Wasatch NF Spruce Campground 7/28--Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Red-naped Sapsucker, American Dipper

We drove down the canyon and birded around a campground. One camper there, a grizzled westerner, seemed unable to process the information when we told him we were from NJ and were looking for birds. The noisy woodpeckers behind his trailer had been bothering him all morning and I I don't think he could imagine why anyone would travel 2000 miles to see them.

Red-naped Sapsucker was one bird that we added in the campground, as well as our only American Dipper of the trip, in a small stream at the entrance.

The highlight of our walk around the camping sites was finding a Broad-tailed Hummingbird feeding a chick in a bush. None of the group, including the leaders, had ever seen a hummingbird feed offspring before, so we spent a good five minutes watching before another hummer buzzed in and the mother and juvenile buzzed off.

Photos: Shari Zirlin