First of all, hope all the mothers out there had a happy Mother's Day.

Here at Bryce we had a nice International Migratory Bird Day weekend with about 60 people at my presentation Saturday night and 6 bird watchers along with me on the bird walk this morning. That went pretty well with 17 species - 6 of those "life birds" for one of the participants. The highlight, I think, was the most glorious Western Tanager I have seen. The red on this guy's head was incredible - the one hanging around my trailer is positively dull in comparison. We also had great looks at a Plumbeous Vireo, some brilliantly colored and loudly singing male Yellow-rumped Warblers, and watched 3 Green-tailed Towhees doing some sort of display raising their wings (I've researched the behavior a little but haven't found any real specifics - apparently some sort of territorial thing going on between males). Another highlight was watching a Say's Phoebe carrying nesting material to refurbish the same nest that treated one of the walks last June to views of 3 freshly fledged youngsters.

The towhees, along with a Black-headed Grosbeak, are additions to the year list; added another later in the day when I saw a Broad-tailed Hummingbird (male) checking out taillights on cars in the Visitor Center parking area. I guess he just wanted to know what all that red was about; not many flowers around here yet. Also saw a first of the season female Western Tanager today, too.