The morning of Monday the sixth I finished up my birding in California and began the long voyage east that will take me through through the “next layer north” of states I haven’t yet visited before turning north when I reach the Atlantic Ocean, following spring warbler migration along the east coast. There’s still plenty of birding to do before I find myself on the east coast, though the first of which being in Sacramento, where I met Eric Johnson at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery, where we spent just shy of two hours walking the path along the river.
Eric and I had a great morning of birding, with highlights of a very elegantly perched Bald Eagle, loads of swallows, predominantly Tree Swallow with some Northern Rough-winged Swallow mixed in, and an unsatisfactory-but-acceptable look at a Great Horned Owl roosting inside of a rock crevasse.
After the morning at the Fish Hatchery and adjacent trails, I parted ways with Eric and headed east towards Reno, Nevada. Once entering Nevada I followed up on some advice provided to me by a birder I would meet later that evening, Paul Hurtado. My primary target was American Dipper, which I – pardon the pun – dipped on at my first two stops. Still, my walks at Mayberry Park and Crystal Peak Park were very productive stops, adding Golden Crowned Sparrow, California Scrub-Jay, California Quail, Belted Kingfisher, and Downy Woodpecker to my Nevada list. Third time was the charm, however, as within a couple of minutes of arriving at the Mogul Bridge, I spotted my Lifer American Dipper, followed shortly by my Lifer Black-billed Magpie – both birds I would see quite a few of over the coming days, and both birds that I am still nowhere near tired of seeing.
Once I was satisfied with my looks at the two Lifers, I headed into the city of Reno, stopping first at a small park along the river, Idlewild Park. Idlewild treated me well, providing not only fantastic looks at a Northern Pintail, but also my first-for-Nevada Wood Duck, American Crow, Red-shouldered Hawk, and, rather excitingly, a male Barrow’s Goldeneye. After a short walk I left Idlewild to head to Spark’s Marina, a small reservoir pond that TON’s of gulls like to roost at. There I was joined by Paul, and we spent a while scanning through the gulls, which were predominantly California Gull with a few Ring-billed Gull mixed in. We scanned through the flock to find any other species but didn’t have any luck doing so, and eventually Paul had to head out – giving me some solid advice for places to go birding in the area the next morning before he left.
I stayed for a while after Paul left, continuing to scan through the flock, which grew ever-larger as more and more gulls flew in to roost. Eventually I was able to pick out a single American Herring Gull, but I was unable to pick out either of my main targets in Lesser Black-backed Gull or Iceland Gull before I called it a night and settled in for the night in the parking lot of a local Walmart.
The next morning I started my day with a visit to the Damonte Ranch Wetlands, where immediately upon arriving I saw my main target for the morning: a group of Tundra Swan – a species which I previously hadn’t managed to see at all this year! Also present in the wetlands were Lesser Yellowlegs and Least Sandpiper, both of which were new for Nevada for me and brought my state list to a total of 147 species – a number that would remain final as I made the decision to begin the long drive for Salt Lake City, Utah, where I would be spending the next couple days.
The drive from Nevada to Utah was a rather uneventful one, with there being very few stops right along the highway that I deemed worth prolonging the day, and by late afternoon I’d entered Utah! I didn’t do much birding there that evening, though I did spot an assortment of waterfowl including Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Mallard, Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, and Common Goldeneye spread throughout various small ponds along the side of the highway north of Salt Lake City. Unfortunately, this day was plagued by an issue that had been slowly worsening over the past couple days: dental pain. Back in early February I had started to have some minor pain and I scheduled a dentist appointment for while I was in Albuquerque, where they determined I needed a root canal on one of my molars, requiring an Endodontist to perform the operation. With the pain at that point being very mild, I scheduled an appointment for March 17th in Albuquerque, with the plan being to swing down to New Mexico for the appointment after wrapping up birding in Colorado. Unfortunately, however, during my last few days in California the pain had begun to escalate, but was still – for the most part – manageable. The 4th was the first day where it was bad. Like, really bad.
Thankfully, the evening of the 4th wasn’t as bad as most of the day had been, so when I met Dave Hanscom at his house in Park City, Utah, I was able to eat the dinner he prepared and then fall asleep easily after we had spent some time discussing our plans for the 5th.
The morning of the 5th Dave and I woke early and headed to the Henefer Lek, a known lekking sight of Greater Sage-Grouse, of which at least 31 were present, several of whom put on incredible displays in the middle of the road just 20 or so feet from where Dave and I were parked. We spent nearly twenty minutes watching the awesome little chicken-like birds before heading on to continue our full day of birding around the area north and east of Salt Lake City. We made a couple stops along the East Canyon State Park Reservoir, adding a few new Utah birds for me, before eventually heading to the legendary Antelope Island State Park.
