Hickman Flats with the Abajos photo by Tim Avery

• eBird Checklist
• Flickr Photos

Description:
Hickman Flats is a shrubsteppe and agricultural area that is best known for housing the remaining Gunnison Sage-Grouse population in Utah.  There are various public roads cutting across the entirely private and/or protected land that can be birded.  There are several small ponds and creeks as well as patches of juniper that provide additional habitat as well.

Birding:
Hickman Flats is known to most birders for being the only place in Utah to see GUNNISON SAGE-GROUSE.  There are several leks located here, that are protected by the government on private land.  The active leks are not visible from public roads, and viewing of the grouse can only be arranged through the DNR.  If you visit to look for these species, DO NO trespass, or do anything to put birders in bad light with the state, or more importantly could be harmful to the grouse.  However the shrubsteppe habitat here is ideal for local specialties like SAGEBRUSH SPARROW, SAGE THRASHER, and VESPER SPARROW.  Juniper habitat provides home to JUNIPER TITMOUSE and in recent years LEWIS'S WOODPECKER have been in the area.  The prairie habitat attracts numerous raptors including GOLDEN EAGLE, PRAIRIE FALCON, and NORTHERN HARRIER.  Several small "lakes" or ponds attract a variety of waterfowl and have had TUNDRA SWAN at them during migration in the past.  Birding is typically best her in the late spring into early summer.  The location in the state gives it the opportunity to play stop-over grounds for a number of prairie species that otherwise are rarely or never seen in Utah.  Longspurs, Mountain Plover, Sprague's Pipit, Baird's Sparrow, and other birds that breed in the far west plains potentially could show up here.

Directions:
From the intersection of Center Street and Main Street/Hwy 191 follow Hwy 191 north 5.3 miles then turn right onto Hickman Flat Roads.  From here you can drive east almost to the Colorado border and drive the various roads east and west, and north and south in the area.