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Show THE Page 10 OGDEN VALLEY NEWS Volume XII Issue IX June 1, 2005 Group Lucky in Sighting of Plucky Pygmy-owl Ogden Valley Nature Guide By Pat Bean Each month the OGDEN VALLEY NEws will print a new page of the “Ogden Valley Nature Guide.” The guide is a collaboration between the students and teachers of Snowcrest Junior High and Ogden Valley Pathways. Readers can then cut out and collect these pages to create their own resource guide featuring wildlife and plants found in Ogden Valley. a ee ee ee ee ee = Along the Way... -———<—4 A Guide to Nature along Ogden Valley Pathways. Did You Know? ° The Western Kingbird is a bird that inhabits open countryand can easily be seen in open meadows around I I I I Huntsville. It is often seen perched I I on the tops of shrubs and fence posts or on power and phone lines. Jf It flies from its perch I to catch insects, like I bees, grasshoppers, andJ crickets, in its beak andJ then returns to its perch g to enjoy its meal. e Its usual call is a sharp e It is neo-tropical here “whit” sound. Drawing by Jonathen Lowe Western Kingbird =— @ = Dark grayto nearly black with yellow underneath; 15 '2” wingspan Tail: Dark gray to nearly black with white along the outer edges Bill: Broad-based, I I It is found in states I west of the Mississippi. I I I Gray head, often with whitish chin Chest: Throat and breast pale grayish; bright lemon yellow belly I I I 9” long Text by: Stephen Ormsbee I I eee eee ee ee es Subscriptions available for out of area residents at $18.00 annually. ping sparrow as it sang to us from some hidden degrees to give us all a look at both its fake black sitting high in the fork eS 1s in Ogden Valley. Photo courtesy 9 Karen Jensen. had been watching it. of some tree branches. Now, in its new perch, it decided to dine. It was It was so well-hid- _ Still dinging when we decided to move on. Someone wondered if the owl might have a n that every time I nest nearby, and whether it might have been wanttook my eye off it, I had to search hard again to find g to take the mouse home to some young but it. Its coloring and small size blended perfectly — a tangle of leafless branches. I I wondered ifour owl had been male or o feel we did locate it, none of us knew which wi it was. Fortunately it wasn’t eiving us scads of time to go through an identification process—and for Pat to run down to the cars to get a few in our group who had been in the lead and had passed the bird, unaware of its presence. While we weren’t looking at a coveted ivorybilled woodpecker, we still suspected we had a prize in sight. We just had to figure out what it was. The owl’s small size quickly eliminated a few choices, such as th tf d 1. Tor ni th if way up the canyon. It 1, but that pos- sibility was eliminated when we saw no screech owl-like ear tufts. The ear-tuft test also eliminated the flammulated owl from our list of suspects. Vertical striping on the chest let us strike a bur> are horizontal. Finally, the saw-whet owl’s short tail eliminated it as a possibility. Our quietly posing bird had an unusually long tail with darker broa It was unanimously confirmed—and then reconfirmed—that we were looking at a northern and later between the sexes. I also learned that these owls nest in old woodpecker holes, of which we had been seeing many as we hiked, and that they don’t migrate, so they can be found in the Top of Utah year-round. Another birder wondered aloud about how rare these birds are—given that it was a new life bird for all nine ofus. I laughed and said there could be 50 in the trees around us and, given the difficulty of seeing this one, we'd never know it. I could find no information later that indicated the birds were rare, but did learn that they hunt during the day and prefer higher, woody elevations, which fit our discovery scenario perfectly. One bird book did note that about the only way to see them is when they are mobbed by songbirds that don’t want them dining on their chicks. Or you could just have someone among you find a nice shiny dime. Note: This article was originally printed in the* Standard Examirer” on May 11, 2005 andis being reprinted in The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS by permission. Celeste C. Canning PLLC Attorney at Law Send payment with mailing address to: THE OGDEN VALLEY NEWS PO BOX 130 EDEN UT 84310 2590 Washington Boulevard, Suite 200 Ogden, Utah 84401 Local: 801 791-1092 Office: 801 612-9299 Email: ccanninglaw@aol.com 801-745-4000 2555 WOLF CREEK DR. The only thing even close would have been apacha oa pygmy-owl, and Utah is stage, and occasionally catching a glimpse of eyes and its intense yellow eyes. towhees, both the spotted and green-tailed species—when The owl held to its perch for at least 20 mincalled our utes, of our group got it i attention to a small ow! could study it in even greater detail. Sharen Peery sitting in a tree not far was looking through the scope when the owl off the tra regurgitated a pellet. Believe it or not, she was Luck baal to have delighted at the sight, as the rest of us birders had something to do Would have been if we had been so favored. © spotting it Finally, the bird switched branches, and we all because it took the rest | ©xClaimed in amazement as we saw that it had of us ages before we what looked like a fat gray mouse in its talons. It finally found it calmly had probably been sitting on it all of the time we chick) lan laalzed flat, black Face: Size: I I hey msmteoutof Tyrannus verticalis Wings: I I in spring and summer pygmy-owl. A found penny is said to bring good luck. So when Pat Williams found a dime on last — not included inits terri Wednesday’s [May 4] Audubon Society bird walk For more een, our bird had a spotted at North Fork in Ogden Valley, Carolyn Somer said crown, whereas the ferruginous has a streaked that meant 10 days of good luck. crown. Of course, all of this was decided between I don’t know about the 10 days, but I do know hunkering over a ’Sibley Guide to Birds” and that our group of nine birders shared in the good Keeping our cyes on the owl. . — fortune almost immediately. It happened on our The field guide noted that a prominent identifihike down-canyon back to our vehicles. cation clue of the northern pygmy-owl is the pair We We had been dawdling like birders —watching of false eye spots on the back of the bird’s head. a pai of yellow Our owl obligingly turned its head nearly 360 EDEN STORE HOURS: M T 7 AM - 10 PM SUNDAY 7 AM - 9 PM Meeting the Legal Needs of Small Business and Their Owners FREE Initial Thirty Minute Consultation. Appointments in Ogden Valley upon request. *s Single Scoop Ice Cream Cone| 69¢ with coupon ae oo = = = = = = = = _ = = = = SF On Lean Ground Beet 9/Ib. on 5 lbs. or more with coupon __Eapines & BSS Liter Coke Products" —69¢ with coupon Epis SSIS Oo =| © os Bil R = ie Chickens $5.99 | Sinvvice Deli with coupon Expires 6/15/05 French Bread Loaves & with coupon Expires 6/15/05 mm Vern Iverson DDS — > Mike Crookston DDS Iverson Family Dentistry offers all phases of general dentistry to you and your family. 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