Along the Causeway to Antelope Island Dave and I had birds aplenty, including over 10,000 total ducks as well as a large flock of Snow Goose with some Ross’s Goose mixed in at least 1,340 American Avocet, though I suspect even that number is on the very, very conservative side. Several Northern Harrier hunted the marshes along the causeway, a flock of Brewer’s Blackbird flew overhead, and we were able to identify one of the females mixed in with the Common Goldeneye as a Barrow’s Goldeneye, making it the first female Barrow’s I’d ever seen. Once on the Island we stopped at the Marina, from which we spotted a couple more Barrow’s Goldeneye and heard a few Horned Lark. At Ladyfinger Point we heard a singing Western Meadowlark and spotted a Rock Wren.
While on Antelope Island I added another Lifer that I will (hopefully) see plenty more of this year: American Bison. While not a bird, this was still an exciting addition to my far-less-formally-kept Mammal Life List. After seeing the Bison we began to head back towards the mainland, spotting a pair of Chukar chasing each other around the base of some large rocks before making it back to the causeway.
Once back on the mainland we headed to the Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area, stopping first at the adjacent GSL Nature Center. We added a few more birds on the day while there, including Great Blue Heron, Marsh Wren, Pied-billed Grebe, Canvasback, and Common Merganser. From there we made our way to the Bountiful Pond park, where we spotted some Great-tailed Grackle along the pond itself, but our primary objective was to scope the adjacent landfill, picking through the plentiful California Gull and Ring-billed Gull for anything else in the mix, eventually having success in finding both American Herring Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull.
After Bountiful Pond we headed back west of Salt Lake City, stopping in the Pinebrook neighborhood at the feeders of one of Dave’s friends, where we added Black-capped Chickadee, Pine Siskin, Steller’s Jay, and Northern Flicker to my Utah list before driving up Bitter Ranch Road (not a hotspot, though I think it should be!), a known location for Lewis’s Woodpecker. After Bitter Ranch we made our way to the Rockport State Park Reservoir, tracking down a large flock of my Lifer Pinyon Jay nearby and then adding a group of Wild Turkey in the park itself. From there we headed back to Dave’s house, spotting a pair of American Dipper in a flowing rocky creek along the way.
While the day of birding had been excellent, around 3pm or so my tooth pain began to flare up, and by the time we made it back to Dave’s house I was in absolute agony. I took some pain meds and prayed the pain would die down, but that night I’m not sure I managed even a minute of sleep, instead just laying in agony. That was the day that Week Nine’s post was supposed to come out, but between it already having been delayed a few hours due to me not having had time to work on it the day before and now me being in too much pain to even focus on looking at my laptop, let alone focus on writing, I was forced to push it off further. Oh well, I should have plenty of time tomorrow to work on it after parting ways with Dave, right? *Queue ominous foreshadowing music.*
The next day Dave and I did a brief loop in the morning, swinging through the towns of Marion and Francis in search of any Prairie Falcon of Merlin that frequent the surrounding fields, though we had no such luck. We did have a lone American Goldfinch at a feeder in Marion that Dave said regularly hosts a large flock of them, and then spotted a Sharp-shinned Hawk just after leaving the town of Francis. On our way to our final stop for the day at Rock Cliffs State Park, Dave located a Golden Eagle perched along some rock cliffs (not the park), and then at the park itself I heard and we eventually saw a Brown Creeper. With Dave having lunch obligations in the afternoon, we made our way back to his house where I finally managed to track down a Mountain Chickadee at his feeders, and then I said goodbye and drove down into Salt Lake City.
On my way to my planned stop, the Fife Wetlands Preserve, I missed my exit. Oh well, not a big deal, I just now needed to take the next exit, double back, and spend a bit more time driving through the city on my way to the park. While on this unplanned detour, I was forced to brake abruptly when the vehicle in front of me did the same, and while I – thanks to the fact that I was paying attention the road and the car(s) in front of me – managed to avoid rear-ending the car in front of me, the same cannot be said about the driver behind me, who clearly wasn’t paying enough attention to the car in front of him – AKA me. This was… well… a catastrophe the ramifications of which I would spend the next several days trying to figure out, and more can be read about that in my last two posts. To make matters worse, the 6th was probably the day in which my tooth pain was at its worse – though honestly it hadn’t been hurting much at all prior to the accident and only flared up in the aftermath, worsening the already intolerable stress of the situation.
