March 19 -- Birding SW Utah's Lytle Ranch Preserve

My Canadian birding buddy Norm told me about an oasis in southwest Utah surrounded by high desert, originally farmed by a Mormon family but that has since been turned over to Brigham Young University and the Nature Conservancy. It's called Lytle Ranch Preserve and is teeming with birds in spring migration. Norm had gone there with friends this past Monday -- I couldn't make it -- and we made a special trip out there to bird it together. You enter the ranch via a dirt road that goes through a forest of Joshua trees, and we found some birds on the top branches of Joshuas getting the morning sun, such as this Black-throated Sparrow --

We spotted at least 7 Loggerhead Shrikes looking for breakfast -- 

And we also saw a small herd of Mule Deer -- 

After about 7 miles we entered the ranch, which is in a valley filled with cottonwood trees and still has orchards such as apple and pomegranate that attract birds. We heard the singing of birds from the get-go at the parking lot, which has old farm implements --

The "caretaker" at the ranch is very knowledgable about what's been seen there lately in terms of birds. Norm said there is a Common Blackhawk that shows up regularly around the beginning of spring, but the caretaker said he hasn't seen it yet -- and we don't either during the time we spent there. But the ranch has other "good stuff", including a Lifer for me, Lucy's Warbler -- 

All I need is one good photo of a bird; the rest can be crap if need be.  I got that with this Lucy's...The usual Say's and Black Phoebe flycatchers were out, including this Black Phoebe with nesting material -- 

Ecosystems overlap at Lytle Ranch, so you can get, say, Mountain Chickadees here surrounded by desert -- 

And Red-naped Sapsuckers; I believe this one is a juvenile, with a bit of brown on the back of the head -- 

What a great place Lytle Ranch Preserve is -- though we didn't see the 2 Golden Eagles that Norm and his friends had seen on Monday during the approach to the preserve -- rats! On coming back to Discovery and the RV park, I got a call from Dave and Callie, my friends from Boulder, CO, saying they were up in the St. George area and would mind a visit tonight before our planned trip into the Overton wildlife area the next morning. I say "Sure, come on over!", they do, and we have great pizza (chicken and pineapple) at Carley's here in Overton. Afterwards, they head to the "boondocking" mesa south of town for the night, and I crash early after another long and satisfying day on the road...