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.

Lizard with an attitude

Way back on the first day of our trip, when we visited Antelope Island and hiked the Buffalo Point Trail, Tammy and I came across a lizard that was sunning itself on the edge of the trail. Naturally I wanted to take pictures, but was very cautious so that I did not scare the lizard away. I slowly swapped lenses on my camera and then bent over him to take a couple of pictures.

That angle was not working for the photographs or my back, so I decided to sit down on the opposite side of the trail. I hoped to get a picture that was more down to the lizard's level, instead of from my level looking down. I was half expecting that the lizard would spook and run away from me as I lowered myself down to the ground, but that did not happen. No...he decided to run towards me instead.

At first I had a tinge of alarm as I imagined a panicked lizard running up my shorts, or something weird like that. But he stopped just in front of me. And then he looked me straight in the eye for a moment or two, long enough for me to get my picture, before turning around and heading someplace more comfortable and out of the way of curious photographers.

I did not do a good job compensating for the harsh light, but I think the lizard pose is too good not to share.

Rock Wren

One of the things we did while exploring Antelope Island was hike the very short Buffalo Point Trail. We were both tired from our earlier flight, so this short climb to the top of a ridge was perfect for our energy level. The top of the ridge is apparently a great place to catch the sun setting behind the mountains to the west of the Great Salt Lake. As we were walking back down to the car, we passed several couples heading up to enjoy the show.

We were too early for the sunset, but that was okay. We were entertained on the way up by the Chukar that I already wrote about, a rabbit that I have yet to write about, and this Rock Wren. The top of the ridge is a nice jumble of rocks and boulders, and I think we must have been disturbing this wren's perfect home. He would come out and silently watch us from some nearby rock. Whenever I noticed him, however, and made some effort to take his picture, he would hop or fly into cover, only to emerge on some other rock in a completely different direction.

New Birds

One of the interesting things for me, when I visit a part of the country that I have never been to before, is the possibility of seeing a new species of birds. The recent trip to Yellowstone was not a bird watching trip, but I can't help but look at birds. I suspect that Tammy would argue that I was doing plenty of bird watching, but the focus on this trip was touring and sight-seeing (including maybe seeing a new bird or two).

On the first day of our trip, after we arrived in Salt Lake City, we took the afternoon to explore Antelope Island. To get to the island, you have to drive along this long causeway out into the lake. As we began along the causeway, I realized what a spectacular bird watching destination it was. There were shore birds on both sides of the road, and it was difficult not stopping and scanning each and every bird.

I did stop a couple times to look and take some pictures. Here are a couple of the photos. The first photo is of an American Avocet, with his odd up-turned bill. I have seen this species before, but they are so neat looking that I always have to stop and look whenever I see one. The second photo is of a Long-billed Curlew, also with an odd bill, but his is long (hence the name) and downward curved. This was the first time I had ever seen this species (and the real reason I stopped to look to see what else might be around).

Chukar

A Chukar is a chicken like bird that can be found in the western part of the country, but especially around Nevada and Utah. This species, however, is not native to the Americas. It is actually from Pakistan, and was brought to the United States as a game bird. Eventually, however, enough of the birds survived the hunters to establish a breeding population, making them a legitimate North American species.

This picture was taken on Saturday while Tammy and I hiked a short trail on Antelope Island. On a side note, the free Internet that I am enjoying in West Yellowstone is a tad slow, so the pictures I took yesterday are still getting uploaded to my Phanfare account. I have a whole new batch of pictures that I took today that I have not even started to upload tonight. At this rate, my blog posts will still be including photos from this week when Thanksgiving rolls around.