Swallows are Back!

This past weekend was the Great Salt Lake Bird Festival. The festival was really excellent with trips and speakers.

The keynote speaker was Ron Rohrbaugh from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York. Ron leads the Ivory Billed Woodpecker Search Team.

My wife and I also went on a birding trip through the back gates at the Bear River Bird Refuge. The trip was nice. We saw a variety of birds including the majestic American White Pelican. The pelicans were herding fish in a mass fishing expedition. A Heron stole a fish and one of the pelicans popped up in pursuit. The chase went on for several minutes. Quite something to see.

We heard an excellent talk given by Bridget Olsen who is working on project tracking migration patterns of the Marbled Godwit. It's population is small and therefore knowing about the bird and how far it can travel between rest stops is important. The Salt Lake Tribune did a great story. You can read it here.


So how about the swallows. How would to be to have to cling to a vertical surface to build a home? I think we should all try it.