This past weekend, Gayla and I drove up to Provo, Utah to attend the wedding of a dear friend. We drove up Friday and stayed with our son, Travis and his wife Alex, at their home. That evening we walked from their home to a restaurant, and our route took us over the Provo River.

This is a “real” river, not at all like our usually dry seasonal creeks, such as Granite Creek or Mint Wash. The volume and force of the water was impressive with all of the snow melt coming off of the Wasatch Mountains.

I know you won’t believe this—I don’t believe it myself—but I didn’t have my binoculars with me, which is extremely unusual. I typically take my binoculars everywhere I go. Wouldn’t you know it, from the bridge over the Provo River I spotted an American Dipper resting on a rock. Oh, how I wished I had my binoculars!

Before sunrise on Saturday morning, I went down to Utah Lake, and birded the area where the Provo River flows into Utah Lake. This is one of my favorite places to bird watch in Provo. Many of the species I saw are birds which are considered transient species here in the Arizona Central Highlands.

In bird talk, a transient species is a bird that neither winters nor summers in a given habitat, but just passes through the area in the spring on its way north, and then again in the fall on its way south.

A lot of transient species pass through the Prescott area, such as green-tailed towhees, lazuli buntings, white-faced ibis, Forster’s terns, and many, many more. Interestingly, a lot of the birds I saw in Provo were species that were here in Prescott just a few weeks ago!

Many of the transient species that pass through the Arizona Central Highlands breed in Utah and in other parts of the intermountain west. It was fun to see white-crowned sparrows, lazuli buntings, black-chinned hummingbirds, cedar waxwings, yellow-headed blackbirds, ibis, terns, pelicans, all which pass through Prescott and breed in Utah.

While many of the species I observed there are the same species that occur here, I was also able to add a number of species to my United States year list that don’t occur in Prescott. For example, I saw ring-necked pheasant, California quail, downy woodpecker, black-capped chickadee and eastern kingbirds. In just a few hours I saw over fifty different species!

Birding in Provo has so many similarities to birding in Prescott. While Provo is further north, it is lower in elevation than Prescott, by almost 1,000 feet. The difference in elevation negates the difference in latitude resulting in very similar weather and bird species between the two locations.

On any given day, when I look at the weather app on my iPhone and compare the current weather conditions in Prescott to Provo, they are remarkably similar day in and day out, regardless of the time of year. Not only is our weather similar, but we also share many of the same bird species such as Woodhouse’s scrub-jays, spotted towhees, American robins, red-winged blackbirds, blue grosbeaks, Bullock’s oriole, yellow warblers, song sparrows, and the list goes on.

Be on the lookout for Phainopepla. This is the time of year when they start showing up after their short-distance migration from Sonoran Desert habitats and elevations. Males are a sleek blackish-blue, with a sheen when in the sunlight. Females are dull gray. Both males and females have a distinctive crest, and males have a prominent white wing patch visible in flight.

Until next week, Happy Birding!

Eric Moore is the owner of The Lookout, in Prescott, where you will find a Hallmark Gold Crown Store, wild bird products, and Swarovski and Vortex optics. Eric has been an avid birder for over 55 years. Eric can be contacted at eric@thelookoutaz.com.

Orioles

Hummingbird numbers

Birds attacking their reflection in the window

New Bird Walk Schedule

I have been doing a lot of digiscoping on this trip—using my Swarovski spotting scope and my iPhone to take both still shots and video. After I get home I will get some these loaded onto The Lookout Facebook page so you can see what I saw!

This past weekend was the winter solstice, the shortest day and the longest night of the year. While I personally do not like the cold, I do love the winter night sky. Each morning when I go outside to retrieve the newspaper, I like to just pause, and look at the heavens and take in the wonder of the night sky.

Maybe like you, unfortunately I live in a neighborhood where some of my neighbors leave their outside lights on all night long. Why? I have no idea. To me it is annoying, and a poor use of precious resources. We live in a time when we need to be so mindful of how we use energy.

One may think it is a little thing, a 100 watt bulb left on all night, but multiply that by hundreds and thousands of lights left on all night and what a huge impact this has on energy use.

There is a dark sky ordinance in some communities. I personally like living in a community where people value dark skies. I like living in a neighborhood where there aren’t any street lights.

Another issue to consider is the impact of lights on wild birds, especially when they are migrating. Lights at night disorient while birds, resulting in window strikes, resulting in an untimely death.

Several months ago the Courier ran an article about outdoor lights at night, and the impact on wild birds. I concur.

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