Birdwatching Tips at Bear River Refuge

Historically, the best shots I’ve gotten of Western Grebes and Clark’s Grebes have been taken on the auto tour at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. I realized we would probably be too early to get my favorite shots, babies riding on the back of adults, but I hoped to get shots of the grebe mating rituals.

Unfortunately, we only saw four or five grebes on the entire alternate route. If I hadn’t had such high expectations, I might have been satisfied with this shot of a Western Grebe

A grebe swimming on still water, showcasing its distinctive black and white plumage and orange beak.

and this shot of a Clark’s Grebe,

A close-up of a Clark's Grebe swimming in calm water, featuring a distinctive black tuft on its head and a white body with gray accents.

but I didn’t drive 850 miles without expectations. Luckily, Expectations are exactly what keep me motivated to keep coming back year after year.

Chat GPT tells me that

The regular main auto tour route is currently scheduled to be closed from Saturday, April 4, 2026 through “mid-September” 2026 for a major maintenance and water-control structure replacement project.  

The refuge states that the normal route and Unit 2 are expected to reopen by the start of Northern Utah’s youth waterfowl hunt weekend, which usually falls in mid-September.

so I will have to wait until next year to see if the grebes will return in the numbers that were previously there.

The good news, according to Chat GPT, is

Interestingly, the alternate route goes through areas usually closed to the public, including the O-Line and D-Line canal roads closer to the Great Salt Lake itself. That may actually provide some unusual birding opportunities this spring and summer, especially for nesting shorebirds like avocets and stilts. 

As it turns out, I originally came here after fruitlessly looking for American Avocets in other areas for a couple of years. Even if I had never seen a grebe here, I would still return year after year just to see the American Avocets, and, luckily, we did see more Avocets than we ever have before. After hours of editing and deleting, I still have 55 photographs of Avocets that are good enough to post. But, I promise I would never post that many photos of a bird in a single post, or even a string of posts.

Back On the Road

It’s been a long while since we’ve gone anywhere, but we are finally on the road to visit Bill and Alice in Arizona and Jeff and Debbie in Fresno. Of course, we had to break the trip up by stopping at favorite birding spots, starting at Bear River Migratory Refuge. We haven’t been there for two years, and we were surprised to find that there was an entirely different car route, one that was quite different from the old route. Luckily, we still saw most of the birds that we came here to see, like the White-Faced Ibis and the American Avocet.

Two wading birds standing in shallow water, one with dark plumage and the other with white and brown feathers, both peering at their reflections.

We got there later than usual, but that turned out to be relatively lucky because the reflections seemed unusually vivid, as in this shot of another White-faced Ibis.

A glossy ibis wading in shallow water, reflected in the surface, surrounded by tall reeds.

Although there were more Avocets, my personal favorite, than any other species, there was still a remarkable variety of other birds, like this male Ruddy Duck in breeding colors.

A swimming duck with a reddish-brown body and a blue bill glides across the calm water.

We also saw several Cinamon Teal.

A brown bird swimming in calm water among tall reeds.

However, we only saw one White Pelican, whereas we used to see up to a hundred on the old auto tour.

A white pelican gracefully floats on calm waters, with its distinctive long orange bill and a sleek body reflecting in the water.

We also saw far fewer Grebes than we usually saw on the other route, though that might also have something to do with the time of year we visited.

Leslie took all of these pictures and seemed more than happy with the new/temporary auto tour. The other people I talked to, regulars, seemed equally happy with it. Personally, I was a little disappointed, particularly by the lack of Grebes.

Expect the Unexpected

I planned my dentist trip to Dentus in Vancouver, WA, so I could spend two or three hours at the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge. Life apparently had other plans for me; the gate was locked when I got there and discovered it had unexpectedly closed for the day. Later, we found that I wasn’t the only one disappointed but apparently no one knew exactly why it was closed.

So, what do you do when your plans fall apart, and you have three extra hours on your hands? If you’re me, you gripe a little and think of nearby places you can bird instead. It certainly helps when you’re familiar with the area, having lived there for thirty-plus years.

We ended up walking Salmon Creek, where we saw lots of skittish birds singing their hearts out but hiding from the many visitors on Spring Break. Only some brave Black-Capped Chickadees were willing to pose for shots

A small bird with a black head and white underbelly perched on a moss-covered branch.

We had to walk a little further to find the Wood Ducks that we’ve seen there on previous visits. The male Wood Duck certainly rivals my personal favorite, the male Harlequin Duck.

A colorful male wood duck swimming in a pond with reflections in the water.

This Salmon Creek pond is a bit of a miracle. I feel lucky every time I see a male Wood Duck because I rarely see them, and never see them in most places I frequent. Yet, I usually see several on this pond, and they seem so accustomed to people that they don’t fly off as soon as you point a camera at them.

I wonder if this pond serves as the local bar for Wood Ducks, the perfect place to find a mate.

A male and female wood duck swimming together in a pond, surrounded by green grass and reeds.

Salmon Creek doesn’t have nearly as many of birds or as great of variety of birds as Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, but you can find birds at Salmon Creek that you wouldn’t see at Ridgefield.

A Spring Symphony

Going out birding suggests you’re going out to SEE birds, but this time of year, sometimes you go out to HEAR birds, even when you can’t see them. That has certainly been the case lately. On a Thursday walk, Cornell University’s Merlin app identified nine different birds in one place in less than two minutes, a virtual symphony, and I couldn’t see a single one of them. That really didn’t matter, though, because their songs lifted my spirits.

Luckily, a few birds seem to go out of their way to make themselves visible when they are calling, like this Red-winged Blackbird

A red-winged blackbird perched on a wooden surface, with its head turned slightly as it calls out.

and this Marsh Wren.

A close-up of a small bird perched among dry reeds, with its beak open as if singing.

At least knowing that a bird is nearby gives you a chance to look for them in likely places, and sometimes in unlikely places like where I found that Eurasian Collared-Dove after hearing it much earlier.

A Eurasian-Collared Dove standing on wet, muddy ground among sparse grass and plants.

I’ll have to admit I’m occasionally frustrated when I can’t see a bird I can clearly hear and identify, but just knowing we are here together is still reassuring.