Oct 2011

Ken Burton (22 Oct 2011) - This morning a juvenile female YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER was banded at Rio Mesa Center.

May 2011

Bob Bradley (31 May 2011) - Lark Bunting - displaying male along with 2 others was seen on my Westwater BBS route in Grand County today.

Dave Hanscom (8 May 2011) ...
   --Since Monticello was so close, I couldn't resist a quick visit to Devil's Canyon Campground to look for Acorn Woodpecker and Pygmy Nuthatch.  Both were there, along with many Western Bluebirds, a Juniper Titmouse, a couple of White-breasted Nuthatch, and a very cooperative Black-throated Gray Warbler. 

Susan Snyder (2 May 2011) - Not that they're all that rare, but we did enjoy seeing Juniper titmice and Black-throated sparrows at Dead Horse Point State Park and in Arches National Park this past weekend. The sweet little feathered peepers were faring much better in the cold winds than I!

Feb 2011

Jeff Foote (15 Feb 2011) - Curve-billed Thrasher has been coming to feeder at Moab.

Jun 2010

Bob Bradley (9 Jun 2010) - [Lark Bunting] Two of us who were running the Westwater BBS Survey on June 6 saw 2 of these birds in flight. They were both males, black with white wing patches. This was in Grand County in sage habitat at latitude 39.2987300, longitude -109.07665.

May 2010

Carl Ingwell (19 May 2010) - [Horsethief Campground] - We had two Cassin's Kingbirds join us for dinner tonight.  Niiiiiice

Carl Ingwell (18 May 2010) - [Matheson Preserve, Moab] - Took the morning off work due to high winds on the Island in the Sky and birded Matheson Preserve in Moab.  I heard numerous Yellow-breasted Chats, a Wilson's Warbler, MacGillivray's Warbler, Yellow Warbler & a Common Yellowthroat, Spotted Towhees and one Green-TailedTowhee, around 50 Cedar Waxwings, a bunch of Lazuli Buntings, Black-Headed Grosbeaks, a Cooper's Hawk, etc. ... Last night outside my camp I had 3 awesome friends: a Gray Vireo, a Gray Flycatcher, and a Black-throated Gray Warbler.  It was a gray party and they were all singing sweetly to me.
     Just had my first Common Poorwill of the season (I know, I'm slow), and it was right outside my tent.  Awesome.

Apr 2010

Utah Birds (23 April 2010) About a week ago (16 Apr 2010) a tour group with birders of some renown, saw a CHIHAUHAUN RAVEN  at the Mesa Arch parking lot in the "Island in the Sky district" of the Canyonlands NP.

Edson Leite (12 April  2010) - [Arches national Park] - Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk, White-throated Swift, Northern Flicker, Empidonax sp., Say's Phoebe, Pinyon Jay, Common Raven, Juniper Titmouse, Rock Wren, Canyon Wren, Mountain Bluebird, American Robin, Spotted Towhee, Vesper Sparrow, Black-throated Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, House Finch 

Nov 2009

Jason Pietrzak (18 Nov 2009) - We came back to Moab late last night and woke up to find our landlord has been filling our feeders. I saw a huge flock of Juncos along with some of the other regulars at sunrise and I saw what I first struck me as a strange leucistic/partial-albino House Sparrow. While I rubbed my eyes furiously and dunked my still-frozen binoculars in hot water (to remove ice and fog), it landed 15 feet away from me and scratched in the litter near the bird-bath. It quickly became clear to me that this was a Harris's Sparrow...

Sep 2009

Jason Pietrzak (22 Sep 2009) - First and foremost, I was driving home from bird banding when on my street I saw two doves on a power- line...After getting out, the coverts seemed to have disappeared, however, I did see the white band on the dark tail and the bird's shape looked right so I went closer until the dove finally turned around and revealed his coverts again! So that's my first WHITE-WINGED DOVE in Utah and it was pretty much a yard bird (at least a neighborhood bird).  Next: bird banding in Moab at Matheson...  Last thing, in speaking with area bird watchers, I learned that somebody in the Monticello area has had Purple Finches at his feeders lately (although not in the last 5 days, so they may have moved on). The person who told me this is a highly-skilled birder, and knows the difference between House, Cassin's, and Purple Finches very well so I am inclined to believe his report...

Jun 2008

Ryan O'Donnell (7 Jun 2008) - A quick report from the road - I found a successful Black Phoebe nest in Grand County today. I flushed four or five youngsters from the nest over the south fork of Mill Creek, near Moab. According to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Black Phoebes' "breeding distribution in Utah is limited to the Mojave Desert in the southwestern corner of the state," two or three hundred miles away.

Oct 2007

Lu Giddings (28 Oct 2007) - I made the drive to Moab Friday morning and spent the rest of the day and yesterday morning birding around town and the adjacent area.... The only noteworthy sightings were Eurasian Collared-Doves. Flocks of 5,6, and 16 were spotted around town early Saturday morning.

Jun 2007

Tim Avery (16 Jun 2007) - While conducting a survey along the Dolores River I had an Adult Yellow-billed Cuckoo fly across the river and into a patch of Willow. The area where the bird was seen is just up from the confluence with the Colorado. Also, where the road meets the river, I camped the night before, and at around 5:30 am on the 16th a Green Heron was heard and seen flying over the river. Also in this same area was a "southwest" WILLOW FLYCATCHER.

May 2005

Todd Elliott - ...While visiting the Moab area this past weekend (Friday, May 20) I saw the silhouette of a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. I was eating at an outdoor restaurant and  watched the unmistakable shape, with the long, forked tail, slowly make its way across the sunset sky. By the time I could get out to chase it down  there was no sign of it. This was in the center of Moab, on Center Street, one block west of US-191...

