Backyard Bird Bonanza

As expected, springtime has been an excellent time for some backyard bird watching. We really got lucky last Saturday when the wind held still and we had lots of outdoor chores. We added mallards (flying by our yard), barn swallows (I love seeing them eat insects in the air and watching their acrobatics), a grackle (Desert Boy and I couldn't agree on which species), a bullock's oriole (pictured above--a wonderfully colorful bird that I had Desert Boy figure out), a house sparrow (not very exciting, but the first time this year we saw one in the yard), Brewer's blackbird (their relative red-winged blackbirds are near, but still not seen or heard in the yard), broad-tailed hummingbird (so fun to hear fly over), western kingbird (a true sign of summer), and yellow-rumped warbler (a favorite). We're up to 29, with a goal of 50 for the Desert Survivor Backyard Bird Challenge.

Both Desert Boy and Desert Girl are getting better at identifying the common birds, and some just by sound. I'm hoping we can go to some bird events this summer to fuel their fun.

What are you seeing in your backyard?

Random Signs of Spring

 I am so loving this spring. Every day brings new colors, sounds, and smells (okay, my allergies are awful, but I still love spring!). The tulips are blooming, and I find them such a happy flower.

 Our chicks are growing rapidly. I'm fascinated watching the little comb on the forehead emerge and the tail perk up. The chicks regularly try out their wings and are getting stronger.

 This mourning cloak stayed still long enough for me to get a decent photo. I've seen orange, yellow, and white butterflies. One of my goals this summer is to learn my butterflies a lot better, and since the BioBlitz at Great Basin National Park this summer is going to focus on Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), I have a good chance of accomplishing it.

Desert Boy really, really wanted to run through the sprinkler but thought it might be on the chilly side. So he put on his wetsuit (a yard sale find last year), and ran happily in the water.

Hope you're having a happy spring!

More Backyard Birds

 We've been continuing on our Backyard Bird Challenge, and things are starting to pick up as the trees leaf out, the weather warms, flowers bloom, and insects emerge. Turkey vultures have made their usual spring appearance. In the photo above, one is drying its wings before taking to the thermals later in the day. We get a big group in our trees every spring and fall.

I heard the tap-tap-tap of a woodpecker and tracked down this Northern Flicker. We have one that regularly visits the yard. Numerous holes in the house also testify to the fact of their frequent presence. My husband still laments that I threw out all the metal coffee lids when we moved in, as his grandmother had saved those to patch the woodpecker holes.

Although I don't like the Eurasian collared doves because they're non-native, they live in our yard, so I've gotten to know them better. I hardly every see mourning doves anymore because the collared doves have taken over some of their territory.

Another non-native inhabitant is the European Starling. It's feathers shimmer in the sunlight.

Fortunately we do have lots of non-native birds swing by. This American Kestrel is a beauty. Often we have a pair hang out through the summer, and I hope we do again this year.

Outside the yard but nearby we've seen red-winged blackbirds, curlews, and barn swallows. We hope we'll be able to add them to our list soon.

We're also trying to encourage birds to stay in our yard, by putting up two birdhouses that kids made. Desert Boy especially liked that he got to chose a spot, which was up in a tree.

We'll see if the birds agree with his choice!

I hope you've been seeing some fun birds lately. I have been paying a lot more attention this year, and it makes it easy to spot something that is out of the normal.

Happy birding!

Desert Survivor's Backyard Bird Challenge--Mid-March Check-in

Have you seen any new birds in your backyard lately? We've added killdeer (two just outside the yard that we hear every few days), Canada geese (that flew over the yard early one morning), and Western meadowlark (flying across the yard and landing in a tree). The Western meadowlark are really singing a lot now. We've also been practicing the more common birds in the yard.


A pair of red-tailed hawks have been in the yard the last three days, and they've been fun to watch. The coloring on red-tailed hawks varies so much, but fortunately, when they fly, they always do have a red tail (at least that I've seen!). Red-tailed hawks are the most common hawk in the area.

Here's another view. As you can see, the trees are leafing out, so it will soon be a little more difficult to see the birds!

Migration should be continuing, so we're hoping to see some interesting birds in the next month.

