Thursday April 11, 2019
Hooray for the ISU Rodeo Team. Because I go to their events I get out of town in the fall and the spring. Today, I left work an hour early and drove to Brigham City. Leaving early on Thursday shortens the overall drive to Grand Junction Colorado by a couple of hours. It also sets me up to bird a couple of my favorite locations. While I was loading my car a flock of waxwings settled in my neighbors tree. I think they are some of the most lovely birds.
Cedar waxwing
Reflections near the refuge
Pied billed grebe
Rainbow at the refuge
Loggerhead shrike
White faced ibis
American avocets
Cold and drizzly but the birds were out. I did not expect to see the Black necked stilts this early, and maybe it isn’t that early for them, just a surprise for me. The other big surprise was the Common merganser. I often see them in Yellowstone but had never seen them here. They must have been migrating. I was also lucky to spot two mule deer.
— Jenny
Bird list:
1. Red tailed hawk
2. American crows (on the way to the refuge)
3. Common ravens
4. Common grackles (at the hotel)
5. Mallards
6. Cinnamon teals
7. Northern shovelers
8. Starlings
9. Snowy egrets
10. Western meadowlarks
11. Ring necked pheasants
12. Canada Geese
13. Prairie falcon
14. Long billed curlews
15. Loggerhead shrike
16. Killdeer
17. Avocets
18. Gadwalls
19. Red winged blackbirds
20. Yellow headed blackbirds
21. Vesper sparrow
22. Double crested cormorants
23. Common merganser
24. Pied billed grebe
25. Great blue heron
26. Red breasted merganser
27. Northern pintails
28. Sandhill cranes
29. White faced ibis
30. Forster’s terns
31. Black necked stilts
32. Lesser yellowlegs!
33. California gulls
34. Ring billed gulls
35. American white pelicans
36. Clarks grebes
37. Franklin’s gulls
38. Western grebes
39. Cliff swallows
BlueRavenBirders 