Wednesday, April 5
As Glenn said, today was a washout—literally. He said that there hadn’t been such a rainstorm for quite a long period of time. We ventured into “way” Northern Utah, with hopes of seeing some previously reported Gray Partridge, but didn’t find. We were 40 miles south of the Idaho-Utah border on/near I-84. Fortunately, the roads were passable as we ventured up into White’s Valley. However, the fields were so water-saturated, that there were a few ducks on them. These included Mallards and a few Northern Pintails. Later we saw Vesper Sparows and Horned Lark. Earlier we had nice looks at a pair of Vesper Sparrows. We also saw a male Northern Harrier with two females.
There are always a few Northern Harrier in this open land. We saw a male with two females together. I wonder if the male was trying to live up to some kind of Utah reputation. I will have to study that further, to see if they have that inclination. We drove back to our motel and Glenn had to leave us.
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On our own once again, where else to go but back to Antelope Island. Nothing surprising in the types of birds but we did see one flock of 120 American Avocets - stunning; about 350 Eared Grebes; 2 Barn Owls in nest box; 2 Great Horned Owls (one on nest); and 5 Long-billed Curlews feeding on the ground. Try and find a recording of their calls on the Internet. We failed to find the Virginia Rail and the Townsend’s Solitaire.
Clouds and Snow made for dramatic scenery.
Mammals were another story! Saw one Bison standing alone, then a herd of over 100. More of them in other places later. One Coyote crossing the road, several Black-tailed Jackrabbits, and Mule Deer. The stormy weather made the island even more picturesque than it had been.
I had been telling Joan that since we were on Antelope Island, I wanted to see Antelope. We hadn’t on two previous visits. Suddenly 14 Pronghorns were on the road in front of us. Joan was staring out the side window, looking for some Chukars, and couldn’t figure out why I was so excited. Terrific sighting. Some of them were even butting horns. Great fun to watch them as they moved into the fields and continued interacting. Later on saw 7 more.
Day totals: 28 species, no lifers; trip total now 82 with 3 lifers.
Day 6: Greater Sage Grouse The SongStar Home Page
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Copyright © 2006 by Glenn Barlow and Joan & Richard Becker