Wildflowers

My camera played second fiddle to my binoculars during my week at the this year's ABA convention. There were too many new birds for this Virginian, and my bins were much more suited for keeping up with them than my camera. But this was my fourth ABA convention, so I already knew that, by the time the last day got here, I would be tired and it would be difficult to keep focused on the birds.

So, when the last day of the convention got here, and focusing on birds, birds and more birds became more and more challenging, my thoughts switched back to my camera. And, much to my delight, I found myself surrounded by wildflowers. While most of the group still focused on various feathered things, I began to focus on flowery things. I wasn't the only one (if you follow that link and look at Steve's impressive photos, I am the "conventional DSLR guy" in the third from last photo...my back only ached a little after that shot :-).

Here is a collection of eight flowers that I managed to capture with my camera. Click on them to see larger sizes in Flickr. I managed to put names on some of these, but just barely. I really do not know what some of these beauties are.

Hidden Peak

I mentioned several posts back that I rode the tram from Snowbird up to the top of Hidden Peak. The ski village of Snowbird sits at about 7700 feet, but Hidden Peak is 11000 feet. I was happy to see that the tram was enclosed. If it had been only a simple ski lift, I might not have made the trip. Even in the tram, I politely, but firmly, held on with both hands and waited for the ride to the top to complete.

The view at the top was worth the trip, but it was also free for me (thank you, American Birding Association). There was still plenty of snow lying about. I heard several folks say that it is fairly late for this much snow to still be on the ground, a symptom of the amounts of snow that the area received over the previous winter. That melting snow generates angry streams of runoff in the valleys below.

This picture shows the view from Hidden Peak looking west. The valley on the right side is Little Cottonwood Canyon. The southern end of Salt Lake City is in the distance, only visible to those with excellent vision or suitable imagination.

Here is a photo looking back down to Snowbird, located at the upper end of Little Cottonwood Canyon. If you squint your eyes just so (or click through to the photo in Flickr so that you can look at the larger sizes), you can see the hotel (fifteen stories tall, I think) that I stayed in during this trip.

Silver Lake

One of my field trips during the ABA convention included a visit to a place called Silver Lake, located next to the Brighton Ski Resort. It was nestled in the Wasatch Mountains, just east of Salt Lake City. This place was quiet and tranquil and beautiful, but mostly gave me the impression of a ski resort that was patiently waiting for winter to return. Ski resorts in summer are somewhat like beaches in the winter: ghosts of their full vibrant selves.

There were plenty of good bird watching moments on this trip. We had several looks at flycatchers, warblers and sparrows, most of which were species that I was not going to see back home. And when a Northern Goshawk flew right over our group, everyone was pretty darn excited. I was too focused on seeing that bird through my bins to have even considered taking photo.

I did, however, get a few photos from Silver Lake. For me, this was a challenging day for photography. It started with a Mule Deer that we spooked upon first arriving at the lake. I snapped several photos, but all of them were just not quite in focus. Maybe it was still too early, and my brain was just not quite in focus? Then, as we wound around the lake, the light always seemed to be harsh and coming from the wrong direction. Or, the light was shy, and my subject sat in shadows. It seems that me and my camera were not on good terms this day.

Here is that Mule Deer we spooked. Their odd way of running, with all four feet coming down at the same time, is interesting to watch. Apparently the term for this style of running is "stotting". My photo caught the deer in "mid-stot" :-)

Finally, here are two photos of sparrows. The group had been seeing and hearing Lincoln's and White-crowned Sparrows all morning. Towards the end of our walk around the lake, I had opportunities to get photos of each. The Lincoln's Sparrow sat cautiously on the shadowy side of a tree, and the White-crowned Sparrow sat boldly in the full sun.

Killdeer

I have forgotten exactly where I saw this Killdeer. It was on some piece of private land in the basin just west and south of Salt Lake City. Our group was traveling on a gravel road via bus, stopping occasionally to get a glimpse at some shy sparrow, or distant raptor. This Killdeer had built its nest on the side of that gravel road. Being on private land, I imagine that the gravel road did not get much traffic, so the Killdeer took advantage of this prime piece of Killdeer real estate without realizing its peril. Luckily it was on the side of the road, far enough over to be easily avoided - even if you had no clue the bird was there, sitting on eggs in the gravel.

The guide for our field trip pointed the bird out to us. The bird tolerated us at a distance, but if anyone got too close it would stand up and nervously watch. I suspect it was debating whether it should begin its act of feigned, injured retreat in order to draw attention away from its nest. We gawked, and tried to keep a respectful distance. After my encounter with the Dusky Grouse, this was a far happier encounter. But I still felt like an intruder, bumbling about in the house of a complete stranger while I selfishly took pictures of them and their decor.

