[TopOfUtah] Cache Co. Am. Golden-Plover, W.W. Crossbill, N. Pygmy-Owl, etc.

[Ryan O'Donnell]

Today I had a great day of birding around Cache County with Craig
Fosdick and Stephanie Cobbold.  Craig and I started at Tony Grove where
we leisurely worked our way through the campground and around Tony Grove
Lake.  The highlight here was certainly the NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL we heard
calling and then were able to locate as it flew around looking for
lunch.  A photo is here:
 
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n105/Tsirtalis/NPOWsm.jpg
 
It was neat to see Cache County's largest and smallest raptors at almost
the same time: a juvenile Golden Eagle was circling high overhead as we
heard the owl.  Other birds here were pretty much as expected: lots of
Mountain Chickadees and Red-breasted Nuthatches with some Cassin's
Finches, etc., mixed in.  One Steller's Jay was in the backcountry
trailhead parking lot.  Surprisingly absent were crossbills of any kind
- Red Crossbills are almost always here.
 
We met up with Stephanie and headed up Swan Flat Road from Logan Canyon
towards Idaho.  Along the road (still in Cache County) we stopped for a
large flock of Red Crossbills that we could hear and see in the
treetops.  After scanning for several minutes, I was able to locate my
lifer WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL in the flock of about 40 crossbills.  A
photo of the WWCR is here:
 
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n105/Tsirtalis/WWCRsm.jpg
 
This was a very exciting bird for me because I have spent a lot of time
looking for this species in the county this year and had not been able
to find it so far.  In addition, this was my 235th species of the year
in Cache County, tying the record held by Keith Archibald and Ron Ryel
for a Cache County year.  While I was looking at the crossbills,
Stephanie and Craig saw a flock of 18 SNOW GEESE fly over, the first of
the season for any of us.
 
We continued up the road to Swan Flat and Swan Lake, where we found a
NORTHERN SHRIKE just across the border in Idaho, another first of the
season for all of us.  
 
>From there we went to Sue's Ponds (also known as the Logan River
Wetlands, just west of the Logan Landfill) in search of gulls.  We found
almost none - a one Ring-billed Gull was there when we arrived (later
joined by a few more), compared to hundreds of gulls just a day earlier.
There were 53 Long-billed Dowitchers, 4 Pectoral Sandpipers, ~10
Killdeer, and one Greater Yellowlegs.  After a few minutes of watching
the Dowitchers feeding at close range, I scanned the back side of the
pond again and spotted something we had all missed the first time
through: an AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER foraging on the mud with the
Killdeer.  This was also a lifer for me, and thus a new Cache County
bird, number 236.  A photo is here:
 
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n105/Tsirtalis/AMGPsm.jpg
 
All in all, certainly a day of birding I won't soon forget.
 
(Four Ebird checklists from today are pasted below, thanks to Craig.)
 
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
_________________________________________
Location:     Tony Grove Rd 7000 ft
Observation date:     10/26/08
Number of species:     4

Steller's Jay     1
Mountain Chickadee     20
Red-breasted Nuthatch     1
Brown Creeper     2
_________________________________________
Location:     Tony Grove
Observation date:     10/26/08
Notes:     Northern Pygmy-Owl calling and actively hunting.
Number of species:     11

Mallard     1
Golden Eagle     1
Northern Pygmy-Owl     1
Belted Kingfisher     1
Steller's Jay     1
Common Raven     6
Mountain Chickadee     30
Red-breasted Nuthatch     15
Dark-eyed Junco     15
Cassin's Finch     2
Pine Siskin     30
_________________________________________
Location:     Swan Flats Rd
Observation date:     10/26/08
Notes:     Snow Goose migrating west overhead, first-of-fall.  Northern
Shrike also first-of-fall, just over Idaho state line. At least one
White-winged Crossbill; possibly 1-2 more, but flock of crossbills did
not stay put very long.
Number of species:     11

Snow Goose     18
Northern Harrier     1
Northern Flicker     1
Northern Shrike     1
Clark's Nutcracker     6
Common Raven     1
Mountain Chickadee     18
Red-breasted Nuthatch     3
Red Crossbill     40
White-winged Crossbill     1
Pine Siskin     25
_________________________________________
Location:     Logan Mitigation Ponds
Observation date:     10/26/08
Number of species:     10

American Golden-Plover     1
Killdeer     16
Greater Yellowlegs     1
Lesser Yellowlegs     1
Pectoral Sandpiper     4
Long-billed Dowitcher     53
Ring-billed Gull     10
Black-billed Magpie     1
White-crowned Sparrow     2
American Goldfinch     1

These reports were generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org
<http://mail.biology.usu.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://ebird.org/
> )