Swift and Dizzy

["Kristin Purdy" <kristinpurdy at comcast dot net>]

Swift and dizzy are the words to describe birding along Wheeler Creek 
Trail in Weber County near Pineview Dam today.  Swift is for the speed 
and the churning, gushing torrent that Wheeler Creek has become.  Swift 
is also for the White-throated Swifts that billowed off the eastern 
cliff face and flew over the firs above the steep canyon slopes.  Dizzy 
is for the feeling in my head as I (don't laugh!) tried to watch the 
White-throated Swifts with my spotting scope.  And dizzy is also for the 
head-spinning produced while trying to watch a Golden Eagle high 
overhead while I was walking up the trail.  The moral?  Stop hiking.  
Look up.  Start hiking.  Look down.  The creek is always in view at 
least 30 feet alongside, but below the trail and down a steep, rocky 
embankment.  A few lurching missteps and perhaps those swifts or that 
eagle would have been the last birds I ever watched.  

I birded about a mile of the trail from the trailhead just below 
Pineview Dam south toward old Snowbasin Road.  Just a couple hundred 
feet from the parking lot, I was consumed with the feeling that I had 
truly entered a western paradise.  Yellow Warblers sang sweetly in the 
young green leaves and dappled sunshine around the trailhead.  Utah 
skyscrapers--rugged rocky cliffs--shoot up to the sky on the east canyon 
wall and pristine dark green fir slopes climb steeply and shape the sky 
into a narrow 'V' ahead.  Dominating all is the cataclysm of Wheeler 
Creek.  It rushes, it seethes, it tumbles, it boils, it thunders, and it 
frightens as it spills and pushes its way to the confluence with the 
Ogden River.  

The White-throated Swifts are actually visible from the parking area 
high-high-high above the firs on the western slope.  However, just 300 
yards up the trail, the green leafy trees give way and the trail opens 
up with a view of the rock cliffs to the east.  The better view of the 
birds is worth the short walk.  Here, the swifts zoom and glide and 
flutter, mixed with Violet-green Swallows and an occasional Bank 
Swallow.  It was possible to watch an individual bird long enough with 
binoculars for the bird to land in a near-vertical crack in the rock 
face.  Despite the rushing of the water below, I could also occasionally 
hear that unique sound of the west--the swift's robust, descending, 
twittering call.  I wished to be higher above the creek to be able to 
fully appreciate the sound.  

To reach Wheeler Creek Trail, take I-15 to exit 347, 12th Street and 
SR-39.  Turn east and drive through Ogden Canyon.  Just below Pineview 
Dam, you'll see a brown National Forest Service sign directing you to 
the Wheeler Creek Trailhead on the right.  The trail is actually 1.8 
miles long and ends at the Art Nord trailhead on old Snowbasin Road.  

Kris  

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