[Birdtalk] Box Elder County Tuesday

[Tim Avery]

Yesterday I ventured north, with Ben (I am totally spacing out on your last name), to Box Elder County to look through some longspurs.  I stopped in Layton to pick Ben up and there were American Crows everywhere. I would guess I saw between 25-30, including one group fighting over a slice of pizza behind a hotel just off I-15:

http://www.timaverybirding.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=503&pos=0

Near Salt Creek WMA near Termonton we met up with Larene Wyss and David Hanscom.  It was bitterly cold, and there were very few birds in the area previously reported by others.  No more than 20-25 Horned Lark, and at least 7 and maybe a few more LAPLAND LONGSPURS varying in plumage with a couple juvenile birds present as well.  Ben and I drove across many of the roads in the area looking for other flocks, and found one small flock of 10-15 birds that contained 1 LALO already about 50% back into alternate plumage.  This flock also had at least one American Goldfinch tagging along.  We found a single MERLIN closer to Corrinne that looked to be in between Prairie and Taiga in plumage.

At 6000 West and about 2000 North we found a field that had fresh manure plowed into the snow.  This area was teeming with activity, including a flock of Canada Geese out in the mess, and numerous flocks of Horned Larks, numbering between 750-1000.  Only once did I think I heard a Lapland Longspur here and never could get eyes on the bird.

We made a quick run about 3 miles out on the road to Bear River MBR/NWR.  There were 15-20 American Tree Sparrow near the first river crossing, and only a handful of Horned Lark.  At the "Whistling-Duck" location was a hunting BARN OWL.

I've added a handful of longspur and various other photos from yesterday to my site:

http://www.timaverybirding.com/photos/index.php?cat=7

For anyone intersted in looking for longspurs, I highly recommend listening to recording of all 4 species as they all give very unique rattling calls that the birds seem to give quite often.  Every longspur I have seen in Utah I have heard first.  

Good Birding

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