Dusky Grouse

If you pick up a field guide and look for Dusky Grouse, you might not find the bird listed. The same is true of Sooty Grouse. That is because, prior to 2006, both of these birds were considered the same species: Blue Grouse. After some really smart people, however, researched [PDF] the wild and crazy world of Blue Grouse DNA, it was decided that Blue Grouse was really two distinct species.

Splitting a single species into two species has an interesting effect on bird watchers who keep thorough lists of the birds they have seen. On one day, their list has Blue Grouse, but on the next day that Blue Grouse is really supposed to be either a Dusky Grouse or a Sooty Grouse. If you really knew all the gory Grouse details, you may have been able to confidently change your Blue to one of the two new species. But if you didn't, well...you might be inclined to cross it off your list and try to see both a Dusky and a Sooty just to be complete. Either way, it was likely that you needed to either a Dusky or a Sooty or both to cover what was before simply a Blue.

I had never seen a Blue Grouse, so seeing a Dusky Grouse was all around new to me. This sighting, however, was really very bittersweet.

A Dusky Grouse, with several chicks in tow, decided to cross a two lane highway without recognizing the danger of a large bus driving in the downhill direction. The bus was full of bird watchers who cringed as an attempt was made to stop before something unfortunate happened to the birds. This story does not have a happy ending.

When the bus finally stopped, we got out to survey the Grouse family. One chick did not make it across the road, and the mother was unsure what to do. She stood on the side of the road obviously aware that she was missing one chick. Her other chicks hunkered down in the grass while she debated whether to keep moving into the woods, or to wait for that last chick.

Of course, nothing could be done for that chick. As I snapped my photos of the mother and one of her chicks I was also torn. On the one hand, I was excited to have a chance to see a Dusky Grouse and to take these photos. But on the other hand I felt pretty lame taking pictures of a stressed bird who just lost a chick.

American Dipper

American Dippers are cool birds. Their gray plumage might be considered plain by some, but I think that is outweighed by how well they have adapted to a specific environment. Dippers are songbirds, not waterfowl, that have a preference for fast moving mountain streams. They live year round next to their chosen stream, feeding off of insect larvae that are found in those streams. They actually submerge themselves in the water in their search for food. To handle that cold, fast moving water, they have more down, a larger preening gland that provides oil for waterproofing feathers, the ability to close their nostrils under water, and an extra eyelid to help them see under water.

At first, I thought that Dippers got their name from their aquatic habits. In other words, they liked to "take a dip" in the water. But alas, my guess was wrong. The Dipper's name comes from its habit of repeatedly bobbing its whole body up and down during pauses in its search for food. In my brief bit of searching online, I mostly read that the behavior was still an unsolved mystery. My favorite theory was that the bobbing was "just fun" :-)

While in Utah for the ABA convention, I saw American Dippers on several occasions. They were fascinating to watch. I had the opportunity to get photos of an American Dipper at two locations. The first was during a brief stop at Sundance Resort. A small stream flowing next to a path had a Dipper that was actively feeding. The second photo shows that bird with its head under water looking for a meal. American Dippers will not only stick their head under water like this bird, but also walk under water on the bottom of the stream. I did not witness the walking under water trick on this trip. Hopefully I can change that on some future trip.

The last photo here is of an American Dipper at Vivian Park. This bird had a nest with chicks under a small foot bridge. The group I was with stood quietly on the bridge and waited for the bird to come back with a beak full of food. The bird would come back to the bridge, stop to see what our intentions were, decide that hungry chicks were more important than gawking birdwatchers, and then fly under the bridge to serve a meal.

Black-necked Stilt

The last bird I will share from my visit to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge (BRMBR) is Black-necked Stilt. Once I got into the actual refuge, Stilts were fairly common. I even saw several nests with Stilts sitting on them. There were not, however, any Stilt babies just yet (too bad...that would have been fun to photograph).

Ring-necked Pheasant

The drive to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge on that gravel road gave me an opportunity for another life bird: Ring-necked Pheasant. The "game" of getting a photograph of one, however, was a little more challenging.

I would drive along the road at a fairly slow speed because I was gawking out the windows looking for birds (luckily there was hardly any other traffic on the road). At one point something caught my eye directly to my left. When I looked over, I immediately recognized the pheasant, and hit the brakes. The pheasant was actually two pheasants (one male and one female) and they wanted nothing to do with me and my car. So as I fumbled about for my camera, they took off running through the field.

