[Birdtalk] Slow Saturday birding...

[Tim Avery]

Colby Neuman and I birded a few northern Utah locations this morning and 
early afternoon.  The weather was awesome, but the birding wasn't so 
hot.  We did see a new spring arrival at Bear River, in a single 
Black-necked Stilt.

A quick drive out and back on the causeway produced about 5 birds... 
total. 

We conducted a survey on private property that produced what we both 
considered a fantastic bird for the spring, let alone March 17th.  We 
spotted 3 shorebirds on the far side of a large pond (about 150 yards 
away).  At first glance the birds appeared to be sandpipers, but the 
convection was making it impossible to get a break on the ID.  We moved 
to a closer location in better light and were delighted to see 3 BAIRD'S 
SANDPIPER.  Thinking back we both could only recall seeing this species 
once in the spring in Utah and that was last year along the Jordan River 
reclamation area in late April. 

We also saw a few Dowitcher's giving hope that shorebird migration is 
going to pick up in the next couple weeks!

Good Birding

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