Stuck at Home

So today is the Heber Valley Christmas Bird Count. I've been in charge of this count for the past two years. This year I was excited because I have great birders helping out who don't usually come up for this count.

So this morning rolls around and  what do you know? I can't make the hour drive to work where the bird count is being held because the mountain passes are so snowy and unsafe that all vehicles are required to have 4x4 or chains. I have neither. Generally the only restriction is to semis.

Pshh. I could drive that.

I just really want them to lift the restrictions so I can go and try to count birds in the snow. Seven brave souls showed up to face the weather and survey the Heber Valley. I would love to be with them.

Nice Winter Walks

Merry Christmas (a little late in coming) and Happy New Year (right on time).

Last Saturday was the Heber Valley Christmas Bird Count. Our numbers were few - we only had 9 birders covering quite a bit of area. And though we didn't see a lot of birds (48 species total - maybe a record low), we had some good ones, like Tundra Swans, Wood Ducks, Great Horned Owls, and others. But it was a great day. The weather was cold, but clear.

It got me in the mood to get out again. So yesterday I decided to take a little walk along the Jordan River. It was a great, snowy walk.

Snowy Bridge

American Kestrel

American Robin

 

Mallards

Common Goldeneye

Northern Flicker

I think I need to go back out today since I have it off - required furlough from work.

Hanging on

I like snow. I do. I love how the world looks after freshly fallen snow. I love how the blanket of snow insulates the ground, keeping the frost from driving too deep into the soil, and freezing out the little critters that live below ground.

It is now April. April means spring. And my soul longs for warmth. My hands are yearning to dig into moist dirt. However, Winter continues to hang on. Snow continues to fall. These pictures were taken this morning from the visitor center.


Of course as snow continues to fall, water fills our streams, rivers and lakes. And that is a good thing.

Dinner at the Golf Course

Welcome to the All-You-Can-Eat Golf Course Cafe! We're glad you could join us today. Our special this evening is Wild Turkey. Fresh and plump, right out of the field.

You do the killing, plucking, and chopping. We'll provide the perfect location with incredible views and easy access. The snow is deep, the Turkeys are plentiful.

Turkey Dinner #1

Oh still hungry? Well, we have more where that came from. Help yourself. And bring your friends.

Turkey Dinner #2

The guests tracks (top of picture) can be seen around the dinner plate. Maybe two different patrons. While something a bit smaller visited as well (prints at the left of picture).

My first guess was coyote. But later as I was approaching a third kill site, I saw what looked like a bobcat dart off into the bushes leaving its dinner behind.

Fun stuff.

Great Backyard Bird Count, Part 2

Because I worked all day yesterday and today, I decided to count the birds at the feeders outside the visitor center. There is a small window to watch the action, but it generally proves to be enough to get a fairly good look at what's going on out there.

The days started out pretty slowly. But it didn't take long for things to start moving. First one little Chickadee flitted in, then out. Then a Pine Siskin, shortly followed by a House Finch. Before too long, I had counted 35 Pine Siskins and smattering of other birds.



How is your bird counting going?

Short-tailed Weasel (Ermine)

Last week I wrote a little about looking for signs of weasels. I found one decent set of tracks during that outing. But as I took two women out on a snowshoe tour earlier today I was hoping to find a few more good weasel tracks.

I wasn't disappointed. And whether they liked it or not, these two women got an earful about weasels, and how to identify their tracks. By the end of our hike, they were pointing out the weasel tracks themselves. I was so proud.

Weasels are bounders. Their back feet register almost directly over where their front feet were. The front feet land, then the front feet come up again just before the back feet land. As they bound, looking, searching, smelling, listening for mice, voles and shrews, they leave behind a wonderful story in the soft snow.

We followed several sets of weasel tracks until they disappeared into shrubbery, or a small hole in the snow. In the image above, you can see the varying distances between each of the bounds as it moved across the snow.