After the accident, figuring that my best bet for repairs would be in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I began heading south, ending the day without much more birding in Cedar City. There, on the morning of the 7th, I went for a short hike along the Canyon Trail and made a quick stop by the Bulldog Road Pond, between which I brought my Utah total from 73 to 80. After those morning stops I started heading south towards my main destination for the day: Zion National Park. I made several stops along various satellite properties of Zion, including Colob Canyon Road and Colob Reservoir Road, as well as a few non-Zion-related spots including New Harmony Road, Dalton Wash Road and finally Springdale Pond right outside the entrance to Zion National Park itself. Throughout those stops I added another 16 Utah birds (bringing me to 96), with highlights including Cassin’s Finch, Gambel’s Quail, Rufous-crowned Sparrow, and Red-naped Sapsucker.
Once I entered Zion Park itself I first stopped at the Visitor Center before starting the Scenic Drive, and boy, did the Scenic Drive live up to the it’s name. Zion was one of the most spectacular, impressive, incredible places I have ever been, and while the drive – and the many stops I made along it – weren’t exactly loaded with birds, the six new birds I added there brought my Utah total past the Century mark to 102, making it the 13th state to reach 100 this year. Once I concluded the drive I headed back to Cedar City to first finish up my Week Nine post and then spend another night in the Walmart parking lot there, with the plan of spending the 8th driving east across Utah into Colorado.
With the 8th being a day primary spent driving, it was a particularly un-birdy day. In fact, both in terms of total species seen (28) and new state birds added (0), it was by far my least birdy day this year. It was, however, still a great day. For starters, my tooth pain started to lessen in intensity, but even more so I had a great time at Capitol Reef National Park, where along the scenic drive I spotted another couple Chukar and some Pinyon Jay, and then walked the Capitol Gorge Trail, along which I heard a couple Canyon Wren singing in a canyon – the first time I have heard them in an environment where their calls echoed off the walls around me.
After this hike I stopped to make myself lunch, and while there had a wonderful chat with a Vanlifer, a girl named Georgia who works a full-time remote job and travels the county with her dog Maggie, visiting all sorts of awesome places. She gave me a bunch of advice for living on the road, and I learned that she chronicles her adventures on her Instagram account, @vanosaurandmaggie.
I didn’t do any more birding on Saturday after leaving Utah, but I made up for that with an incredible day of birding on Sunday the 9th, on which I got my Colorado birding off to an incredible start! My birding on the 9th was primarily spent in-and-around the Grand Junction area, with morning stops at the United Gravel Pit Pond, Grand Valley Audubon Nature Center, and Ela Wildlife Sanctuary on my way to my first major stop of the day, Colorado River State Park. Those first three stops got me off to a steady start, and I was already at 22 species by the time I arrived at the State Park with highlights including an Osprey and an assortment of various ducks and songbirds. At the State Park itself, though, I had a spectacularly birdy time, picking up a wide variety of ducks including Cinnamon Teal and Hooded Merganser, many more different songbirds including birds like Bushtit and Yellow-rumped Warbler, and a variety of other great birds such as Western Screech-Owl and Gambel’s Quail.
From Colorado River State Park I made my way to the Colorado National Monument, where along the main road – in addition to some fantastic scenery and another mammal Lifer in Desert Bighorn Sheep – I picked up Golden Eagle, Pinyon Jay, Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay, Juniper Titmouse and a few other new Colorado birds. I then headed east into the mountains, where near the Powderhorn Ski Area I stopped at a set of very busy feeders, which were absolutely loaded with Dark-eyed Junco, Black-capped Chickadee, Mountain Chickadee, Red-winged Blackbird, Steller’s Jay, and Pine Siskin. Also in the mix at the feeders, though in smaller numbers than the already-named birds, were some Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, Black Rosy-Finch, Cassin’s Finch, and American Goldfinch.
Finally I made one last stop in Week Ten at the Delta County G50 Road area, where Brewer’s Blackbird, Western Meadowlark, Northern Harrier, Sandhill Crane, and Northern Pintail would bring me to 72 Colorado species in just my first day in the state. The 9th was also another significant decrease in my tooth pain, though I was still at this point in somewhat of a state of limbo, not knowing what the coming days would bring in terms of dealing with the repairs needed for my car and waiting to hear back from various body shops as well as my insurance agent. Fortunately the answers to those concerns would come early in Week Eleven, during which I will continue birding Colorado before heading south for that root canal to hopefully make my current lessening of pain a more permanent elimination of pain.
Until next week, though, Happy Birding!
eBird Trip Summary:
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Follow me on my journey to see 100 species in every Lower-48 State during 2025, experience some of the incredible places and events in American birding, and meet and bird with as many local birders as possible along the way.
Posts will be made every Wednesday (I will try to have them out by 5pm, but situationally they might be a bit later) and will cover the previous Monday through Sunday. Additional posts will be made periodically with no set schedule.
