[TopOfUtah] Cache Co. sightings today - no redpoll

[Ryan O'Donnell]

I birded around Cache County with Stephanie Cobbold today.  We started
at the Lofthouse's in Paradise where we also were unable to find the
Redpolls that have apparently not been seen since last week.  We did see
at least one Slate-colored Junco in their yard, which seem to be much
rarer than the Oregon subspecies around here this time of year.  Our
only other somewhat remarkable find of the day was four Sandhill Cranes
in Benson. It seems most likely that rather than being early migrants,
these are the same four birds that were seen in Benson on the Christmas
Bird Count.  A few other observations of varying interest included
increasing numbers of Canada Geese around the valley, about 15 Common
Mergansers at the Benson Marina (not a rare species, but a high count
for the year for me), a Sharp-shinned Hawk near the Lofthouse's (hope it
didn't eat all three redpolls!), many singing Red-winged Blackbirds, and
some half-hearted attempts at singing by Western Meadowlarks.
 
Good birding,
Ryan
 
Ryan P. O'Donnell
Department of Biology and the Ecology Center
Utah State University
5305 Old Main Hill
Logan, UT 84322-5305
 
http://200birds.blogspot.com