Day Two in Utah

On Tuesday night after checking in to the motel near Panguitch, Utah, I decided to take advantage of the remaining daylight and walk around checking out the birds.  We were staying a few miles from town and the opportunity to search for birds was too great to pass up.  And in that short amount of time I was able to photograph a few of the birds that were there.  Mountain Bluebirds, a Sage Thrasher, a Red-tailed Hawk, and a couple of Black-billed Magpies made their presence known. 

 Mountain Bluebird

 Sage Thrasher

 Red-tailed Hawk

Black-billed Magpie

The next morning we headed north and east and I had a couple spots in mind to stop for birding and one of them was Otter Creek Reservoir.  But on the way there we had to yield the right of way on the highway to a herd of sheep!  You know you are in the country when that happens!

Otter Creek Reservoir is almost 5 miles long and one could spend the whole day there birding and with a spotting scope I am quite sure I could have found a lot more birds.  Most certainly, I was not at all disappointed with what I found.  Many of the birds were too far out in the water for photos, such as the American White Pelicans, Double-crested Cormorants, Common Mergansers with young, and Clark's Grebes with young.  At least one of the Clark's Grebe was close enough to get some identifiable photos.  

Clark's Grebe

Birds were also plentiful along the shores and in the vegetation surrounding the shoreline. Chipping Sparrow juveniles were very common as well as Lazuli Buntings.  Also had a Yellow Warbler foraging in the short shrubs and some Black-billed Magpies scavenging around the picnic area.

 Chipping Sparrow - Juvenile

 Lazuli Bnting

 Yellow Warbler

Black-billed Magpie

After about 2 hours at the park, we had to move on as our goal was to arrive in Torrey, Utah before noon.  Once we headed east on Highway 24 towards Torrey and Capital Reef National Park, at one point about 3 miles west of the small town of Loa, UT, I had to hit the brakes and turn around because of something that I noticed.  Common Ravens were quite common everywhere along the roads and at first glance I thought just another raven, but as I got closer, I knew it was definitely something different; it was too big to be a raven.  Perched in a short tree on the north side of the road was a majestic Golden Eagle.  I got turned around and was driving back towards it as I wanted a photo of this beautiful bird perched, but alas, my camera strap got tangled in the seat belt of the car and the bird took flight before I could get untangled.  So I had to settle for a couple of flight shots as it flew away.  But what a magnificent bird this is.  Was definitely the closest I have seen one in the wild.

 Golden Eagle

Golden Eagle

After that encounter, everything else seemed a little less significant.  But once I arrived in Torrey and found my relatives house, I had one more bird close out my amazing day of birds; a Pinyon Jay flew in to their property.  Always a fun bird to find and see and unfortunately, I don't always find them in Arizona as often as I would like.

 Pinyon Jay

Pinyon Jay

So ended day number 2 and some amazing birds.  

CBC's - (Christmas Bird Counts)

Every year from mid December to early January, the National Audubon Society hosts their annual Christmas Bird Counts.  Most take place within the United States however there are many more that are being held in various spots throughout the world and the list is growing.  These counts are a well defined circle with a 15 mile diameter and each circle is divided up into smaller sections where teams of birders join forces and attempt to document as many species in their section and the number of birds of each species.  This data is then complied by the circle coordinator and the final reports are submitted to Audubon.  (Its more complicated than that, but this is the short version.) 

Annually, I attempt to participate in these counts as time allows.  This year, due to my work schedule, I was only able to take part in 2 of them and they were 2 days apart.  The first one took place on January 2 and is know as the Carefree CBC north of Scottsdale, Arizona.  I have been part of this one the past 3 years now and I have been a part of a small group that surveys one of the remote areas know as the Quein Saba area.  Our team leader is Grant Loomis and the other members consisted of Tyler Loomis, Lisa Fitzner, and myself.  When taking part in one of these CBC's photography definitely becomes secondary as the main focus is finding and counting birds.  However, it is nice to have a camera available in case a rarity is spotted and needs to be documented.  We did not find any rarities in our section this year, but we did find a few birds of interest which included our annual Gray Flycatcher, Black-chinned and Rufous-crowned Sparrows and a pair of American Pipits that looked completely out of place when they landed in the campsite where we were eating lunch.  Definitely not their normal habitat, but that is what is cool about birds; they can drop in at an unusual location any time.  We had an abundance of Bushtits this year and these busy little birds are one of the most amusing to watch.  They are like little monkeys foraging through the trees; upside down, sideways and every other direction possible as they hang from leaves and twigs.  And they travel in small flocks from tree to tree all the while chipping away.  My photos indicate males as they have dark eyes.  Females have light yellow eyes.

 Bushtit - Male

Bushtit - Male

There is also a wonderful Crested Saguaro in this area that I look forward to seeing every year.  It is a mutation of the normal Saguaro Cactus, but are pretty rare and hard to find.  (Update on this cactus, it is called a Cristate Saguaro!  Thanks to FB friends for the correction!)

