[Birdtalk] Southern Utah

[Eric Huish]

Well it seems everyone went down to St. George this weekend. If you are tired of 'down south' reports just hit delete. 
 
I spent Sat - Tues down south.  I was with family so was unable to be non-stop birding but I did get some birding in.
 
On Saturday afternoon I spent 4 hours at Minersville Res. hoping to find the Surf Scoters reported a couple weeks earlier. I was unable to find the scoters but did find a Juvenile Sabine's Gull near the dam.  With the VERY strong winds there were many gulls working the edge of the lake where the waves were crashing against the rocks.  The gulls were picking out Crawdads.  There was lots of waterfowl, including two Snow Geese. And a bunch of shorebirds on the north end of the reservoir, mostly Killdeer with some Dowitchers, Least Sandpipers and Yellowlegs.  I also saw a Great Horned Owl in the woods north of the campground. 
 
At Quichapa Lake on Sunday morning I stood in 20 degree, breezy weather at sunrise looking for the Neotropic Cormorant.  In 3 hours I only saw 2 cormorant.  1 was a DC and the other was clear across the lake facing away with no other cormorants for comparison.  I stopped on the way home on Tuesday, scanned the lake several times, went back to Cedar City for lunch then went back out and scanned the lake again but didn't see a single cormorant.
 
Stopped at Quail Creek Sunday Morning.  The wind was very very strong and I didn't see the Jaeger.  Went back Sunday evening and found Pomera and other birders there who pointed the bird out.  It sat on the shore for a while and before sunset it started flying around quite a bit.  I saw it pick up a fish (small bass? 3 inches) along the shoreline. 
 
Saw 3 Condors, two Bald Eagles, Red Crossbills and a bunch of Lewis's Woodpeckers on the Kolob Res Road on Monday but was unable to find any Acorn Woodpeckers.
 
 
Eric Huish Pleasant Grove UT poorwill_ at hotmail.com 801-360-8777
_________________________________________________________________
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_TAGLM_OctWLtagline
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://secureserver.securesites.net/pipermail/birdtalk/attachments/20071024/a8cd873f/attachment.htm