[Birdtalk] Fw: eBird Report - Center Creek/Canyon , 9/24/08

[Tim Avery]

Yesterday I spent most of the day hiking and birding in the Center Creek 
area above Heber in Wasatch County.  Some southbounders were still lingering 
above 9,000', and some inbound migrants were also present.  Most notably 
obvious was the influx of Dark-eyed Juncos, with numerous slate-colored and 
oregon mixed in with a smattering of gray-headed.  Large flocks were seen 
throughout the day, often mixed with Chipping and White-crowned Sparrow.  2 
FOX SPARROW, and Orange-crowned and 3 MacGillivray's Warbler were seen, 
apparently the cold snap that came through wasn't enough to push them out of 
what remains of the lush habitat along some of the creeks in the back 
country.

Near Bald Knoll a small group of AMERICAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER were making 
a racket.  One male bird spent nearly 45 minutes tapping away on a dead 
snag, and could be heard from close to a mile away.  Of interest several 
GRAY JAY were seen flying in the same area and calling.

And interestingly there were large mixed flocks of songbirds, moving thorugh 
the forest feeding together.  The bulk of the composition was of Pine Siskin 
and Dark-eyed Junco, but Nuthatches, Chicakadees, Chipping Sparrow, Robins, 
Yellow-rumped Warbler, and jays were all in tow.  PINE GROSBEAK, Red 
Crossbill, and Cassin's Finch were picked out among the masses.

A complete list of species is found below:

> Sharp-shinned Hawk     1
> Hairy Woodpecker     1
> American Three-toed Woodpecker     5
> Northern Flicker     20
> Gray Jay     2
> Steller's Jay     8
> Clark's Nutcracker     10
> Black-billed Magpie     1
> Common Raven     1
> Mountain Chickadee     15
> Red-breasted Nuthatch     20
> Ruby-crowned Kinglet     1
> American Robin     13
> Orange-crowned Warbler     1
> Yellow-rumped Warbler     20
> MacGillivray's Warbler 3
> Chipping Sparrow     100
> Fox Sparrow     2
> Song Sparrow     4
> White-crowned Sparrow     30
> Dark-eyed Junco     500
> Pine Grosbeak     3
> Cassin's Finch     2
> Red Crossbill     10
> Pine Siskin     100

> This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Center Creek can be reached by taking Center Street east out of Heber into 
the Uinta National Forest.  The area I birded was on the west side of 
Currant Creek Road  and south of Center Canyon in the vicinity of Bald 
Knoll.

Good Birding

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