Run Like a Goose at the Delta Snow Goose Festival

Delta, Utah holds an annual Snow Goose Festival late every February. Thousands of snow geese congregate as they rest on their migration from the Imperial Valley in California to northwestern Canada, near the Anderson River. In Delta, they forage in the nearby agricultural fields and also rest on the open water. To our surprise, there wasn't much open water, but fortunately enough near the reservoir inlet to allow them to have some space.

Although we like birds, I have to admit that what attracts us the most is the Wild Goose Chase, a 5K/10K run. The last two years the weather was miserable, and I decided that we weren't going to sign up until the week of the race, and only if the weather forecast was good. Fortunately this year the weather cooperated.

 Desert Girl did her pre-race dance moves sporting her princess running outfit (complete with light-up glitter princess shoes, apparently what every princess runs in.)

 After the 5k race, we posed for a family photo. I'm not sure why we can't all look at the camera at the same time!

 Several other folks from our area also ran (and did very well!), and we took a group photo by the edge of the reservoir. An excavator had moved away the thick ice for the upcoming Dunk, Dunk, Goose.

 Before that started, though, it was time for the kids race. They could do either 1/4 mile or 1 mile. Both our kids chose the 1/4 mile race. Desert Girl stood by herself and waited patiently. Desert Boy went up to the other boys, and I was amazed to hear them all trash talking:
"I'm going to win the race." 
"No, I am." 
"Well, I'm taller than you, so I'm going to win." 
"I'm 6, so that means I'm going to win." 
Oh, my!

 The shirts were adorable. Desert Boy sported the shirt from last year (the red "baby goose chase"), while runner #474 had on this year's shirt, a nice tech shirt.

 Desert Girl came in dead last, but had an awesome time running. She was so much into the spirit of things. She is still running whenever she can, because she knows she is a super runner, and she wants to get ready for her next race (whenever that might be!).

 We saw the Dunk, Dunk, Goose participants from afar--it made me cold just to watch them!

Then we went in search of food. First we went to another part of the reservoir, where we found a paltry three booths, and only pizza and donuts as food offerings. I guess the cold and wind of years past scared off vendors. So we went to the fairgrounds, where we found the quilt show and quite a few vendors, but only one food booth. We bought some food and headed outside as there wasn't anyplace to eat inside, and ate in the parking lot.

After a stop at the playground, we went to the West Millard Swimming Pool. I had called ahead but had gotten no answer (or answering machine), so we were sad when we found a sign saying the pool was closed to be replastered. (Swimming after the Wild Goose Chase has become a tradition, and is such a nice way for the kids to have fun and the adults to work out sore muscles!) To try and quench the kids' tears, we went to McDonald's and redeemed the ice cream coupons they had received in their race packs. While I was in the restroom, a nice lady from Tooele who had come down for the festival asked if I had seen the geese. I said just from very far away, as so much of the reservoir was covered with ice. She gave me directions to a spot that was close to the geese, and we had a great viewing spot!

 One photographer was at the edge with a lens nearly as big as him!

We hung out in the warm sun and watched and listened to the geese for awhile. They are truly spectacular.

How to Make Birding Fun When There Just Aren't a Lot of Birds Around

It's time for a check-in on Desert Survivor's Backyard Bird Challenge. How are you doing? We've had a very slow couple of weeks, with only a rough-legged hawk added to our species list. But we've seen some birds outside our yard lately, like Canada geese, mallards, mountain bluebirds, western meadowlarks, and sandhill cranes, that we are hoping we can add soon.

Even though we are in a bit of a slump, we still hit 15 birds for the month of February, which is pretty awesome. Even better is when I checked our list, hanging on the refrigerator, and noticed a new entry (this was before the rough-legged hawk):

 Sure, red-tailed hawks are our most common hawks, so a sighting of one didn't have me jumping up and down. What did is that Desert Boy had taken the initiative to write it down. He spotted it with his dad, and was so excited about finding his very own bird.

