[Birdtalk] Another Washington County Weekend

[Tim Avery]

Don't worry, this week's "weekend" recap won't be quite the novel that
was produces last week, mainly because the focus of this weekend
wasn't birding (or wasn't mostly birding…).  I tagged along with Colby
Neuman and his roommate, back to the Beaver Dam slope late Friday
night, we didn't make camp till almost 2 a.m. and coincidentally there
were no birds to report.

Saturday after taking out time to get up and moving, I was dropped off
at Lytle Ranch and planned on spending some serious time working on my
photography as I hadn't done so on any of my previous trips to this
locale.   The other two took off to hike to the top of the peak above
Welcome Springs.  At the entrance to the ranch the bird life was as it
usually is, plentiful.  There was one CRISSAL THRASHER that crossed
the road right as we pulled up, the only one seen of the trip.
Bewick's Wren, and Verdin were abuzz almost everywhere.  I tallied 6
Yellow-rumped Warbler and an total of 13 Ruby-crowned Kinglets while
covering about 4 miles during the day.  I was fortunate enough o
relocate the RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER, who was amazingly cooperative
with just me at the ranch, and allowed me to stand just feet away as
it fed on the south side of the orchard.

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/febr07/rbsa_01.jpg
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/febr07/rbsa_03.jpg
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/febr07/rbsa_06.jpg

I had hoped of being able to spend some time photographing the
numerous Western Bluebirds that were around the week before, but in
all I only saw 16 split up among 4 groups.  I was patient with one
flock and had several birds come into drink in a spring about 15 feet
away.

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/febr07/mobl_01.jpg

This male bird landed just in front of me and posed perfectly!

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/febr07/mobl_02.jpg

I tallied 31 species at Lytle including:  3 Great Blue Heron, 1
Wilson's Snipe and of all things a Northern Pintail that flew over
with a flock of Mallards

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/febr07/nopi_01.jpg

At 2:30 I got a radio call letting me they had reached the summit, and
likely wouldn't be back at 3:30 to pick me up.  I spent some time
photographing the scenery and trying to pull a Roadrunner out of the
corral area to no avail.

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/febr07/bdcreek_01.jpg

At 3:30 I decided to start walking out of the wash in hopes of meeting
them along the way.  In the 4 miles from the ranch to when I was
finally picked up the bird life was almost nonexistent.  I saw 3
Cactus Wren, 3 Mountain Bluebird, and had 3 sparrows flyover which wer
long gone by the time I retrieved my binos from my back pack.

After a long day of birding/photographing/hiking in the around 60
degree weather, with bountiful sunshine and blue skies, it was early
to bed with an awesome sunset (note the pink jet trail)

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/febr07/sunset_01.jpg

This morning we rolled out of camp around 10 am and headed to Red
Cliffs Campground to do a little hiking/climbing and relaxing.  I had
also hoped to find an Anna's Hummingbird for the year.  After we
arrived Colby and I headed down to the creek and were instantly buzzed
by a hummingbird that flew off to the south.  WE followed to the
general area but did not relocate the bird.  Several hours later we
ended up back in the campground and I decided to try to photograph
some sparrows.  As I was clicking away above me I hear d a squeaking
that I had not heard before.  It was like zweet--- zweet-zweet-
wweet---- over and over.  I thought it sounded "hummingbird-like" and
after looking for about a minute I finally located the little bugger,
with a completely dark hood (it was in the shadows), confirming my
belief that it was indeed an Anna's.  I grabbed my camera and the darn
bird buzzed off down stream!  I tracked down Colby and squeaked out
the sound to which he replied, "That's what the Anna's do all winter
in California!"

We trekked back and spent about 45 minutes looking around hoping the
bird was being territorial and would start squeaking again.  It
didn't…

Shortly thereafter it was back to Salt Lake with a weekend that passed
all to quickly.  As we were passing the exit in Provo by the mall
Colby spotted a flock of ~40 Great-tailed Grackles flying parallel to
the freeway to the west.

Good Birding and thanks for bearing with the long email!

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

"I cannot help but think a curious event is this life of mine."
- John James Audubon