Salt Lake City Birding: Days 1 & 2

Day 1 - Midvale

Our first afternoon was spent at my brother-in-law’s house in Midvale. There were plenty of common birds: Mourning Doves, Rock Doves, House Sparrows and European Starlings. House Finches, Chipping Sparrows and American Robins were plentiful, too, and there were occasional flyovers by California Gulls. I was pleased by the arrival of a California Quail and a Black-capped Chickadee, and then I was thrilled to see a Pine Siskin, a bird I’ve only ever seen once before.

Day 2 - Butterfield Canyon
The next morning started well when I drove into Butterfield Canyon and immediately spotted a Great Horned Owl. Unfortunately, the only other birds that appeared during my drive were a Black-billed Magpie (ubiquitous around Salt Lake), a Northern Harrier, a Turkey Vulture and a pair of Western Bluebirds.

Great Horned Owl

Black-billed Magpie

Day 2 - Red Butte Botanical Gardens

Later in the morning, Dee and I went to the Red Butte Botanical Gardens, on the campus of the University of Utah.

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Salt Lake City from Red Butte

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It was the first visit there for both of us and we were really surprised by how beautiful the gardens were. One unusual feature is that they transition seamlessly into the hillside and canyon behind them.

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Whoever designed the gardens also took great care to integrate the artificial elements into the natural landscape.

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We were pleasantly surprised by the number of birds that we saw, starting with this Western Scrub Jay, followed by a Black-chinned Hummingbird.

Western Scrub-Jay

Black-billed Magpies posed for photos when they weren’t chasing off a small hawk.

We spent several minutes watching a pair of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers popping in and out of their nest but I didn't manage to get a clear photo. The best I could get was a blurry shot of an adult approaching the nest ...

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followed by a shot of a tail.

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The next bird I saw was also impossible to photograph; this was a pity because it was a life bird for me, a Plumbeous Vireo. After this, there was another life bitd, a Black-headed Grosbeak. Luckily, this bird let me take its picture.

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Black-headed Grosbeak

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Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Mountain Bluebirds and Black-chinned Hummingbirds were common but they were harder to photograph than Yellow Warblers and Western Tanagers.

Yellow Warbler

Western Tanager

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The creek had several Song Sparrows, including one that decided to take a bath.

Our final sighting was of a Lazuli Bunting.

Back from Utah

We arrived back from Salt Lake City last night after a great five days there. The weather was perfect and the scenery was spectacular. It was the first time I'd been birding in Utah outside of the winter and I was surprised to find that birds were comparatively scarce and hard to spot. However, my trip list is over 60 species and I even managed a couple of life birds. So it wasn't too disappointing.

I'll start posting my trip reports tomorrow. In the meantime, here are a few photos from the Salt Lake City area.

You can't go far in Salt Lake City without seeing Black-billed Magpies.
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The Red Butte Botanical Gardens are at the foot of one of the many canyons that surround the city.
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The gardens had several species of interesting birds, such as this Lazuli Bunting.
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Big Cottonwood Canyon still had plenty of snow above 8,000 feet.

The white of the aspens contrasted sharply with the blue of the mountain sky.

Lower down the canyon, wetland areas by the roadside provided very different habitat.

Antelope Island, in the Great Salt Lake, was much quieter for birds than in winter.

But I managed to see the antelopes there for the first time.

And the island's Garr Ranch provided some good birds, including a pair of Great Horned Owls.

Bolivar Peninsula

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On Sunday we went with friends Macarena and Carlos Aguilar for lunch on Galveston, and we also did a quick side-trip to the Bolivar Peninsula. It was our first visit to the area since two days before Hurricane Ike and we were very apprehensive about what we would see.
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The east end of Galveston showed some signs of damage but the residents have done a remarkable job with the clean-up and restoration. (The west end of the island is probably in a much worse state, though.)
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The ferry ride to Bolivar was as enjoyable as ever. While dolphins were absent, the normal crowds of Laughing Gulls and Brown Pelicans were around, as were several Neotropic Cormorants. The best sighting was of a Magnificent Frigatebird but, unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a recognizable photo of this.
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We only traveled the short distance from the ferry terminal to the bird sanctuary beach at the end of Rettilon Road, but even this was enough to show some of the devastating damage caused by Ike.
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Garbage and debris were everywhere, even in the trees.
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The store/motel where we had often shopped and had once stayed with our sister-in-law Jill was ruined and abandoned.
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The beach was in rather better shape than I expected and there were birds, though in smaller numbers than I've ever seen there.
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Brown Pelicans patroled the beach, accompanied by Royal and Common Terns. Judging by the way the were chasing off Laughing Gulls, Least Terns seemed to be nesting nearby.
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Brown Pelicans with Royal and Common Terns

Royal Tern

Great, Snowy and Reddish Egrets were fishing in the various ponds.
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Reddish Egret

The ponds and the beach also had small numbers of shorebirds, several in a range of different plumages. The Dunlins were easy to recognize ...
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as were Ruddy Turnstones.
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Ruddy Turnstone (left) with Sanderling

However, it took me a while to recognize this Willet, because it was in beautiful breeding plumage rather than its normal rather drab gray feathers.
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Breeding Black-bellied Plovers were distinctive ...
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but their counterparts in non-breeding plumage were a little tougher to identify.


Sanderlings were the most common bird and these, too, appeared in a range of plumages.





The visit to Bolivar was all too brief but we'll certainly be returning there before too long. Next time, we'll have to see how things stand further along the peninsula.
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Year Birds
I saw seven new birds, taking my 2009 total to 208.

Two Odd Sightings

A pair of Western Kingbirds has come to nest near the basketball court on the CyFair campus every spring for several years. However, yesterday I was surprised to see four Kingbirds there. Their behavior was odd, too. The birds would fy up into the air in pairs and then hover/flutter face to face, chattering all the while. Sometimes it looked as if their beaks touched.

I assumed this was mating or pair bonding behavior but then three birds flew up together and did the same thing. Finally, all four birds flew up together and repeated the behavior. All I can think is that it was some sort of family bonding behavior.

On my way home, I stopped off at Paul Rushing / Chain-of-Lakes Park. Most of the shorebirds had left, except for a few Yellowlegs and Black-necked Stilts, a single Marbled Godwit and a solitary Wilson's Phalarope.

Marbled Godwit

Wilson's Phalarope

There were Whistling Ducks on the far side of some of the lakes but too far away to see clearly. Suddenly, something spooked them and they all took off together. For the next couple of minutes I watched in amazement as about 500 ducks swirled and circled above me. Quite a sight! As far as I could tell, 90% were Fulvous Whistling Ducks and only 10% Black-bellied.

Fulvous Whistling Ducks

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

It is easy to tell the two species apart in flight. The Fulvous have all-black wings but have white-edged tails. The Whistling have all-black tails but the tops of their wings have a large white stripe.

Orioles and More

Yesterday morning the CyFair nature trail was busy with numerous Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, as well as several Magnolia Warblers and at least one Common Yellowthroat. More surprising, though, was the presence of an adult and a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

The adult was easy to spot.
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But the juvenile kept itself very well hidden