When running, they would extend their head forward, which would make them appear lower and longer, and shorter than the vegetation in the field. I could follow their progress through the field, but only because I saw them at the start and followed them with my eyes. Had they already gone into motion before my car got near, I doubt I would have ever seen them. Occasionally one would stop and poke its head up out of the grass, like a periscope on a submarine, to survey the situation.

I saw several more pheasants on this drive. In one case, after I had finished admiring a grebe and resumed the drive, I flushed two males. They immediately fled deeper into the field, gone in a second. It was only then that I realized that, while I was staring at the grebe (with car ignition turned off and windows all down), I was hearing the creaky wheezy song of those two pheasants just a short distance away.

Here are two photos from my first pheasant encounter. The first shows one (the female, I think) as it scoots away in the grass. The second shows the male poking his head up out of the grass in order to assess the situation.

Horned Lark

I had never seen a Horned Lark before visiting Utah last month. Since I really have not taken any time to analyze my life list to see what I am missing within the ABA Area, there are still plenty of "easy" birds for me to see that are lifers. The Horned Lark was an example of that. I should be able to see one in my home state, but I haven't. Instead, I flew to Utah and saw one there :-)

When I decided to visit the Bear River National Migratory Bird Refuge, I had a small sense of the birds I might see, but not the complete picture. I went in just figuring I would see what I would see, and then later when I submitted my sightings to eBird I would notice which were lifers for me. For a few of the birds, however, I knew I had a lifer when I saw them. Again, the Horned Lark was an example of that.

Driving from the refuge's visitor center into the actual refuge takes you along a mostly gravel country road for nearly ten miles. Along the way, I blithely ignored the sticker in my rental car, conveniently hidden by the flipped down driver-side visor, that read something along the lines of "Thou shalt not drive this vehicle on unpaved roads, under penalty of embarrassment and significant expense!" Bah! I was not going to let some silly rule keep me from exploring that refuge. This quaint (and somewhat bumpy) road took me past lots of uncultivated fields with simple wire fences around them. My picture of an Eastern Kingbird a few posts back was on such a fence. The Horned Lark pictured below is on a fence post, and is just one of the many Horned Larks I saw near the road. They were impossible to miss, numerous, and immediately recognizable.

Western vs. Clark's Grebe

My last post on something other than this blog was about the Kingbirds I saw in Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge back in June. This post continues the theme of comparing two species that I photographed in that location. This time it is Grebes: Western and Clark's.

These two Grebes are look-alikes. Well...mostly. As an easterner (within the United States :-), I was at first a little bamboozled by these two species. But just a tad of research and studying clarified the field mark that needed my attention: on the bird's face, where was the line between the black and the white? If that line was above the bird's eye, then call it a Clark's. Otherwise, call it a Western. Apparently you can also use bill color to help make the identification (according to my Peterson, a Western has a greenish yellow bill with a dark ridge, and a Clark's has a orange-yellow bill), but that field mark was a tad too subtle for me, especially under different light conditions and (usually) over a long distance.

Here are my two photos. The first is a Western and the second is a Clark's. The location of the eye relative to the line between the white and black feathers is very easy to see. Even better, I can see the difference in bill color in these photographs as well.

Eastern vs. Western Kingbird

After I left the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge visitor center, it was a drive of several miles before I got to the actual refuge. The drive was along a quiet country road, and I stopped several times to bird the fields along this road. One of the species I saw several times was Western Kingbird. Since I had not done very much research on the birds I might see, however, I was a bit surprised to also see just as many Eastern Kingbirds.

There are several "eastern/western" species pairs that come to mind as I write this: Meadowlark, Wood-Pewee and Kingbird. For the Meadowlark and Wood-Pewee species pairs, I think the eastern variety looks very similar to the western variety, so understanding song, habitat, behavior or range differences helps me understand which one I am observing. But the differences between an Eastern Kingbird and a Western Kingbird are much more obvious to me. My challenge was not understanding that I had something other than Eastern Kingbird, but understanding which of the other U.S. Kingbird species I was observing (Tropical, Couch's, Cassin's, Thick-billed, or even Gray).

I am used to the Eastern Kingbird: white underparts; black or dark gray head, back, wings and tail; white edge at the end of the tail; and a song that sounds like electricity buzzing. When I saw one of them on my drive to the refuge, I knew it immediately. I did not realize that I had it so easy, however, when dealing with Eastern Kingbirds back home. Of all of the Kingbird species that occur in the U.S., the Eastern's appearance is fairly unique. I guess that is not entirely true, since the Gray Kingbird is moderately close in appearance to an Eastern. But since you will probably need to be in south Florida in order to see a Gray, I quickly ruled it out as an option.