Feb 2005

Matt Williams (15 Feb 2005) - My wife and [I] took a much needed trip to Southeastern Utah this past weekend...At Arches [NP]...my wife noticed a large flock of birds flying in as were nearing Delicate Arch on foot. I knew they were Rosy Finches but realized how difficult they are to see and ID in flight. Fortunately, I did get nice looks at at least a few and I can say that most were likely Black Rosy-Finches in this flock of at least 100 birds. This was a life bird for me and certainly an unexpected surprise. A later surprise came with a Merlin perched in a tree south of Moab.

Nov 2004

Marcy Hafner (24 Nov 2004) - The big surprise this morning out at the preserve [Scott M. Matheson Preserve] on the river trail was a White-throated Sparrow. It had the yellow lores to prove it was a white-throated and not a white-crowned...

Oct 2004

Nick & Marian Eason (18 Oct 2004) - We currently have an Eastern Blue Jay visiting our feeder. He first appeared about 8:35 a.m. this morning and has been back and forth a couple of times. I don't see an observation on the Preserve list so don't know if one has been observed in the Moab area before. If you have seen one in the past, let us know.

May 2004

N Meason (20 May 2004) - a Phainopepla was sited in Moab, near Old City Park over the weekend (5/16). The bird was identified by five members of the Moab Bird Club....

Jan 2004

Damian Fagan (12 Jan 2004) - A Harris' Sparrow was observed at a feeder in the Barlett Circle subdivision (Moab, Grand County) this morning. The bird was in a mixed flock but observed for quite some time.  A Merlin was observed stooping and pulling up from it's dive on 400 North (Moab, Grand County) near the Allen Memorial Hospital on January 12th. Since I almost hit the bird with my car, I had a really good look at the heavily streaked underside and the banded tail.

Aug 2003

Damian Fagan (20 Aug 2003) - A Gray Catbird was observed along the Colorado River trail, near the cottonwood self-guided trail marker, on August 19th, in the Scott M. Matheson Wetlands Preserve. Also a Green Heron was observed at Cottonwood Bend Ranch, upstream of Dewey Bridge on August 15th.

June 2003

Damian Fagan - (3-4 June 2003) A couple of recent bird sightings at or adjacent to the Scott M. Matheson Wetlands Preserve, Moab. Worm-eating Warbler along Stewart Lane (adjacent) in a neighbor's yard. The bird was feeding long enough for the birder to get out a bird book and look it up. Unfortunately, the birder left for Alaska the next day and there has been no follow-up. Sighting was 6/3. On 6/4 a female Hooded Warbler was mist-netted in the preserve by the UDWR staff.

April 2003

Joel and Kathy Beyer - ...Sunday morning, 4/13, a Blue-winged Teal at Matheson Preserve (Moab), seen from the wildlife blind.

Feb 2003

Damian Fagan - A Merlin was observed on 2/3/03 in the town of Moab (vicinity of 100 North and 400 East) in the morning.

Damian Fagan - The Moab CBC was held January 4th. Unusual sightings included Harris' Sparrow, Merlin and Mourning Dove.

Damian Fagan - (Tue, 3 Sep 2002)  Recent bird sightings in the Scott M. Matheson Wetlands Preserve   Greater Yellowlegs; solitary and spotted sandpiper; western and least sandpiper; Calliope Hummingbird; olive-sided flycatcher; dusky flycatcher; warbling vireo; red-breasted and white nuthatch; house wren; Townsend's, Nashville, and orange-crowned warbler; American Redstart; Northern Waterthrush; green-tailed towhee; lesser and American goldfinch. 

Damian Fagan - (Mon, 26 Aug 2002)  Among the numerous migrants at the Scott M. Matheson Wetlands Preserve, Moab, Nashville Warbler, American Redstart, White-faced Ibis, and Brewer's Sparrows. Observations from 8/22-8/26, 2002.

Damian Fagan - The UDWR mist netting crew caught a non-breeding Worm-eating Warbler in the Scott M. Matheson Wetlands Preserve (Grand Co.) on June 25th, in the morning. I spent a half-hour in the afternoon trying to locate the bird
without success - doesn't mean that it still isn't there. The bird was captured in the southern portion of the preserve, just off of the gravel trail (near the junction between this trail and the boardwalk) beneath the large overhead transmission line.

Damian Fagan - On June 19th, at the Scott M. Matheson Wetlands Preserve in Moab (Grand Co.) one adult Osprey was fishing over the Central Pond and several pairs of Great-tailed Grackles were observed flying to and fro in the bulrushes.

Damian Fagan -Two Sandhill Cranes were observed flying over Old City Park, in Moab, UT (Grand Co.) on May 4th, about 7 p.m. The birds were heading south. Also a Harris' Sparrow was observed at a feeder in Moab on May 3^rd.

Damian Fagan - Sighted a pair of Wood Ducks (4/17) roosting in the large cottonwood trees along the Mill Creek Parkway, between Grand County High and Mill Creek.

Damian Fagan - Three Red-breasted Mergansers on the Central Pond at the Scott M. Matheson Wetlands Preserve (Grand Co.) on 4/15/02.

Damian Fagan - (Tue, 15 Jan 2002)  A Northern Pygmy-Owl was observed in the Scott M. Matheson Wetlands Preserve
(Grand Co., Utah) on Sunday, Jan 13th. The bird was observed perched in a tree along the boardwalk trail right before sundown.

Damian Fagan - (Tue, 5 Jan 2002) Thirty-two Great-tailed Grackles were observed during the Moab CBC on Jan.
5th. The birds have since been sighted in a large tree just north of the Denny's on Highway 191 (Grand Co.). Also, a Merlin was observed by a feeder watcher on the CBC