Hello all from Northern Utah! Bill and Mary Wyatt were at Hamden Slough NWR (Becker County) today and found the pair of common moorhens with SIX young! They alerted Bob and Jennie Scherzer, Lakes Area Birding Club members who live at the north end of the refuge, who also went to check out the new family, and they in turn e-mailed me. Just goes to show, you can move 1400 miles away, but still be in the loop!
All goes well here in northern Utah - the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge is really an awesome shorebird/waterbird refuge. American avocet, black-necked stilt and white-faced ibis nest here by the tens of thousands! Snowy plovers also nest here and they are seen daily along the auto tour route - they nest twice, and little tiny chicks were still appearing this past week. Add in really impressive numbers of migrant shorebirds, grebes, pelicans, gulls, waterfowl, etc. and it's not difficult to see a quarter million birds on the refuge at once! Unfortunately, things are drying out fast this time of year, as we continue into the 5th year of drought. Spring and summer here are really incredible...and I know a certain U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service employee who can be easily bribed, with a little advanced notice, into giving personal, "behind-the-gates" refuge tours for visiting Minnesota birders! Betsy Beneke Brigham City, Utah
