[Birdtalk] Corinne, Salt Creek, and BRMR

[Bryant Olsen]

N. Harriers do that high soaring, undulating display as part of their courtship and nest territory display. I often see them do that this time of year. I once watched a male do that at Simpson Springs in the west desert, and when he got to the top of his U's he would flip up-side down briefly before diving again, Very fun to watch.
Good Birding
Bryant Olsen 

--- On Sat, 3/7/09, bcurrie100 at comcast.net <bcurrie100 at comcast.net> wrote:
From: bcurrie100 at comcast.net <bcurrie100 at comcast.net>
Subject: [Birdtalk] Corinne, Salt Creek, and BRMR
To: "Birdtalk" <birdtalk at utahbirds.org>
Date: Saturday, March 7, 2009, 7:57 PM

#yiv1425405111 p {margin:0;}Well Tim and his crew either arrived earlier or later than I did as while I did see Snow Geese, I only saw them flying and never on the ground.  I was there (at the intersection he mentioned) at about 7:30, later than I wanted to be.  I drove many streets and scoured many fields but nothing on the ground.  During this time is when I saw approximately 200 flying.
 
After an hour of driving around those fields I decided to head up to Salt Creek WMA.  One the way there I did see a No. Rough-winged Hawk which is always a delight.  She just had her wings outstretched, flying, was not flapping them at all, so I couldn't tell if she was struggling to make headway against the wind or just having fun.  The wind was blowing quite hard at this point so I spent little time at Salt Creek.  There were approximately 500 Tundra Swans (maybe more as it was only a quick scan).  Other waterfowl and gulls that I did not take the time to ID.
 
I then drove to Bear River.  I saw more Tundra swans, not quite the quantity that I saw at Salt Creek, but plenty and so next Saturday for Swan Day should be a success where ever you go.  At Bear River, they were much more spread out and so there should be numerous places to view them on Saturday.  Other birds observed there were:
Bald Eagle (1)
DB Comorant (3)
Common Goldeneye (mostly males)
Coot
Mallard
Horned Lark
CA Gull
RB Gull
Canada Goose
Northern Harrier (male and female)
Eared Grebe
and two mule deer
 
One of the female harriers that I observed did something that I have never observed in any raptor and if anyone could shed some light into this behavior I would appreciate it.  This harrier flew up at a fairly steep angle, roughly 75 feet up, and then would swoop down (but she was not diving).  She repeated this about ten times.  Sort of imagine it like she was making "UUUUUU."  She probably covered about 100 yards in doing this and did not seem to be hunting.  The wind was not as strong at this point so I don't think it was a way to deal with the wind.  I just have not seen a harrier climb so abruptly, repeatedly, only to swoop down and to repeat it.  It really reminded me of the white rollercoaster at Lagoon.  I wish I had a video camera with me.
 
Most of the water is iced over but next weekend is supposed to be about 15 degrees warmer by the current forecast so hopefully it will make things more pleasant.
 
So I decided to head for home and I stopped to look at yet another harrier.  However, what immediately caught my eye was all the Snow Geese flying in the background (which would have been west of Corinne).  I estimated the group to be around 2,000, so that may be the same group Tim had seen.  I could not see them with the naked eye, only with the binocs.  So I quickly headed back over that same intersection, drove even more, without any success in relocating them (I knew it was a longshot to begin with).
 
Brian
P.S. That new paved road to Bear River is a joy to drive on.  My kidneys thank the powers that be. : )
_______________________________________________
Birdtalk mailing list
Birdtalk at utahbirds.org
http://utahbirds.org/mailman/listinfo/birdtalk


      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://secureserver.securesites.net/pipermail/birdtalk/attachments/20090307/93d51c26/attachment.htm