Utah 2006

We met Pomera and she drove us up to the Alta Ski Resort in the Wasatch Mountains, located southeast of Salt Lake City. It was a little cool with some light snow falling. The scenery was magnificent. Beautiful, sheer cliffs. As we drove up, Pomera pointed out a flock of birds flying from some evergreens, our target birds, rosy finches. We drove further up the canyon, parked the car, and walked back down the road. We spotted a Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch at a feeder on the side of a house. I thought this was a lifer for me, but on checking later, realized that I had seen it in Alaska. It was a life bird for Joan. We continued down the road to the place where we saw the flock in the evergreens. This flock had both Gray-crowned and Black Rosy-Finches. Two exquisite birds. If you don’t know what they look like, look them up. We had to climb up a snow bank to get good looks, but it was well worth it. The Black was a lifer for both Joan and me. Other birds we saw were Mountain Chickadee (lifer for Joan) and Swainson’s Hawks.