Exploring Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge

When visiting National Wildlife Refuges, it’s easy to forget that, no matter how long the auto tour is, you are only seeing a small part of the refuge, and there’s no way of knowing what the habitat is like in other parts of the refuge. Our recent trip to Bear River was a good reminder of that.

As Chat GPT points out, “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.” It was right on both points.

We saw more ducks than I can remember seeing on previous trips, and some we had never seen there before. I suspect part of the reason for that is that the water was shallower than on the old auto tour. Consequently, we got a lot closer to ducks like this pair of Gadwalls,

Two ducks swimming in a tranquil pond, surrounded by tall grasses.

this male Northern Shoveler,

A male duck with a green head and brown body swimming in a calm water scene surrounded by tall, dry reeds.

and this male Ruddy Duck,

A brown duck with a blue bill swimming in a calm waterbody, surrounded by tall reeds.

who didn’t seem to want his picture taken.

A bird taking off from the water, creating splashes as it lifts off, with tall grasses in the background.

It’s easy to see why some visitors, particularly those who live nearby and visit often, would find the temporary, alternate auto tour even better than the regular auto tour.

I’ll have to admit that I thought that the reeds provided a spectacular backdrop for some of these shots.

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.