[Birdtalk] a few Utah county birds

[Tim Avery]

The answer is NO.  I think Lu was just including it as an interesting 
sighting, which it is.  Free flying Mute Swans in Utah always intrigue me. 
Seeing a Mute Swan at Farmington Bay, or Utah Lake, or flying over while 
birding in St. George always strikes me as odd.  The birds are most 
certainly excapees run rampant, or run wild as the case may be, but are not 
countable as part of the CBC, a big year, a big day, etc, etc etc.

During the Salt Lake CBC Steve Carrs group located a European Goldfinch, 
which despite its obvious free movement, is again likely an escapee, deeming 
it not countable.  None-the-less fun to see!

Also, rumor has it that Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch have been visiting the 
feeder at the visitor center at Antelope Island State Park.

Happy Holidays, and with 1 week left in the year will someone please find a 
Common Redpoll to end the year on a high note!

Good Birding

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joel and Kathy Beyer" <twobirders at juno.com>
To: <seldom74 at xmission.com>
Cc: <birdtalk at utahbirds.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2007 11:21 PM
Subject: Re: [Birdtalk] a few Utah county birds


> Lu,
>
> Mute Swan is listed on your CBC, but can it be listed if it is not a
> countable species for Utah?
>
> Joel
>
>
>
> On Sun, 23 Dec 2007 22:53:02 -0700 Lu Giddings <seldom74 at xmission.com>
> writes:
>> 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
>>  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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