Fun with Mealworms!

This post is dedicated to Bill Fenimore of Wild Bird Center of Layton.  (You said mealworms would be fun and you were right!!!)  

I've been feeding wild birds in the backyard for several years now, but I had never tried feeding them mealworms until now.  So far I have seen Western Tanagers, American Robins, and Black-capped Chickadees dining on mealworms.  The finches, sparrows, and grosbeaks don't seem to pay them any attention.

Eying Breakfast!

The Glutton!  American Robins tend to pick up every single mealworm they can in their bills.  Amazing how they hang on to the grubs they already have when they go for the next one.  After it can't hold any more (which is much more than you'd think) they fly off to feed their hungry brood.

Western Tanagers are much more dainty eaters than American Robins.  They delicately pick up one mealworm at a time and politely swallow it.

This fantastic photo was taken by my son Kyle, age 10.  All of these photos were taken from inside a make-shift photo-blind which I will blog about later.

Okay, one more photo of The Glutton!  I used to believe and even taught others that Robins were not feeder birds.  I guess it all depends on what you offer them in the feeders!  I have found that American Robins are readily feeder birds when I offer grape jelly and mealworms.

California Quail

Wednesday's Western Tanagers

This last weekend I set up a makeshift photo blind near my feeders and took hundreds of photos.  I had so many cool Western Tanager photos that I had to put together this short slide show.

For the last three years we've had incredible numbers of Western Tanagers in the intermountain west.  I thought we just had two irruptive years in a row, but maybe we are seeing a cyclical trend on the high side right now.  Yet, many old time birders have said that they had never in their lives seen so many Tanagers as they have in the last couple of years.  Who knows?

As you view the pictures, note the variable amounts of red-orange on the faces of the males.  See if you can pick out the females too.  Females also have variable amounts of green-yellow on their bodies, with some almost having a gray belly.  One of the tanagers photographed had been spending a lot of time with his head in the grape jelly and has a bit of grape gel in his head feathers!

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in Utah - Rare Bird Alert!

Yesterday morning, Eric Huish, found a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher at his birding patch, the Provo Airport Dike on Utah Lake.  His sighting was confirmed shortly by Tim Avery of the Utah Birders Blog. As you might imagine, a cool vagrant bird like this has the local listservs all abuzz.  I was ready to go twitching yesterday, but alas, my wife needed the family minivan so I was dropped off at work car-less.  I'm glad I wasn't able to go yesterday as all of my fellow Utah bird chasers were not able to relocate the stunning flycatcher.  A terrific windstorm rolled in during the afternoon and once I saw that storm I was sure the vagrant Scissor-tail would be gone.

To my delight, Eric reported the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher again this morning.  I went ahead and took an early lunch to make the chase.  When I arrived at the Provo Airport Dike road I found Milt Moody and Barbara Watkins who told me that the bird had not been seen for about 15 minutes.  After half an hour, an anxious group of twitchers grew to about ten people and we were all scanning every which way and chatting it up a bit.  A newly arriving birder, Dan Hunsaker said he thought he had just seen it heading our way, so we spread out a bit and started watching with renewed vigor.

Suddenly the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher flew over head and started flycatching out airport runway field.  Most of us got good looks as it flew this way and that.  With the sun behind it, it was beautiful in flight; its under-wings appearing a translucent buffy color.  We could also see the reddish flanks, white breast and light-gray head.  It occasionally perched on a tall plant or on the ground, but was most often in the air out over the open area of the airport runway field.  At one point it perched on the fence near the airport tower and a few of us took some long distance photos.  The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher was back-lit, but I think the photos will be diagnostic enough to support Eric's rare bird report.

This Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is presumed to be a juvenile as it has not yet developed the two long tail plumes, but does have a long forked tail.

