[Birdtalk] A Big Day on the ranch . . .

[Mark Stackhouse]

This report is a bit late, but I was a little too tired yesterday to 
write it up - didn't have the energy to go out to my van for the 
checklist.

The background:

David Wheeler and I did a "Big Day" on Deseret Ranch on Sunday. Or 
rather, we "lollygaged" our way through a Big Day. I really have no 
excuse for being so tired Monday, as this wasn't our usual 
midnight-to-midnight, race-across-the-state kind of Big Day. We started 
at 3 A.M., finished at 9:30 P.M., and kept a leisurely pace throughout 
the day, enjoying the birds, the mammals, the flowers, the beautiful 
scenery, even stopping to take pictures and play with a Northern 
Pygmy-Owl (see attached photo), and generally  enjoying the long hours 
of daylight June affords. The weather was perfect for birding - cool, 
somewhat overcast, and amazingly, no wind all day. There were a few 
showers late in the day.

In spite of what would normally be called perfect birding weather, the 
weather may have cost us a couple of species at the end of the day. 
While away at the south end of the ranch, a shower passed over to the 
north, thoroughly wetting the clay roads we needed to pass on our 
return. As I gingerly nursed the van over the slippery mess, trying to 
not get ourselves into a mess that would cause us to spend the night 
there, the last of the daylight faded, leaving little time for seeing 
the Short-eared Owl I had seen a week earlier (we never saw one). More 
importantly, the lack of wind offered no relief from the clouds of 
mosquitos in the marshes, and we couldn't stand outside the vehicle 
more than a minute, even with repellent. They were worse than David or 
I have ever seen in the tropics. Probably cost us a bittern. I still 
have live mosquitos inside my van.

We had two goals for this Big Day, other than the usual bird all day, 
watch the night change to daylight, see lots of cool stuff, eat way too 
many pretzels, baby carrots and other munchies all day, and enjoy the 
company of a good friend sharing a beloved hobby. First, we had done 
only one Big Day on Deseret Ranch before Sunday, many years ago before 
we knew the ranch very well, and came away with a pathetic 126 species. 
I've had day trips with tour groups to the ranch that have done better 
- including a group last week that saw 129 species. Clearly we could do 
better. Personally, I wondered if it would be possible to get 150 
species in a day there. This brings up a secondary goal - the Big Day 
record for June in Utah was 148 species. Could we top that record?

The highlights:

As it turns out, both goals were possible. We found 155 species on the 
ranch Sunday - 139 species seen and 16 heard only. I had all 155, David 
missed a calling Downy Woodpecker, so had 154. We set a new record for 
the ranch, for June in Utah, and new county Big Day records for Rich 
(106 species) and Morgan (87 species) Counties. We also had 46 species 
in Summit County (not a record).

The rarest species seen was a trio of White-rumped Sandpipers at 
Bluegrass Pond - the second record for that species on the ranch. A 
Lesser Goldfinch was only the third record for the ranch. We had a few 
birds that seemed late/ out of season, such as Common Goldeneye, Bald 
Eagle, Long-billed Dowitcher and Red-necked Phalarope. We saw some 
uncommon Utah birds, such as Blue-winged Teal, Greater Scaup (quite a 
few of these), five species of owls, including Northern Pygmy-Owl (see 
photo), Purple Martin, and Common Grackle (first confirmed nesting on 
the ranch). See the entire list below.

As with any Big Day, there were a few misses. Some of the birds that 
I've seen recently there that weren't found included Common Merganser, 
American Bittern, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, Short-eared Owl, 
American Crow, Swainson's Thrush, Wilson's Warbler, and Grasshopper 
Sparrow. Other birds that should be there, but weren't found include 
Calliope Hummingbird, Eastern Kingbird, Bushtit, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, 
and Lark Bunting. Room for improvement next time . . .

Have fun birding!

Mark Stackhouse
mark at westwings.com
801-487-9453 (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA)
011-52-323-285-1243 (San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico)

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IMG_811.JPG
Type: image/jpg
Size: 126880 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://secureserver.securesites.net/pipermail/birdtalk/attachments/20070605/f890a7c7/IMG_811-0001.jpg
-------------- next part --------------


The bird list:

Canada Goose
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Ruddy Duck
Ruffed Grouse
Greater Sage-Grouse?
Dusky Grouse?(Blue Grouse)
Pied-billed Grebe
Eared Grebe
Western Grebe
Clark's Grebe
American White Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Snowy Egret
Cattle Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron
White-faced Ibis
Turkey Vulture
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Swainson's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Ferruginous Hawk
Golden Eagle
American Kestrel
Prairie Falcon
Virginia Rail
Sora
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Spotted Sandpiper
Willet
Long-billed Curlew
White-rumped Sandpiper?
Long-billed Dowitcher
Wilson's? Snipe
Wilson's Phalarope
Red-necked Phalarope
Franklin's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
California Gull
CaspianTern
Black Tern
Forster's Tern
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Flammulated Owl?
Great Horned Owl
Northern Pygmy-Owl?
Burrowing Owl?
Long-eared Owl?
Common Poorwill?
White-throated Swift
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Red-naped Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Olive-sided Flycatcher?
Western Wood-Pewee?
Willow Flycatcher?
Hammond's Flycatcher?
Gray Flycatcher?
Dusky Flycatcher?
Cordilleran Flycatcher
Say's Phoebe
Western Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
Plumbeous Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Steller's Jay?
Black-billed Magpie
Common Raven
Horned Lark
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Bank Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper?
Rock Wren?
Canyon Wren?
Bewick's Wren?
House Wren
Marsh Wren
American Dipper?
Golden-crowned Kinglet?
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Mountain Bluebird
Townsend's Solitaire?
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Sage Thrasher?
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Orange-crowned Warbler
Virginia's Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
MacGillivray's Warbler?
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-breasted Chat?
Western Tanager
Green-tailed Towhee
Spotted Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Brewer's Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Sage Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Fox Sparrow?
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Black-headed Grosbeak
Lazuli Bunting?
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
Common Grackle?
Brown-headed Cowbird
Bullock's Oriole?
Cassin's Finch
House Finch
Pine Siskin
Lesser Goldfinch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Some mammals seen:

Badger
Whitetail Prairie Dog
Rock Squirrel
Richardson Ground Squirrel
Uinta Ground Squirrel
Golden-mantled Squirrel
Uinta Chipmunk
Red Squirrel
Muskrat
Whitetail Jackrabbit
Snowshoe Hare
Pygmy Rabbit
Mountain Cottontail
Elk
Moose
Mule Deer
Pronghorn