[Birdtalk] Washington County Birding

[Tim Avery]

This past weekend (Friday 04/04 - Sunday 04/06), Jeff Bilsky, Carl Ingwell, Colby Neuman and I birded our way down to Washington County and back.  There seem to be a number of early migrants, yet also some surprise misses.  Not a single Flicker or Sapsucker was seen over the weekend.  
If you want to skip the highlights, scroll to the bottom for a link to the photos from the weekend, including shots of Painted Redstart, Band-tailed Pigeon and a couple other pictures.

Also, here is a link to video Jeff shot of the Redstart:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRy0fqkZ5PQ

Below are the highlights from the trip:

Friday 04/04

Chicken Creek Reservoir

    1 - HORNED GREBE
    5 - Black-necked Stilt
    15 species of waterfowl

Yuba State Park

    100 - Red-breasted Merganser
    35 - Common Loon
    10 - Western Grebe
    1 - Osprey
    1 - Marsh Wren

Near Fillmore
  
    15 - Long-billed Curlew (just off the interstate in a flooded field with California Gulls and Canada Geese)
     1 - probable SWAINSON'S HAWK (none of us got a great look at it going 75mph, but it looked pretty good)

Zion National Park (Kolob Canyons entrance along I-15)

    1 - Northern Saw-whet Owl (singing at the bend over the river)

We also had a Great Horned Owl fly across the road at Utah Hill, and another singing at Lytle Ranch.  Surprisingly, no Screech-Owls were singing at the ranch...

Saturday 04/05

Beaver Dam Slope

    1 - COMMON POORWILL (around 6:30am a single bird was calling around our camp)
    1 - Black-chinned Sparrow

Lytle Ranch - Lots of singing Lucy's Warblers, and tons of Lesser Goldfinch singing everywhere.

    2 - Common Black-hawk
    2 - White-winged Dove
    1 - Western Kingbird
    4 - Bell's Vireo
    2 - CASSIN'S VIREO
    3 - Yellow Warbler
    1 - Black-throated Gray Warbler
    2 - Lincoln's Sparrow
    1 - Great-tailed Grackle (flyover)

Ivins Reservoir

    1 - Bonaparte's Gull (moulting into breeding plumage)

Washington Fields

    1 - Greater Roadrunner
    350 - Tree Swallows (with a smattering of Rough--winged mixed in)
    30 - American Pipit

Hurricane SR-9 Sewage Ponds

    1 - Horned Grebe
    1 - Black-necked Stilt
    4 - Franklin's Gulls and 1 Bonaparte's Gull

Sand Hollow State Park

    2 - Common Loon
    1 - Red-breasted Merganser
    6 - Western Grebe and 2 Clark's Grebe
    2 - Franklin's Gull
    1 - Caspian Tern

In Hurricane Fields we observed a Prairie Falcon and 2 Ring-ne3cked Pheasant. And along SR-9 near the Zions Gate RV Resort was an Osprey perched on a power pole.

Stratton (Grandpa's Fishing) Pond

    5 - Greater Scaup (remaining as well as a single Canvasback)

We birded Quail Creek which was in shadows when we arrived, and we didn't find much on the lake.  Near the inlet was a large swarm of mostly VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS with some Cliff, Tree, and Rough-winged mixed in.  We then headed up to Oak Grove Campground to try for some owls, but there were a number of campers, and it was  bit too noisy.
    
Sunday 04/06

Beaver Dam Slope -  An interesting morning at camp and on the drive to Lytle.  There weren't a whole lot of birds, but some unique ones.

    1 - Ash-throated Flycatcher (singing near camp)
    1 - Western Kingbird (hanging around camp)
    2 - Pinyon Jay
    1 - SCOTT'S ORIOLE (Colby was on point spotting this bird flying through the Joshua Trees, I snapped a crappy shot, at a distance.  This seems early for this species...)

Lytle Ranch - Colby, Jeff and Carl walked up through the ranch, while I birded the area west and south of the parking area.  

    2 - Common Black-Hawk
    1 - BAND-TAILED PIGEON (in the housing area, see pictures)
    4 - White-winged Dove (flyover heading upstream)
    1 - DOWNY WOODPECKER (Carl, Colby and Jeff)
    1 - Townsend's Solitaire (Carl, Colby and Jeff)
    2 - Ash-throated Flycatcher

We stopped at Utah Hill on the way back to St. George and had several singing BLACK-CHINNED SPARROWS.  We made a quick stop at the Zions Gate RV Park in Hurricane and managed to pick up a single INCA DOVE.  We then headed to Zion National Park and took the shuttle up to the Shuttle to the Temple of Sinawava.

Zion National Park - A great afternoon to be up in the park.

    200~ - White-throated Swift (swirling over the Temple of Sinawava area... only swifts of the trip)
    20 - Violet-green Swallow
    1 - Brown Creeper
    1 - House Wren
    2 - Golden-crowned Kinglet
    1 - PAINTED REDSTART (near Temple of Sinawava, see pictures)

We took off and headed back to Salt Lake in the afternoon, stopping again at Chicken Creek Reservoir, adding Yellow-headed Blackbird to our trip list.  In all I tallied up 125 species seen by thr group, with everyone seeing a different number of birds.  Jeff and Carl both picked up a number of lifers, and I was stoked to get some descent shots of both the BTPI and the Redstart!  Here is a link to the pictures:

http://www.timaverybirding.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=511

And Steve Sommerfeld, if you made it this far... I know its a stretch to think that.. but check out the shots of the hairstreak from Lytle...

Thanks to Colby for being on point this weekend, we would have missed a number of birds had he not been there.  And thanks to Jeff and Carl for providing plenty of humor throughout the trip.  Interestingly, after loading this trips lists into eBird.org, I have 4 more species of bird than I did a year ago on the same date... no, I will not be trying another big year...

Good Birding

Tim
Salt Lake City, Utah
tanager at timaverybirding.com
http://www.timaverybirding.com
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