 Cristate Saguaro Cactus

Cristate Saguaro Cactus - same cactus, different angle

Then on January 4th, I took part in the Payson, Arizona CBC and was assigned to assist Brian Ison in another remote area of this circle known as the Control Road.  Payson is a little over an hour north and east of the Mesa and Phoenix.  It is just below the Mogollon Rim at an elevation of just little over 5000'.  The Control road is further north of Payson and even a bit higher in altitude and situated just below the Rim which is about 7000' in elevation.  This is a totally different habitat than what is found in and around the Phoenix area; lots of conifers and much different birds and of course with the higher elevation the temperatures were a bit colder at the start, but when the sun came out, it warmed up very nicely.  Once again photography was not the focus, but later in the morning at least one of my photos helped with an identification confirmation that we needed later.  We hiked a little over a mile up one of the trails off of Control Road.  Most of my photos came from this hike.  We had a lot of birds at various places including Stellar's Jays, Hairy Woodpeckers, and in one spot a Golden-crowned Kinglet.  This is a bird that I had only seen once before, so getting to see one again was a real treat. We also had a few Bridled Titmouse and lots of Bushtits.

 Hairy Woodpecker

 Steller's Jay

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Bridled Titmouse (photobombed by a Bushtit in the background)

Near the end of this trail just before we turned around to head back, Brian noticed some eagles soaring in the sky above the Mogollon Rim.  They were quite a distance away, but the first one we saw was an adult Bald Eagle and shortly after that we saw a couple more eagles and we quickly identified them as Golden Eagles.  Finally we had what appeared to be 5 Golden Eagles soaring around above the Rim.  I took photos and did not expect much due to the distance, but at least one of the photos does show 3 eagles in the view with one of them being a juvenile Golden Eagle, based on the white patches on the underside of the wings.

Golden Eagle - juvenile is in lower left corner, white wing patches

This was also the day of the Dark-eyed Junco.  This bird is a single species, but has numerous sub-species with different looks and in the winter, they are quite common but can be confusing to identify the various sub-species.  On this day we actually saw 4 of the sub-species and below is a lesson in Dark-eyed Juncos and 3 of the sub-species.

 Dark-eyed Junco - Gray-headed

 Dark-eyed Junco - Pink Sided

Dark-eyed Junco - Red-backed

Pink sided is fairly easy to identify, but the Gray-headed and the Red-backed look very similar.  But note the color of the upper mandible on the Red-backed.  It is very dark, almost black whereas the Gray-headed has an over all pinkish color to it. 

My next blog post will have another Dark-eyed Junco and some more information on this incredibly diverse species and the many sub-species that makes up this bird.

 

  

California: Day 2 Bay Area Continued

We continued our birding of the San Francisco Bay area by stopping at our next stop on Radio Road.  This place is one large fairly shallow pond, but the amount of birds on this pond was staggering.  This was my first viewing of the Black Skimmer.  A small island out in the water held 18 of these birds and then up closer to our shore was a juvenile.  I believe it is the only bird with the lower mandible being much longer than the upper mandible.  These birds are awesome to look at.  

 Black Skimmers

Black Skimmer juvenile

A Forster's Tern put on quite the acrobatic display for us while we were there.

 Forster's Tern

  Forster's Tern

  Forster's Tern

 Forster's Tern

While we had been seeing hundreds of Brown Pelicans on the coast, in this spot we found 5 American White Pelicans which rounded out the US pelican species.

American White Pelican

One of our guides, Leslie, was able to pickup a lone Short-billed Dowitcher in the huge numbers of Long-billed Dowitchers.  These 2 species can be tough to identify.

Short-billed Dowitcher

The next stop this day was Stulsaft Park which is a small but fabulous park very well hidden in a very residential area consisting of a lot of trees and a stream with flowing water down in the base of this small canyon.  Got 2 new life birds in this area, the Oak Titmouse and Nuttall's Woodpecker, but failed to get 'good' photos of them.  We did find 4 Brown Creepers in this spot and did mange to capture a passable photo of one of them.  A very tough bird to photograph.  Also found this small park is full of black Squirrels.  Have no idea if it is a separate species or just a color variation of a common species.

 Brown Creeper

 Brown Creeper

 Black Squirrel

A cool spider web for fun

To round out the day, we stopped at Skylawn Cemetery in the afternoon on our way back to Half Moon Bay.  This place is situated at the top of the pass that separated the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean.  It is a beautiful place with stunning views down the valley towards Half Moon Bay.  We had another Wrentit, another one of those new life birds that did not want to allow photos, and also a bird common to me in Arizona, a Black Phoebe that presented itself on the edge of the cemetery.  But the biggest thrill was a pair of Golden Eagles.  We had seen 2 the day before at a different location and quite high in the sky, but today was a bit different.  One of the 2 was being harassed by a Red-tailed Hawk and this one flew almost straight over us, all the while being dive bombed by the hawk.  The Red-tailed Hawk is a fairly large bird, but when it is in the same photo frame as the Golden Eagle, then one can really appreciate how magnificent these Golden Eagles really are.

 Golden Eagle

Golden Eagle and Red-tailed Hawk

Black Phoebe

The cemetery was also inhabited by some resident deer that must have known they were safe from hunters in this area.  Probably were also taking advantage of the fresh flowers that were edible from many of the cemetery plots.  They did not seem too over concerned with us and our cameras and binoculars.

A very full day of birding with lots of nice surprises and finds.  But the day finally came to an end, but the next day was to be the pelagic trip out in the Pacific Ocean for 12 hours and observing and seeing birds and anything else we could find.  That will be the topic of my next blog post.