As I was reading through a Project WILD Newsletter focused on Weasels I found the following statement very amusing: "ounce for ounce [weasels are] probably the most efficient killers of all carnivores." I love that. Here are these small, powerful, hyperactive little predators that often move in ways that reflect an ADHD mind, cute as can be, and yet deadly, even to prey much larger than themselves.
We saw many, many little weasel tracks but the set shown above was by far my favorite. It's picture perfect for weasel tracks. One short bound, followed by one very long bound, followed again by a short bound where a slight drag mark can be seen (if the snow was deeper, this would have created the dumbbell shape print), and it just continues: long bound, short bound with drag mark, long bound, short bound...and on. I'm sure I spent more time at this particular set of tracks than my guests enjoyed. I just wish I'd had a measuring tape with me. I really must remember to make that a part of my standard snowshoe equipment from now on.

I wish I could say I took this picture, but this one was taken by one of our rangers. In winter, both short-tailed and long-tailed weasels turn pure white, except for their black-tipped tail. In summer, they are reddish brown on their backs, and cream colored on their bellies. Generally nocturnal, they are very rarely seen. But they can be smelled. They are one of the "musky" ones! Like skunks, they have well-developed scent glands which produce a thick, oily, foul smelling fluid, that they use, among other things, to mark their territory.

I didn't smell anything today. But I won't give up on that possibility during some future outing.

Bird Photography Weekly

I'm headed out to do a little BIGBY birding this morning. I mostly just need to get out into that cold sunshine, and take a walk under that beautiful blue sky. It's February, and I'm anxious to see what birds come out to play; to breathe in that crisp air; let the stresses of the week soak out into the sidewalks and pathways. For most people, the weekly stresses begin on Monday. Monday is my respite, and I'm grateful for it.

On another note, today is the beginning of another installment of Bird Photography Weekly. These photos were taken last week looking out the windows of the visitor center.

While watching the many birds at the feeder, including House Finches, Black-capped Chickadees, Pine Siskins, and Juncos, something caught my eye. I pulled out my bins, and zeroed in on one Junco in particular. There was something wrong - it's tail was way too short. Then I realized, its tail length was just fine, it was just pure white.

Partial albino Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon race)

I never did get a picture that I loved, but these will just have to do. It really was quite pretty.

To see other birds this week, click the link below.

Sky Watch Friday

Winter scenery is so beautiful. Maybe it's the contrast of white against everything else, making the world seem more crisp and sharp.

I took these images last winter. I loved the pattern of the clouds over the mountains, and vast snow covered fields.



To see other beautiful skies from around the world, visit SkyWatch Friday.

A Day In the Life...

I arrived to work this morning just before 8am, and there they were. A rafter of Turkeys just hanging out in the top of a tree. I've seen it before. I've watched them fly (flopping and crashing through branches) up into the trees to roost. But still it just tickles me. How these 15-25 lb birds with feet for walking on the ground, not perching in a tree, can just sit up there, in the top-most branches and hang out.

Who'd a thunk it?

A bit later in the day I took a lady on a snowshoe tour. She had never been and felt better about having a guide. We enjoyed a nice trail, great weather and beautiful scenery.


While we were out there strolling along, I noticed some rather large tracks heading off into the trees. Big, probably 3 1/2 - 4 inches round, direct register (meaning the back foot registered directly over where the front foot had been), and a pretty long stride (distance between each foot print). They were a day or two old, so I couldn't see the actual print, but there is really only one animal, with a foot that big and round, in the area. Mountain Lion. And we've had a few sightings the past few weeks. I looked up hopefully and scanned the trees, knowing full well the cat would be nowhere near there. But I looked nonetheless. One can always hope. :)

Sorry I don't have a picture of the tracks. I thought of that well after the fact. Oh well.

I will be taking another beginning snowshoe group out a little later today. I wonder what discoveries I will find with them?

Here's a few past snowshoe excursions for you to enjoy:

The kids found that running with snowshoes is possible, but quite tiring!

