Beryl Juncton from Google Street View
Description:
Beryl Junction sits in the middle of agricultural land miles form anything resembling modern day America. The area is a throwback to times of the past, and its refreshing to spend some time here in the middle of nowhere. Recently a nice school has been built here, but there are only a a few other private homes, and a small community housing project here right at the intersection of SR-56 and SR-18 which is the Beryl Highway leading to the ghost town of Beryl. There are various tree lines and small groves in the area that provide some migrant habitat--particularly to the southwest of the intersection there is one large property which you can drive the perimeter of. The same for the property just to the northwest of the intersection--this property is larger, so many more trees are here. But the farms are the main "habitat" pastures, hay--huge circles of crop seen form space if you look on Google Maps. Outside of that, poor grassland habitat, shrubsteppe and desert surround the area.
Birding:
Beryl Junction is a great mid-winter birding spot, mostly know for the number of raptors that over winter there. Between November and March the birding and photo opportunities for hawks, eagles, and falcons can be great here. NORTHERN HARRIER, BALD EAGLE, FERRUGINOUS HAWK, ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, RED-TAILED HAWK, and PRAIRIE FALCON can all be found here during the winter months, and sometimes in decent enough numbers to make this a raptor hot spot in Utah. In the summer SWAINSON'S HAWKS replace the roughies and there aren't nearly as many birders visiting the area. I like to leave ST. George, and head north on back roads to get here, then cut over to Cedar City to head back north if I have time. It's an extra couple hours if you plan on birding, but you might see lots of hawks. I tend to drive the Beryl Highway north a few miles from town, and then crisscross any roads along the way, and back down south of town.
Directions:
From I-15 Exit 59 in Cedar City head west on SR-56 for 35.3 miles to Beryl Junction.
Labels: farms, Iron County, raptors, rural, shrubsteppe, winter
2 Comments:
I just heard about this place and thought I would check it out. It's only October, hope it's worth the drive -- I'm just itching to get out of Vegas. Birding is just starting to pick up again here. Any other birds you can think of that I might keep my eyes peeled for?
Just went to Beryl and saw plenty of hawks, red tailed, rough-legged, and prairie. Unfortunately I saw not even one Bald Eagle. I've spotted so many in the past. What's up with that? Any ideas?
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