USA 2014 - Strawberry Reservoir and the Nebo Loop Scenic Byway

We decided on Saturday morning to take breakfast at a local cafe we'd stopped at on our return the previous day, for coffee.

As you can see they had focused the decor on old Americana, which made it a fascinating place to spend some time:

We had decided the previous evening that our destination would be Strawberry Reservoir, in particular in search of some more Sparrow species for our USA list.  It was a windy day, we'd driven around the weather system we first saw on Tuesday and now were getting the tail end of it.  We hiked the main entry road around part of the reservoir and tried a few local canyons too.

We saw both Vesper Sparrow and Brewer's Sparrow, the latter being quite common:

We also saw Savannah Sparrow:

So mission accomplished on the Sparrow front :)

I do like photographing mammals especially when they are being so endearing:

We enjoyed watching an Osprey foraying to and from this perch:

From Strawberry Reservoir we headed for the Nebo Loop Scenic Byway, another spectacular drive through the landscapes of Utah, with enormous views, including snow-capped mountains:

Forests:

And even as far as the Great Salt Lake itself:

We stopped at various pull-outs looking for wildlife and were delighted to add Hammond's Flycatcher to the birds we'd seen:

As the day moves on it turns from 'bird o'clock' to 'butterfly o'clock' - I believe this is a Swallowtail species:

We drove on then to our hotel, a stop-off by the freeway, ahead of another scenic drive and more birdwatching to come on Sunday morning.