The Park Manager. Yes. I have a rough job.
But somebody has to do it.

Placing Bird Feeders

I've learned a little lesson in the placement of bird feeders. I worried last week just before taking several days off for Christmas, that the feeders would run out of food. So I filled them as full as I could, and left hoping all would be well, that the birds would have seed-a-plenty through the week.

It turns out it wasn't food I should have been concerned about. It was snow. I returned today to see two of the three homemade feeders missing. A huge slab of snow slid off the roof, and took the feeders with them. I knew snow slid off the roof right there, I just didn't realize they were directly in the slid-off path. So two of my feeders are burried under about 4 or 5 feet of snow. I just hope there were no birds on the feeders when it slid.

The snow slab from inside looking out. The hole I dug trying to find one of the feeders is on the right.

I tried to dig one of the feeders out, but after excavating a hole as deep and as big around as I am tall, I still hadn't found it. Sigh. All I could do was re-fill the one remaining feeder, throw some seed on the snow, and call it good. And I was actually rewarded with a short visit from a new feeder friend - a single White-crowned Sparrow.

The one remaining feeder with a visiting chickadee.

Sky Watch Friday

As much as I'm not ready for winter, it sure makes for beautiful landscapes! This is a view just outside the visitor center, looking out over the pond to the snow-covered mountains and the blue sky beyond!

Visit other SkyWatch blogs and see the beauty all around.

Not Yet!

I work at an elevation of 5,900 feet for the most part. That's the elevation where the visitor center sits. The park does reach to right around 10,000 feet. So to say this is the first snow the park has received, wouldn't be quite accurate. But it is the first snow that has dipped below the 7,000 foot level.

Click on the images to see the snow flakes falling. I'm not quite ready for snow. Good thing I'm off to Southern California on Monday.

Fishing Club

This is the third year the park has sponsored a youth fishing club. We always get a great turn out. Usually we begin the club that last week in May. We decided to hold off a few weeks and make today, June 11, our first day.

I arrived to work this morning and it was raining. The kids still came. They practiced casting... in the rain, which soon turned to snow. Yes, it's still June 11. They divided into their groups and headed out to the pond to do a little...uh...ice fishing. The fish were biting, kids were catching, and having a great time. It was sill snowing. Most froze before we ended the morning of fishing and went back inside to warm up. Some stuck it out to the end.

We cleaned many, many fish...in the rain and snow. It was cold.

I promised the kids that next week it would be warm and sunny. It should be. It will be June 18. Right?

Oh, and I saw my first Western Tanager of the year on Saturday. Beautiful, beautiful birds.

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Old Man

I've had some wonderful moments this past week. The weather has slowly been warming, buds are popping out on trees, swallows are skimming over the pond, racing here and there, enjoying a few of the emerging insects, building their nests.

Kids have loved feeding the ducks and looking for insects. They thrill over finding an earth worm, or a pill (potato) bug; the anticipation of waiting for them to open up and walk around was just intoxicating.

As I was leaving work a few days ago, I noticed a bird flying over the pond, hunting little fish. At first glance I thought it was a gull, which would have been unusual in and of itself, as they don't generally venture into this little mountain valley. However it wasn't a gull, so I hurried back inside and grabbed my bins for a closer look. It was beautiful. Swerving, diving, soaring over the pond. It was a tern of some kind, but I'm not up on terns, so I just sat and watched. It took a dive into the pond, but came out empty handed. I continued watching, taking in every detail I could. It was such a beautiful day, I'd have loved staying and watching him longer. But once I got home, I looked him up. It was a Caspian Tern. Not too uncommon, but rare in some parts of the state.

