[Birdtalk] UCB field trip - Ouray NWR & Pelican Lake

[Lu Giddings]

I enjoyed near perfect weather in the Uintah Basin yesterday. It is 
early enough that there absolutely no annoying flies just yet. The 
plants are several weeks behind those along the Wasatch Front as none of 
the trees have yet began to leaf and none of the shrubs or flowers have 
started to bloom but it was mostly clear, warm, and beautiful all the 
same. Notable observations include, in no particular order:

- A pair of sandhill cranes dancing and foraging on the snow near 
Daniel's Summit.
- Friday evening, during the period from about thirty minutes before 
dark until roughly thirty minutes after it became dark, I observed seven 
different great-horned owls in the Ouray NWR-Pelican Lake vicinity.
- A pair of great scaup were observed at Pelican Lake.
- There were an number of first-of-season birds for me including sora, 
spotted sandpiper, marbled godwit, western sandpiper, least sandpiper, 
pectoral sandpiper, long-billed dowitcher, Bonaparte's gulls, plumbeous 
vireo, house wren, and blue-gray gnatcatcher.
- Four very late winter raptors were observed including a rough-legged 
hawk at Ouray, a merlin north of Pelican lake, and a pair of juvenile 
bald eagles foraging in a pond in the Pelican Lake vicinity.
- A nest tree with two great blue herons and seventeen double-crested 
cormorants was seen.

Probable sightings but not confirmed: peregrine falcon, Baird's 
sandpiper, lark sparrow.

Notable misses:
- Some spring birds are still not apparently around. No western 
tanagers, empids, white-throated swifts, lazuli buntings, black terns, 
etc. were seen. I was afraid this trip was a week or two too early for 
these species and I appear to have been correct.
- I also did not see any great egrets, cattle egrets, or black-crowned 
night herons, all of which were expected. I don't know if it's that the 
refuge is still pretty dry or if their presence is more seasonal than I 
expected.
- Sparrows were extremely few and far between, excepting song sparrows, 
spotted towhees, and the odd occasional junco.
- Where are Ouray's woodpeckers? I heard one norther flicker in Ouray, 
but I did not see any birds in this family until I drove past a Lewis's 
woodpecker in Woodland Hills yesterday evening.

Lu Giddings

Trip participants:
Lu Giddings

Trip list: total count - 93 species
Canada Goose
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal   
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Wild Turkey
Pied-billed Grebe
Eared Grebe
Western Grebe
Clark's Grebe
American White Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
American Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Snowy Egret
White-faced Ibis
Turkey Vulture
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Cooper's Hawk
Swainson's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk
Golden Eagle
American Kestrel
Merlin
Prairie Falcon
Sora
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Spotted Sandpiper
Marbled Godwit
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Wilson's Phalarope
Franklin's Gull
Bonaparte's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Forster's Tern
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Lewis's Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Say's Phoebe
Western Kingbird
Plumbeous Vireo
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Common Raven
Horned Lark
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Rock Wren
House Wren
Marsh Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Mountain Bluebird
American Robin
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Spotted Towhee
Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
American Goldfinch