During the winter this is a great place to look for raptors and I wasn't disappointed today. I watched an American Kestrel take a mouse and begin eating it while it was still alive. Suddenly, a Sharp-Shinned Hawk was on the scene, attempting to steal the prize. Behind the Sharpie, a Black-billed Magpie. It was an interesting and memorable scene watching the Kestrel fly off being pursued by these two would-be scavengers.
Further down the trail, were a couple more Sharpies and out in the fields an adult Bald Eagle surveyed the entire scene. The most prevalent species by far were the numerous Red-winged Blackbirds that continued to fly past the entire hour I was there, heading North to a presumed evening roost along the lake. Skipper Bay is always a great spot. The pictures in this post were taken there today. Complete e-bird list is below.
Location: Skipper Bay Trail
Observation date: 12/27/10
Notes: Walked back and forth up skipper bay trail. The entire time large flocks of blackbirds were flying over, heading north to a presumed nighttime roost. While an approximation, I believe based on my rough counts that 12,000 is the MINIMUM number I saw.
Number of species: 21
Canada Goose 18
Mallard 15
Ring-necked Pheasant 1
Bald Eagle 1
Northern Harrier 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 3
American Kestrel 1
Ring-billed Gull 4
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 2
Black-billed Magpie 16
Black-capped Chickadee 4
Marsh Wren 9
American Robin 35
European Starling 200
Song Sparrow 12
White-crowned Sparrow 16
Dark-eyed Junco 5
Red-winged Blackbird 12000
American Goldfinch 8
House Sparrow 13
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
Labels: trip reports, utah county
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