[Birdtalk] Bear River ABA Trip - Saturday

[birderbetsy at comcast.net]

I think we had a pretty good trip at Bear River yesterday.  I'm not sure what the final tally was exactly, but think it was about 65 species.  I always tell people, what we lack in diversity of species we more than make up for in sheer numbers of each.  People were amazed at the large flocks of birds, and we got to see some interesting behaviors.  I was happy to see Bill Thompson again, and it was a pleasure to meet his wife Julie Zickefoose, and their children Phoebe and Liam.  They were a lot of fun, and of course, Bill is a voracious birder and excellent field trip leader!  I remembered that from birding with him in Minnesota.  This was their first trip to Bear River.  I'm sorry I couldn't get him a prairie falcon, because he was offering a dollar for finding the bird...

We didn't have any surprises, other than a flock of about 35 marbled godwits - I'm wondering why they're here (must be teenagers hanging out)...and 5 or 6 long-billed dowitchers.  There were quite a few coot babies out, but no avocet or stilt chicks, although there were lots of birds on nests.  No duck broods either, other than a couple of ruddy duck babies.  We did get to see western or Clark's grebes doing their display a couple of times, which was cool.  Participants who had never seen it, enjoyed that.  There were about 6-8 great egrets found.  We missed long-billed curlews, but by the time we got to the regular spot, it was early afternoon and 90 degrees.  A lot of California gull chicks have fledged and were floating around in the water near the nesting islands and some were flying as well. 

Note:  I'll have updated information on the road project, after a preconstruction meeting with contractors and project supervisors tomorrow.  I'll post that information ASAP.

Betsy Beneke
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