[Birdtalk] Random birding.

[Eric Huish]

This morning on the Provo Airport Dike there was a Merlin in a tree at the 
airport end of the dike road.

This afternoon on the southeast corner of the airport dike there were the 
usual shorebirds + many yellow-rumped warblers, white-crowned Sparrows and 
Chipping Sparrows.  I had an American Crow fly by. (First of season?  I know 
many counties have crow year round but utah county seems to only get them in 
the winter.) And I also had an Osprey fly by (Last of season?)

Yesterday (10-8) Ned Bixler and I went north.  We first stopped at Lee Kay 
ponds where the gates were locked even though the sign said they opened an 
hour earlier.  We had to search from the muddy roadside.  We didn't see the 
Horned Grebe.  We saw Can Goose, Mallard, Ruddy Duck, PB Grebe, AW Pelican, 
DC Cormorant, Killdeer and lots of RB and Cal Gulls.

We tried to bird the 'IC' to see what it was like.  We should have been 
there a month earlier.  It was kind of windy but we were able to get a few 
birds.  Lots of RC Kinglets, YR Warblers, Robins and DE Juncos.  We also had 
a Wilson's Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Magpies, Ravens, 
Flickers and other common birds.  Ned found a flycatcher he wanted to get a 
better look at but a security guard came out and asked us to leave the 
premises.

At the Great Salt Lake marina we saw distant views of gulls and avocets. 
There was also a harrier in the area and I heard a pipit fly over.

We then went to the Weber River Parkway in Riverdale to look for the Summer 
Tanager.  We couldn't find it.  But we did see fun birds including Mountain 
Chickadees, a Steller's Jay, a couple House Wrens and a Kingfisher.

Since we had gone all the way up to riverdale we decided to check out Fort 
Buenaventura SP.  There was not much bird activity.  A few chickadees and 
juncos and a Lesser Goldfinch, Downy Woodpecker, Kingfisher and Magpie was 
all we saw.

A note on yard birds.  I had a Mt Chickadee on Sunday, a White-breasted 
Nuthatch last Wednesday and have had Cassin's Finches and Pine siskins since 
August.


Eric Huish
Pleasant Grove UT

_________________________________________________________________
Help yourself to FREE treats served up daily at the Messenger Café. Stop by 
today! 
http://www.cafemessenger.com/info/info_sweetstuff2.html?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_OctHMtagline