and a very mournful call.

Our birding guide, Matt Brown, worked incredibly hard to make sure that we actually saw the Gray Hawk.  We heard the call from several places and never heard the hawk.  But we finally saw him at the Spirit Tree Inn.  The white bar on his tail is also pretty distinctive.

There were two different Gray Hawks in the area calling to each other.  One started to circle the inn, which gave me some great shots of the hawk flying.

One landed in this gorgeous cottonwood tree.  This tree is over 400 inches around.

A Red-Tailed Hawk started circling the tree, which made the Gray Hawk go crazy.

I like how you can see that one of the hawk’s primaries is ragged.  He never got the Gray Hawk out of the tree but it was very exciting for a few minutes.

American Flicker

I started in my favorite part in Heber, UT.  This is where I saw my first Sandhill Crane and moose.  This time I saw an American Flicker and a Scrub Jay.

Even though Salt Lake City was completely dry, Heber is at a higher elevation and therefore had a lot of snow left.

Next we moved on to another section of the Provo River Valley.  Now, this section of Heber has tons of birds in the summer.  It’s teeming with waxwings, warblers, osprey, robins and more!  This time was less busy.  I saw a Red-Tailed Hawk.

And Black-Billed Magpies.  Although those are present everywhere in Utah.

Heber being a bust, Jon suggested that we cover the Jordanelle Reservoir and the Rockport Reservoir on the way home.  The east side of the Jordanelle Reservoir had the most activity.  At first I was getting excited over mallards but then I saw a juvenile Bald Eagle!

This is probably a third-year Bald Eagle.  The head doesn’t start to turn white until the third year and by the fourth year the head is closer to being completely white.  There were also deer.

I also saw dippers but I want to save those pictures because they deserve a separate post.  Next we stopped at the Rockport State Park, which was very very cold.

I was determined to get to the part of the reservoir that had ducks and geese.  Of course the picture below is as close as I got because ducks won’t let you get very close before they fly away.

At this point I turned around and realized how long I had been walking.

Do you see the jeep in that picture?  Hmm, let me clip a little bit of the picture.

So I got a good amount of exercise, managed to trip and hurt my foot (it’s okay now) and have sworn that I won’t walk in snow over a foot deep for extended periods of time again.  I can’t wait for Spring!

Then I heard screeching!  Here’s the other hawk:

Now, I know without question that the second bird is a Red-Tailed Hawk.  I know this because he took off and I could see under his wings.

Do you see the brown bit along the top of his wings?  That’s called a “patagial bar.”  In the other hawks it’s either dark along with the rest of the wing, white or striped.  The Red-Tailed Hawk is the only raptor (in my guidebook) that has a dark patagial bar without the rest of the wing also being dark.

These birds are so fantastic when they fly that even an imperfect picture like the one above is good enough to post.  So, if the first bird and the second bird both look like different pictures in the same guidebook of Red-Tailed Hawks, can they both be Red-Tailed Hawks?

.

I am going to miss California.  I will miss the ocean most of all.

and the huge supply of different kinds of birds

in every tree

but I’m pretty excited about the new birds that I’m going to see and the constant presence of the mountains

It’s been snowing all day today.  I forgot how quiet everything is when it snows.  When I was shoveling I saw dark-eyed juncos, sparrows, and a woodpecker!  I’ve set up one feeder and I’m researching suet feeders and heated bird baths.  So while winter rages, I’ll have lots of posts about backyard birding.

I saw this red tailed hawk and I had about five seconds to get a decent shot.

It’s a beautiful image, but without having the bottom part of his wings, I can’t help but cringe every time I see the photo.

He has a prominent brow ridge.

These hawks are very common. We always see them on the telephone poles staring intently at the ground.

They are so beautiful in flight. In this picture he’s saying: “I’m going to get you.”

He circled the field many times. I have at least 50 pictures just like the one below.

Here is a shot from the back.

They’re very stealthy. When he flew off the branches, the only sound came from the branch.

There was one exhibit, however, that was really awful for the birds. The hawks, turkey vultures, and owls were secured to stands by only three feet of rope and positioned in the blinding sun.

The hawks were only a foot away from the turkey vultures and the area was surrounded by people. The birds were clearly uncomfortable. You can see that this isn’t their permanent housing, though, because there is only water provided for the birds. Hopefully they’re only out for a few hours at a time.

This guy kept straining against the binds. He was so unhappy to be tied to the stand. He kept flapping his wings to take off, but his feet were bound. The restraints must be especially hard for such predatory birds.

Here’s another one of him straining.

The turkey vultures felt threatened too and kept posturing for the people. Of course the public was excited to see his gorgeous wingspan, but if only they knew that he was trying to hide his vulnerability.

The section of the zoo with the maguari stork also housed a turkey vulture. It was a large enclosure, so I really hope that they return the other turkey vultures to that area too.

In the section with the owls, who were secured similarly, there were volunteers that explained how they only take in birds that cannot be released into the wild. One of the owls had been raised by humans; another contracted West Nile virus and had some neurological damage as a result. I’m thrilled that they take care of these birds, but I really wish that they would put these birds in a caged structure where they can fly.