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Feature Article:
Bald Eagles come to Utah mainly in the winter and
rarely stay over to nest. Jim
Bruce took pictures of a nesting pair of Bald Eagles west of Cedar
City. He found the nest in March and followed the rapid growth of
the chicks, the fledging process and harassment by smaller birds until the
eagles left at the end of August.
Feature Article:
There's a place in Utah where all hummingbirds are
welcome. It's the cabin of Dena & Jim Reid in Hanna, Utah. Let's
call it the Hanna
Hummingbird Haven! This time of year the hummingbirds are swarming all
over feeders tanking up for the journey south for the winter-- this place
may hold the record for nectar consumed!
Feature Article:
Here's a series of pictures taken by Ernest Harlow
of a Barn Swallow nest in
Brigham City. This shows everything from eggs, to featherless
hatchings, to downy chicks, to feathered chick ready to go, to the empty
feather-lined nest.
Records Committee:
Laughing Gull has been added to the Utah Checklist
as the 257th species
documented in Utah.
Matt Pendleton discovered the bird at Lee Kay Pond on January 14th and
many people were able to see the bird and get
good photos of it. Great
way to start the new year!
Records Committee:
Five new species were added to the Utah Checklist
in 2014 giving us 256 documented species for Utah:
252nd -- Bar-tailed Godwit;
253rd -- Streak-backed
Oriole; 454th --
Allen's Hummingbird; 255th
-- Mississippi Kite; and
256th -- Nelson's Sparrow. What a year!
eBird Data:
The Utah Birds website has been incorporating
eBird Data into it county pages,
Rare Bird Finder, and birding
location pages through links to reports, graphs, and maps generated by
eBird. The birding location links are only partially done right now
but you can check out the locations in
Utah County and
Salt Lake County to see the
links to the eBird data for each specific location (Click
on the name of the location and go to the bottom of the write-up).
Types of Bird Nests:
Many excellent photos of bird nests, birds nesting
and young birds fresh from their nests, have been sent in by
Utah photographers.
A new article on "Bird Nests and
Nesting Schemes" with some of these photos and information about
eleven different types of nests or nesting schemes has been posted on our
website. A big "thank you" to the photographers who have shared
their photos with us.
Bird Index:
The Utah Birds website had a new "Bird
Index" feature. The index is similar to those in the back of bird
field guides and has links to the pictures, Utah profiles, songs and
calls, feature and bird of the month articles, photo of the month pages,
and for rare birds, the sightings lists. Hopefully this will make
the contents of the many thousands of website pages, more easily
accessable.
Utah Winter Gull Identification:
At the October meeting of the Utah County Birders,
Dennis Shirley gave a presentation on identifying
"Utah Winter Gulls,"
which has now been adapted and expanded for the
Utah Birds
website. It's become a "work in process" and we'd like you to take a
look and give us some feedback on how we can improve it -- and you may be
able to learn to better identify the
winter gulls in Utah at the
same time.
Feature Article:
 Ted
Fitzgerald took photos of some nesting robins capturing a couple
of fortuitous photos of the "fecal
sac" phenomenon. Here's a link of
the series from incubation to fledglings producing the "Next
Generation of Robins."
Bird Humor:
Here are some links to the "Bird
Humor" section of our feature pages:
- "Change is in the Air" (A stealthy
Starling is up to something).
- "Mom's Favorite" (How
you can tell you're NOT).
- "Snack-lifting "
(A clever little gull is hooked on junk food).
- "Heavenly Smiley Faces" (Smiley faces
are use in emails and...)
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