The past couple of days have been kind of productive with 5 new avian species to add to the year list plus a reptile (of course the lizard won't go on the bird list . . . ). The 3 Dendroica warbler species that breed at Bryce are now present and accounted for with the addition of Yellow-rumped (Audubon's) Warbler and Black-throated Gray Warbler (a positively striking male) in the last 24 hours. I added Grace's last week and for the past couple of days a male has been singing his heart out here in the campground. Sunday I found a Wilson's Phalarope hanging out near the Mallards over at Tropic Reservoir; today a Red-breasted Nuthatch was calling before coming into the open for a look near my trailer and, at the Post Office, saw some Barn Swallows buzzing around in their quest for insects. I'm now at 94 on the year for the state list and 78 species on the Bryce list.

I went the entire summer last year without seeing a Mountain Short-horned Lizard, though it is said they are fairly common. Last Thursday when I came home for lunch there was a pair of them scurrying around near my trailer. It got chilly again so, unless something ate them, they must have gone back below ground to wait for warmer temps (in fact, someone at work mentioned it seemed a bit early). We'll keep an eye out, but for now I'm more interested in the arrival of the Western Tanagers . . .

Update: We can add 3 more to the list: On the way out to the reservoir I saw some Tree Swallows barely 1/2 mile outside the park, then, at the reservoir, a Franklin's Gull (what a tough ID, even though I wouldn't expect to find many species of black hooded gulls in Utah; it was out in the middle of the lake, bobbing up and down in the waves - it's windy again today), and finally a Western Kingbird on the way back home. Now at 97 for the year and 81 for the park. Just for fun I counted the Eared Grebes at the reservoir: 130+ (hard to count as they were swimming in tight rafts among the whitecaps - tried really hard, to no avail, to see if I could find a Horned Grebe in the mix, too).

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Almost forgot what day of the week it was . . . Friday kind of snuck up on me. Last week's bird was a Black Phoebe; for this week a bird that is listed as "uncommon" here at Bryce, but supposed to be a local breeder. Gonna have to find one soon, I guess.

As always, good luck and great birding!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 07:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yesterday (Tues.) I heard a song just outside the employee laundry so grabbed my binos to see if I could find it and ended up with the season's first warbler, Dendroica graciae (Grace's Warbler). Just for good measure one popped next to the old homestead this morning and sang for quite a while up in one of the Ponderosa's just outside my trailer. Somewhat surprised as I expected the more numerous Yellow-rumps would be the first to make an appearance. But a warbler is a warbler and I'll take all I can get.

Both Monday and Tuesday I drove Roxy out to Tropic Reservoir - on Monday not knowing how much it had thawed - and, let her get her feet wet. Over half of the lake was free of ice and the birds were taking advantage. Picked up 5 additional species for the year list and, because of close proximity to the park, all make it on the Bryce list, too (crazy that it is a 14 mile drive to the lake, yet only about 3 miles in a straight line from where I live . . .). A loon was present both days and I shot this nice wing stretch Tuesday morning. The new species: Red-breasted Merganser, Northern Pintail, Ring-billed Gull, White-faced Ibis, and Belted Kingfisher. In addition I've picked up Brewer's and Yellow-blackbirds over the past few days, along with the aforementioned Grace's Warbler, so we stand at 88 species for the year on the Utah list and 67 for Bryce.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 06:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We're having a little more Spring-like weather again following the cold temps and nasty winds we had earlier in the week. The bad news is another front will be passing north of here and high winds will be making a return over the next couple of days. Looking back at a post from last year around this time, I made mention of a really windy day, so I guess it must the norm here in April.

I've had the bath out but, with it being so cold still, I haven't hooked up the dripper as of yet. Robins have found it, though, and, despite the temperature being around freezing, they do like their baths. Must be clean birds. Other birds I've noticed around the campground: Western Bluebird, Pygmy Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch, Northern (red-shafted) Flicker, Steller's Jay, a pair of Canada Geese (!) that flew through here this morning, and a bird that had been singing all week that I finally saw this morning (kept thinking it might be a warbler), Brown Creeper. What had me going was the song doesn't match up that well with the recordings of creepers that I have - close but a little different. There's also a woodpecker around, but haven't had a good enough look to tell if it is Hairy or Downy.

If I can get around to editing, I have some more Sage-grouse video from earlier this week, too.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 08:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our bird last week was a Least Tern, a species that I remember in Florida arriving from the south beginning in March and all but gone by the end of July. For this week we a western species to test your knowledge - good luck and good birding!

