[Birdtalk] Weekend Birds

[Colby Neuman]

Hi all,

Tim Avery and I went to the Uinta Basin on Sunday to look for Least Bittern,
White-rumped Sandpiper and Mountain Plover.  As luck would have it, or our
lack of it, we found none of our target birds.  Along the way to Myton, we
had several EURASION COLLARED DOVES on the wires near Fruitland.  Once we
were on the oil roads south of Myton, we spent a considerable amount of time
walking and scanning the open desert.  Because the Utah population inhabits
areas different than most Mountain Plovers found in Colorado, etc., we were
a little unsure of the specific habitat to concentrate our efforts in.
Anyway, we went to the area Mark Stackhouse reported having them several
years ago, but were unable to find any sign of Mountain Plover.  Does anyone
have any insight?  Next, we headed to Pelican Lake where we saw a male
BLUE-WINGED TEAL, a family of WILLETS and several SPOTTED SANDPIPERS.  We
then continued south to Ouray NWR where we were greeted with a nice male
BLUE GROSBEAK near the entrance.  Tim found a flock of 5 LONG-BILLED CURLEWS
resting on a sandbar in the Green River.  Multiple WILD TURKEYS were seen
along the tour route as well.  Shepard Bottoms had lots of nice shorebird
habitat, but we only saw a handful of WILSON PHALAROPES and SPOTTED
SANDPIPERS, and unfortunately, we were probably a week too late for
White-rumped Sandpiper.  We did see one AMERICAN BITTERN flying over the
marsh, but no Least Bitterns were observed.

I was in Ferguson Canyon (between Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons) on
Saturday afternoon and heard a singing WINTER WREN.  Earlier in the day, I
heard an unlikely combination when a LESSER GOLDFINCH was singing in the
vicinity of a MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER in Emigration Canyon.

Colby
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