Another quick Bird Drive

This is our second favorite birding spot. You can read about the first here.

The city put up a pond in the Lehi City limits, but it's not a recreational pond. It's surrounded by a big black fence, so no people, animals, or predators can go inside. This has made it a haven for migrating waterfowl.

In the last week we have seen several species of ducks including mallards, goldeneyes, gadwalls, shovelers, and canvasbacks. There are even a few more exotic ducks like mergansers and buffleheads.

We see other birds there, too. Today we saw about 10 cormorants. There was even a great blue heron standing on the bank. (He stands very still, so you have to be patient to see him!)

Perhaps our favorite bird to spot there is a year round resident: the belted kingfisher. We've seen him dive a few times, but his favorite places to sit are on the aerial atop the building, and on the telephone wire.

Make sure you take binoculars as the birds tend to stick to the far side of the pond, especially when a car stops. To get to the pond, follow these directions.

Get off the American Fork Main Street/Pioneer Crossing exit and turn west. Go to Mill Pond Road and turn left (1st light after the freeway exits). Go down the hill to a T and take a right at the stop sign. Follow this road to another stop sign (if you look closely, you might spot deer across from the neighborhoods as you drive on this road). Go right again onto 1630 S. You will pass an LDS chapel on your left and then shortly after come to the pond on your right. We live about two minutes from this pond and plan to drive by almost every day during the spring to see what new waterfowl might be hanging out.

UPDATE: We'll keep a list here of other birds that we spot in this pond during the spring:

March 3: an American Kestrel shredding a mouse on the powerline, green winged-teal, and Canadian geese (about a million of these, and a pair of sandhill cranes inhabit the field to the west on Center Street). We also noticed a raptor in his nest, though we couldn't identify it. To spot him, face your car west in front of the pond. The largest, closest, huge metal powerpole has 3 platforms. His nest is against the pole between the second and third platform (after you spot him, you can drive closer.)

March 13: Unbelievable! We saw a male and female hooded merganser here today! This is the first time we've ever seen this bird. I've attached a picture (from the Internet).