Birding for EARLY Spring Migrants

In this video we head back home in search of early spring migrants. We find some incredible birds along the way including some species we haven't seen this year. Come with me on this journey and let's see what birds we can find. What's up everybody back with another video for you today and we are back in Cache County, my home county here in Utah. We are looking for early spring migrants because it's heating up here in Utah really quickly at record time and that could spur. I don't know exactly how migration works of course and scientists don't know exactly about migration. Magnetic fields, weather, etc. is what kind of drives the birds to migrate. But we're going to try to catch some of those early migrants. I'm here with Daxton with the scope back here and we've already gone to Amalga Barrens which is north of Logan in northern Cache County. So let me show you what we saw there. There was a couple few cool birds and some first of the years as well so let me send you there right now. We drove down the dirt road at Amalga Barrens hoping to find some new arrivals to our home county. Our first new bird of the year was this yellow-headed blackbird. These birds are so stunning. The mist rose up across the surface of the flooded fields while an American Wigeon silently hovered on top of the water. Cinnamon teals accompanied it in the background. In the distance perched a hawk that got us really excited. The thick dark underbelly band and strange patterning made us realize that we were looking at a rough-legged hawk and not the more common red-tailed hawk. In the surrounding fields and flying above our heads were these long-billed curlews, another new spectacle for the year and an amazing bird to watch with its long down-curled bill. Scurrying through one of the fields was this ring-necked pheasant, an introduced species to North America from Asia and pretty common in northern Utah due to hunters. Sandhill cranes also occupied the fields looking for food and showing off their prehistoric looking features. We're at the Logan City Polishing Ponds. It's a little pond that the city has let birders gain access to to see cool birds and just got a couple new species on the day. We have some cinnamon teals on the water as well as two greenwing teals hanging out with them. Greenwing teal is new on the day. We saw some cinnamon teals earlier and a western meadowlark perched up as well. As we head up this little hill behind me here we got to be nice and quiet because just over this ridge is water and because we live in a very hunting heavy state all the water birds are skittish. So let's sneak up this hill see if we can pick anything out before the birds flush then I'll keep you updated. Peeking over the tall grass we were able to spot this bufflehead preening itself in the water and showing off its large puffy head. Lesser scop were probably the most abundant birds out on the water and we tried to pick through the hundreds present to find a possible greater scop. We got better views of the fan favorite cinnamon teal. These ducks are extremely popular thanks to the bright red plumage that they have. Another abundant duck on the pond were these northern shovelers. They use their massive builds to filter food from the water just beneath the surface. One of the bravest little birds in the world the keel deer sat atop a gravel mound warning us to stay away from its territory. Just making our way around Logan polishing ponds here and we've seen some pretty cool birds so far American white pelicans although although they do migrate I think I have seen them as early as January and I think some of them actually end up staying if the water doesn't freeze over like a warm year like this year. We just heard a sora back there which is really really cool did not get it on camera obviously because they're near impossible to get on camera but that is an early rarity typically they don't show up for a couple more weeks and to get one this early on is pretty awesome so sora on our list for the day and we've just been seeing a whole bunch of different duck species out on the water. It's still obviously pre-migration most things haven't been moving through yet and we're obviously not in a place for passerines at the moment but later on in this video we will be going to another variety of habitats to try to find some more of those early pre-migrants so stay tuned let's see what birds we can find today. All right so picked up a bird that I don't normally get on camera the marsh wren in fact I've had entire challenges in the past built around trying to get marsh wren on camera so really happy this one was just up singing. Daxson was actually able to get it a digiscope of that which is obviously near impossible to do with a bird like the marsh wren so oh is that a marmot? Just a sec or actually I don't know the yellow-bellied versus something else. It's a swarm! This is probably the most bugs I've ever been around I'm not gonna lie it's so gross that's not mud those are bug guts caking the bottom of my feet these aren't mosquitoes they might as well be because this this is this is terrible Despite the onslaught of bugs we still found our first double-crested cormorants of the day through the heat haze in the distance. Probably for the first time ever I saw an American pipit perched in a tree. I usually only see these birds hopping amongst the rocks ground or flying through the air. That was miserable to say the least my feet were slipping in bug guts it like disgusting and you don't I'm not even going to show you because that was insane so apparently because it's been so warm in Utah the bug hatch or like the egg hatch the big one of these like types of flies happened way earlier than normal and obviously that's due to warmer temperatures happening and so in reality the hatch shouldn't be happening for a couple more weeks but boom here it is and we just got the brunt of it probably took out a good chunk of generations of bugs there with just my feet so anyways that's gonna wrap up today's adventure just for this section of the video stay tuned though because the video is not over we're gonna go birding again and let's see what birds we can find. Part two of this video everybody I'm up Logan Canyon kind of at mid-range elevation I am on a hike with the family so might be a lot of voiceover in this video but hopefully there's some passerines up here and there's always surprises while birding so let's see what birds we can find here up Logan Canyon spider you want me to i-nada it's just been a really relaxing day here today obviously the highlight so far today is my first of the year fox sparrow I always get so excited to find the fox sparrows up Logan Canyon just early in the year they're a beautiful calling singing bird and they just are really unique over here we have kind of one of the more drabber subspecies of the fox sparrow out east the fox sparrows are red and I believe that's kind of where they got their name from they look you know red like a fox but really awesome to see that bird let's continue down these trails and see what are the birds we could find here today I continue down the winding canyon trail birds singing in all directions and the green plants popping against the otherwise brown landscape an American robin picked around amongst the grass looking for food and a mallard pair also dabbled in the water looking for plants and insects to eat just below the surface just got much better views of the fox sparrow in fact it turned its belly towards me which is probably one of the most beautiful parts of the fox sparrow it has kind of like this very uh like a child drew on its chest with a crayon is how my friend Dan described the bird to me so really cool to see the fox sparrow again they show up early spring here in Cache County and I always like finding them brings back good memories of birding with friends up the canyon and everything but it was actually pretty cool kind of chased a bug across the branch up here and it has a beautiful beautiful song you're probably still hearing it as I talk to you so fox sparrow on the list first of the year really really happy to have picked up this bird you get it yeah I got it thank you guys for sticking with me throughout this early spring migrant video sometimes it's just great to get out and see some of the more you know common birds slow birding is always a good thing to do to just clear the mind and reset a little bit I am vlogging on a new vlogging camera I did not in this video but you'll see that taking place in the next video and hopefully you guys see a big quality jump with that I'm very excited to be using this new camera and I'll tell you more about it next video as well as always if you'd like to support the channel links to my merch and the membership program are in the description below I really appreciate it also join us over on the discord we have a good thriving community there where we talk about birds share photos and more thank you so much for joining me on this journey I hope to see you next time on bright eyed birding