Great Egret and More

Great Egret

I did interviews at work all week, I worked three long days and decided to use some extra leave hours I had to take Friday off and go birding. It was a damp drizzly day and I came away with a good layer of Farmington Bay mud on my Dodge Caravan. But there is never a bad day birding, I saw some great birds and got a few pictures even though the light was not very good.
Here is a list of birds seen and pictures of many of them,
I started out at the South Entrance of Farmington Bay at Bountiful Lake then over to the North (main) entrance to Farmington Bay then on to Glover Ponds and ended at Kaysville Ponds.

White-crowned Sparrows

Song Sparrow

Western Meadowlark

Spotted Towhee

Northern Flicker

Eurasian Collared Dove

Five or six years ago I saw my first Eurasian Collared Dove at my backyard feeders, a few months later I saw several of these doves in a tree just outside the gate at Farmington Bay. Today Eurasian Collared Doves are frequent visitors to my back yard and permanent residents at Farmington Bay. These introduced birds have established themselves very well in Northern Utah. The sad thing is that I am seeing fewer of our native Mourning Doves since these newcomers arrived.

Mallard

American Crow

American Kestrel

Rough-legged Hawk

Northern Harrier

Green-winged Teal

Northern Shoveler

A couple of years ago I took some pictures of a Green-winged Teal Drake and Northern Shoveler hen that never left each others side, I thought maybe it was a fluke but here again 2 years later, these two never left each others side. I don't now if it is the same couple but these two seem to have more than just a passing interest in each other. I will be keeping my eye out for Green-winged/Shoveler hybrids.

American Coot

Pied-billed Grebe

Great Egret

Several years ago we had a Great Egret that stayed well into January at Farmington Bay. Again this year we have had at least one and possibly two Great Egrets hanging around. These birds are uncommon in Northern Utah so having one stay well into winter is an unusual treat.

American Wigeon

Common Goldeneye

Bald Eagle

Red-winged Blackbird

Great Blue heron

Ring-billed gull

California Gull

Hooded Merganser

Canada Goose

It was a great day, I hope you enjoy the photos

Martin Luther King Day Birding

Prairie Falcon

I took my wife to an appointment in south west Salt Lake County to the town of Herriman Utah today so I could do some birding. This was my first time to go to this area and I will be going back there are plenty of good birding spots in the area. I spent most of the time today driving around to familiarize myself to the area so didn't get a lot of birding in, but was able to see some nice Birds of Prey. The only bird I was able to get a picture of is the Prairie Falcon above.

My best sightings were a Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk, Merlin and Ferruginous Hawk, none of which I was able to get a picture of.

Birds seen
Bald Eagle
Common Raven
Black-billed Magpie
Red-tailed Hawk
Ferruginous Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk
American Kestrel
Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
White-crowned Sparrow
Merlin
Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk.