July 30 - August 1, 2021 - From Salt Lake City, Utah
In 2021, we offered a standalone
Himalayan Snowcock Tour for the first time in addition to our regularly scheduled
Most Wanted Tours. It just so happened that when we setup a tour with Georgia Audubon for the week before, that most of their group wanted to continue and join our Snowcock Expedition. A few others opted to join the tour as well, so Taylor stayed on to help guide and drive our 2nd van—and just like that we were off to Nevada.
Our Group checking out the
Himalayan Snowcock
As always, a quick stop at the Bonneville Salt Flats was a nice way to break up the drive. By late afternoon we arrived in Elko, checked in to our hotel, and grabbed dinner. Then it started to rain. This was a first in all my tours here—an outright downpour as we went to bed. I’m not sure how long it rained during the night, but luckily it had stopped by the time we departed the hotel before 3:00 AM.
We made our way to the Lamoille Canyon and it was apparent there had been some big rain here earlier in the week. In several places large slicks of mud were still on the road, while 10’ piles of debris and mud had been plowed off the road surface. I’m sure fires in recent years haven’t helped the canyon, and clearly there had been a bit of a mess. At the parking area everything was soaked—it was obvious that it had rained most of the night and I was slightly nervous about the trail condition. But, much to my surprise the trail was fine. As we ascended, I spotted another car coming up canyon—it was my buddy Chris Brown and his Wildside Tours group. There would be a lot of birders out and about today!
Himalayan Snowcock on a distant ridge
Despite our large group we spread out and slowly made our way to the “slab”. As we got out our scopes and started scanning as it became light, I spotted a single
Himalayan Snowcock sitting in the same notch in the rocks as my tour 2 weeks earlier. I quickly got those with me on the bird, and motioned for the rest of the group to hurry as we had the bird.
Snowcock Success
Fairly soon, everyone had seen it, as well as another bird that emerged shortly after. We made sure to keep a close eye on the birds as they made their way across the ridge line. Pretty soon the Wildside group arrive and we motioned them over to join us since we had the birds. In no time at all around 20 birders were on the slab enjoying lifer
Himalayan Snowcock views.
Island Lake at Sunrise
On top of seeing the main target for the tour, the skies had mostly cleared and it was a beautiful morning in the Ruby’s.
After spending several hours on the slab we decided it was time to head back to town. On the way out, a
Prairie Falcon flew over and landed in a dead snag across the tiny valley from us. Meandering down the trail we were treated to a trio of my favorite mammals here:
Yellow-bellied Marmot,
Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel, and the always a crowd pleaser
American Pika.
Yellow-bellied Marmot lounging on a boulder
American Pika keeping a watchful eye on us
Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel having a nibble
On our way out of Lamoille Canyon we made a quick stop to pick up
Lewis’s Woodpecker for the tour, then headed back to Elko. The plan was lunch to go from my favorite spot in town—unfortunately there had been some miscommunication between the owner and her staff and at the last minute they told us they couldn’t handle our large group as planned. It was disappointing, but luckily another local dive saved the day and was able to seat our larger group immediately. Big props to
Odeh's Mediterranean Restaurant where I’ve eaten several times before. Aside form the gracious staff at this family-owned business, the food is fantastic!
While large birding groups can often cause logistical issues, the pandemic really showed how many local restaurants struggled to maintain normal hours, with short staffs, and lots of people trying to get out and make up for the year lost. Prior to 2021 we had never run into any issues with restaurants, but it was apparent the toll for the pandemic was taking on small businesses!
While we typically try to get out for some birding in the evening—due to the logistical issues at lunch we wanted to make sure we had a smooth dinner so we skipped birding, had a great dinner at
Luciano’s and that was the day!
Digiscoped
Lark Sparrow
Overnight it rained again—and continued into the morning. Luckily for us but the time we reached our morning birding destination at South Fork the rain had subsided in the valley—but we could see it continued over the Ruby’s. South Fork was its usual, incredible, hotspot. We tallied a whopping 64 species here as we spent the morning canvassing the entire lake and surroundings.
Wilson's Snipe with Long-billed Dowitchers
Loads of waterfowl, waterbirds, and shorebirds made for a lot of scoping.
Clark’s Grebe and
Western Grebe,
American Avocet,
Wilson’s Phalarope,
Red-necked Phalarope,
Semipalmated Plover, and
Lesser Yellowlegs were some of the highlights.
Digiscoped
Sora
Near the campground on the west side of the lake we had
3 Sora feeding in the open in a nearly dried up canal—great looks as the birds didn’t seem to mind the crowd gawking. Eventually we wrapped things up and headed back towards Elko, making a stop in a juniper patcher near town. While there weren’t any out of the ordinary birds, we did pick up a few things like
Western Tanager and
Bullock’s Oriole, in addition to
Northern Mockingbird and
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.
Back in town we managed to get everyone packed and were finally able to grab that delicious lunch we expected the day before. We dined at the city park and then hit the road back towards Utah. A quick stop just over the border and we added
Snowy Plover for the tour, before continuing back to Salt Lake City and dropping everyone off at the airport or nearby hotels.
A huge thanks to Taylor, and Adam from Georgia Audubon, for co-leading this tour. The more guides the merrier, and with 3 sets of eyes on the lookout we definitely picked up a few more birds than usual! Upon arriving back in Utah I received a DM asking about the mudslides in Lamoille Canyon. I quipped that it wasn’t a big deal, they had cleared the road and we were good. Then the message included a
link to a news article. On Sunday, the day after our tour more than a dozen mudslides caused massive damage to the road. The canyon was closed and they had to help get people out of the canyon. The road stayed closed for more than a month while they cleared debris, and made sure the road was safe to use.
Because of this, my last 2 tours to Elko for the summer were cancelled! A friend of mine on the mountain that Sunday said the following to me in a message, “Island Lake was scary with the rain and hail”… They had gotten off the mountain before the landslides and had no idea what had transpired. The good news is that the canyon is once again open to the public, and we should be good to go for 2022! This was the first time we had ever encountered sketchy weather in all my tours to Nevada and isn't expected normally.
Photos from this Tour:
Georgia Audubon Photos from this Tour:
Birds Seen on this Tour:
Labels: Himalyan Snowcock, Nevada, tours
August 7-10, 2020 - From Salt Lake City, Utah
After all the cancellations due to Covid-19, I managed to put together one last tour in early August—the goal was to basically cover the Most Wanted species, with the exception of the desert species typically covered at the beginning of the most wanted tour. For this trip, I picked up a client in SLC then drove north to Twin Falls (backward from my normal route) and met up with the other 2 joining our party for the rest of the tour.
The first task was tracking down
Cassia Crossbill, which only took about 10 minutes. We found a few birds moving around the treetops and calling near Diamonfield Jack and with everyone satisfied with the views, we deiced to check a few other areas—but didn’t get any better looks, so we moved on towards Brockman’s Feeding Station. En route we picked up our obligatory
Lewis’s Woodpeckers, and also the first
Olive-sided Flycatcher we’ve recorded in Idaho on this tour.
Cassia Crossbill in the treetops
At the feeding station, there were far fewer birds than earlier in the summer, and the Black-chinned Hummingbirds were dominating the action. A good number of Broad-tailed Hummingbirds were in the mix and we had one aggressive Rufous Hummingbird that kept everyone else on guard. Of course, the highlight here was 3 Calliope Hummingbirds—all young/female types, the males appeared to have moved on.
Calliope Hummingbird mobbed by a Rufous Hummingbird
We spent the evening south of town in the agricultural areas, picking up Barn Owl and Burrowing Owl. We were watching a harrier fly over the sagebrush at one stop when a large flock of Gray Partridge took flight--this bird was tough this year on both tours! Perhaps the most interesting thing was a flyover pluvial plover that sounded like a Black-bellied or possibly Pacific Golden-Plover. Unfortunately, it never stopped and was left as plover spuh!
The next morning we birded along the Snake River where a nice flock of Bushtit provided killer views, while Canyon Wren and Rock Wren both showed nicely as well. A lingering Bullock’s Oriole was a nice surprise.
Killer looks at Bushtit
Heading south into Nevada, we stopped in Jackpot to check out the golf course and sewage ponds (very difficult to bird). 45 Killdeer were in a soccer field on the outskirts of town, while a pair of Say’s Phoebe represented a species we tend to miss about 50% of the time. Continuing south towards Elko, we stopped at a reliable Sagebrush Sparrow spot and had 9 birds!!! It was incredible seeing 6 lined up on a fence together.
6 Sagebrush Sparrows lined up!
After getting to Elko and settling in we headed off in the later afternoon to bird along the Humboldt River. We had an incredible outing with 38 species, the second-biggest total in eBird from this area. While there was nothing too remarkable, we had a Mallard type that gave us fits as a possible Mexican Duck and in the end, left us with more questions than answers.
We wrapped up the day at South Fork Recreation Area and a nice assortment of shorebirds and the hit or miss resident Bald Eagle. Early to bed, we got up early due to the experience on my previous tour and were at the trailhead at 3:22 AM. Hiking in the dark while serenaded by a Great Horned Owl, I moved at a pretty good pace for a big man. Talking to the group beforehand I told them I wanted to be in place well before sunrise so I would go ahead and get setup. I was at the lake in under an hour and at my viewing spot 20 minutes later still completely dark. Slowly everyone in the group arrived and we watched the sky lighten in the east.
The last little bit of night fading to day...
At 5:20 am the Himalayan Snowcock started calling, and for a painstaking hour and thirty minutes, I scoped my usual locations without seeing anything. The birds had been silent for almost an hour when one called in what seemed like a higher than usual meadow. I moved my scope and worked my way across when I caught the movement—success! For the next hour, we followed a pair of birds that worked their way across a 1/4 mile stretch. It was a huge relief after the short look the week before!
Target achieved--Himalayan Snowcock at 60x...
The other interesting note was we had 15 Black Rosy-Finch today. I remarkable count for this tour! After an uneventful hike down we found another Lewis’s Woodpecker in Lamoille Canyon, before heading back to town. Grabbing lunch and eating in the park a Townsend’s Warbler moved around in the trees over our table—a first for the most wanted tours which generally occur well before migration for this species.
We did the same loop in the evening as the night before with what appears to be a Red-shouldered Hawk flying along the river. We never got great looks and left it as buteo spuh on the checklist. Southfork had a good amount of movement overnight with a lot more shorebirds today. We added Semipalmated Sandpiper and Greater Yellowlegs for the tour.
Our final morning started off without having to re-hike for snowcock—always a nice way to start morning 2 in Elko. We birded the desert around town and counted an incredible 25 Sage Thrashers before starting our journey back towards Salt Lake City. On a whim, we decided to check out an RV resort on the side of the freeway. I called the owners and got permission to bird and we were pleasantly surprised. There were a few migrants around—but still, on the early side, it was mostly breeders. A young Gray Catbird was the best bird—likely a breeder in the area, there are very few confirmed sightings in Elko county away from the Goshutes which get a fair amount of coverage from hawk watchers every year. For me, it was a new Nevada bird.
Gray Catbird skulking around the RV resort
For the 2nd week in a row, we had a Nashville Warbler, indicating some good early movement this year. The other bird that was briefly seen was an apparent 1Y Bay/Poll Warbler. We lost it after finding it and were unable to relocate it in the thick willows here. I know I want to bird this location later in the fall in the future—I imagine it could turn up some nice eastern vagrants!
Back in Utah, we picked up Baird’s Sandpiper at a roadside pond before finally snagging a Ferruginous Hawk at the stakeout from the previous week. Working on upping the tour total we birded Lee Kay Ponds in Salt Lake Valley for Neotropic Cormorant before breaking for a bit. In the evening we set off to look for Black Swift. It was a hot day in northern Utah and after it cooled very few swifts were out at our breeding site. We did spot a few White-throated Swift and eventually had 2 swifts that looked good for Black Swift, but were quite high, and I wasn’t comfortable making the call on birds that we couldn’t be sure about.
We wrapped the tour up with the pièce de résistance, and my favorite—the Flammulated Owl. Even weeks after breeding season, we still located 3 Flammy’s, successfully locating the big 3 for the mini most wanted.
Ending with a bang--Flammulated Owl to warp things up
After what was a really tough summer for the world, the country, the tour industry, and my company I was just happy to be able to lead some tours this year. I really enjoy the most wanted tours and it was fun to be able to show a few new birds to clients.
We ended up with 135 species for the tour and with the exception of the difficult to get swift we got every other target bird for the tour!
Photos from this tour can be found here:
Labels: Calliope Hummingbird, Cassia Crossbill, Flammulated Owl, Gray Partridge, Himalyan Snowcock, Idaho, Lewis's Woodpecker, Most Wanted, Nevada, Sagebrush Sparrow, utah
July 27 - August 1, 2020 - From Salt Lake City, Utah
In early summer as we realized covid-19 wouldn’t allow us to proceed with our group tours as usual, we canceled all our summer group itineraries. It was pretty disappointing, but the right thing to do, and really the only thing to do. As luck would have it one cent wanted to do a private tour with the most wanted as the base and an additional few days on the tail end. With a target list, we planned out a tour in place of what would have been the 2nd most wanted tour of the summer
My clients arrived on July 27th and we did an earlier than usual pickup with some of the usual birding around the airport. Kicking things off we snagged a few
Neotropic Cormorant and most of the usual breeders in the wetlands here. What we did next was head into the mountains for some birding not usually included on the tour—but what might now be a big part given the luck we had. Right off the bat, we found a cooperative
Cordilleran Flycatcher—followed by 6 more over the next hour! We had great looks at
Red-naped Sapsucker and
Hairy Woodpecker and picked up all the usual montane breeders.
