Observers: Debby Parker & Bill Mitchel
Email: jimndebby@qnet.com
Remote Name: 209.221.223.14
Date: 04/24/2006
Time: 06:21 PM -0400
The fox sparrow (our local nesting Great Basin race with gray head and back) was singing loudly at a creek-crossing fairly high up at the Pinyon zone, the Green-tailed towhee was quiet in the sage brush. Chukar were present in most of the canyon and decked out in their breeding plumage. The jade-colored small butterfly was hard to study in flight but it landed with closed wings and we could study its unusual rich jade color with a line of white spots across the wing. It resembled a Hairstreak which it turned out to be. There were two together along the road. We also had a singing Orange-crowned Warbler, Cassin's Vireo, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, an acciptiter after the chukar, Black-throated Sparrows and below in the valley a Swainson's Hawk putting a twig on a nest. Still few butterflies up the canyon but this is a good canyon for butterfly watching in a few weeks.