To establish how cool a sighting this is in Utah, below are a couple maps showing the typical range and where the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher has been seen by eBirders.  The Utah Bird Records Committee shows eight previously accepted sightings going back to 1948, with 15 total reports on record.  There are just four accepted reports in the past decade, the most recent being in May 2005 in Wayne County (southern Utah).


Again, it was great to meet in real life those leading Utah birders whose names I have been seeing online.  The guys behind Westwings Birding Tours: David Wheeler and Mark Stackhouse.  David was recently mentioned here on this blog for the Palm Warbler sighting in Salt Lake.  Mark Stackhouse, currently lives in Mexico, but visits family in Utah regularly and leads tours when he is here too.  Milt Moody - the webmaster of UtahBirds.org.  Bryant Olsen - a regular reporter on Utah listservs.  Larene Wyss - who sports one of Utah's largest life lists. Barbara Watkins - who I've been told has an enormous world life list. LeIla Ogden and another gentleman who I asked his name, but with all the excitement it didn't stick with me.

The Provo Airport Dike is also an amazing Utah Birding Hotspot.  eBird records currently show 230 species reported here, and that list is obviously growing! A road runs along the dike which separates Utah Lake on the west from the airport runway.  An irrigation canal also runs along the road to the east.  Utah Lake State Park is adjacent to the airport.  There is a wonderful corridor of trees, brush, marsh, and wild grasses, plus lots of fence line for perching birds.  No wonder it has been getting so many rarities this spring!

Map created by Tim Avery

Pine Siskin & Lesser Goldfinch

This Pine Siskin allowed me to approach the edge of the feeder without the slightest concern.  I'm thinking it was a pretty recent fledgling.  It was much plumper than the adult Pine Siskins, which is a common attribute of fledglings among many types of birds.  Their parents just spent all their stores of fat migrating, incubating, and feeding their chicks.  So, the chicks often look huge next to their exhausted parents.  The other less scientific reason I am confident this is a young Pine Siskin - look at all the food on its face!

Check out the bill deformity on this female Lesser Goldfinch!  A little cross-bill action with a sword for a bottom lip.

even more Random Bird Photos

Sage Thrasher - Antelope Island, UT

Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher - Garr Ranch, Antelope Island

Barn Swallow and nest - Antelope Island Visitors Center

more Random Bird Photos

Horned Lark - on the edge of the road as they are often found - Antelope Island State Park

Great Horned Owlet - Garr Ranch, Antelope Island State Park

Can you identify this Empidonax Flycatcher?
Garr Ranch, Antelope Island

Rose-breasted Grosbeak in Utah: Updated!

Birding friends across Utah have been reporting and photographing random Rose-breasted Grosbeaks; nice gorgeous males that leave no question as to identification.  I've been having several Black-headed Grosbeaks visit my feeders recently and have been hoping and wishing that a Rose-breasted Grosbeak might show up. This morning, I looked out on the feeder and saw three Grosbeaks, one male Black-headed, and two females, but one female looked quite different than the other.  

The 'different' female gave the general impression of black & white, while the female Black-headed Grosbeak showed some color; an obvious buffy breast.  Once I saw that, I immediately looked at the bill color.  I have studied the difference between the two grosbeaks enough to know that B-H's have a bi-colored bill and R-B's have pinkish bills.  

I crept back into the house and grabbed the camera and got off a couple shots before it flew off.

The next photo I share only because it best shows the coarse streaking that continues across the breast. Female Black-headed Grosbeaks may have some finer streaking on their flanks and breasts, but it fades toward the center of the breast.

For comparison purposes, below is a close-up of a female Black-headed Grosbeak that I also took this morning.  Note the bi-colored bill - the top mandible is almost a metallic color.  Also note the amount or buffy-orange compared to the grosbeak pictured above.

There is always the possibility of it being a hybrid or intergrade, but nothing in the photos or in my arsenal of field guides seems to indicate that.  I am hoping some of you east coast birders or expert Grosbeak identifiers can help me confirm whether or not I had a Rose-breasted Grosbeak in my Utah backyard.  It would be a life bird for me!

UPDATE:  Later this afternoon I set up a make-shift blind and was able to get a much better photograph of what I am now confident is a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Life bird in my own backyard.  Oh yeah!!!

Random Bird Photos

Yellow Warbler
Photo taken at Memory Grove Park in Salt Lake City

Tiny, but fierce-looking guard of a closed section of Antelope Island State Park, UT

Barn Swallow at the Antelope Island Visitors Center

A new Memorial Day Birding Tradition?

My wife and I both are descendants of Mormon Pioneers; those hardy families who migrated across the plains and mountains in covered wagons or pulled handcarts to Utah between 1847 and 1868.  That being the case, we both have several ancestors buried all across Utah.  This year for Memorial Day we decided to take the family to area cemeteries and see if we could find the graves of some of our ancestors.  Another one of my nerdy hobbies is genealogy and family history.  My secondary ambition with this family adventure would be seeing how many species of birds I could find in those cemeteries.  If you haven't learned already, cemeteries are often fantastic birdwatching locations!

Memorial Day 2011 in the Salt Lake area will be most memorable because of the amount of rain we were getting.  In spite of the rain and localized flooding, I was impressed to find that the cemeteries were bumper-to-bumper with families paying their respects to fallen soldiers and their kindred dead.  Because of the weather and the amount of traffic, the birding was not all that spectacular, though I did net 30 or so species and we did find several headstones of our forefathers and mothers.

While we were trying to locate the headstone of one of my wife's progenitors in the historic Salt Lake City Cemetery, this Mourning Dove flew right over our heads and landed behind us.  I started taking photos of it and recognized immediately the name on the monument, Ebenezer Beesley (photo at the top of the post).  Ebenezer Beesley happens to be the composer of several of the most popular hymns sung in LDS churches around the world.  Kinda cool, I think!

My kids at the grave marker of my 4th Great Grandparents - Evan Melbourne Greene and Susan Kent.  Evan and Susan's mothers were sisters, and sisters to Brigham Young.  First cousins getting married in those days was not all that uncommon.  It still is kinda weird from today's perspective and understanding of the increased risk of passing along genetic defects.  Evan was a pioneer, a school teacher, farmer, the mayor and postmaster of Provo, Utah and also served in the Utah Territory legislature where he compiled the book of laws.  Yep, there is a second wife's name on that headstone.  He was also a polygamist and had possibly three or four other wives too.  All kinds of interesting history!

My family has more plans to visit cemeteries and the towns where our ancestors lived, and of course I will combine that family history research with birding across Utah!

If you are interested in genealogy and family history here are some helpful links:
To find my ancestors graves, apart from my own personal records, I used the Utah Burials Index and FindAGrave.com

Review: Avian Architecture: How Birds Design, Engineer & Build

This has got to be one of the coolest bird books I've ever come across! Maybe its because I'm a home builder, or maybe its just because bird nests are universally appealing and awe inspiring.  Avian Architecture may unravel some of the mystery behind how birds make their nests, but Peter Goodfellow thoroughly reveals a complexity in nest building that makes birds all the more astounding!

The Bullock's Oriole hanging-sock nest has long been a feat of bird engineering that boggles my mind.  I've seen their nests come together in a matter of days, but I've yet to take the time to observe how they do it.  Well, Goodfellow has taken the time to study and watch how birds build their nests.  What's more is that he has found a creative way to share his knowledge in this fantastic compilation of blueprints, building techniques, materials used, nest design, and lots of beautiful photographs of all the varieties of nests from around the world.

Nest Types discussed in Avian Architecture:  Scrape Nests, Holes & Tunnels, Platform, Aquatic, Cup-shaped, Domed, Mud, Hanging, Woven & Stitched, Mound, Colonies & Group, Courts & Bowers, Edible nests & Food Stores. 

I'll let the pages of this must-have book speak for themselves.  Trust me, you're gonna want this!  Here are some sneak-peeks courtesy of the publisher, Princeton University Press:

Grasshopper Sparrow

I had heard it only once before...last summer in the Boise foothills.  The habitat on Antelope Island was right for it and the sound I was hearing was distinct.  I had my son look it up on iBird and play the sound just to confirm.  I was right!  It was a Grasshopper Sparrow.  Within seconds we found it trilling from the top of a sage brush right on the edge of the road.  (Listen to the Grasshopper Sparrow)  I'm not sure why the Grasshopper Sparrow song stuck in my memory so profoundly, and I was delightfully surprised that I recognized it.

The Grasshopper Sparrow is not exceedingly common in the intermountain west, so it is a treat when you find its spring and summer haunts.  See the Cornell and eBird maps below to get an idea of its range and migration pattern.

The Grasshopper Sparrow is among the smaller of the sparrows; about the same size as a Chipping Sparrow in my experience.  In the western United States, there aren't too many similar looking sparrows, but in the east an identification might be a little more challenging. The bold white eye-ring contrasting with the orange-brown cheek makes the eye appear proportionally large.  The crown sports a white stripe down the middle with blacks stripes on either side and buff stripes outside of those. Adult Grasshopper Sparrows have unstreaked breasts and have an orange or buff appearance.  The upper parts (mantle, back, and scapulars) are a splash of black, white, and various shades of brown and rust.  In non-worn breeding plumage you'll see white edges on the coverts creating thin wing-bars.

I think their head has a very distinct shape.  The curvature of the skull continues straight into the bill without a break.  The top of the bill is also darker than the rest of the bill.  This head profile appears to be similar on most of the Ammodramus sparrows.

There are a dozen subspecies of Grasshopper Sparrow, with four subspecies breeding in North America (AllAboutBirds.org).  The most likely in the west, north of Arizona, would be the perpallidus* which, by definition of the classification name, appears "paler" than the other varieties.  That description seems to match my photos when compared other photos and illustrations.

I thought the name "Grasshopper" Sparrow referred to the sound it makes, but it turns out that it does eat grasshoppers too!

This was only my second ever sighting of a Grasshopper Sparrow and my first in the state of Utah.  Pretty cool!

*Sparrows of the United States and Canada: The Photographic Guide. Beadle & Rising

My 2011 Birding Goals

Just for the sake of some personal accountability, I want to give an update on my progress toward completing my 2011 birding goals.

2011 Birding Goals

1. Submit 700 checklists to eBird
2. Add 20 life birds - this will take some luck.
3. My current Utah life list is at 72 species, so I'm going to shoot for 150 which should be achievable and hopefully will not add any undue stress on my family.

Well, I not quite on track with my eBird checklist submissions.  I have only submitted 141 so far, well below my pace last year when I was hosting an eBird competition in Idaho.  Regardless of how well I perform on this goal, I at least want to meet my own challenge that I am happy to give to others of an average of at least one eBird checklist per day.

I'm excited to have added six life birds so far this year: Band-tailed Pigeon, Palm Warbler, Glossy Ibis, Northern Pygmy-Owl, Plumbeous Vireo, and Ruddy Ground-dove.  Without some luck, significant travel and/or chasing, this goal could be pretty difficult to obtain this year!

UPDATE! Today during my lunch hour, I went up to Mill Creek Canyon where I observed 4 Virginia's Warblers, so that is my 7th Life Bird this year!  Wahoo!!!

My Utah life list goal has been easily surpassed as I am currently at 171.  Perhaps this goal was to easy.  Perhaps I should bump it up to 200 birds on my Utah Life List.

Did you have any birding goals this year?  How are you doing so far?

While I was birding...

Snoozing Porcupine on Antelope Island - The Great Salt Lake

And for Mike B. of Slugyard, these photos are for you buddy...