One day last week I was whining a bit about not doing much birding and still haven't gone out of my way to do so. But the last couple of days I have been seeing some birds and, most notably, some raptors. Yesterday Roxy and I went over to Tropic Reservoir for the first time in a while and that is where it all began. On the way out I saw a male Northern Harrier then, after her brief swim I was driving along the lake in search of waterbirds when a Bald Eagle flew over. The Common Loons I was watching (trying my hardest to will them into being Pacific Loons) dove rather quickly, to say the least. As I was heading toward the south end of the lake I spotted a Red-tailed Hawk soaring around, too. In addition to the loons there were lots of Mallards, Blue-winged Teal, and a possible merganser that I didn't get a great look at. I also saw an Oregon race Dark-eyed Junco at the lake which is the first of those (they are a Winter bird in this area - the breeding juncos here are the Gray-headed variety). On the way home I had an even better look at the male harrier and, later in the afternoon, would happen upon a female of the same species.

Today we ventured out into the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (pics to come in a later entry) and the raptor sightings continued. Out on the highway I saw an American Kestrel perched, as they frequently are, on a power line and, just a few minutes later, watched what turned out to be an immature Red-tail flush a group of starlings from atop a utility pole. Just as I was ready to move on from that sighting a spotted another pair of Red-tails soaring high over the pastures on the other side of the road. After that things went quiet for a while except for the UFS's (Unidentified Flying Sparrows) that would leave their perches on the barbed wire fences and flush as my truck rumbled past. On the way home we'd get a couple of Golden Eagles and wrapped up the day with a Prairie Falcon. Not bad for a guy not doing much birding . . .