We were in northern Utah this past weekend. Our son Landon graduated from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City where he received his degree of Juris Doctor. We had a wonderful time celebrating this special occasion.
In many ways, spending time in Utah is kind of like going home. While I did not grow up there, I spent a considerable amount of time in Utah during my formative years. I attended college in Utah, I met my wife in Utah, and we had our first child in Utah.
When I was living in Utah I was involved in the Utah County Birder’s Club. It was similar in structure to an Audubon Society Chapter, where we had monthly membership meetings and regularly scheduled birding field trips.
Unfortunately, years ago when I was doing a lot of birding in Utah, eBird had not yet been invented, and I didn’t do a very good job of documenting what I saw and where I saw it. Interestingly, as I was inputting my bird sightings from my trip to Utah this past weekend, a lot of the birds I saw showed up in my eBird history as being the first time I’d ever seen them in Utah, which I know isn’t true.
The first time I birded in Utah was in 1975, forty-nine years ago! Since I don’t have good records of my birding efforts from years past, I don’t have any way of knowing exactly how many bird species I’ve seen in Utah.
At this point, all I can do is create new eBird lists for each of my bird watching outings in the state. In reviewing my species list by state, the state in which I have seen the greatest number of bird species is Arizona, which is not a surprise since I’ve lived in Arizona more than any place else over my lifetime.
My second highest species count by state is in Texas, followed by California, then Utah. Colorado comes in at number five. My species count by state is a good indicator of where I’ve spent the most time birding.
The day after Landon’s graduation, he and I went birding at Farmington Bay Wildlife Management Area. It is basically a giant wetlands habitat adjacent to the Great Salt Lake. The whole area is covered with water, except for the roads running through the property.
We had a productive morning, and our list of bird sightings was expansive. Observations ranged from giant American white pelicans with a wingspan of 108 inches and weighing 7,500 grams, to the diminutive marsh wren which is all of five inches in length and weighs 11 grams!
I had my Swarovski spotting scope with me, which really helped with shorebird identification, as they are often far away and hard to identify! Shorebirds observed included long-billed curlews, spotted sandpipers, long-billed dowitchers, black-necked stilt, American avocet, willet, Wilson’s snipe, Wilson’s phalarope and more. We also got great looks at a sora rail which was a real treat.
I will be participating in the Ute Mountain Mesa Verde Birding Festival this week in Cortez, Colorado, both as a guide and as an optics vendor. The southwestern corner of Colorado is beautiful in May, with amazing snow-capped peaks. I will easily see one hundred different bird species this weekend while participating in the festival. I hope to see many of you in Cortez.
There aren’t any local birding festivals in June. The last week in July is the hummingbird festival in Sedona followed by the Southwest Wings festival in Sierra Vista the first week of August.
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.
