[Birdtalk] More Washington County birding

[Tim Avery]

Lu beat me to the punch in rubbing in the wonderful weather, and lack
of in"gross"ion that was encountered this weekend down south.  To add
to his short story, here is my saga (it's a little long, but includes
lots of pictures):

Late Friday afternoon Colby Neuman and I headed down to Washington
County to get in a little "warm weather" birding for the weekend.  We
attempted to do a little owling on Friday evening along the Santa
Clara River below Gunlock Reservoir, but were unsuccessful and headed
ot the Beaver Dam slope where we camped for the night.

Joshua Tree at Sunrise

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/janu07/jtree_01.jpg

Saturday morning the first bird seen/heard was a House Finch flying
over our camp, not exactly exciting, but a start.  We worked our way
towards Lytle Ranch, and along the way saw about 6 CACTUS WREN and
several Flicker's and a covey of GAMBEL's QUAIL.  We stopped to check
out the birds just before the entrance to Lytle Ranch, and counted
around 20 WESTERN BLUEBIRD, several PHAINOPEPLA and a few sparrows and
quail.  We crossed the wash and birded the northern edge of the
hunting preserve to the south. BROWN CREEPER, VERDIN, BUSHTIT,
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER, BEWICK's WREN and LADER-BACKED WOODPECKER were
added here, and we next headed back to Lytle where a large group from
the ST. George Bird Festival was just getting started.  We learned
about Lu's sighting of RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER the day before and were
on the lookout.

There was a large flock of WESTERN BLUEBIRD in the orchard along with
towhees, sparrows, and SAY's PHOEBE.  North along the road we
encountered all the usual suspects and eventually heard a BLACK-TAILED
GNATCATCHER on one of the slopes.  I tracked down the calling bird and
found a pair working their way along the hillside feeding.  As we
continued we had several fly-over AMERICAN PIPIT calling, both
BEWICK's and ROCK WREN, as well as a BELTED KINGFISHER and a WILSON's
SNIPE flushed off the river.  Notably absent on the walk were Crissal
Thrasher and Black Phoebe.

We got back to the picnic area and I planned on scouring the
campground for the previously reported Harris's Sparrow while Colby
looked for the sapsucker.  I was making my way past the mobile home in
the area when a DARK-EYED JUNCO window killed just a few feet away
from me.  I called Colby over to take a look and as we stood looking
at the bird, Colby looked up and noticed a Sapsucker.  Almost
instantly we saw two birds flush off the tree, including one bird with
a bright red breast and head.  RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER!!!

We refocused on the bird with the red head and I grabbed my camera to
snap some shots.  I managed to snap one before the bird bolted out of
the trees and made a bee line across the river and into a large
cottonwood.  Colby ran after it and I went back to find Merrill Webb
who was leading the group for the bird festival.  WE tried to relocate
the bird, but never did see it again.  There were several RED-NAPED
SAPSUCKER's in the area, but none, with a red head!  Below is the
terrible shot from behind and below.  Although the looks were mediocre
at best I didn't see any black on the breast in flight which is a good
sign for a pure bird…

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/janu07/rbsa_01.jpg

Next we decided to look for the sparrow and I headed toward the
campground.  Colby was by the gazebo in the picnic area birding the
north edge of the bushes near the ranch house when he flushed a number
of sparrows.  As the birds flew past me I caught glimpse of the nice
black face pink bill of an adult HARRIS's SPARROW.  The bird landed in
a tree in the small orchard in front of the main house and was
horribly backlit.  I snapped a couple shots before I hollered for
Colby to get over to see the bird.  When I turned around it had flown
off!!!  I was flustered and spent the next 1/2 hour trying to relocate
the bird unsuccessfully.  Here is wonderfully terrible, blurry shot:

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/janu07/hasp_01.jpg

Other birds of note at Lytle were a CRISSAL THRASHER heard on the hill
above the picnic area, a pair of RING-NECKED DUCK Colby found on a
pond on the river and a lone ORANG-CROWNED WARBLER at the picnic area.

Around 1:30 we headed to St. George, but before leaving the Beaver Dam
slope came across several MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD, and a sparrow flock that
contained both SAGE and BLACK-THROATED SPARROW.

