Letters to Pop: 11 June 2014 - Moonlight hiking for owls

It was a big birding day. Eight lifers for me! I haven’t been out in a while, so thought I’d take a quick trip down to the Jordan Parkway and see if anything was happening. Turns out, quite a lot!

To begin with, I ran into Rich, who is a professional photographer and loves to photograph birds. He helped me with my camera in May when I first met him at Cottonwood Park. It was fun to listen to his birding stories in between waiting for good shots of Spotted Sandpipers. He continued his way, and I continued mine.

Further down my path I ran into two men who were hanging over the river bank. Naturally I had to find out what they were doing. They had heard that beavers had showed up on the Jordan River and they were trying to locate the beaver lodge. They were walking the river bank looking for any sign of where the beavers might be building, whether it was in the bank or a lodge in the middle of the river.

They showed me a large cottonwood tree that had been blown over and you could see where beavers had been gnawing branches off the main limb. This is a classic view--branch chewed off in a point with all kinds of chips on the ground. Life is grand, you just never know what you’ll find.

About 30 minutes later, Rich and I converged on the path to another pond—each from different directions. We spent about an hour at the pond. For me, there were two lifers: Forster’s Terns and Neotropic Cormorants. It was a small pond and we had a great time watching the terns diving for little (very little) fish. Rich gave me pointers on how to photograph moving birds. The terns were very fast and diving for fish, so I got a lot of practice in.

In the picture below, you can see a tiny fish hanging out of his beak. This pond has recently been stocked with mosquito fish. They are small like this.

As I was leaving, Rich pointed out some Eurasian-collared doves and showed me how to tell them apart from the ubiquitous Mourning Doves. Yet another bird to add to my list.

And of course, there are the beautiful views of the mountains.

A few days earlier, David had mentioned there was a hole in his maple tree with little birds popping in and out. I stopped by, set up a chair and settled in to wait and watch. Sure enough, he had little birds. The parent chickadees were busy ferrying food to babies. He also had a pair of crows nest in his yard this spring. The kids are out of the nest, but the parents are still protective. They follow you around the yard squawking loudly. Very loudly.

Later in the afternoon I checked the bird list to see what was happening in the local birding community. Discovered that from 6pm to 11pm there was going to be a guided trip to look for owls. It was after five when I noticed this. I bunnied about feeding cats, turning off hoses and packing my go bag with water, camera, extra batteries and a sweatshirt and drove like a madman to the meeting place.

It was a long trip, especially as I had already looked my eyes out for what turned into five hours of birding in the morning through afternoon. It was worth it! I added five more lifers. American Dipper. This bird walks underwater. When it blinks the eye looks white because it has a protective membrane for its underwater forays. It was dusk when I took this, so it is hard to see that it has several insects in its bill.

Nighthawks! We saw five swooping overhead. The amazing thing was a zzzzzz sound during dives and a boom at the bottom of the flight.

Green-tailed Towhee. I hadn’t heard of these before the move back to SLC. But there in the dusk, one was sitting in the top of a bush.

Mammals. Always a surprise to run into something big. Like a moose. Slowly back away.

Least Flycatcher. This bird was causing all kinds of buzz in the community. It is very rare to see one here. We were able to find it as well. That was quite a treat.

At this point it was full dark. Ten of us were walking up what looked like a deer trail through an aspen grove with waist-high vegetation on both sides of the path.

We were mostly shuffling along because we couldn't see logs, rocks, sticks or places you needed to step up or over rocks. We were trying to be quiet but there was continual muttering being passed down the single file line of hikers. "There's a step here, watch out for the log. Watch out--whapping branch."

Hiking in the dark was quite an adventure. Tim, our fearless leader was wearing flip-flops and shorts. I was appalled and yet awed that he didn’t fall, loose one of his thongs or get all scratched up as he thrashed through the underbrush.

About 20 minutes up the trail we heard a very soft sound. Tim, our leader started hooting back. Ten minutes later we found a Flammulated Owl about 30 feet up an aspen. These owls are tiny—only 6 inches high. Tim put a flash light on him and I got a picture. We were all able to get some really good looks at him.

We saw a Great Horned Owl fly over the road in front of us, heard Flammulated and Saw-whet owls calling back and forth.

We also heard the drumming of a male Ruffed Grouse. It was so close that you could feel the drumming in your chest. An incredible experience.

The final list numbered 62 different species as tallied by our guide. He was counting audibles. I don’t count audibles unless I am absolutely sure so my list was smaller. For example, I can’t tell the difference between a Hermit Thrush or Swainson’s Thush call. To be honest, not only can I not tell the difference, I couldn't tell you what the calls were at all. So for me, those don’t count.

The next morning I went back up East Canyon and took the dirt road to Parley's Canyon. I was hoping to get a better look and a picture of the Least Flycatcher. It was chilly and very windy so there was not a lot of bird activity.

I did get a very far away shot of an osprey with a fish. I was on the upper side of Little Dell Reservoir.

Below the dam is an osprey nest. It definitely has one chick-- maybe two. I should go back with the scope and check.

The drier hillsides seemed to be covered with goldfinches. Just over the hill and into the next canyon, the shrubby trees each had a yellow warbler perched on top. It was wonderful, there was a lot of call and response singing.


Yellow Warbler


American Goldfinch

June is a beautiful time of year, especially up in the canyons. The wildflowers are blooming madly and many grow in and around the sage.

The silver leaves of the sage provide a fabulous foil to the yellow, blue and red flowers.

Blue Penstemon is a standout against the red soil. Wyethia grows up through a sage brush.

Alliums are ubiquitous and come in several colors.

In shady or moist areas columbines shine.

Scarlet gilia, one of my all time favorites, is beautiful in any setting.

Many of the open areas looked like a sea of blue last week. You can almost get an idea of that although many of the flowers have fallen.

These meadows that almost looked like moving water have taken on another aspect. When you look at the ground, the petals are lovely accents to the baby sage.

The mountains are also beautiful in June. The heat has yet to turn the grass to dry yellow stalks. Salt Lake City is between the third set of peaks and the far faint blue ridge.