Every two weeks, of course, there is another presentation of I and the Bird and, this time, the host is my friend Snail from "Down Under". It's a wonderful presentation with a some great entries about birds and birding - go have a look!. As soon as I finish here, I'll do what I do every Friday and that is head over to see what John at A D.C. Birding Blog has to offer in the latest edition of Loose Feathers (a weekly must read).

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 06:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's almost hard to believe, but I arrived here a year ago today, though we didn't actually move into the park on the 16th. And I really didn't think I would be around more than 6 months, let alone go from being a volunteer to a Park Ranger.

For the occasion I put together this short (about 1:40) slideshow:

(There's a slightly larger version of the file here . . . )

It has been an amazing year: 125 species of birds* tallied to date in Utah, I've learned more about geology that I thought I ever would, I'm currently learning more about paleontology than I thought I ever would, I've made a few nice photographs along the way, and - this is the great part - they pay me for a job that I absolutely love doing.

I am looking forward to a great summer - hope you will stick around and join me and Roxy on our adventures around Bryce and the rest of Southern Utah!

*Despite the wind gusting up to 50 mph, I added 6 to the 2008 Year List today (now at 80 species): Common Loon, Western Grebe, Clark's Grebe, Eared Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, and Caspian Tern.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 09:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I went back to work yesterday and it was nice to be back after my 12 days off; in my Geology Talk today I got show of a couple of my "new" fossils. They generated some "oohs" and "aahs".

I'd failed to mention that I picked up a couple of new Year Birds while I was out fossiling: Violet-green Swallow and Rock Wren. Not sure what I was thinking when I went out since I remembered my binoculars, but not a field guide. Not being completely familiar with Western wrens, it wasn't until I returned home before I knew if I'd been looking at Rock Wrens or a Canyon Wrens.

With a few hours of daylight remaining after work today, Roxy and I went to see if we could finally get down to the reservoir. The road had been blocked about 1/2 mile in by a rather deep drift. Over the past couple days someone had punched a hole through and we made our way there. And discovered that it was, except for a little bit of the shoreline, still completely frozen over. So much for finding any ducks, grebes, or loons. I was surprised to find the local pair of Osprey hanging around their nest (#74 for the year list) and couldn't help but wonder what they are doing for food. I suppose they could be getting fish from the river . . .

In other news, it is now confirmed that for International Migratory Bird Day (Sat., May 10), the evening program will be my Wings on the Wind - Travels With Migratory Birds at the Bryce Canyon Lodge. Then on the following morning I'll be leading a bird walk - you should stop by if you're going to be in Utah!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 09:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week we had a bird of the Southwestern deserts, Gambel's Quail. For this week, since I spent a day "beachcombing" 500 miles from the nearest beach, I thought we should look at a bird you might see along the coast. Good luck and good birding!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 06:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The past couple of days here have been miserable. Snow on and off all day yesterday, the value of today's highest wind gust (41) exceeded the value of the day's high temperature (35). Though I would have rather been out chasing birds on these final 2 days of my "break in service", I spent them playing Junior Invertebrate Paleontologist, instead. Yesterday I gently cleaned everything up then, today, got them all identified. I thought I would share some of the incredible detail on a few of them, too.

This first example is a straight ammonite named Sciponoceras gracile; straight ammonites are members of a family known as Baculites. Extinct, Baculites ranged from 7 cm (2.75 in.) to 2 m (6.5 ft.) in length, but the fossils are extremely fragile and rarely found intact. This fragment is 2.5 cm (1 in.) long, 1 cm. (0.4 in.) in diameter and is interesting because of the markings. The lines that you see are called sutures and divided the shell into chambers. Similar in some respects to the ballast tanks on submarines (I'm no expert by any means, but it is an easy way for me to explain this - even if not the correct scientific description), these animals could add/remove water from the chambers and thereby control their depth in the water column. Like all the other ammonites, Sciponoceras disappears from the fossil record 65 million years ago.

Perissoptera prolabiata, while extinct, is a member of a gastropod (snails and slugs) superfamily that includes modern conchs. Missing from this fossil is a "wing-like" extension that protrudes from one side. The attraction, of course, is the incredible detail that remains in the fossilized shell. Of the 3 I collected, this one exhibits much more of the shell detail and 1 still has the wing-like appendage (though little of the shell texture remains). Length is about 2.5 cm. (1 in.) and diameter (at the widest point) is 1.3 cm. (0.51 in.).

Another gastropod, Turritella whitei, was first described in 1893 by T.W. Stanton from the Tropic Shale. The fine detail in the coils around the shell are what makes this such a cool find (my last entry featured another one). Turritella species first appear in the fossil record in the Cretaceous and there are modern examples living today. This fossil is 3.5 cm. (1.375 in.) long.

