A fond look back on Utah in 2025…

Somehow yesterday I thought it would be warmer this morning, and it is a little bit. But the thermometer’s only at -11°F, and the breeze is pushing the wind chill down into the negative twenties, so when I asked my camera if this was warm enough, it wouldn’t even answer me. Thus, I have one more excuse to revisit a warmer time and place from 2025.

After our time in Arizona, which I recapped yesterday, we headed up to Monticello, Utah for the night, and there were some pretty birds around, but none that we haven’t seen before, so the highlight of the next morning has to be this little darling, my very first Hopi chipmunk (Neotamias rufus).

After visiting the spectacular Arches National Park later that day, we stopped for the night in Loa, Utah, and the first big treat of the next morning was our very first sage thrasher (Oreoscoptes montanus), who was quite persistent in getting his message out.

This next bird also look brand new to me, but then we discovered that house finches, of which we see plenty right in Estabrook Park, can be yellow “where natural foods are low in some … carotenoids.” Who knew? I sure didn’t.

Then we headed to the magnificent Bryce Canyon National Park, and on our way, we drove by Otter Creek Reservoir, which was full of water birds. We stopped, of course, and a bunch of those birds turned out to be western grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis), which was a wonderful surprise. What amazing beauties!

Even better, at least for me, there were a few common loons (Gavia immer), which look anything but common.

Our last stop in Utah was the breathtaking Zion National Park, where this Anna’s hummingbird kept coming back to the same perch, probably to watch for interlopers into its territory, but also to give me more chances of a decent picture. We have seen one before in Sedona, but that was a female or immature male, and this handsome devil is an adult male in all his breeding finery.

The star of the show, however, at least for my sister and me, was this American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus), “North America’s only truly aquatic songbird.” What made it even sweeter was the fact that we had already spent a bunch of time earlier that morning chasing one by sound at the creek behind our hotel without getting even a single glimpse.

So as we hiked along the Virgin River that runs through the park, I scanned almost every rock along the way, but my sister hit pay dirt first at the very far end of the Riverside Walk. I realize that it may not look like all that much, but wait until you see it in action, because dippers hunt for their food like no other bird I know.

Check out this video, which I miraculously thought to capture, of it repeatedly jumping into the rushing water to snatch insect larvae from the rocks on the bottom. Astounding!

This time the forecast calls for temperatures above zero tomorrow morning, so my camera and I will be back in Estabrook for sure. Mark my words!