[Birdtalk] Washington County... Where the birds are!

[Colby Neuman]

Hi all,

Here are a few more things from this past weekend...

Multiple CASSIN'S VIREOS were present at Lytle Ranch both mornings.

NO Brown-crested Flycatchers were heard or seen at Lytle (yet).

As one might expect in late April, only males were seen of VIRGINIA'S
(~4), BLACK-THROATED GRAY (~5), WILSON'S (~10) and MACGILLIVRAY'S
WARBLERS (~10).  Males still dominated the birds we saw, but female
YELLOWS, YELLOW-RUMPEDS (including a couple Myrtles) and a COMMON
YELLOWTHROAT were all observed.

The 'MYRTLE' race of the Yellow-rumped Warbler was more common this
past weekend than I have ever observed previously in Utah.  We
probably saw 15-20+ Myrtle Warblers this past weekend scattered at
multiple locations.  I'm guessing 1 in 5 or at a minimum 1 in 8
Yellow-rumped Warblers we saw this weekend were of the 'Myrtle'
subspecies.

LINCOLN'S SPARROWS were prevalent at many locations we stopped at
including 1 singing at a salt cedar (tamarisk) patch on the Beaver Dam
slope.

Because I have not seen SAVANNAH SPARROWS outside of their usual
breeding haunts in migration, I've never really been sure of when
they're done migrating in the spring.  On the other hand, it's much
easier to determine when the first birds arrive on the breeding
grounds in the spring.  So I thought it was noteworthy that we had a
Savannah Sparrow in a mixed sparrow flock at the north end of the
ranch on Saturday, and we had another Savannah Sparrow on Sunday at
the water drip at Zella Tank on the Beaver Dam Slope.

Similarly, we had a SONG SPARROW at Lytle Ranch on Sunday as well.

Colby