Last we'll take a close look at a Pycnodonte newberryi. As noted in the last entry, these were all over the place at many of the limestone concretions. This one, at 2.5 x 2.0 cm. (1.0 x 0.79 in.), is not the largest I collected, but does feature a hole not found in the others. About 90 million years ago this oyster became a meal for a Gastropod that bored the hole then ate the tissue inside (then kindly left it for me to collect!).

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 08:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

fossiliferous adj. bearing or containing fossils; "fossiliferous strata"

I can think of no better way to describe the area I got to explore today with the director of the Bryce Canyon Natural History Association (the park's bookstore). Though we were outside of the park on private land, the Tropic Shale is one of the oldest sedimentary layers exposed within Bryce, and it is home to lots of fossils. The Tropic Shale are marine sediments that represent the period when the Western Interior Seaway (also called the Mid-Cretaceous Seaway) was at its greatest extent during the Cretaceous Period.

Mostly a dark gray dirt, I learned that you look around for "concretions" of limestone exposed as the dirt is carried down the hillside - this is where you look for fossils. These first 2 images are ammonites: cephalopods related to modern squids and octopi. The first is one with a coiled outer shell, the second with a slightly curved shell. Sometimes you find them just lying on the ground, sometimes they are embedded in the rocks. In the case of this second ammonite, I first found a rock containing the fossil's impression, then found the fossil itself after several minutes looking around in the rubble. An interesting fact about ammonites is that they are never found above the K-T Boundary: they became extinct at the same time as the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The first measures about 5.25 cm (2 in.), the second 3.75 cm (1.5 in.).

Unfortunately I don't remember any of the exact names of the fossils I collected today (I have over 20 pounds of rocks and individual fossils), I'll be be getting all of that once I've had a chance to clean and sort. This is some kind of shellfish a Turritella species, a gastropod family that arose in the Cretaceous and still around today, measuring 3.2 cm (1.3 in.), very well preserved and still attached to the rock on one side. The rock that underlies the Tropic Shale is called the Dakota Formation and, across the highway from where we were working, radiometric dating determined the Dakota to be 93 million years old, making these fossils younger than that, but older than 65 million years. To me that is just amazing!

This is a small collection of some other examples; the three at the top are Pycnodonte sp., a type of extinct oyster. The first (left to right) is the outside top portion of the shell, the middle shows the inside of another shell, the one on the the right is the bottom part of a shell. The Pycnodonte are just everywhere - in one spot where I was standing there were thousands just lying there on the ground. These measure roughly 2.75 cm. (1.5 in.) On the bottom row we have another ammonite (4.25 cm., 1.75 in), a small clam (also 2.75 cm., 1.5 in.) and a gastropod - in this case a small marine snail type creature (2.5 cm., 1 in.).

All in all, it was a very interesting day (in the next few days I'll try to get the names and, when I do, I'll update the post).

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 09:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was a little worried when I first arrived at the lek (before sunrise . . . ) that there wouldn't be a lot happening on this day. Just as I crested the little hill and got my first view of the area I didn't see any grouse - only a Golden Eagle soaring over the lek and a few Pronghorn milling about. Besides the eagle, I was afraid no Greater Sage-grouse would show because my contact at the Forest Service had said that sometimes they won't show up if it is overcast. But show up they did, just a little late. For the most part they were too far away to do anything with, it didn't matter, though, because the light was horribly flat due to the cloud cover. At one point I made an attempt to move in closer using my blind, but that wasn't fooling either the grouse or the Pronghorn. So I went back to my truck and hoped for a little sunshine and for the birds to come a little closer.

I got my wish.

I had a small group fly not far away and was able to get a few shots of these two engaged in a Wing Fight. The bird on the right won, I guess, since the other left the area, but it didn't matter in the end because the hen they were fighting over left, too. And not with the bird who lost. Actually, with all that strutting going on (there were 18 males and 10 females), I never witnessed a copulation. Probably be out there again tomorrow.

The video (about 12 MB and 2 minutes long) has a long section sandwiched between a pair of shorter clips. The first clip has a brief Wing Fight; I was hoping they would carry on a little longer but ended up with a couple of minutes of non-violent posturing. The second clip has a male strutting for some (disinterested) females. The final short clip I stuck in there because of the Pronghorn walking in the frame. Unfortunately the microphone in my video cam does a lousy job picking up their sounds - I was really disappointed how it picked up so little from the male who was very close by. The obviously does much better with high frequencies - the song bird in first segment come in clearly. And yes, the area is strewn with cow pies (yuck!).

