[Birdtalk] Silver Lake Birding

[Tim Avery]

I couldn't hold back any longer, so today Sam and I headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Silver Lake.  It was a stark contrast to the snow drifts that still covered the area last year on the same weekend.  For the most part if you wanted to, you could walk around the lake.  The largest snowdrifts were only a couple feet deep and were pretty much only around the back of the lake along the north facing slope.  We went around the lake, and up the trail to Twin Lakes to where teh rocky slopes start, we also hiked around towards Lake Solitude till we hit snow drifts there.  Most of the trees are budding and/por startign to green up.  Much is still dead, but should really start greening in the coming weeks.  There were plenty of birds around, btu a number of species/families seemed to be missing.  Sparrows were plentiful, with numeorus Lincoln's and Fox singing out in the open.  a single AMERICAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER was heard drumming on the trail towards Lake Solitude.  There were at least 5 HAIRY WOODPECKER'S around as well.  No sapsuckers though. Flycatchers were a bust, not even a pewee.  GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET and BROWN CREEPER were seen along thre trail to Lake Solitude to roudn out the specialties. Cassin's Finches were around, but only a few, and no crossbills were heard or seen. A complete list of species i below, and pictures can be seen here:

http://www.timaverybirding.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=585&page=1&sort=ta&ecid=sila

Location:     Brighton--Twin Lakes
Observation date:     5/31/09
Number of species:     32

Mallard     5
Spotted Sandpiper     3
Mourning Dove     2
White-throated Swift     4
Broad-tailed Hummingbird     2
Red-naped Sapsucker     1
Hairy Woodpecker     5
American Three-toed Woodpecker     1
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)     3
Warbling Vireo     4
Steller's Jay     1
Violet-green Swallow     25
Mountain Chickadee     5
Red-breasted Nuthatch     3
Brown Creeper     1
Golden-crowned Kinglet     2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet     10
Hermit Thrush     8
American Robin     15
Orange-crowned Warbler     1
Yellow Warbler     2
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's)     10
MacGillivray's Warbler     1
Western Tanager     1
Chipping Sparrow     7
Fox Sparrow (Slate-colored)     6
Lincoln's Sparrow     5
White-crowned Sparrow (Mountain)     3
Dark-eyed Junco (Gray-headed)     8
Black-headed Grosbeak     1
Cassin's Finch     3
Pine Siskin     20

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

Good Birding

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