Beautiful Day in the Birding Neighborhood

I had such a lovely time birding this morning, I just had to share! I joined a birdwalk with Bill Fenimore, owner of the Wild Bird Center in Layton, Utah, and we went to the Nature Conservancy. Bill is an absolute encyclopedia of birding lore and expertise, and I was thrilled to add six new species to my life list:

1. Western Meadowlark: Saw the bird, heard the song, and saw the bird singing.
2. Red Winged Blackbird: A male in scruffy but identifiable winter plumage.
3. Green Winged Teal: Lovely ducks enjoying a pond and walking on the shore.
4. Northern Pintail: Extraordinarily beautiful ducks with distinctive crisp plumage.
5. Yellow Headed Blackbird: Perching on a fence and proudly displaying his colors.
6. American Avocet: Flying and swimming, graceful and elegant.

We also saw numerous other species during the birdwalk, including sandhill cranes, Canada geese, American coots, an American kestrel (hovering!), American robins, a northern shoveler, northern flickers, a northern harrier, and tundra swans. Unfortunately, neither my binoculars nor my eyes were fine enough to pinpoint field markings on all the species, so I'm unable to count them all on my list to my satisfaction, but there is always the excitement of the next birdwalk. I highly recommend these events to all Utah birders, and I will definitely be at the next event on April 25. I hope you can join us then, or check out the birdwalks calendar for other upcoming events.