Birdwatching in Utah…Who Would Have Thought?


Today we visited Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.  It is a nearly 80,000 acre mix of open water, mudflats, canals, and marshes.  It was created in 1928 after most of the marshes had disappeared due to human interference.  I should explain.  Early settlers in the area (1830’s) must have thought that they had hit the jackpot when they found this large flat area.  Remember Utah has very little flat land except on its west side but that is uninhabitable due to the salt deposits and the unfriendly climatic conditions.  All they had to do was drain the marshes and flat farmland appeared.  But remember Utah is dry.  If you do not irrigate you do not grow.  The same conditions existed in the 1800’s.  So they drained the land and then had to irrigate it to grow their crops…something seems ‘off’ about this.  By the 1920’s all but 4000 acres of the marsh was left mainly due to the amount of water being used for irrigation.  Why you might ask did this matter?  Well this area is on 2 different bird migratory routes.  More than 250 species of birds migrate through here each year.  A large number of water bird species rest, feed, and nest on an annual basis.  So today the area is managed for this very purpose.  We saw a few of these water birds today.  We thought that our time in Louisiana would be for bird watching, not Utah…who would have thought?

Distance Traveled = 92 km.  Wildlife Sightings = (this could take a while) Pied-billed Grebe, Eared Grebe, Western Grebe, Clark’s Grebe, American White Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Cattle Egret, White-faced Ibis, Canada Goose, Gadwall, Blue-winged Teal, Redhead Duck, Turkey Vulture, Northern Harrier, Red-tailed Hawk, Ring-necked Pheasant, American Coot, Sandhill Crane, Snowy Plover, Killdeer, Black-necked Stilt, Long-billed Curlew, Wilson’s Phalarope, Franklin’s Gull, Ring-billed Gull, California Gull, Forster’s Tern, Western Kingbird, eastern Kingbird, Common Raven, Bank Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Barn Swallow, Savannah Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Yellow-headed Blackbird.


Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge


Black-necked Stilts blocking the road


Black-necked Stilts...might make a wildlife photographer out of Sue yet!


Great Blue Heron


American Avocet


Assortment of old farm equipment


Some farming continues alongside the refuge

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Family Connection to Plantation/Slave Ownership???

Image
Wednesday June 5, 2019 We were off to visit a sugar cane plantation today and made an interesting discovery…more later. We visited the Destrehan Plantation, a large plantation along the Mississippi River.   We joined a guided tour of the original plantation house built between 1787 and 1790 by only 8 men.   Our tour was with a bus tour…no we were not on the bus tour…we just had to endure the presence of a large group of people…and you know how much I like crowds…not!!!   The plantation has a long and storied history.   It began as an indigo plantation and by 1800 switched to the more profitable sugar cane.   It was large…one mile wide and stretching 8 miles from the banks of the Mississippi River.   By the beginning of the Civil War, it had 200 slaves. It continued growing sugar cane until the early 1920’s when it was sold to a Mexican Oil Refinery.   It then became their headquarters and was abandoned in the late 1950’s and sat vacant for ov...
Read more

Back in Canada

Image
It was strange to pack up the tent trailer for the last time in a campground.  Mixed emotions actually.  We have returned across the border.  It was an uneventful day as we crossed the rest of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan. The blog will go quiet for a few days until we get home.  Check back in a few days for a wrap up of our adventure. Distance Traveled = 198 km.  Wildlife Sightings = Chipping Sparrow, Robin, Osprey, Turkey Vulture, Bald Eagle, Sandhill Crane, Crow, Raven, Chipmunk, Deer. Sue put these up again...first night and last!
Read more

A Boat Ride

Image
We took a 30 mile boat excursion today out into Lake Superior.   It could not have been better weather.   The sun shone, the wind was light, and the swales were only small ones, which we suspect is rare when venturing out into Lake Superior. This area, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, is made up of sandstone cliffs that can only be viewed from the water.   The name, ‘Pictured Rocks’, comes from the streaks of mineral stain that decorate the faces of the cliffs.   These streaks are caused by groundwater leaking out of the cracks.   The dripping water contains iron, manganese, limonite, and copper as well as many other minerals.   They are something else.   I hope that our pictures can tell the tale. It is time to move on from here.   Tomorrow we will return to Canada.   We have been on the road since May 12.   We have experienced so many things on this adventure that in many ways it will be a sad day to pack up the ‘little ten...
Read more