GSL Bird Festival Day 2

Today I went a two separate tours and attended a couple of classes.  I started the morning with a tour out to Gower Ponds.  This was not a damp tour, but a full on raining wet tour.  Glad I had my umbrella in my car.  Saw some great birds though:

Snowy Egrets

1. Starlings
2. Red winged blackbirds
3. Black necked stilts
4. American avocets
5. American white pelicans
6. California gulls
7. White faced ibis
8. Western grebe
9. Pied billed grebes
10. Western meadowlark
11. Great blue herons
12. Double crested cormorant
13. Coots
14. Mallards
15. Cinnamon teals
16. Jilldeer
17. Cliff swallows
18. Canada geese
19. Marbled godwit!
20. Marsh wren
21. Caspian tern

Next I attended a class on identifying falcons and another one on the butterflies/moths of the Wasatch.

I drove up to Layton to have lunch at Red Lobster then back to the festival in time to get on the bus for my next tour. I've never birded from a bus before. I didn't think it would be as effective as from my own car. Boy was I mistaken. Of course it took awhile to get the bus driver to really stop instead of just going slow. Still we saw a lot of birds:

1. Pied billed grebe
2. Eared grebe
3. Western grebe
4. Clarks grebe
5. American white pelican
6. Double crested cormorant
7. Great blue herons
8. Great egret
9. Snowy egrets
10. Black crowned night herons
11. White faced ibis
12. Canada geese
13. Green winged teal
14. Mallard
15. Blue winged teal
16. Cinnamon teel
17. Northern shoveler
18. Gadwall
19. Redhead
20. Ruddy duck
21. Ring necked pheasants
22. Coots
23. Sandhill crane
24. Killdeer
25. Black necked stilt
26. American avocets
27. Long billed curlew with babies
28. Marbled godwit
29. Common snipe
30. Wilsons phalerope
31. Franklins gull
32. California gull
33. Forsters tern
34. Mourning dove
35. Tree swallows
36. Barn swallows
37. Cliff swallows
38. Marsh wrens
39. Robins
40. Starlings
41. Red winged blackbird
42. Brewers blackbird
43. Yellow headed blackbird
44. Brownheaded cowbird
45. Western meadowlark
46. House sparrow

Double Crested Cormorant
the larger picture clearly shows the aquamarine eyes

I spent both nights at the Ramada out by the SLC airport. I was supposed to go on still another tour the next morning but was too tired and it was too damp so I just drove home on Sunday.