still hanging around. A complete list for our
portion of the Provo CBC can be found at the bottom of this note.

Utah Lake at Sandy Beach was still about 20-30% open water last Tuesday
and there were over 500 common mergansers about 600 yards out, mostly
drakes, along with a few red-breasted mergansers and common goldeneyes.
The lake has since iced over in the last few days. Salem Pond remains
open and continues to produce a few fun birds. In addition to the
mallards, gadwalls, common goldeneyes, ring-necked ducks, lesser scaup,
and northern shovelers that are usually around there have been a hooded
merganser hen, a beautifully colored red-breasted merganser drake, two
drake and one hen greater scaup, a Virginia's rail, and 13 Wilson's
snipe seen over the last few days. Be sure to spend a few minutes
checking the outlet end north of the highway for some of the better
birds.

Lu Giddings

Total Count: 52 species, Shirley portion of Provo CBC
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Ring-necked Pheasant
Pied-billed Grebe
Eared Grebe
Great Blue Heron
White-faced Ibis
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk
American Kestrel
Merlin
Prairie Falcon
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Northern Shrike
Western Scrub-Jay
Black-billed Magpie
Common Raven
Horned Lark
Black-capped Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
European Starling
American Pipit
Spotted Towhee
American Tree Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow