Friday, September 10th found us greeting the dawn the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge west of Brigham City, the self proclaimed migratory bird capital of America.
Clouds hung over the Wasach range, occasionally sprinkling the land with much needed water but clearly these little showers did nothing to raise even a puddle on the parched and cracked playa dotted with sage.
After 12 miles of hard surface road into the refuge and the dusty gravel auto loop, we began seeing birds.Lots of birds. American White Pelican and a lone Ring-billed Gull sat at the entrance to the auto loop. House Sparrows crowded on the side of the road flying away when we drove by.
the canal along this portion of the loop yielded Great Blue Heron and a pair of Ring-necked Pheasant scurry from cover on one side of the road to the other. In sedge and mud we paused to see life birds for us: two Sandhill Cranes giving us a great show with croaking and leaping into the air.
I exited the truck to hide behind the hood to take these photos while Dan stayed in the cab using the window ledge as a tripod. I was immediately besieged by hundreds of mosquitoes and midges. They even followed me into the truck and flew in through Dan's open window. We then played a game of squish the insects and wisely brought out the insect spray, putting it on paper towels and rubbing it all over. That did the trick. Although the inserts still flew in every time we opened the truck doors or windows.
A large pond in the center of the auto loop road gave us hundreds of American Coot and, another lifer for us, Western Grebe.
As we drive along a flock of about 40 large blackbirds clustered on the road ahead of us. We stopped and saw that these these birds were Yellow-headed Blackbirds, another lifer. There were hundreds of the much more familiar Red-winged Blackbirds all around us in the tall grass plumes on either side of the road. But even from a distance these blackbirds were larger. They flew off as we drive near so a photo was impossible. We were so thrilled to see them.
In addition to the vast numbers of Red-winged Blackbirds, Barn and Tree Swallows by the hundreds swooped and dove through the insect swarms illuminated in the late morning sun. Some perched ona small bridge railing giving us better views. We learned that the cave swallows that build theur mud nests under the overhang at the visitors center were gone.
On the mud flats, we observed American Avocet, Kildeer, Black-Necked Stilt, Lesser Yellowlegs, Snowy Egret, and a lone American White Pelican.
The stilt was another lifer. As was the Vesper Sparrow that paused long enough on the verge of the road for us to get a great look and a quick photo.
Bear River MBR was incredible and so amazingly different from anywhere we had birded on the east coast unless...you count Craters of the Moon National Monument, our next stop several hours away.
Two more lifers greeted us in that landscape that at first glance looks incapable of supporting life, but is actually a fabulous ecosystem. There we saw a Clark's Nutcracker eating a pine nut on a snag.
And a female Moutain Bluebird was simply perched on our way out of the park.
No comments:
Post a Comment