Utah Trip: Part 2

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On Monday we drove up to Zion National Park and arrived there early enough to find a space in the parking lot.


Half-an-hour exploring the area around the Visitor Center turned up a few birds, none of which were close enough to photograph: Mountain Bluebird, Mountain Chickadee, Summer Tanager and Hairy Woodpecker.

We spent the next hour or so walking the Pa'rus Trail. As is the case everywhere in or near Zion, the scenery was beautiful.

 

Unfortunately, birds were very few and far between. All we saw were a pair of Black-headed Grosbeaks, two Ash-throated Flycatchers and a Western Scrub-Jay.

We did see some other park residents, though.

Later in the day we rode the shuttle bus up to the end of the main canyon, where we spotted a Canyon Wren. On the way back down to the Visitor Center, we hopped on and off shuttle buses several times in order to admire the incredible scenery.

It would take a much better photographer than I am to do justice to the beauty and scale rock formations in Zion but the following pictures may give you at least inkling.  

 

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Back at the Visitor Center we walked across the bridge to Springdale, where we had lunch on a patio which we shared with House Sparrows and a juvenile Say's Phoebe.

I noticed some sunflowers near the cafe and walked over there in hopes of finding Lesser Goldfinch.I was lucky.

When we left Zion, I was a little disappointed at not having seen more birds. However, the scenery certainly had not been disappointing. Also, on our way back to Hurricane we were planning to drop in at Grafton ghost town, which has a reputation as a good birding site.