[Birdtalk] Uintah basin birds

[Lu Giddings]

While the weather back here was frightful, in the basin it was so
delightful. I arrived at Ouray NWR at about 9:45 a.m. and spent the day
there. It was sunny, mostly warm, and a bit breezy later in the
afternoon, without any rain. It's a pity, because the refuge is as dry
as I've ever seen it. Sheppard's Bottoms is mostly dry and cracked. But
where there is water there were lots and lots of birds. I saw more
waterfowl in the wet areas at Ouray and on Pelican Lake than I've seen
along the Wasatch Front since last spring. The day's highlights include
the white-throated sparrow and the stilt sandpiper I've posted on
birdnet, but other highlights include, in no particular order:

- Diane Penttila reported 246 sandhill cranes at Ouray on October 4th. I
counted 252 this afternoon and estimate that I undercounted by 15-25%.
It's not Bosque Del Apache NWR, but it's as close as I suppose you can
get in Utah. I looked for but did not see any whooping cranes.
- a single snow goose was seen on an island in the Green River in the
company of a multitude of canada geese, mallards, and American wigeon.
This was near the east end of the Sheppard Bottoms auto tour loop.
- a flock of about a dozen American pipits was seen in the vicinity of
the observation tower on the Sheppard Bottoms tour loop.
- Pelican Lake was packed with thousands of American coots, so many that
it seemed that if you lined them all up, wing to wing, you could
probably have built a feathered bridge across the lake and back again.
Interspersed with the coots were numerous mallards, gadwalls, American
wigeons, redheads, and western, Clark's, eared, and pied-billed grebes.
- I saw my first two male bufflehead of the season at Pelican lake.
- there were also 26 American White Pelicans observed at Pelican Lake, a
species I did not see today at Ouray.
- an American crow and a northern harrier were seen tangling in the
vicinity of the snow goose at Ouray. The crow got the worst of it and
after a break-neck chase for 5-10 seconds it plunged into some thick
brush with the harrier hot on its tail. The harrier broke off and
circled the bush for several minutes and then left. The crow, looking
none too worse for the wear, shot like a feathered black cannonball in
the opposite direction about five minutes later.
- I did not see any waders at either Ouray or Pelican lake and no
shorebirds at Ouray. But there were large numbers of shorebirds along
the banks of Pelican lake. I was lucky enough to find access to a point
overlooking the marshy area which contained 29 long-billed dowitchers, a
greater yellowlegs, 7 less yellowlegs, four killdeer, and the stilt
sandpiper. Who knows what else was working the shores, too distant or
too well hidden to be seen.
- I observed three Eurasian Collared-Doves in Randlett and one in
Roosevelt.

Lu Giddings

Total Count: 60 species

Snow Goose
Canada Goose
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Bufflehead
Common Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Wild Turkey
Pied-billed Grebe
Eared Grebe
Western Grebe
Clark's Grebe
American White Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Golden Eagle
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Killdeer
American Avocet
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Stilt Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Wilson's Snipe
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Northern Flicker
Loggerhead Shrike
Steller's Jay
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Common Raven
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee
Marsh Wren
Mountain Bluebird
American Robin
European Starling
American Pipit
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Spotted Towhee
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
House Finch
American Goldfinch