That made me think he might be ready for another little tool to make birding a little more interesting for him:

So we bought Bird Log Kids: A Kid's Journal to Record Their Birding Experiences. Desert Boy was excited to have his very own specialized journal. Here's his first entry:

The journal is great because he includes birds anywhere we go, not just in the backyard. We saw about 5,000 snow geese near Delta, Utah, when we went to the annual Snow Goose Festival (to be reported soon on this blog!). That made an impression. When I pointed out to Desert Boy that we had 15 backyard bird sightings, and that would fill up half his journal, he got pretty excited. We are taking it slow, though, with only a couple entries a week so he doesn't burn out.

I have to say that participating in the backyard bird challenge has made me a lot more aware of the birds that live in the yard. We see about 15 European starlings, a couple Eurasian collared doves, a handful of dark-eyed juncos, a northern flicker, a magpie, and some pinyon jays almost every day. I scan the yard every time I go outside, looking for something out of the ordinary. A great horned owl hoots me to sleep a few evenings a week.

If you haven't started the Backyard Bird Challenge, it's not too late! The rules are easy: keep track of what bird species you see in your backyard! Now that we're starting March, it will be interesting to see what different birds appear from those we saw in February.

In the meantime, if you see an interesting bird, don't be afraid to "whoa" and enjoy the moment!

Note: this post contains an affiliate link, wherein you will be able to purchase an item (or anything else you put in your cart for 24 hours) for the same regular price but I will receive a very small commission, which helps keep these posts coming. 

Desert Survivor's Backyard Bird Challenge--Check In Week One *Updated

*Updated bird identifications--see below

Western Scrub-Jay on feeder

Are you taking Desert Survivor's Backyard Bird Challenge? It's easy: How many birds can you find in your backyard this year? Keep a list (we have one in the sidebar now), and add to it each time you find something new.

The kids and I are having a lot of fun with the challenge. I'm impressed with how well they are learning the common birds in the yard. To help encourage birds to come to the yard, we've been putting out birdseed. Both kids love to spread seed.

The most common birds are pinyon jays, which come in a raucous and rowdy group, and the tiny dark-eyed juncos, which don't seem to mind the commotion and go about their business picking up seeds.

Nevertheless, we did get some different birds to our yard:

Cassin's *House Finch (Updated--thank you, kind birder!) The flash of red caught my eye and I couldn't help but do a little happy dance!

Then I saw the tiniest glimpse of yellow:

A pine siskin.  *I thought it was a pine siskin, but really it's a female house finch. Those tricky females! Pine siskins should be around, so we'll keep looking! Pine siskins live higher up the mountain in the summer, where they like to be in pine trees. But in the winter, they come down to the valleys to find food. Pine siskins are also finches, and they like to hang out in mixed flocks, which explains why I saw both these birds on the feeder at the same time.

We got some great close-up views of those pinyon jays. We enjoy watching how the birds move around and interact.

We started our challenge on February 1, and as of February 8, we are up to 14 backyard birds. We should add a couple more winter birds this next week, as we've seen and heard some close to our yard, but not in/from our yard yet. Keeping a list is helping us keep our interest up.

I'd love to hear in the comments or on the Desert Survivor Facebook page how your challenge is going.
Happy birding!

Desert Survivor's Backyard Bird Challenge

Hello! Are you ready for a challenge? This is a fun one, doesn't take much time, no money, but is quite fulfilling. 

Join us for the Backyard Bird Challenge! 

Inspired by my friend Kevin, a serious birder in the St. George area, this year we are keeping track of the birds we see in our backyard (and front yard and side yard and over the yard). 

How do you do it? 

Just find a piece of paper, start making a list, and put it in an easy-to-reach place (we're keeping it on the refrigerator). We decided on February 1 as our starting date, as we wanted to keep track of the first date that we see a bird so that if we do this year after year, we'll know about when the spring and summer birds showing up and if they're early or late for the year.

Here's our list after two days:

 And we added three more on February 3: Great Horned Owl, European Starling, and Western Scrub-Jay.

Our goal is to get 50 birds this year. I think that's enough to be a bit challenging, but still doable.

For those of you enveloped in snow, yes, you can begin now! In fact, it's easier to start learning birds in winter because there aren't as many around!

 This Dark-eyed Junco is one of several year-round residents of the Great Basin.