So that left five more Kingbird choices, and to my inexperienced eyes they look fairly similar to each other. All but one of them, however, could be ruled out for much the same reason as Gray: it would very unlikely to see them in Northern Utah. Even better, the bird I was observing had white edges down the sides of its tail. So, being in Northern Utah, and looking at a Kingbird with white edges down the sides of his tail, told me that this was a Western Kingbird and not one of the others.

Here are my photos. The first is a Western Kingbird. He was perched under the shady canopy of a tree. The second is an Eastern Kingbird. He was perched on a wire fence next to the road.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

One of my favorite birds from the 2008 ABA Convention was Yellow-headed Blackbird. Ironically, this was not a life bird for me. I managed to get a fleeting glimpse of one during the 2005 ABA Convention while visiting a place called Arivaca Cienega. During this trip out west, however, I got lots of very long looks at Yellow-headed Blackbird, including the one who posed so nicely for my photograph.

If you compare the setting for this Yellow-headed Blackbird photo to that of the Western Meadowlark photo, they might look nearly the same. Both birds are standing on top of a wooden post. The posts are different posts, but they were both along the walkway outside the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge visitor center. This Yellow-headed Blackbird was making the rounds between three or four different roosts, stopping to preen and sing on each. The wooden post was one of his stops, so I positioned myself where the light was favorable and waited for him to return.

Cliff Swallow

There are lots of swallows in Utah. On the various trips I took last week I saw Tree, Cliff, Barn, Violet-green and Northern Rough-winged. I saw my fair share of their nests as well. Swallows seem to have adapted very nicely to the structures that humankind has created, so you will frequently find their nests under bridges and on the sides of buildings.

Within the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, the swallow populations were immense. I saw very large colonies of both Cliff Swallows and Barn Swallows. At the refuge visitor center, for example, you can watch Cliff Swallows tend to their mud nests and the chicks within just by parking your car and walking a few yards to the front door. Stop right outside the front door and look up at the building to your right. They are impossible to miss.

Western Meadowlark

Monday of last week was the first day of the 2008 ABA Convention, which meant registration and a dinner. No guided field trips would occur until Tuesday. Since I was already there, and registration takes all of five minutes, I took my own personal field trip to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. The Bear River starts in eastern Utah, flows north into Wyoming, then hangs a left into Idaho before finally flowing south back into Utah and the northern end of the Great Salt Lake. The last few miles of the river before it flows into the Great Salt Lake is where the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge is located.

If you enjoy bird watching, and find yourself near Salt Lake City, you should visit Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. Start at the visitor center, located right next to I-15 near Brigham City. The bird watching there alone is very nice. When you leave the visitor center and drive to the actual refuge, be patient and bird along that route. Within the refuge itself, you follow a gravel road along a wide loop and continue to bird from your car. Starting at the visitor center, I birded about five hours before hunger changed my priorities and I decided to leave the refuge before finishing that wide loop. I could have birded two or three more hours if I had brought some lunch with me.

This post (and the next few) will highlight some of the birds I found on my visit to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. The first is a Western Meadowlark. I saw these all day, but mostly at the visitor center and along the drive to the refuge. To me, they look almost exactly the same as an Eastern Meadowlark, but their song does sound different. This particular Western Meadowlark was at the refuge visitor center. He decided to roost on a nearby post, allowing me to get this photograph.

Looming Milestone

Today was a day of no field trips. There was a presentation to attend in the morning and the afternoon, but I skipped out on the afternoon session to just relax. I took the opportunity to ride the ski resort's tram up to Hidden Peak (a two-handed, sweaty, grip-of-death ride up to eleven thousand feet). After the tram ride I then took advantage of some above average wifi bandwidth to enter bird sightings into my account at eBird, and to work through some of the photos I have taken out here in Utah.

After I had entered all my bird sightings, I came to the happy realization that I had seen a lot of species for the first time this week. Some bird watchers like to keep lists of what birds they see, where they saw them and when (I use eBird to track mine). The "master list" is their individual Life List: the list of species they have seen in their life. The number of species on your Life List is a convenient (although misleading) measure of how much bird watching experience you have. I say it is a misleading measure because counting seen bird species does not mean that you are good at finding birds, or at identifying birds, or at understanding birds. Usually you do get better at those things over time, and consequently the number of birds on your Life List will increase, but the opposite is not necessarily true. So, although I am about to reference my Life List, and revel in the fact that it has grown significantly this week, I understand it for what it really means.

