US-UT-Arches+National+Park+--+Balanced+Rock

Also, see Arches National Park
 * =Birding in Utah=

Grand County
=Arches National Park = =Balanced Rock= Moab, UT 84532 Arches National Park webpage Arches National Park map Arches National Park visitor guide Balanced Rock Trail webpage

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Arches NP -- Balanced Rock
Coordinates: 38.7016981, -109.566196 eBird links: Hotspot map View details Recent visits My eBird links: Location life list Submit data

About Balanced Rock
Standing beneath Balanced Rock, it's hard to grasp its size. The massive sandstone boulder perched atop the pedestal is estimated to weigh 3,577 tons. That's the weight of an icebreaker ship or approximately 27 blue whales.

Tips for birding Arches National Park
From Utah Birds website

About Arches National Park
Visit Arches and discover a landscape of contrasting colors, landforms and textures unlike any other in the world. The park has over 2,000 natural stone arches, in addition to hundreds of soaring pinnacles, massive fins, and giant balanced rocks. This red rock wonderland will amaze you with its formations, refresh you with its trails, and inspire you with its sunsets.

Natural forces created the landscape of Arches, which contains the greatest density of natural arches in the world. Rock layers tell a story of deposition, erosion, and other geologic events. Arches is in a "high desert" environment, with hot summer temperatures, cool winters, and infrequent precipitation. Desert conditions determine the kind of life forms that live here. We can witness the natural process and conditions thanks to the park's isolation from major urban areas.

Birds are the most visible animals in Arches. Even on the hottest summer day, turkey vultures, ravens, and white-throated swifts circle above the rock formations. During winter, juncos and white-crowned sparrows forage around trees and shrubs. While Arches may not be considered a bird watching hotspot, 273 species have been seen in the park, including seasonal and year-round residents as well as migrants.

Arches owes much of this diversity to riparian corridors like Courthouse Wash and the Colorado River (which forms the park’s southern boundary). In the desert, animal life tends to concentrate around riparian areas because of the abundance of food, water, and shelter. During spring and summer, songs from birds like blue grosbeaks, yellow-breasted chats, spotted towhees, and canyon wrens fill these areas. You might see great blue herons hunting the shallows for fish, while Cooper’s hawks deftly maneuver through the tangle of trees beyond the riverbanks.

Many birds favor the “upland” areas where grasses, shrubs, and small trees dominate. Say’s phoebes, black-throated sparrows and western meadowlarks frequent grasslands. Pinyon jays, scrub jays, juniper titmice and black-throated gray warblers are usually seen in pinyon-juniper woodlands.

Since they can fly, it is difficult to generalize about what birds will be found in a particular habitat. However, regardless of habitat or season, the common raven figures prominently in the desert landscape. Ravens are intelligent birds that, according to scientists, display abilities to play and problem-solve that are rare among animals. This jet-black member of the crow family is also very vocal, using a variety of sounds for communication. Perhaps because of these qualities, ravens have achieved a certain stature in both European and Native American folklore.

Arches monitors bird populations at several selected locations in both upland and riparian areas. Some surveys count all birds, while others focus on birds that actually nest in the park, such as peregrine falcons. Findings from these surveys and others like them are used to monitor the health of local bird populations and estimate species richness throughout the country. From Arches National Park webpage



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