[Birdtalk] Utah County Birders field trip: Utah county owls

[Lu Giddings]

Dennis Shirley and Bryan Shirley have spent a great deal of time birding
Utah county the last few weeks. Thursday evening a large group of birders
were the direct beneficiaries of their efforts. In spite of gusting winds,
driving rains, and threatening clouds, a group of 25 birders, including a
brief cameo by Bryan Shirley, began by viewing barn owls in Payson. We then
made the drive to Elberta to take a quick look at the large family of
burrowing owls reported a few days ago by Bryan Shirley. At this point we
returned to Payson and started up the Nebo Loop road. We birded for a few
minutes around the turn-off to Blackhawk Campground and then were joined by
Dennis Shirley who shared his recent owling finds with us. By 11:30 pm we'd
had very good looks at four owl species, fleeting looks at a great-horned
owl perched on a sign along the canyon road, and had also had northern
saw-whet owls call to us in two different locations although it was not our
good fortune to see them. Six owl species in as many hours is an excellent
night's work. Many thanks to Dennis and Bryan for their excellent field work
and their generosity in sharing with us. And also, thank you to all of you
who participated. It was good to see so many familiar faces and also, so
many new faces too.

Lu Giddings

a partial trip list: 27 species

 Swainson's Hawk
 Killdeer
 Rock Pigeon
 Eurasian Collared-Dove
 Mourning Dove
 Barn Owl
 Flammulated Owl
 Western Screech-Owl
 Great Horned Owl
 Burrowing Owl
 Northern Saw-whet Owl
 Common Poorwill
 Broad-tailed Hummingbird
 Western Kingbird
 Horned Lark
 Mountain Bluebird
 Hermit Thrush
 American Robin
 European Starling
 Yellow-rumped Warbler
 Western Tanager
 Chipping Sparrow
 White-crowned Sparrow
 Western Meadowlark
 Great-tailed Grackle
 Cassin's Finch
 House Sparrow
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://secureserver.securesites.net/pipermail/birdtalk/attachments/20090627/be2c268a/attachment.htm