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Parowan
While we were staying in Cedar City, we took a 15-mile drive to the Parowan Gay to see some Native American pictographs.
The pictographs included some simple representations of animal and human figures.
However, they also included some much more complex illustrations.
While we admired the pictographs, a lizard sunned itself on a nearby rock.
There were quite a few birds in and above the Gap: Rock Wrens, Canyon Wrens, a Prairie Falcon and Common Ravens. The only photo I managed was of a Say's Phoebe.
On our way back to Cedar City via the town of Parowan, Dee and I stopped to watch a pair of Swainson's Hawks.
Beautiful birds!
Big Cottonwood Canyon
Every time we go to Utah, I take at least one drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Brighton and Silver Lake. On this trip I drove up there three times.
No matter what the time of year, the scenery alone is well worth the drive.
One one visit this year I arrived at Brighton to be told that I had just missed by minutes seeing a moose bathing in Silver Lake. I had to settle instead for a couple of beavers.
White-crowned and Lincoln's Sparrows were everywhere.
A Fox Sparrow was a new year bird.
I saw only one Steller's Jay and never got a photo if it. Brewer's Blackbirds were easier prey.
On my way down from Brighton, I always stop by a stream right at the entrance to the canyon. I do this to check - always unsuccessfully - for American Dippers. One time on this trip there actually was a Dipper.
On our final morning in Utah we went up the canyon to have coffee at the Silver Fork restaurant. The deck there had bird feeders and one feeder had a bird on it. I watched for a couple of minutes and the bird didn't move. I watched for a couple more minutes. The bird still didn't move. I guessed it was a stuffed specimen, perhaps put there for decoration or maybe in hopes of attracting other birds. As no other birds were around, I walked over to it. I was amazed to see it fly off when I got within a yard of its perch.
A few minutes later I realized that it was just one of a dozen or more Pine Siskins that were coming to the feeders there. So that was another new bird for my 2015 list - and not a bad sighting with which to end our Utah trip.
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Dee and I drove down from Cedar City to Sand Hollow State Park, which is southwest of Zion NP. The park is in a beautiful location but when we visited, it was crowded with holidaymakers.
So we moved on to Quail Creek State Park, a few miles away.
The reservoir here was at 90% capacity and had flooded a significant portion of the park.
It was odd to watch a Yellow Warbler foraging in the top of a tree standing in several feet of water.
There were very few birds on the lake. All we saw were a couple of Double-crested Cormorants and a few Eared Grebes.
A final walk along the beach turned up a Black-throated Sparrow.
I also spotted a Say's Phoebe and an Ash-throated Flycatcher (below).
The following day I made the long drive over to the Lytle Ranch, a noted birding Utah site. On the way I passed through some incredible landscapes, including the cliffs below, which provide a backdrop to a Paiute reservation.
Further along, the landscape was even more beautiful.
It isn't every day that you see a veritable forest of Joshua trees.
Arriving at the ranch, I was a little worried by this sign.
I needn't have worried. The dogs were very friendly and one or other of them accompanied me throughout my visit, disappearing only when they had to chase a jackrabbit.
A Zone-tailed Hawk was a great sighting but it flew off before I could photograph it. So I compensated by taking pictures of an Ash-throated Flycatcher.
A Costas's Hummingbird was a nice change from all the Black-chinned Hummers I saw in Utah.
However, the best birds at the ranch were Phainopeplas, one of my favorite species. I had seen them before in Arizona and California but this was my first sighting of them in Utah.
This one had caught a tasty-looking dragonfly.
Unfortunately, I had only about an hour at the ranch before I had to set off back for Cedar City. If and when I am next in Utah, I'll try to make time for a much longer visit to this site. In the meantime I'll have to make do with the memory of a pleasant hour spent with Phainopeplas.
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After three days in Salt Lake City, we headed down to spend four days at our relatives' house outside City City. The house is located at 7500 feet and so has a great view over the city.
The deck is a good place for watching sunsets ...
... and Black-chinned Hummingbirds.
I managed to see quite a few other birds from the deck, including: American Robins (below), Lazuli Buntings, Common Ravens, Western Tanagers and Black-headed Grosbeak (below).
It was here, too, that I saw the first Western Scrub-Jays of the trip.
I started most days with a dawn drive to an overlook higher up in the hills behind the house.
There I would be treated to a long morning serenade by a Green-tailed Towhee.
After watching the sun rise and listening to the Towhee, I would drive higher into the mountains and search the aspen groves for birds.
A Northern Flicker looked beautiful in the morning light.
A Mountain Bluebird looked, well, cold in the morning light.
Violet-green Swallows were circling overhead and sometimes perching on utility lines.
I missed getting photos of Cassin's Finches and Western Tanagers but got one of a Dark-eyed Junco.
One morning I went in search of the bird that was producing a terrible racket. It turned out to be a Clark's Nutcracker, a bird I'd seen only once before, 15 years earlier at Lake Tahoe.
One of the great things about our relatives' house is that it's just about an hour's drive from both Zion National Park and the southern Utah city of St. George. On this trip we thought we'd give Zion a miss because it had been so crowded with people on our visit two years ago. However, there were a couple of other nearby sites that I hoped to check out. I'll report on these soon.
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