[Birdtalk] rest of the story (trip)

[Roostertael at aol.com]

Hi,
 
After the no show of the cormorant on Friday, I went on south to Lytle  
Ranch. It was hot, and I don't mean the birding. Just before the orchard starts,  I 
saw some birds in the fig tree. I had my first success on pishing. I guess I  
have always used too much volume and probably to much repetition. I got a  
Bewick's Wren, a Yellow-breasted Chat and a couple of Western Tanagers to come  
out and look. Maybe it was to see what was making the strange noise. 
 
The caretaker came over to say hello, and pointed out a Greater Roadrunner.  
I asked him about the Red-shouldered Hawk, and he said he had flushed it to 
the  western trees maybe fifteen minutes earlier. I walked over after we 
finished  talking and sure enough I flushed it again (life bird). It flew over a 
couple of  trees and watched me. I took a couple of shots with the camera and he 
left. 
 
I walked through the orchard and saw lots of tanagers and House Finches  
feeding on pears. The first roadrunner was in the weeds chasing lizards I guess,  
and I scared out another at the end of the orchard. I walked to the pond, and  
only had one bird fly over it while I sat for about a half hour. Back toward 
the  orchard. I saw a Gray Flycatcher in the pomegranate trees.  
 
By now I am sweating pretty good and the liberal coating of sun block and  
bug spray is getting into my eyes. I washed some of it off with water and  
decided to leave because of the heat.
 
I took my time driving back and saw several Cactus Wrens, if fact a lot of  
them. I stopped at every large green area and saw a couple of Black-tailed  
Gnatchatchers and one Blue-gray. Quite a few Black-throated Sparrows along the  
way as well. One warbler came out of the tamerisks next to the trickle of water 
 by the road, but I could not find it again. 
 
Enough for today. My eyes are still burning and I need to take a shower and  
wash it away.
 
Saturday morning I headed toward Kolob Reservoir. The first bird I saw was  a 
Dusky Grouse standing in one of the turn outs in the second Zion Park area. A 
 few birds flying across the road, but I wanted to get to the condor viewing 
area  so I kept driving. I got to the viewing area at 8:45 and there were no 
condors  visible. I could see a large kettle of Turkey Vultures south by Lava 
Point. They  were almost not visible without binoculars so I headed there. When 
I got to the  ranger's residence, the road was closed due to some burning of 
cleared  undergrowth. It said road closed, so I walked in. Oh boy, birds 
everywhere. Both  nuthatches, a Northern Goshawk, Wild Turkeys, Cooper's Hawk, 
Chipping Sparrows  everywhere, Pine Siskins, Juncos, empids, Western and Mountain 
Bluebirds and a  flock of Evening Grosbeaks. The kettle was only Turkey 
Vultures. No condors or  Zone-taileds. I got nicely asked to leave by one of the 
fire people and I left.  Sure would have liked to have spent a couple more hours 
walking around. He  said it would be closed for a couple more days.
 
Back to the Condor viewing area. There are a few TVs landing but no  condors. 
There was a flock of Band-tailed Pigeons working the area though.  Beautiful 
birds. I drove to the spot where the Acorn Woodpeckers have been seen,  and 
walked out to the trees to see if I could get a picture. That must be  the only 
fenced area on the mountain without no trespassing signs on it. I  played a 
call and immediately had six woodpeckers fly in. I got a few pictures,  but the 
light was not very good. (excuse #1000)
 
I headed back down the mountain and stopped in the middle of the road to  
talk with Steve and Cindy Sommerfeld. They mentioned they had seen the cormorant  
that morning, so I headed back to Cedar City. The results were in the 
previous  post, except while talking with Ed Leite, we watched some Common 
Nighthawks, and  one Lesser Nighthawk was in the group. The rest of the trip was also in 
the  previous post.
 
A great trip.
 
Jack Binch



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