When I left home and traveled to Utah, my Life List was at 364 species. People who are not birdwatchers think that number is huge. But when compared to the approximately 1,000 birds that you can see in the United States and Canada (excluding Hawaii), and the approximately 10,000 birds you can see worldwide, my 364 is put firmly in perspective. I knew my 364 would grow this week. This is only the second time I have focused on birdwatching in the western half of the country, so there were going to be easy birds that do not occur anywhere near Virginia that would be first time birds ("lifers") for me. I did not think, however, that I would see as many lifers this week as I have.

As I write this, my Life List has grown to 395! That's right, I have seen 31 new species of bird this week. That is a very large number of new birds. If I manage to see 5 more new species, then I will hit a nice milestone (multiples of 100 are considered relevant in the birding community). I have two more field trips (tomorrow and Sunday) to get those 5 new species before I travel back home. It is entirely possible that I will get those 5 and hit the milestone of 400. I am crossing my fingers!

Lame Internet Access

The hotel I am staying at during the 2008 ABA Convention has free wifi access, but it is unpredictable. I had no access all day yesterday. The other days have had just enough access for me to be able to upload my photos. But the bandwidth is usually too low for me to be able to look at those photos, find the good ones, process those good photos and maybe write a blog post. There is bandwidth, but it is so small at times that I imagine throwing my computer out of my hotel room window might feel good. The last decent bandwidth that I had was a couple days ago when I added three new posts all in the same day. Now I am happy to be able to write this text only post. I suspect I will not get many more posts up until after I return home.

P.S. I have tried publishing this post ten times so far. None of those attempts have made it all the way to the confirmation page yet. Blogger really does not like very low bandwidth.

Great Salt Lake Flock

To get to Antelope Island, you have to drive across this long causeway that cuts across the Great Salt Lake. The causeway is a great bird watching location, with lots of birds gobbling up the Brine Flies.

A quick word about Brine Flies. There are lots of them at the Great Salt Lake. Lots is an understatement. They are everywhere. If you follow this link, you can read all about Brine Flies and the estimate of a billion Brine Flies during the summer peak at the Great Salt Lake. As annoying as they are, they are an abundant food source for the birds. And, even better...they do not bite. Thank goodness for that.

Back to my post. While I was birding my way across the causeway, I witnessed a flock of birds in the distance. The flock was very coordinated. I am struggling to describe the flock's behavior in words. It was like a ribbon of fabric that was flapping in the wind, except the fabric in this case was made up of hundreds of birds. I took some pictures of that flock as it undulated over the Great Salt Lake. Here is one that I cropped to be very wide, but fairly short, in an attempt to accentuate that flock of birds. I think you can click the picture to get to different (larger) sizes if you want a closer look.

Western Meadowhawk

I thought this post was going to have another boring generic title. Something like "Dragonfly". But my very first search to identify this dragonfly led me to a site called Wild Utah, specifically the Dragonfly and Damselfly section of that site. I did the brute force approach and clicked on each link on that page so that I could compare the pictures on that site (which are fantastic!) to the pictures that I took. I eventually got to the links for Western Meadowhawk, and in particular the link for a female Western Meadowhawk. This matched my photos very nicely, so I decided my identification search was complete. My two photos were taken on the Buffalo Point Trail on Antelope Island.

Lizard

I have a feeling that many of my blog posts from this week might have boring generic titles. Like this post. The word "lizard" is probably very accurate, but the confidence I have in my identification of the creature I photographed is not very high. I think this is a Great Basin Whiptail. Trying to identify this creature using a very slow Internet connection, creative searches on Google and no field guide was challenging. Coming to the conclusion that the specific creature I photographed is missing most of what is normally a very long tail...well, that was even harder. Both photos were taken while hiking the Buffalo Point Trail on Antelope Island.

American Avocet

Last year, when Tammy and I were in Utah, we visited Antelope Island State Park. Now I am back in Utah again for the ABA Convention, so I returned to Antelope Island yesterday to check out the birds. I posted a picture last year of an American Avocet, so this is not my first photograph of this species. But taking pictures in two different months of the year allows for a nice side-by-side comparison of the breeding and non-breeding plumage of American Avocet. Yesterday's photo (top) shows American Avocet in breeding plumage, with their neck and head having a nice rust color. Last year's September photo shows American Avocet in non-breeding plumage, with the rust color replaced by gray.