America's Fake Ocean

Last night after resting a bit, Bill and I went to his softball game. They won 22-1. After, we got a few beers with his teammates, which includes two very good local birders. We talked over what Bill and I should do today. When we got home, Brook, who lives in Bill's artist community, came over and chatted for a bit about her upcoming trip and future move to NYC.


This morning, I got my latest start of this trip, waking up at about 8:15. We headed to Antelope Island State Park, which is a huge island, connected by a causeway, in the Great Salt Lake. We came across some great birds on the causeway. This included a hunting PRAIRIE FALCON, BAIRD'S SANDPIPER, CALIFORNIA GULL, EARED GREBE, an injured RED-NECKED PHALAROPE, LONG-BILLED CURLEW, BLACK-NECKED STILT, and AMERICAN PIPITS walking along the rocks.


We headed onto the island and checked out the Garr Ranch. This was a pretty cool place that was settled by Mormons, and now the Utah DNR has the site set up as it likely was, and allow visitors to use the tools, go into rooms, and pretty much have free access to amazing stuff. There is a wood pile on the ranch that someone had reported a GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW two days ago, but due to wind, and probably the bird's location, I was not able to relocate it.


Bill and I wanted to check out the water, so we went to White Rock Bay, where we had to walk about a mile to get to the shore. While we were walking there, we thought we saw some people way off on the beach. Upon binocing them, we realized it was some of the island's bison. The water was covered in brine shrimp, but it was so hot and tempting, we had to get in. Walking out into the water didn't get very deep, but I did get to try out the science experiment of floating in the high density super-saline water. It was incredible.