Letters to Pop: 4 April 2014 - Not bird watching

In the very contrary nature of the universe, I've discovered that if you go out to find something, you usually don't. Not that you don't run across other interesting stuff on your journey, it just wasn't what you thought you'd find.

Today is a good example. It's spring. The migrating shore and water birds are starting to show up on local waterways. I thought I'd go look. Haven't been out for a while and it was supposed to hit 50 today, thus the trip to check out the causeway to Antelope Island.

Eared Grebe

As far as birds go, I didn't see much. Oh no, I'm laughing as I write this. I saw 20 species, two or three of them in large quantities. For example, there were about 100 of these perky little Eared Grebes. Funny! I should be so excited to see 20 species, and here I am grousing about what I didn't see.

What did I see?
Jackrabbits. Lots of jackrabbits.

Quite a few antelope.

Many buffalo. No babies yet, or at least not in sight. Bushes and downed limbs are covered with clumps of buffalo hair as they rub and roll on anything handy to help shed their winter coats. This big guy had just heaved himself to his feet after a roll in a wallow. Still has dirt on his face from his roll.

Coyotes! Usually you see them off in the distance. I almost missed the shot when a group of three crossed the road in front of me.

In addition to the large mammals, there were some small herps.
Up by the Visitor's Center, I spotted a little garter snake soaking up some sun. I chased her (definitely a her) and amazed myself by catching her. Nice to know I still have the chops. Not far away was a ranger giving a talk to a bunch of school kids. I don't know who was more surprised, the ranger, the teacher or the parents, when I walked up, handed the snake to the ranger and said "Would you like to show this to the kids?" Yes, he would, and did.

Lizards. There are always lizards. When we were kids, Robin, David and I used to catch these all the time. That was before our wilds became suburbanized.

These lizards will lose their tails in order to escape. In the realm of favorite childhood stories, there was the time Robin caught a lizard, or thought she had. She ended up holding only the tail. She put it in her shirt pocket and never thought about it again. The shirt went through the wash and was being ironed when she discovered why the lump in the pocket would not iron flat. Bwa-ha-ha. Still funny.

Yes, there were birds, just not what I was hoping to see. The Meadow Larks were out in full song. Every bush, every rock, fence post, or sign had a Meadow Lark on top singing his little heart out. There was not even one second of silence--the air was filled with song.

My language is getting peppered with bird speak. FOY is now part of the daily vernacular. I've learned that so many birds are migratory that birders report their sightings as FOY--first of year.

The FOY sighting on my island foray were yellow-headed blackbirds. Only males so far, but they were in full squabble. They were busy setting up territories and defending them with their loud calls. I hesitate to call them songs as they are definitely not musical in any way. One of my guide books describes their "song" this way: a variety of hoarse chuckles, cacophonous strangling noises, and honking gurgles. Yep. The strangling noises says it all.

They are a flashy bird with that bright head, and in flight the white wing coverts are very showy.

The worst part of the day? Ticks! Big ticks. Buffalo ticks. But I plucked a couple off on the island and only got home with one.
Knowing the island has ticks, I sprayed my jeans, shoes, socks with repellent, but it didn't seem to discourage them.

Backing up, on the way to the island, I made a quick stop at Jensen's Pond, a new-to-me destination. Pelicans! I love pelicans, so I settled in to watch a group of five preen and otherwise do pelican stuff. Pelicans always seem to be accompanied by cormorants. I don't know if it because the cormorants like to steal food from the pelicans or just what the reason is. But, here is my big laugh of the day. Is it just me, or does this look like a dirty old man in a raincoat?

For a small pond, there were quite a few ducks, good ducks, not just the ubiquitous mallards.

New for me was the blue-winged teal. Yay! This was bird number 201. I'm moving up in the world.

In addition to the blue-winged teal, there were green-winged teals, cinnamon teals and American wigeons. It was fun to see them all together in the same place. Great for comparing and contrasting features.