A quick stop at Ivins Reservoir produced a number of waterfowl,
notably 4 CANVASBACK, and a NORTHERN HARRIER.  Our next stop was the
Hurricane Sewage Ponds along SR-9 which were awash with RING-NECKED
DUCK and Shovelers, as well as several other species of waterfowl.
Thanks to Rick Fridell for getting the word to me to look for geese in
the area.  A quick scan of the hillside above the pond closest to SR-9
provided looks at 3 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE and a lone ROSS's
GOOSE..  Colby spotted a HOODED MERGANSER before we left.

With a tough decision of what to do next on our hands, we decided to
test our luck at Springdale pond, in hopes of finding a Varied Thrush
that has been hanging around over a month.  From 3:30 to 5:30 we
covered the area, over and over and over, with no luck scaring up the
bird.  There were however plenty of  the usual suspects hanging
around, including a Myrtle's type YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER, which Colby
picked up on by the chip note it was giving. After it got dark we
tried for Owls in the area for a short time, before giving up and
heading back to the Beaver Dam Slope for the night.

Cholla with the Sunrise

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/janu07/cholla_01.jpg

Sunday we started the morning off at Red Cliffs Golf Course, which was
rather "unbirdy".  There was a BLACK PHOEBE hanging out and a
BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON in the trees near the main pond.  We tested
our luck at picking through the 150+ AMERICAN WIGEON in hope of
finding a Eurasian, but struck out.

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/janu07/amwi_02.jpg

Next we ran over to Tonaquit Park where the ABERT's TOWHEE were out an
about in typical fashion:

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/janu07/abto_02.jpg

There was also this very cooperative RING-NECKED DUCK on the pond:

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/janu07/rndu_02.jpg

Just across the street at Southgate Golf Course we again spent time
looking through a large flock of Wigeon, without success of finding
that ever elusive Eurasian.  There were 3 Mute Swans on the pond, one
of which flew in while we were approaching Tonaquit just 30 minutes
earlier, so wild, yet so not…

A little exploratory birding/driving eventually put us in Washington
Fields where Rick Fridell had seen a number of Lapland Longspur's over
the past week including the day before while leading a field trip for
the bird festival.  We only saw one large flock of Horned Lark's and
couldn't pick out or here any Longspurs.  At one point I stopped to
get out and check out a dove sitting in some trees.  Colby stayed in
the car, hoping to stave off seeing Eurasian Collared-Dove in Utah a
while longer.  The tree where I saw the dove was covered in blackbirds
and they were swirling about .  Colby looked up to look at the
blackbirds, just as I yelled, " DON'T LOOK!"  2 Collared-Doves cruised
by the car and luckily all Colby saw was the white tail tips, leaving
him with Dove sp.  The next hour was spent telling Colby to look down
every time a Collared-Dove was seen, including a flock of about 16
seen at one point.

There were a number of great birds in the fields, including a large
group of SAVANNAH SPARROW, that we spent some time watching in hopes
of some other less common species being found.  No such luck.  WE did
find one YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD, and plenty of WESTERN MEADOWLARK.
Of the numerous raptors seen, we found 1 FERRUGINOUS HAWK that
appeared to have an injured leg:

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/janu07/feha_01.jpg

We made a quick stop at the Zion's Gate RV Park to look for Inca Dove.
 WE found 3 in literally the exact tree I photographed them in last
January:

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/janu07/indo_01.jpg

Further around the loop we found a flock of at least 8 birds foraging
at one of the mobile homes.  Stratton Pond was covered with ducks
including several GREATER SCAUP and HOODED MERGANSER.  We headed to
Quail Creek in hopes of making it to Red Cliffs Campground to look
around but the road was closed!  We did however find one (1) Lu
Giddings, a first sighting of the year and new birder for my
Washington County birders list (Kidding, kidding).  Lu was looking at
several Grebes he believed were Horned.  I quick look through the
binoculars and I thought they looked rather Eared-like.  Colby set up
the scope thankfully, supporting Lu's initial ID, as 4 HORNED GREBE's
swam and dove about.

We decided to give Springdale Pond one more shot.  I hate to say it,
but sort of a waste of gas.  All the same birds as yesterday, but
today a flock of at least 50-60 AMERICAN CROW were hanging out in a
few trees just north of the pond.  Colby also found a BLACK-CAPPED
CHICKADEE which is fairly rare in the area.

In all not a bad weekend of birding.  My preliminary tally is of a
combined 86 species seen by the two of us in Washington County.  We
somehow managed to miss Great-tailed Grackle (no complaints here), and
for the first time in about 5 trips, didn't see a single Roadrunner.
I guess those are the breaks!

Good Birding

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