Back to the Chirp!

I’ve decided to revive this blog, but will do so with a change on its focus. It will be devoted exclusively to birds and conservations issues that occur in the hood. That is, within a twenty-five mile driving/walking radius of home.

 

International Migratory Bird

Shelly and travelled to Grand Teton for the third consecutive year to participate in an International Migratory Bird Day event held there. Of course we birded along the way. Our original plan was to visit Antelope Island early Friday morning, but events at home and the weather squashed those plans. I hear we missed a lot of good stuff at that location. We did manage a short visit to Bear River MBR and picked up about 50 species. Time constraints prevented us from visiting Cutler Marsh and other Cache county hot-spots we visit on our way to Teton/Yellowstone. Highlights of our trip:

WESTERN KINGBIRDS at Bear River–the only flycatchers we saw.

At least 8,000 FRANKLIN’S GULLS at Grey’s Lake NWR.

Dozens of SANDHILL CRANE at the same location.

Approximately 150 MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS hovering in front of a GREATER-SAGE GROUSE lek in Grand Teton.

A wayward DUSKY GROUSE who decided to establish and defend his territory in the middle of one of the most congested roads in the Park.

The return of the AMERICAN ROBIN to Jackson Hole. Thousands of robin converge after a long winter to feed on the emerging insects.

Raptors including PERIGRINE FALCON, PRAIRIE FALCON, BALD EAGLE, GOLDEN EAGLE, RED-TAIL HAWK, NORTHERN GOSHAWK, SWAINSON’S HAWK, KESTREL, and OSPREY.

TRUMPETER SWANS on the Snake River.

But our birding highlight was hearing a STELLAR’S JAY mimic a red-tail hawk. Never heard this apparently common behavior before, truly memorable.

The spring spectacle more than made up for the lack of numbers–we tallied about 60 species in the Park. Our weekend total was 98 species. We also spent a good deal of time watching a grizzly bear dubbed #399 by the Park service. Her litter of three cubs will likely be weaned in the next couple of weeks.

 

On the Trail of the Quail

Posted to Utahbirdnet:

I was surprised to learn that California Quail were introduced to Utah in 1869 as a game bird and northern Utah appears to be the only area where their introduced and natural ranges are not contiguous. Their historical range  is from southern Oregon and western Nevada, south to southern Baja California. In addition to Utah, they were apparently introduced into southern British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, and northern Oregon. A covey of up to thirty birds regularly visit my backyard in the Sugarhouse area. I’ve seen them at dozens of locations around the Salt Lake valley in residential areas, at Wheeler Farm, Red Butte Gardens, etc. I discovered another covey inhabiting the Salt Lake LDS Temple grounds while watching the resident Peregrine Falcons last summer. I don’t think the range of Gambel’s Quail overlaps in Utah. My observations of Gambel’s Quail in Utah are limited to Lytle Ranch, St. George(Tonaquint Park) and Zion NP. So, would the DWR release try to establish Gambel’s outside their southern range? It seems like they’d be intolerant of the harsher conditions which exist in northern Utah, much like the Bobwhite in the eastern U.S. Also, what about private breeders? Could your hybrids have been released or escapees?

Good Birding,

Jay

—– Original Message —–

From: Ryan O’Donnell

To: birdtalk@utahbirds.org ; topofutah@utahbirds.org

Sent: Friday, March 28, 2008 8:51 PM

Subject:[Birdtalk] Horned Grebes, Lesser Yellowlegs, etc. in Cache Co.

Thanks to a tip from Keith Archibald, I and several others found TWO
HORNED GREBES at the ponds just west of the Landfill in Logan this
evening.  Here are a couple digiscoped shots:
 
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n105/Tsirtalis/HOGR2.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n105/Tsirtalis/HOGR.jpg
 
We also saw a Lesser Yellowlegs there, not a rare bird but my first of
the year:
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n105/Tsirtalis/LEYE.jpg
 
On the way back home, I stopped by the church in Benson and saw two
coveys of quail, the first of about ten birds and the second of at least
25.  I must assume these have been recently released by DWR.  I read on
the DWR webpage that quail have been established along the Wasatch Front
but have not taken hold in Cache Valley, despite repeated transplants.
Some of the birds I saw today looked like they might have been hybrids
between California Quail and Gambel’s Quail, while others looked like
pure California or nearly so.  Does anyone on the listserve know any
more about this?
 
