[Birdtalk] Bridgerland Audubon 200 Club birding

[Ryan O'Donnell]

Since no one else has posted any findings from yesterday's Bridgerland
Audubon field trip (1 Jan 2008), I'll post what I saw.  There were about
20 people on this year's trip.  I'm sure no one saw the exact same list
as anyone else, so there may be cool additions to this list that I
didn't catch.

The trip ranged far and wide, from above 3rd dam in Logan Canyon, to the
20-20 ponds, to the Benson Marina (directions to these locations are on
the Bridgerland Audubon webpage). The highlights included BOHEMIAN
WAXWINGS, AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS, MERLINS, a GREAT EGRET and a GREATER
YELLOWLEGS.  We spent a good amount of time in the afternoon scanning
WESTERN MEADOWLARK flocks but were unable to pick out any snow buntings
or longspurs.  I also couldn't find the short-billed dowitcher that had
been reported by the fish hatchery, but myself and others tried to turn
WILSON'S SNIPE and the yellowlegs into the dowitcher.  There was also a
gull there that threw me off at first.  I eventually considered it a
California gull, but I still feel like it's mantle was too dark and its
legs too pale.  I'm curious if anyone else saw this gull, and any
thoughts on what it might be, if not a California.

My total list for the day was 60 species.  You can find the entire list
on my blog, where I'll also be posting my progress towards my goal of
seeing 200 species in Cache County this year:
http://200birds.blogspot.com/.
 
Happy year-listing,
Ryan
 
Ryan P. O'Donnell
Department of Biology and the Ecology Center
Utah State University
5305 Old Main Hill
Logan, UT 84322-5305
 
http://home.comcast.net/~tsirtalis/