[Birdtalk] a few Utah county birds

Mon Dec 24 09:02:26 MST 2007

On Saturday Grant Jense, KC Childs and I, in our portion of the Provo CBC (Mostly foothills between Dry and Provo Canyons), found a few good birds. 

At Cascade Golf Course we had a Red-naped Sapsucker,  sapsuckers usually don't stay around for our CBC.  We also saw over 50 Bohemian Waxwings.  Bohemian Waxwings were counted in many areas across the Provo CBC on Saturday.  We also had 2 Bald Eagles, 2 Golden Eagles and 2 Merlin in our area.  While we were counting a large flock of cedar waxwings they suddenly all took flight when a Merlin came diving down and zoomed right passed our windshield.  Another fun sighting was when 2 Wild Turkey sailed from the top of the cliffs to the other side of the canyon while we were at Dry Canyon.  

By far the best sighting of the day was the huge flock of Rosy-Finches at Dry Canyon.  There was a flock of about 40 moving across the face of the foothills south of the mouth of Dry Canyon. They wouldn't sit still and we had a hard time telling what species they were.  Then they flew out of sight North of the mouth of the canyon and we thought they were gone for good.  When we were hiking up the canyon a big flock of Rosy-finches flew in and started feeding at the base of the first tall cliffs on the North side of the canyon.  They were shortly joined by another flock of Rosies.  I counted as they flew in and a conservative count was 190 finches.  KC was kind enough to run back down to the car to get my scope.  It was easy to tell that they were rosy-finches through the binoculars but hard to identify and count species against the white snow.  KC brought the scope up the canyon and the finches moved closer. We had fantastic views.  The flock was between 10-15% Black Rosy-finches.  The majority were Gray-crowned.

This is the 4th winter in a row that I have seen Rosy-Finches in the foothills between Provo Canyon Rim and Dry Canyon.  Last year (2006) Grant and I had a flock of 50 Black Rosies along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail above Provo Canyon on the CBC. The year before that (2005) I had a flock of Rosy fiches zip over while I was at the top of Dry Canyon but I didn't get a very good look.  And the year before that (2004) I found a flock of 50 Gray-crowned and Black (about 75% Black) along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail above Provo Canyon while scouting my CBC area on November 30.

We had a great time on this year's Provo CBC.  Merrill Webb will have a CBC report in the January UCB Newsletter next week.Eric Huish Pleasant Grove UT poorwill_ at hotmail.com 801-360-8777> Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2007 22:53:02 -0700> From: seldom74 at xmission.com> To: birdtalk at utahbirds.org> Subject: [Birdtalk] a few Utah county birds> > 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> > _______________________________________________> Birdtalk mailing list> Birdtalk at utahbirds.org> http://utahbirds.org/mailman/listinfo/birdtalk
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