This map is a work in progress, but I wanted to share it as I have had several inquiries lately about places to go birding in St. George. With Spring Migration imminent I wanted to make sure this was available. I will be updating it periodically, so check back on it, and/or make suggestions about what else should be on here. In the future, look for a lot more maps to be shared and created as we work to make this website a valuable resource for all.


View St. George Area Birding in a larger map

I’ve talked about the gulls over the past few posts, so now let’s talk about the places to go. Below is a Google Map I created that can be printed or pulled up on your iPhone and/or Droid. I have placed a few place markers on the map to show locations to visit, as well as a short drive that might turn up some passerines while you are at it. Check it out (click on the link below the map for a large version):

View Larger

If I had a half day to go birding and didn’t want to do too much driving, I would start by visiting the Jordan River at 2300 South to look for Barrow’s Goldeneye and usually a good number of other waterfowl that are present. You can walk either north or south along the river. Heading south you can go to the oxbow area—to the north you hit the 2100 south freeway.

From there I would head west to Decker Lake to check out the gull situation, and see what waterfowl and over wintering shorebirds were around. You can take a nice walk around the lake if you have time or if you are in a hurry—park in the south parking lot, and walk west to the path for quick and close viewing of the largest portion of open water this time of year.

After Decker Lake it’s on to Lake Park where there are usually hundreds if not 1,000’s of Canada Geese during the winter. Scanning the flocks has produced Cackling, Greater White-fronted, and I believe Snow as well as Ross’s Goose over the past few years. This business park and golf course is mostly private property so stick to the roads and empty parking lots to avoid any issues with security.

If you head west out of Lake Park, you will end up at a roundabout with a large pond on the south side of the road. In the past this pond has had a decent sized flock of gulls using it, when other fresh water ponds in the area are frozen over. It is hit or miss, but if gulls are there, they will be pretty close to study. You can park on one of the side streets and walk around the pond or scan from the sidewalk.

From Lake Park, its west and north a little ways to Lee Kay Ponds which on good days is a gullers heaven—on other days it is a desolate wasteland. If the conditions are right a flock of 2,500-5,000 gulls might be found and as many as 10 species have been recorded here. Waterfowl, and a few passerines, and raptors are also usually present.

If you want to go a little further, take the frontage road from 5600 West or 7200 West out to Great Salt Lake State Park. You won’t see a lot of birds along the road, but it slows the pace for the drive, and gives the opportunity to see what is there. Sparrows, Horned Larks, and Shrikes are often seen, as well as a number of raptors. And occasionally Pronghorn, Coyote, or Red Fox are seen in the fields to the north of the road.

The last stop on the loop (which isn’t really a loop) is at Great Salt Lake State Park, which provides a great view of the lake from the south. The birding here is hit or miss, but a wide array of species could be seen, ranging from grebes, ducks, shorebirds and gulls, to passerines, hawks, and corvids. Park in the parking lot and walk the grounds, or scan from your car if the weather is bad.

This week eBird released its all new "Occurrence Maps". These maps, which are called STEM (Spatio-Temporal Exploratory Model) maps, use eBird checklists that report all species and include effort. The location of each checklist is associated with remotely-sensed information on habitat, climate, human population, and demographics. Fine-scale patterns of species occurrence relative to these variables (over 1000) are generated both regionally and temporally, to produce predicted occurrence at some 30,000 locations for every day of a single year (2008 in this case). This massive volume of information is then summarized on maps, which in many cases provide unprecedented information about the annual cycles of North American birds. These maps showcase the power of eBird – year-round, continental-scale monitoring of all species. Each species map is displayed with a text overview of the broad-scale migration patterns, along with an interesting biological story to consider.

Below is the map for Western Tanager:

Western Tanager Occurrence Map. Couresty of eBird

According to eBird:

The model performs exceptionally well for this species, and we believe these maps are accurate representations of where and when Western Tanagers occur in the United States. While some species (e.g., Mourning Dove or Red-tailed Hawk) do not have specific habitat associations, Western Tanager generally prefers pine forests for breeding. They do not breed in desert habitats, so their breeding range in the West is strongly defined by elevation and rainfall, and the tanagers are found in mid- to upper elevations in the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada ranges. The fine-scale accuracy of the model is probably largely due to the fact that the habitat layers used for the models closely match the actual habitat preferences of the species. In general STEM maps do very well with evergreen specialists, like Western Tanager and (in the East) Brown-headed Nuthatch, since one of the key layers defines this forest type quite well. During migration (April, and September - October in particular) Western Tanagers occur in a variety of western habitats, including urban and suburban parks, deserts, and even patches of trees in grasslands.

During the breeding season, the map appears to focus on the montane forests, when the migrants arrive at their breeding grounds. The pressure to arrive at breeding areas and claim territories causes the spring migration to occur relatively rapidly, as compared with the more protracted fall migration. Fall migration in Western Tanager actually begins in early to mid-July, when the first adults return to Mexico. From August to October, migration brings Western Tanagers back to the lowland areas that they use in spring, but notice how much more slowly their overall departure progresses.

Pretty cool stuff! Although this model worked out really well there seemed to be some talk about some species models weren't working out that well. Currently there are only a handful of maps available. They can be seen here.