Carbon County Birding, Red Crossbills/Red Necked Phalaropoes

[KC <utahguy058 at yahoo dot com>]

Eric Huish and I planned to head down to Carbon County
for Labor day to do some birding. It really is a great
county to bird. We aimed for 100 birds this year in
Carbon County, and this being our third visit to the
county we achieved it. We started birding along the
Price River near Wellington, where we saw birds like
Black Crowned Night Herons, Loggerhead Shrikes and
many other birds. Next we headed over to the town of
East Carbon. right before town there is a small
settling resivoir. Here we saw about a dozen Baird's
Sandpipers, Red-Necked Phalaropes, Pinyon Jays,
Western Sandpipers and Eared Grebes to name a few. We
tried the town of Sunnyside and found things like
Rufous Hummingbirds, Red Naped Sapsuckers, and other
passerines. Up Grassy Trail Canyon we saw a good mess
of migrants in the canyon. I think that I may have
seen a quick glimpse of a Scarlet Tanager, Eric didn't
get to see it. There were Western Wood PeeWees,
Wilson's Warblers, Empids, Vireos flying around this
canyon. Next we went to the Price Canyon Recreation
Area up Price Canyon. At the group Campground at the
top we saw Red Crossbills, both were a first for the
year for me and Eric, we also saw many Clarks
Nutcrackers and a soaring Prarie Falcon. It was a
wonderful day. We ended up seeing about 55 birds in
Carbon County for the day.

KC Childs