The Great Salt Lake Bird Festival has been captivating bird watchers and nature enthusiasts since 1999, a demographic that has grown exponentially since the festival’s inception. The event includes about 50 field trips each year, yet these typically sell out in less than 10 minutes. For instance, in 2023 all tickets were claimed in about seven minutes. Why so popular, and why so popular with us?

The Great Salt Lake is critical to migratory birds attracting 8-10 million each year. This flying influx is comprised of 338 species. The bird festival is an excellent way to appreciate and learn about those species and the unique ecosystem that attracts them alongside avian and ecology experts. We love attending, but every year we have the same debate. Namely, how many early-morning field trips do we sign up for? In these sleep versus scholarship battles, scholarship usually wins. This time, we predictably decided getting up at ungodly hours three days in a row was worth it.

Why ungodly hours? Birds get up early. If you want to see them, you must also. We had to wake between 4:15 and 5:30 AM for all our field trips. After three days of that, we were exhausted. Somehow, we squeezed in afternoons of snowboarding on two of those days though. You’ve got to admit, our craziness is persistent.

The first field trip we attended, joined by a niece, was Mist Netting and Bird Banding. This took place in Farmington at the Eccles Wildlife Education Center headed by staff from the Department of the Interior who normally spend a morning catching birds every week at Hill Air Force Base. The information they collect is used for a national avian monitoring system. The bands are not electronic or WIFI, just old-school numbered metal circles. Banded birds are rarely recaptured, but it does happen.

During our session, we caught song sparrows, a robin, and a flicker. The bigger birds were feistier. Apparently, the little species are more accustomed to being picked on by other birds and are therefore more accepting of being handled. In contrast, the flicker had no intention of accepting anything and made that known with a lot of biting attempts. The robin also dabbled in snapping.

Our second outing was Birding by Electric Bike, which Jason’s parents joined us on. During this adventure, we peddled along the Jordan River. This was my first time ebiking, and I thought the optional power made the job way too easy. I want a workout when I bike. Hence, I turned my bike off half the time, and the rest of the time I set it to eco, the lowest setting. It didn’t seem right to pawn off my muscles’ job. While on this relaxing and pleasant excursion, we observed American kestrels, an osprey, and a cormorant along with a plethora of more common birds.

Our last field trip was Bountiful Pond. Bountiful Pond was created when clay was removed from an area for a nearby landfill. Although its origins may be less than elegant, it now attracts many waterfowls and songbirds. We birded around the water for 2.5 hours finding sandhill cranes, Canadian geese, a domestic duck with peculiarly poofy hair, a cinnamon teal, a double-crested cormorant, and a yellow warbler just to name a few. Two of our nieces came with us. They seemed minimally eager at first but got more and more excited as we began finding species. I was surprised how many birds were all around us as soon as we started paying attention.

I’ve never understood why people don’t take advantage of their local events, natural wonders, and attractions. Jason and I do our best to get as much out of our whereabouts as possible. That’s why a week last May found us birding in the morning and boarding in the afternoon. Were we tired? Yes. Were we regretful? No… at least not eventually after we got some sleep.