Red-naped Sapsucker dressed to the nines!
The major prize though was a pair of American Three-toed Woodpecker. I had been following a pair all summer and they didn’t disappoint today.
This American Three-toed Woodpecker was a first on a Most Wanted Tour
An unusual highlight was an early 1Y
Nashville Warbler, the first for a most wanted tour. We progressed through the afternoon picking up
American Dipper, and a variety of target species, as well as an unexpected
Peregrine Falcon while we ate dinner in a parking lot as we avoided eating with crowds. We visited our
Black Swift nest site and at 8:30 pm got really good looks at 2 birds flying over.
Black Swift soaring overhead
After dark, we didn’t have to work very hard to track down 4 Flammulated Owls. Very cooperative birds that let us enjoy their presence while they called in the dark and we occasionally lit the trees nearby for great looks.
One of 130 Flammulated Owls we encountered on tours this summer.
On morning 2, we set off for the desert habitat southwest of Salt Lake City. Being late in the season it can sometimes be difficult to track down some of the usual suspects. We did pretty well locating 9 Gray Vireo including one bird that followed us as I imitated a pygmy-owl and walked through the junipers.
Gray Vireo still singing at the end of July
We picked up Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay, Juniper Titmouse, and Bewick’s Wren as expected but missed Gray Flycatcher and Ash-throated Flycatcher. These early arriving species can be tough but we usually get them this late. My theory was that we had an early spring and many of the breeders had departed due to how dry things were and the lack of water this year.
Moving into the sagebrush habitat we added Brewer’s Sparrow and Black-throated Sparrow. While Sagebrush Sparrow was a miss, I was confident we would pick that up in Nevada. We got some bonus birds that weren’t expected today including a large flock of Mountain Bluebirds, and a Green-tailed Towhee pretty far out of habitat. An extra stop ended up securing a Sagebrush Sparrow so another big target was out of the way.
Black-throated Sparrow is one of our flashier breeding sparrows
Heading towards Nevada we picked up a
Ferruginous Hawk. Not at our usual spot, this stakeout bird had been present at another location all summer. We arrived in Elko on a hot afternoon and opted to relax in the AC of our hotels instead of try birding in the heat. A little evening birding around town produced some usual suspects, but nothing out of the ordinary.
Day 3 kicked off bright and early—we arrived at the trailhead at 4:15 am and were at our viewpoint by 5:26 am. As the sky started to lighten I scanned the slopes which were almost completely devoid of snow for the first time on a tour. We heard several
Himalayan Snowcock start to call then spotted several flying off some far cliffs and out of the canyon. I moved the scope to where they left for and as luck would have it a single bird was sitting there still. I got the clients on the scope and bird and after short looks, they told me the bird was gone.
I attempted to relocate it, but nothing. I started scanning and nothing. For the next 2 hours, I worked my way back and forth across the canyon and along the slopes—nothing. That was it. If we hadn’t have been in place right at sunrise we would have missed the birds. It was a bit frustrating, but we did get the bird so it worked out. We headed down the trail and picked up
Lewis’s Woodpecker unexpectedly along the trail, along with our usual
Dusky Flycatchers,
Rock Wrens, and
MacGillivray’s Warblers.
Lewis's Woodpecker taking flight
We spent the rest of the day relaxing before visiting the desert and reservoir south of town. A Semipalmated Plover at South Fork was a good find, while everything else was expected. On day 4 we decided to head back south of town. We found a roosting Common Nighthawk that was more than accommodating for photos.
Common Nighthawk really have an incredible pattern
We also picked up our target Gray Flycatcher that we missed in Utah. Another super cooperative bird landed on the same post as the roosting nighthawk. In the early morning light we enjoyed some great photo ops on various twigs, brushes, and fence posts!
Gray Flycatcher success in Nevada
Turning our attention towards Idaho we left Elko and made our way north. We did make a brief stop to check out a Sagebrush Sparrow stakeout that turned up 9 sparrows!!! Continuing on, we crossed the state line and were on our way into the mountains to search for crossbills. Of course, we had to make an obligatory stop at Brockman’s Feeding Station where a dozen Black-chinned Hummingbirds and 7 Broad-tailed Hummingbirds mostly controlled the feeders. A Single Rufous Hummingbird came and went sporadically, while 3 Calliope Hummingbirds were the target bird that provided numerous opportunities for good looks.
Broad-tailed Hummingbird giving a peek at that gorget color
Making our way further into the South Hills we started looking for Cassia Crossbill, but it was a warm and quiet afternoon. Our first couple stops didn’t turn up any crossbills and by mid-afternoon, I was starting to worry. My second reliable spot was also quiet, so calling an audible we took a hike to an area I hadn’t previously looked before. Coming over a hill, I flushed a crossbill and it emphatically called revealing it was a Cassia Crossbill. I saw where I thought it had gone and worked our way to the spot found the bird up in a tree feeding. It was a drab 1Y bird, but the target nonetheless!
The only Cassia Crossbill seen on this tour was this drab young bird
We ended up having a few more flyovers calling, but this lone bird was the only cooperative one! We called it a day and headed into Twin Falls for the night.
Day 5 started out in the agricultural areas south of town with Burrowing Owl, Barn Owl, and Great Horned Owl. We drove around for a bit checking all my usual Gray Partridge spots without luck. Eventually, on our final loop on one road, we turned around and like a miracle spotted 3 birds along the road that we had missed driving the other direction. We headed back to town and spent some time birding along the Snake River, with the highlight being an incredibly cooperative Lazuli Bunting.
Lazuli Bunting bringing some color to the party
With our Idaho needs met, we started heading back towards Utah, and made our way to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. While the birds typically found here in the summer are like any other marsh in the mountain west, the concentration of breeding Western Grebes, and more importuning Clark’s Grebes makes this a must-visit if you’ve never been. Both birds showed well in good numbers. We were also treated to more than 5,000 migrant Bank Swallows in a couple of large flocks, and 3 Common Goldeneye—and out of place species not normally found here in the summer.
One of around a dozen Clark's Grebes seen this day
We continued birding along the Great Salt Lake seeking out
Wilson’s Phalarope and
Red-necked Phalarope. Numbers were down considerably from previous weeks, but we did have some very close and cooperative Wilson’s for great photo ops. We wrapped up our day returning to SLC and calling it a night.
Wilson's Phalarope striking a pose
Adding an additional day to the tour we returned to the Great Salt Lake first thing in the morning and subsequently located
10 Chukar. This has been a common theme the past couple of years since a big winter kill-off 2 years ago. Birds have been reliable at first light in a couple spots, but with much fewer numbers than in the past, the mid-day finds are becoming increasingly harder.
Chukar success at first light
We spent the remainder of the day birding around Salt Lake County adding a few Utah species to my client's list, and picking up Olive-sided Flycatcher for the tour. In the evening we did a little list padding picking up a couple species we hadn’t seen yet before heading to a nearby canyon at dusk to pick up Western Screech-Owl, which did not disappoint. We located 6 screech-owls before turning in.
Our last night of owling produced numerous Western Screech-Owls
The final extended day of the tour took us on a loop through the northern Utah Mountains and southwest Wyoming desert. Visiting a mountain valley at sunrise we had incredible looks at beautifully lit Sandhill Cranes. More than a dozen cranes in golden light was definitely a tour highlight.
One very well lit Sandhill Crane
However, the bird that really left me feeling good was the incredible number of
Bobolink we found. We counted no fewer than 32 mostly young birds with a few adult males and females during the morning. Again, the lighting made for insane photo ops!
We don't normally get Bobolink on this tour, but with a 2-day extension we tracked down a few ;)
The rest of the morning filled in a few trip needs like our 5th empidonax flycatcher of the tour—
Willow Flycatcher, and more chances for photos of
American Dipper. Finding our way into southwest Wyoming where it was extremely hot despite the 2,000' elevation difference from Salt Lake City we had some good birding at a local reservoir. We found a few more
Sagebrush Sparrows, making it a 3-state species for the tour, and a surprise
Common Loon that was clearly lost.
And just like that this most wanted tour + extension was a wrap.
With 164 species it was our biggest total for this tour—although the 2 extra days definitely contributed to the bigger tally. All in all things went exceedingly well and we hit every target species for the tour!
Photos from this tour can be found here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mwbirdco/albums/72157717775481422 Labels: Black Swift, Calliope Hummingbird, Cassia Crossbill, Chukar, Flammulated Owl, Gray Partridge, Himalyan Snowcock, Idaho, Most Wanted, Nevada, utah, Western Screech-Owl, Wyoming
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