Here are several websites that are great for learning more about birds:
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Audubon's How to Identify Birds
National Geographic's Backyard Bird Identifier
Common Feeder Birds

And for even more inspiration, the Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up February 14-17, and is a fun way to join others in a citizen science project from the comfort of your own home!

Good luck counting, and let us know what you find!

 Great Horned Owl mom and baby--in a tree near our house three summers ago! Maybe we'll get lucky again this summer.

Happy birding!

Getting Ready for the Christmas Bird Count

Monday is our annual Christmas Bird Count for this area. It started here in 1997 and has been going on every year since, and it's been interesting learning about some of the trends (which you can see in an article in this publication).  Worldwide, the very first Christmas Bird Count was in 1900, which makes this project the longest citizen science project in existence.

To get ready, we started putting bird feed in our feeder about a week ago. It didn't take long for dark-eyed juncos and pinyon jays to find it. The pinyon jays come in a huge flock and stay until they eat everything.


They are beautiful birds, although a little aggressive so they keep out the other birds. I was surprised by how the photos I took captured them in so many stages of flight.

 A neighbor's feeder also gets the pinyon jays, but also lesser goldfinches, and at the top, a white-crowned sparrow.

To expand the citizen-science aspect of this project, I visited Desert Boy's school and put up a bird feeder for them. They are going to help watch what shows up on Christmas Bird Count day and contribute to the effort.

 They were fascinated with the binoculars I brought. We also practiced a few bird calls (e.g., Canada goose, mallard, raven, mountain chickadee, great horned owl, red-tailed hawk). I was impressed how well they knew them. Although most thought the red-tailed hawk was an eagle because that's what television dubs in--a real eagle call is rather weird and unimpressive sounding.

 Then we made bird feeders they can take home with them. First, find a pine cone, tie a string around the top, goop it up with peanut butter, then roll in bird seed. Put in a plastic bag to get home, then take out and hang up outside.

The kids seemed to really enjoy it. Hopefully they will see some neat birds at home!

If you'd like to help in your local Christmas Bird Count, it's not too late to sign up. They are lots of fun, and you can participate even if you're brand new to birding. Trust me, it's more fun to look at birds for the day than you might imagine! You can also just count birds in your yard or on a walk and submit what you find.

Destination: Angel Lake near Wells, Nevada

 One of Nevada's many mountain ranges is the East Humboldt Range, a 30-mile long range in the northeastern part of the state near Wells, Nevada. We decided to make it part of our July trip, largely because the 12-mile Angel Lake Scenic Byway (Nevada Highway 231, seasonally open) goes right up to Angel Lake in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.

 The stormy weather didn't deter us as we climbed several thousand feet from the valley to the 8,379-foot elevation lake. Before the road gets really steep and windy is the Angel Creek Campground, which would be a good destination for those with bigger vehicles (like RVs). The Angel Lake Campground awaits those with smaller vehicles at the end of the road. There's a $5 parking fee at the end of the road for those who want to get out of their vehicles and check out the lake and/or picnic.

Lake Dimensions. The road takes you to within fifty feet of Angel Lake, named for Warren M. Angel of nearby Clover Valley. The lake covers 13 acres with a maximum depth of about 35 feet. A dam was added to the lake by early settlers to increase its capacity for irrigation.

Fish. The lake contains brook trout, rainbow trout, tiger trout, and speckled dace. According to the Nevada Department of Wildlife website about Angel Lake, about 4,800 rainbow trout are stocked during the summer. Creel surveys show anglers catch about 1 to 2 trout per hour, with a limit of five per day. Fish size is generally 8.5 to 11 inches.

My husband and kids decided to try their luck fishing, which is one of the most popular activities at the lake. I was ready to stretch my legs after the long car ride and set out for a hike around the lake.

Glaciology. Angel Lake is a tarn, otherwise known as a mountain lake formed in a cirque. A glacier once stood hundreds of feet high here, flowing down towards the valley below. (On the day we visited, the sky was hazy and the storms made it gray, so it was hard to see down to the desert below.)

