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My family canoed Cutler Marsh Wetlands Maze in
Cache Valley today. We used the North Marsh Canoe trail. This area
offers primo marsh habitat and must look like paradise from a bird's eye
view. Looks mighty fine from a birder's perspective, too.
We paused under the bridge over the Valley View
Highway (UT 30) to watch the Cliff and Barn Swallow nests just 8 feet or so over
our heads. I had the sensation that I had stuck my head into a
beehive. All waterways are thickly
lined with reeds and tall sedge grass and the Marsh Wren were
ubiquitous. We frequently saw them fluttering low over reeds and
clinging to cattail stems. We also saw American White Pelican, American
Coot, Western and Clark Grebe, and Mallard throughout the marsh. Snowy
Egret, Great Blue and Black-crowned Night Heron, and Sandhill Crane flew
overhead or along the edges of the marsh. I saw a couple flocks of small
shorebirds coursing low over the water that I could not identify.
Franklin's Gulls beelined northeast-southwest and vice versa all
afternoon. The marsh south of Valley View highway must offer gull
delecacies worth flying for. We canoed across the reservoir to the
northeast shore to the White-faced Ibis colony. What a lot of
activity! Both the ibis and the Franklin's Gull are teeming at this
place. The gulls must still be feeding chicks, although all
juveniles and ibis we saw were full-sized. We saw many other species
one would expect in this habitat.
Best birds of the day were Black Tern and Common
Yellowthroat. We saw three or four Black Terns near the ibis colony
flying amongst Franklin Gulls. The Black Tern just can't make up its
mind as to the direction it wants to fly. Two wingbeats east, turn; five
wingbeats, south, turn, and so on. The first Common Yellowthroat I
heard responded to pishing and showed off his black mask. I heard
five or six more during the afternoon amongst the reeds. I
was happy to see the yellowthroat not only due to its status as a Utah
Sensitive Species, but also because it brings back fond memories from
childhood. My mom gave my siblings and I a songbird puzzle we put together
repeatedly. The artist depicted the Common Yellowthroat as quite a
stocky little warbler much as Sibley did on the cover of the Sibley Guide to
Bird Life and Behavoir. We nicknamed the yellowthroat the Fatty Bird,
and it will forever hold that name for my family.
On the return trip two Forster's Terns showed great
displeasure at our approach to a small reed bed. I hoped to catch a
glimpse of eggs or chicks, but no such luck. Now I can't figure why
they were nagging us so stridently.
The Wetlands Maze lived up to its name as we
couldn't find the channel back to the Cutler Marsh Marina.
We spent about 2 extra hours trying to find the discretely marked channel
leading back to the bridge under which we had to pass. Seemed ridiculous
because we could see where we had to go and were never lost. Laying down a
trail of crumbs wouldn't have worked in this location.
To reach the Cutler Marsh Marina, drive west on
200N (also designated UT 30 and Valley View Highway) from Main Street (91/89) in
Logan. You could also take UT 23 from the junction of 91/89 at the south
end of Cache Valley north through Wellsville and Mendon. Turn east at the
intersection of UT 23 and UT 30. Cutler Marsh Marina is on the south side
of the road. I apologize for not being able to relay mileage distances
from either of the junctions I just mentioned, but the parking lot is not hard
to find. It's very open, visible from a long distance, and has both
restroom facilities and a picnic pavillion at the parking lot. It's also
adjacent to the bridge over the Little Bear River.
McIvor describes the marsh in his book, Birding
Utah. Bridgerland Audubon also gives detailed info about the area at http://www.bridgerlandaudubon.org/wetlandsmaze/canoe.html,
but be warned--the buoys that should mark the trails are not there and you'll
have to watch quite closely for the trail markers on the edge of reed
beds. Best of luck in not becoming like
laboratory rats, as we were today!
Kris
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