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If purple is the color of royalty, then a group of
Great Salt Lake Audubonners saw the king of glossy purple-black and his royal
court today. Several pairs of Purple Martins have set up housekeeping
in cavities in aspen trees on the La Plata ranch, just over the
Weber/Cache County line in Cache County. Bill Fenimore of the Layton
Wild Bird Center led a trip to La Plata donated to GSLA to support their spring
fundraiser.
According to Jim Poulter, owner of the
property, this is the first Purple Martin record for the ranch. The group
of birders watched one pair in particular enter and exit a cavity in an aspen
snag. Jim and I stopped to get another good look at King Glossy on
the return trip. The king perched atop his aspen throne in perfect
light that made his darkest of dark purple feathers shine a fathomless
shine. That color...oh, that color! The Purple Martin was
beautiful. Jim and I oohed. We aahed. We went through all
the emotions.
The trip turned out to be a swallow
family slam-dunk as observers saw all seven species of Utah swallows.
Other birds of note--a Gray Catbird--what the heck? We saw a Gray Catbird
singing his heart out. I estimate the elevation was around 7,000
feet. A Sharp-tailed Grouse provided another serendipitous sighting by
eagle-eyes Deedee and Dick O'Brien. All observers were assaulted with a
cuteness attack levied by four precocial Spotted Sandpiper chicks.
The chicks were under the supervision of an adult Spotty at a beaver
pond. And we saw 10 species of Emberzids...wow! Those sparrows
really added up.
Of great interest (to me, anyway!) was a flycatcher
vocalizing what sounded very much like the Pacific-slope Flycatcher's
call. I got two very poor looks at the bird, and was only able to validate
that the singer was an Empidonax flycatcher. However, a double-check
of recordings by the group confirmed that the repetitious call was much
more like that of the Pacific-slope than the Cordilleran. Later, Bill
found a Cordilleran Flycatcher far enough away from the first bird to make us
believe the second one was a different individual. Since
flycatchers' songs are instinctive rather than learned, I need some help
here! Probability says the mystery flycatcher was more likely a
Cordilleran. Can Empidonax flycatchers, whose call is instinctive, have
accents/speak dialects like other birds do?
On the way home we stopped in Ogden Valley at the
site of previously-reported Bobolinks. We watched two males sing, flutter,
lark, and pursue each other across the fields. A nice way to end the day
was to see one singing Bobolink perched on a fencepost with two rusty Sandhill
Cranes foraging in a newly-mown hayfield in the background. Reply for
directions.
We were also enriched by the comprehensive
wildflower and plant knowledge of Bill Gray and Jim Poulter. Our day's
total number of bird species was 77. The list follows. Please
contact Bill Fenimore at 525-8400 for access to the ranch.
Kris
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Sharp-tailed Grouse
Turkey Vulture
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Golden Eagle
American Kestrel
Sandhill Crane
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Wilson's Snipe
Wilson's Phalarope
California Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Common Nighthawk
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Red-naped Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Hammond's Flycatcher
Dusky Flycatcher
Cordilleran Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
Warbling Vireo
Clark's Nutcracker
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Common Raven
PURPLE MARTIN
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Bank Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Mountain Bluebird
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
MacGillivray's Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Western Tanager
Green-tailed Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Brewer's Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Lazuli Bunting
BOBOLINK
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Cassin's Finch
House Finch
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow |