After setting up a couple feeders at Snowbird last night I decided to see if anything had stumbled upon them yet. When I arrived at the feeders they looked as full as yesterday so I moved on and did my regular birding loop of Alta on the bypass road. After doing that and not finding any birds I headed back to the feeders, pulled off the road, and parked the car to sit and wait. It didn't take long for a Steller's Jay to show up, followed by a Mountain Chickadee, and then another, and another Steller's Jay. The birds were not using the feeders, but instead picking seed up I spilled the day before. So I made the decision to pull down one of the feeders, emptying its contents on the snow below the other feeder. After a few minutes the same birds returned. I spent a little while photographing before I took off, here is one of the jays:

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The traffic was a bit annoying, but didn't seem to bother the birds. I think the food on the ground will be a little more effective than that in the feeder, but both are nice to have. Now let's see if the Rosy-Finches can find their way to this new spot!

Oh yeah, I did see one other bird while I was up there... It was the rare and infamous "whirly-bird". Pretty cool photo opportunity being in the right place at the right time.

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This winter has been dismal at the bird. It's already mid February and I am without a Rosy-Finch for the year. Typically Alta and Snowbird produce decent numbers of easy to view Black and Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches, but this winter it seems to be pretty miss and miss. I am not sure of others luck but each trip I have made up the canyon has been to see empty feeders. Well today I decided I wasn't going to drive up to an empty group of random feeders again this winter--I was going to make my own luck.

I picked up two cheap feeders from Home Depot, grabbed a couple pounds of mixed see from my garage, and Sam and I headed up Little Cottonwood Canyon to scout a few locations. After driving around a bit I decided on a tree right off the main road with an area that has enough room to safely pull off and out of traffics way, and hung the two feeders at eye-level:


Ah, two feeders, filled to the brim with seed and easy to find. So here is what I am asking. If you go up to view the feeders please bring a little bit of food with you to help keep the feeders full. As long as they are still there, birds will come in and be easy to view. You can walk right up to the feeders and twist the tops off to fill in a minute or two as they are only about 25 feet from the road.

As for the where, they are exactly 6.15 miles up the canyon from the park and ride right at the mouth. Once you have gone just about 6 miles you will pass the 1st entrance to Snowbird, and from there it's .2 miles to the feeders on the right (south) side of the road just before the 2nd entrance to the Bird.

Please let us know what you are seeing if you go up there, hopefully these will stay up for a while. I am also working on getting a couple more up at another location and will post more about that if it happens.