On Tuesday, I was out working in my little flower garden. Pulling happily growing weeds, getting the soil ready for new additions to the garden. I heard a gull flying over head. Down here in the valley where I live, gulls are plentiful. But this one sounded different than our usual California Gull. So my interest was peaked. I glanced up, just curious to see who had this interesting voice. Look at that black hood! I dropped my gardening tools, and made a bee-line around the house for another look at him. But all I could see was his tail end, heading off to some distant waters. But there was no mistaking that hood. A Franklin's Gull had just graced me with a quite look. Beautiful bird.

Last night I drove home through a blizzard. And this morning came to work with the world looking like December again. That old man just doesn't want to let go.

Hot cocoa anyone?

Biking

My plan today was to get up, take care of morning routine things, then jump on my bike and head down to a nearby man-made lake 5 miles north of me. In 3 weeks I'll be biking in the Salt Lake Marathon and have done very little by way of training. True, biking 25 miles isn't too bad, but I'd like to get a little more time in the saddle before that day. The distance of this lake makes it a perfect destination for 10-mile round trip ride, and I might just get some birding in while I'm at it.

So that was the goal. Unfortunately, I woke up this morning to 3 or 4 inches of snow. Hmm. Clear for days and days. And then when I want to hit the asphalt, it's covered in ice and snow. Guess that means another day on the loud, vibrating stationary bike.

I rent my basement out, and unfortunately the noise of the stationary bike greatly disturbs the downstairs neighbors. So I always hesitate to bike when I'm not 100% certain they are gone. And I'm not 100% certain this morning. So I'll have to fill my morning minutes with other things and try to bike later this afternoon.

On a birding note, I'm not too bright or clever when it comes to gulls. I admit, I'm a lariphobe. We have gulls. Many, many gulls. And I'm fairly certain the majority of them are California, but I want to know for myself before I add it to my list. Because we also have Ring-billed, Herring, and Franklin's (which I know I haven't seen, they're a bit easier to pick out). So one of my goals today is to get a good enough look at a few to make a positive identification.

Snow Caves

Saturday was a beautiful day! Sun was out. The air was quite warm. And the snow cave class went really well. The snow couldn't have been better.

The group started out by packing the snow down to form a solid base for their snow cave. The snow was a out 3 feet deep; not quite deep enough just to tunnel under the snow. So a bit more work was required.

Making a large mound of snow to dig into.

Beginning to tunnel in.

Fully tunneled in, the process of expanding the inside begins.

After about 2 hours from when we started, we have a comfy, roomy snow cave.

The final product from outside.

Sunshine and Snow

I arrived late to work due to some bad weather. The canyon was closed for a while, which meant I got to lounge around the house for a little longer this morning. Rather than lounging, however, I shoveled part of the driveway, then went inside for French Toast. By that time, the canyon was open.

When I got to work, the sky was clearing, and everything looked so beautiful under a fresh layer of snow.

I did more shoveling with a co-worker and snapped a few pics of the loveliness.

My co-worker taking a break.

Can you spot the evergreen tree in the ice crystals?

Looking out over the frozen pond. The ducks have moved to the warm springs.

I'm pretty excited about all the snow we have this year. I have a couple of snow cave classes coming up, and it sure is easier to build a snow cave when there's snow to work with.

Winter Exercise

Yes, I do a lot of snowshoeing, which is great exercise. I can burn approximately 500 + calories in an hour of snowshoeing. Well, what I've been doing almost as much as snowshoeing, is shoveling that snow.

Today at work I had to clear a pathway to our Educational Yurt from this past week's snow storms. I was out there about an hour, and according to Healthy Utah, burned about 414 calories. Sweet. Of course, the snow was so deep this time, I think I probably burned more than that.

Snow Day

I haven't done much but post pictures lately. I'm sorry. You'd think I've never seen snow before. But really I have. Every year. But I just so enjoy taking snowy, wintery pictures. What is it about a white world that so intrigues me?

Today is quite a snowy day. I have kind of a scary drive to and from work when its snowy. So here's hoping it keeps snowing until a bit later this afternoon, just in time for the snow plows to clear my roads, and give me safe passage home.