One of the coolest things about visiting Angel Lake was thinking about the glaciers. The last glaciation in the Great Basin was called the Angel Lake glaciation, with the type locality being right where we were standing. Researchers Ben Laabs, Jeff Munroe, and others have conducted cosmogenic ¹⁰Be surface-exposure dating of boulders in the area. By studying the dates of how long boulders in moraines have been exposed, they've concluded that the end of the Angel Lake glaciation was 19,300 years ago, give or take 1,000 years. This was the same time that the Laurentide Ice Sheet was retreating. This was also before glaciers in the Sierra Nevada and Wasatch mountains retreated, and before the huge pleistocene Lakes Bonneville and Lahontan had reached their zenith. What does this timing mean? The researchers say that more research is needed.

Wildflowers. What comes after the glaciers leave? Pioneering plants like the bright fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium),  one of my favorite flowers. Fireweed likes to grow in areas that have been disturbed by  fires, avalanches, glacial retreats, and more. It likes lots of sun and can grow quickly.

Many other wildflowers were in abundance. The flora in the East Humboldts and nearby Ruby Mountains are similar to that in the Wasatch Mountains in Utah.

 And with plants come animals, like this beautiful blue butterfly.

 Wildlife. A couple rock wrens hung out with me as I took photos.

Probably the best-known birds on the mountain range are introduced Himalayan Snowcocks. They apparently are most-often found around Hole-in-the-Mountain peak, the highest peak of the range at 11,306 ft. The range also has bighorn sheep (with 20 reintroduced in February 2013), introduced mountain goats, mountain lions, mule deer, bobcat, coyote, and more.

Lakes and Hiking. Although Angel Lake is the most easily accessed lake in the East Humboldts, it's not the only lake. I was a bit surprised to find that the range has many more lakes, including Smith Lake, Greys Lake, Winchell Lake, Boulder Lakes, Lizzie's Basin, and Steele Lake. You can access some of them on the two main hiking trails: a four-mile hike to Winchell Lake that begins at a trailhead below Angel Lake on the paved road; and a 25-mile hike that begins at Angel Lake, goes around the north end of the range to Greys Lake 5 miles away on the west side, and then continues along the west side to Ackler Creek (11 miles) and Boulder Lake (18 miles).

To find out more about hiking to some of the other lakes, check out the details on this informative website about hiking in East Humboldts (and Rubies).

As often happens in the mountains, the storms passed and the sun came out, brightening the carpet of wildflowers. I was particularly impressed by the display of wildflowers, even though we were just at 8300 feet. The latitude and higher precipitation allows for a lower timberline and overall lower elevation for wildflowers that I expected to see at higher elevations.

Wilderness.  A quick note on wilderness: although you can drive to Angel Lake, most of the rest of the East Humboldt Range is accessible only by foot or horseback. In 1989, 36,000 acres were designated as the East Humboldt Wilderness.

Geology. The mountains rising above Angel Lake look beautiful, with Greys Peak at the top of the photo above at 10, 674 ft. The East Humboldt Range is a metamorphic core complex, meaning that the older rocks have been pushed up and are exposed instead of being overlain by younger rock layers. This allows you to look up from Angel Lake and see some of the oldest rocks in Nevada: 2.5 billion year old gneiss. How cool is that to see rocks so old from a lake that is not so old (at least geologically speaking!).

Lake core. The sun also beckoned an angler to go out in his float tube. That would be a really fun way to visit the lake! Researchers have taken a raft out on the lake to retrieve a sample of the bottom (a sediment core) to study the past climate of the area over the last 7,000 years. They were able to see ash from the Mount Mazama explosion (the one that created Crater Lake in Oregon). They also learned quite a bit more, which you can read about here.

 When I got back to the dam (probably a leisurely 45-60 minutes after I had set out around the lake), I found the angling success wasn't so good for my family.

 But the kids sure did have fun getting in the chilly water!

I'd like to go back to Angel Lake and the East Humboldts and check out more of the beautiful scenery.

 And if we time it right, we may make it again for the drag races in Wells.

Ah, you've got to love the desert!

I couldn't find much information about Angel Lake when we set out to go there. Hopefully this compilation will help those who desire to know more. And if you know of other websites about Angel Lake, please leave a comment! Thanks!