I got up early and joined the Utah County Birding club for a field trip to Delta, Utah to see the Snow Geese that stage there for their spring migration. Instead of car pooling with the others and knowing that Delta was more than half-way to Milford, I headed out alone in my Geo Tracker.

The day was grey and cloudy with intermittent showers, adding to already saturated ground. One of the first things Dennis, our trip leader said once at Gunnison Bend Reservoir was to stay on the roads because the shoulders were saturated and it would be easy to get stuck. We did see a large flock of about 1400 Snow Geese and 500 Ross' Geese. After viewing them for almost an hour, the field trip leaders got together to determine where they would go next, with the trip already having accomplished it's major purpose. I already knew where I would be going; I wanted to see the farm fields south of Milford and the Hog facilities between Milford and Lund. I believed there would be more birds in the occasional stands of trees around the farm houses than out in the desert grassland.

I headed toward Delta watching every pole along the road for raptors and found a Rough-legged Hawk, a Golden Eagle and a lot of Common Ravens. Along the road were numerous Horned Larks, that would fly up at my passing, as is their custom. As I neared the Wah Wah Valley Latilong, I began to want to get into it. For such a big place, at about 55 by 70 miles, it is rather difficult to get into. Several roads pass right by the borders, sometimes within a few miles or enter the area just barely. Highway 257 from Delta to Milford is just like this, paralleling 113 longitude for much of the distance to Milford, then several miles before Milford, it swings west just enough to be just west of the line. Milford city itself lies a scant half mile in my chosen Latilong. Black Rock Road provides the first real access to the Latilong along Highway 257, so I turned on it and drove the 2 miles to the point where my GPS indicated I was across the Parallel and into the latilong. On the way in I saw a Turkey Vulture winging its way, but unfortunately, not in the latilong. Close but not in. Nothing seen, I headed on toward Milford.

The Kauffman ranch at Black Rock has several large ponds and attracts many migrants, but it is on the east side of the road. Passing, I saw an Osprey and wished it would fly just two miles west for me.

I tried several other roads west to the Latilong but had no success with them either. Arriving at Milford, I refueled and continued south into the farmland. Here I began to see birds, although never in large numbers. One notable sighting was a Clark's Nutcracker at a farm house at N 38 21.4100 W 113 00.5889, completely out of place. Nutcrackers are supposed to be in the mountains.

I continued south, having set Lund as my destination. Lund is a small dot on the map on the southern edge of the Latilong. I believed the roads toward Lund would be paved and passable. Not so. As I drove south out of Milford, the roads quickly became improved gravel, then went to dirt. As I drove on, I had to move more to the west because the roads headed south ended until finally I arrived at the Union Pacific tracks. I did pass the Circle 4 hog farms and the aroma was quite noticeable. Along the way I spotted 4 more Golden Eagles and several other raptors.

When I arrived at the railroad tracks, I found a road that paralleled them to Lund, but as I drove down it I came to a large sign that said the road was impassible in winter conditions. I tried it for a bit and found that it was, indeed impassible, so I turned around. Another sign pointed north to a better road, and with a rain storm bearing down on me, I headed for it. I only got 200 yards when I became stuck and waited out the storm in the ditch. Four wheel drive gives one confidence that sometimes is quite undeserved. With prayers followed by inspiration, I was able to extricate myself after an hour, then covered with a sticky-gooey mud, headed back the way I had come.

Getting stuck took my enthusiasm and time so I headed for home, filled with thankfulness that I had gotten unstuck at all. I had seen 12 species on this trip making it hardly worthwhile.