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://home.comcast.net/~tsirtalis/

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More Wayward Ducks at the Park

The Common Goldeneye continues to make its living diving in the pond at Sugarhouse Park, but the three(two female, one male) Ringed-necked Ducks that joined in the fun yesterday have left. Other than these minor diversions, birding is pretty slow right now. Western Scrub Jay, Starlings, Quail, Chickadees, Robins, House Sparrows and Finch along with our resident pair of Mourning Doves are the over-wintering birds we have in the yard–I’m ready for spring.

 

Not so Common Goldeneye at Sugarhouse Park

Last week it was a Bald Eagle, today a Common Goldeneye found its way to Sugarhouse Park.  It spent its time diving in a very small radius near the center of the pond possibly because that’s where the food was, or maybe becase it was hemmed in by about 500 or so Gulls. California and Ring-billed Gulls are always seen at the park, but this is a huge number for such a small area.

 

Among the Living

While visiting the Mt. Olivet cemetary in Salt Lake City, I noticed dozens of headstones engraved with the symbols of Free Masonry. I have no idea what Free Masonary is, but my paternal grandfather and grandmother were Masons. I didn’t realize this fact until I attended my grandfather’s funeral held 1at one of the ”lodges” in 1989. I’ll have to do some research on this subject. Birding was rather slow, except for the woodpeckers. We saw a couple of Northern Flickers, at least one Downy and possibly an American Three-toed Woodpecker.(UPDATE: The second woodpecker was also a Downy not a Three-toed.) As usual, Crows and Magpies provided the soundtrack to our visit.

Dozens of Robins foraged in the grass amidst the resident deer herd. There were numerous Easter lilly floral displays decorating the grounds which served as fodder for the deer. One of them was missing a foot, another had one set of antlers. Maybe these injuries came as a result of the deer crossing extremely busy urban streets to this feeding oasis, and perhaps the DWR(presumably) should reconsider supplying the food(cracked corn)  which attracks them during winter.

 

The Sound and the Flury

Visit the coast of main you may find Atlantic Puffin. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes them this way:

A natty black-and-white seabird with a huge, multicolored bill, the Atlantic Puffin looks like a clown of the sea. It breeds in colonies on rocky islands in the North Atlantic and winters at sea.

No one would confuse the Puffin with any other bird in the area. We need to travel to Yellowstone, and with luck, we can find similarly colored and marked birds in the swifts waters of the Yellowstone River, which, like the Puffin, is impossible to mistake for another species. 

A much more dependable visitor to our area is the Tundra Swan which makes stops around the Great Salt Lake during its migratory journey north to, you guessed it, the Arctic Tundra. A large, gracefull flyer, you can count them by the thousands. A much rarer bird is its almost identical cousin, the Trumpeter Swan.  By 1935, The Trumpeter Swan was on the brink of extinction with only 35 birds known to exist is the wild. Fortunately, concerted propogation progams has helped them to come back to much more sustainable levels, although finding them is still difficult. A site on the Madison River near West Yellowsonte used to host a two paris of Trumpeters, but predation(coyotes?) and possible theft from homeowner’s wishing to acquire a beautiful specimen to display in their yard eliminated this reliable opportunity for viewing. Southwest Idaho is still a good place to look for Swans, but around the Great Salt Lake, look at the flocks of Tundra that rest at Farmington Bay, Salt Creek WMA and a few others locations in northern Utah.

Tundra Swans in flight with Wellsville mountains in the background(Shelly Spencer, chickadeetrails.com)

Look very closely, because identifying them can be a challenge. The drawing by David Sibley(above) illustrates the distinctions between the two species. So, grab your favorite guide, you binos and/or spotting scope and take the challenge.

An excellent guide to help distinguish between the two species in the field can by found here :

http://www.sibleyguides.com/swans.htm

 

Corvid Chaos

Shelly and started our afternoon of birding at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building(Hotel Utah) to check for the nesting pair of Peregrine Falcons. One individual was perched near the nest box taking a nap. It was a too chilly to wait for the bird to become active so we headed up to the Salt Lake Cemetery. Deadly quiet, except for a Red-tail Hawk flyover as we were leaving. John had mentioned we check out the old Fort Douglas cemetery, we did, but it was a bit too crowded along the edges due to the student housing in the area. Next stop, Red Butte Gardens. That’s where the magic happened. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot Shelly noticed a group of slate-colored birds(recall it was a grey day) swirling around a stand of ornamental trees. Western Scrub Jays? No. Stellar’s Jay, yes. About a half-dozen of them along with some starlings and, after a closer look, Mountain Bluebirds. Eventually a pair of lighter-blue Western Scrub-jay would join the flock.  Suddenly three Robins buzzed the trees, flushed a small flock of House Finch and startled a Spotted Towhee who had been scratching belows the trees. The party abruptly ended when a Sharp-shinned Hawk attempt to secure a meal from the large buffet. Don’t know if the Hawk spent the day hungry, but it was unsuccessful in obtaining a meal this time.