Oh and, by the way, species number 71 stopped by for a few moments during my brief attempt at trying to sneak in with the blind. I heard the call first and knew it was a sandpiper: Long-billed Curlew. I shot a couple of frames just for i.d. purposes - it was way out and I cropped this picture a lot (complete with a Pronghorn in the background, also . . .).

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 09:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

At the first lekking ground I went to this morning I came up empty - no birds to be found - while the second had a few, but I also arrived on the scene a little too late. I was somewhat concerned about getting there late for fear I might scare them away, but, as it turned out, some Pronghorn had moved on to the lek and the crowd of grouse had already begun to disperse. Two of the males weren't ready to give up and kept at it, strutting and "plopping" (listen here - requires RealPlayer), this guy was closest but I still had to crop a little more than I would have liked. I'll be heading out before dawn tomorrow, weather permitting, and hope to get some video in addition to stills.

Picked up a couple of new species for the year list today while roaming around and the "Airport Lek" where I shot the grouse is within 5 miles from the park boundary, so the Greater Sage-grouse can now be added to my Bryce year list. The first new one (out of the "zone") was Brewer's Sparrow (#69), the second I saw in flight in the park just north of the Visitor Center and is always a good great bird when you see it: Falco perigrinus. Hopefully this summer I'll be able to zero in on the Peregrine Falcons; there's a possible nest site somewhere around the Farview Point overlook here at Bryce.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The little dove in last week's quiz was a Common ground-dove. Since I have spent a fair amount of time this week chasing "game birds" (I don't like that name), I thought "why not have one for this week's quiz?" Good luck and great birding!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was out looking for leks this morning (though I only found a lone displaying male and he was out of photo range) and, on the way back home I had 4 birds fly in front of me with a very familiar shape and wing markings - Willets (#68). They're listed as "rare" on the Bryce checklist so they were a real treat. It was strange because they weren't close to any water source, just hanging out in the sagebrush and rabbitbush flats atop the Paunsaugunt Plateau, not far from the park boundary. Definitely a far cry from the beaches and mudflats of Florida and the Gulf Coast where I had always seen them in the past.

Tomorrow will be another Sage-grouse morning with a different lek site to go visit. Unfortunately the closest lek to "home" is not accessible to my 2-wheel drive truck, at least not before another several days of dry weather.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 09:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've never been much of a "lister" but, just for fun, I've decided to see how many species I can total during the year here in Utah. I'm sure things will be lean for a couple of months until migrants begin to make their way north, but 50 or more could be possible. I don't intend to treat as some kind of "big year" where I chase across the state based upon some vagrant showing up at a marsh near Salt Lake. Nor will I limit it to what I see within a few miles of the park. I've created a special category - 2008 Utah Birds - if you care to follow along and, when I write about Utah birds in an entry, will note the total plus update this entry and the table when I add a new species. Of course it may all be futile because I really don't know at this point if I will still be at Bryce come May (since I will have to compete for a summer position). But, we'll see where it all goes . . .

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Strange coincidence.

Went out looking for birds on this the 4th month & 1st day and what do I do: notch 41 bird species on the day (a new personal high around these parts, though a far cry from the 98 I had on a bird-a-thon in Florida). I suppose the April Fool's Day joke on me was that I didn't manage to get a single bird photo, just a couple of more rodents to add to the collection. The chipmunk was the first I'd seen up and around since last fall, though some visitors mentioned seeing one a few days ago. For what it's worth, the total number of vertebrate species I tallied was 47 (birds+mammals). Included in the avian total was 5 new "year birds" and that total also includes 1 "lifer" (wigeon). It may be possible to break 50 birds in one day covering the same ground I did today, though once more songbirds arrive later this month the ducks will, for the most part, be long gone.

Here's the list: Common Raven, Greater Sage-grouse, American Kestrel, European Starling, Horned Lark, Steller's Jay, Western Meadowlark, Mountain Bluebird, Red-tailed Hawk, Eurasian Collared-dove, American Robin, Juniper Titmouse, Western Scrub-jay, House Sparrow, Killdeer, Canada Goose, American Coot, Bufflehead, Ring-necked Duck, Mallard, Pie-billed Grebe, American Wigeon, Redhead, Ruddy Duck, Black-billed Magpie, White-crowned Sparrow, Rock Pigeon, Golden Eagle (6!), Northern Flicker, Western Bluebird, Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon & Gray-headed), Sharp-shinned Hawk, Northern Harrier, Spotted Towhee, Turkey Vulture, Say' Phoebe, Wild Turkey, White-breasted Nuthatch, Clark's Nutcracker, Pygmy Nuthatch, Mountain Chickadee.

(year birds, lifer)

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 08:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)