From Bighorns to Buteos of the Ferruginous Kind

I woke up before my 4 AM alarm sounded Saturday morning (12/1/12) because I was excited to get going on another outdoor adventure with one of my favorite bird and wildlife photography friends, Eric Peterson. Eric and I have enjoyed everything from a couple hours of birding near home to picking up a rehabilitated American White Pelican at the Pocatello (Idaho) Zoo and transporting it to Salt Lake City's Hogle Zoo. During one extended weekend of marathon birding in southern Utah we literally rescued one each of the smallest and largest birds in the state. We scooped up a Goldfinch chick which had prematurely fallen from its nest AND drove an injured juvenile Golden Eagle to a rehabilitator after spotting and retrieving it from a small stream south of Gunlock Reservoir in Washington County, Utah.

Eric, in the passenger seat of my Honda Accord, with injured juvenile Golden Eagle we pulled from a stream and drove to a rehabilitator south of Gunlock Reservoir in Washington County, Utah (Photo by Jeff Cooper)

Saturday's adventure spanned 416 miles and 13 hours. We were on the road around 5 AM and making the two and a half hour drive to Green River, Utah where we hooked up with biologists from the Division of Wildlife Resources to look for Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep in the canyon cradling the Green River north of the town of Green River. It didn't take long for us to spot the first group of sheep and then several subsequent groups. The sheep were foraging between the river and the escarpment, the slope that begins where rocks have fallen and rises suddenly to the plateaus above the canyon. The rut (breeding period) was coming to an end so we didn't see a lot of territorial head banging among the rams, but we did see some who challenged each other to a lesser degree with brief head butting, kicking, and hip ramming.

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Rams Banging Horns Along Green River in Emery County, UT (Photo by Jeff Cooper)

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Rams Making Contact Along Green River in Emery County, UT (Photo by Jeff Cooper)

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Rams Along Green River in Emery County, UT (Photo by Jeff Cooper)

We learned how age is estimated for these sheep during the time we spent with the biologists. Breeding takes place around November. Gestation is about four to five months so these sheep are born early spring and get about six months of horn growing before their first winter. Visible rings appear on the horns when hardship is experienced by the sheep. Those rings are generally associated with winter hardships so the first ring, closest to the tip of the horn, represents about six months of life. Subsequent rings generally indicate another winter or year of life. However, rings could also form if the sheep suffers an injury or some other difficulty. The rings can easily be seen on the sheep below. The first one is about six inches from the tip and then subsequent rings show about every six inches up to the crown.

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Rams Along Green River in Emery County, UT (Photo by Jeff Cooper)

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Ram Along Green River in Emery County, UT (Photo by Jeff Cooper)

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Rams Along The Green River in Emery County, UT (Photo by Jeff Cooper)

After spending a couple of hours locating, observing, and photographing the Bighorns we left the canyon in search of some birds. We saw a number of Common Mergansers and an unexpected Say's Phoebe along the Green River as we left the canyon. Juncos were also scattered along the road with a few Starlings, Doves, and some Mountain Bluebirds. Horned Larks were abundantly scattered in the open fields bordering the roads and highways.

Common Redpolls have irrupted from the north this year and have been showing up in a number of Utah locations. Two eBird sightings had been reported outside of Price, Utah in Carbon County so we made our way to those locations in search of what would be a life bird for Eric and me. We came up empty on the Redpolls, but I was delighted when we came across several individuals of my favorite hawk species, Buteo Regalis, or Ferruginous Hawk. More specifically, it is the light morph adult I really love to see, but the dark morphs with white wing patches aren't bad sights either.

I always get a thrill when I see the clean white belly of a hawk perched on a distant power pole or fence in Utah. It's almost always my first indication of a light morph Ferruginous Hawk ahead. I got my first such glimpse as we drove along Highway 6 in Emery County. We came across several other individuals in Carbon County. We stopped to get a few images of each of those hawks. In my mind's eye I can see the perfect capture of a light adult Ferruginous Hawk in flight. The image below was captured last winter and is getting close, but it doesn't include the the bluish head with the bright yellow gape and rufous leggings. I'll have to keep the perfect image in my head until I can capture it with my camera and lens.

Light Adult Ferruginous Hawk Near Beryl Junction, UT (Photo by Jeff Cooper)

The images below are of the hawks we saw Saturday and will suffice for now, but I'll continue my pursuit of the perfect Ferruginous Hawk images that beautifully illustrate the white tail, rufous, white, and blue wings, rufous leggings, and bluish head with a long, bright yellow gape.

Light Adult Ferruginous Hawk on Lila Canyon Road in Carbon County, UT (Photo by Jeff Cooper)

Light Adult Ferruginous Hawk on Lila Canyon Road in Carbon County, UT (Photo by Jeff Cooper)

Light Adult Ferruginous Hawk Along Highway 6 in Emery County, UT (Photo by Jeff Cooper)

Light Adult Ferruginous Hawk Along Highway 6 in Emery County, UT (Photo by Jeff Cooper)

Light Adult Ferruginous Hawk on Lila Canyon Road in Carbon County, UT (Photo by Jeff Cooper)