 

The Quail Are Back! (but so are the cats)

I’m not sure why the Quail in our neighborhood disapper for most of the winter–they don’t migrate–but a small covey appeard in the yard today to sratch at the seed below the feeders the House Sparrows mobbed. Unfortunately, so are the neighbor’s cats.   Because of their predatory instinct, cats are one of the biggest threats to the birds we love to see at our feeders. Cats kill thousands of birds each year when allowed to prowl outdoors. When roaming free, even well-fed house cats cannot resist killing birds.
Another important reason to keep cats indoors is for their own safety. A cats’ nine lives can disappear quickly when they are hit by a car, contract a deadly virus or fall victim to a neighbor’s dog that is not cat-friendly. Responsible pet owners make sure your pet is spayed or neutered, but for the bird’s sake, your cat’s sake, and for friendly neighbor relations, keep the cat indoors. Get some new cat toys, cat-nip or perhaps a new bird feeder outsider their favorite window! You can entertain your cat right in the house and they will love you for it!
Birds are subject to many cruel facts of life including declining habitat, harsh weather, pollution and wild predators. Don’t add to their problems by letting your cat roam outdoors.

 

Pro Golfer Kills Protected Red-shouldered Hawk

It’s ironic that with all the controversy in our area regarding the sighting and ultimately determined mis-identification of a Red-shouldered Hawk, the species would garner a broader look in the public eye when a pro golfer in Florida decided to take matters in his gloved hands when a bird was making too much noise for his comfort:

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)—PGA Tour player Tripp Isenhour was charged with killing a hawk on purpose with a golf shot because it was making noise as he videotaped a TV show.Isenhour was with a film crew for “Shoot Like A Pro” on Dec. 12 at the Grand Cypress Golf course. The 39-year-old player, whose real name is John Henry Isenhour III, was charged Wednesday with cruelty to animals and killing a migratory bird.The charges carry a maximum penalty of 14 months in jail and $1,500 in fines.

Isenhour apologized in a statement and said he was only trying to scare the hawk away.

According to court documents, Isenhour got upset when a red-shouldered hawk began making noise, forcing another take. He began hitting balls at the bird, then 300 yards away, but gave up. Isenhour started again when the hawk moved within about 75 yards, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer Brian Baine indicated in a report.

Isenhour allegedly said “I’ll get him now,” and aimed for the hawk.

“About the sixth ball came very near the bird’s head, and (Isenhour) was very excited that it was so close,” Baine wrote.

A few shots later, witnesses said he hit the hawk. The bird, protected as a migratory species, fell to the ground bleeding from both nostrils.

“As soon as this happened, I was mortified and extremely upset and continue to be upset,” Isenhour said in a statement issued through his management company, SFX Golf. “I want to let everyone know there was neither any malice nor deliberate intent whatsoever to hit or harm the hawk. I was trying to simply scare it into flying away.”

Isenhour said his family has adopted three cats from a local shelter.

“I am an animal lover,” he said. “We ask that everyone accept my sincerest apology, and please be respectful of my family’s privacy.”

Isenhour has spent two full years on the PGA Tour, both times failing to keep his card. He has won four times on the Nationwide Tour, including twice in 2006.

“He just kept saying how he didn’t think he could have hit it, which I think is a stupid thing for a PGA Tour golfer to say,” said Jethro Senger, a sound engineer at the shoot. “He can put a ball in a hole from hundreds of yards away, and here he is hitting line drives at something that’s, I don’t know, a couple hundred feet away?”

Senger said it was “basically like a joke to (Isenhour).” He said no one in the roughly 15-person crew intervened, and many later regretted it.

“It was one of those cases where there’s some trepidation on whether or not they should speak up and do something,” Senger said.

Senger said the killing was not captured on video. The bird was buried at the golf course and later dug up by Florida investigators.