Geology and Geography:

Walk north from the Egg Island parking lot to a prominent point of land. You will soon find yourself climbing over tilted and eroded tan-colored rock outcrops of Tintic Quartzite. These rock formations belong to the Farmington Canyon Complex and are very old.  See the geology map from the Utah Geological Survey.  Climb onto the rocks and look around--what can you see?  Look at the general locational map of the Great Salt Lake area as well as the more detailed  map of northern Antelope Island. Look east along the shore--you should see the marina and home of the Great Salt Lake Yacht Club --the saltiest sailors in the world.

Farther to the east you can see the causeway which connects to the mainland.  Farther in the distance are the Wasatch Mountains and Wasatch Front cities and towns of Davis and Weber County such as Ogden, Farmington, Bountiful and Syracuse. To the east-northeast you may see military aircraft from Hill Air Force Base heading out west of the Great Salt Lake to their electronic warfare test range.

		Directly south is the "spine" of a prominent north/south-trending range of mountain peaks that are part of the Basin and Range topography that is typical of the Great Basin Region. The highest peak above Bridger Bay is Stringham Peak.
	Looking west and southwest across Bridger Bay you see Buffalo Point.

Bird Life on the Lake

Swing your view more toward the northwest and you will see a small rock-outcropping in the lake--this is Egg Island. It is one of the most important California gull "rookeries" in North America.  In fact, Utah is one of the best places in North America to view migratory birds of all types. Read more about birds on the Great Salt Lake at the website produced by the USGS Great Salt Lake page (see also the USGS-NBII - Great Basin Information Project) for more on biodiversity and related issues. 

To the north-northeast you look toward the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in northern Utah, Box-Elder County near Brigham City (see map below). Learn more at Northern Utah Wildlife or Utah.com or USFWS.

The MBR is one of the most important breeding grounds for many types of birds in the western hemisphere.  The MBR and its associated wetlands and marshes are a prime stopover point for birds that travel from northern Canada to South America on the Pacific Flyway .  On the MBR's homepage you can read about the history and ecology of  the saltwater and freshwater marshes on the Bear River delta and farther upstream in Cache Valley. Some of the fresh-water marshes are man-made, such as Willard Bay which is also a popular boating site.

Learn more at about the Great Salt Lake Hemispheric Reserve of the U.S. National Wildlife Service - National Refuge System (Region 6). See also the National Geographic site on wildlife refuges in general. See also Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network from Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences--links to the Great Salt Lake and Mono Lake.and from SELECT SOURCES

South of the MBR around Little Mountain are extensive evaporation ponds of the Harris Group / Great Salt Lake Minerals Division (photo below).  

Learn more about the Salt Industry and salinity and water quality issues from the USGS. Can you find the evaporation ponds on the following map or on satellite images of the Great Salt Lake?

Among some of Utah's most famous transient bird residents who stopover at the MBR are Wilson's phalarope-- see the map showing ranges of North American Breeding Birds.
 

You can learn more about the Wilson's phalarope from a Westminster College student project by Todd Volkening entitled: Great Salt Lake Shorebirds.  This was part of  a project entitledThe Great Salt Lake Playa Food  Web Project done by students from Westminster College of Salt Lake City in Fall 1998 and 1999 under Ty Harris a biological ecologist. See other modules are contained including, e.g. Great Salt Lake Hydrological Model, Greasewood, Halophyte Belt Transect, Saltgrass, Iodinebush, Pickleweed, Snowy Plover.

Another common bird on the lake is the state bird of Utah--the California gull--look at this MAP of its breedings range.  Note that the Great Salt Lake is the most important site in North America for gulls (photo below left).  Other important birds which breed on the Great Salt Lake include cormorants (photo below right). 
 

Learn More at these Websites: At the Egg Island parking lot look for the prominent bulletin board/display on Great Salt Lake Birds.  There is much more information in the Visitor Center to the south on a hill overlooking Bridger Bay . Or look at some of these websites:   National Geographic article on wildlife refuges National Refuge System (Region 6 Utah) - see also the National Geographic site on wildlife refuges in general and Region 1 (Nevada). Ducks Unlimited HawkWatch International Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences--links to the Great Salt Lake and Mono Lake.

• See this ANTELOPE ISLAND MAP which you can purchase from  the UGS (Utah Geological Survey) DNR Bookstore and Map source - State of Utah or the Antelope Island Visitor Center - see other sites here.
  
• Get the Booklet: Geology & Antelope Island State Park, Utah, 1988. Other maps are listed in the Great Salt Lake Map Exercise. UGS (Utah Geological Survey) - Great Salt Lake Resources & Questions along with Publications.
  
• Learn more from Ty Harrison, Professor of Biology, Westminster College of SLC. and the Great Salt Lake Project and other modules such as the Great Salt Lake Playa Foodweb Project. 

• More at: SELECT SOURCES, Northern Utah Wildlife, Utah.com, USFWS and learn about the modern land use conflicts from this document: Antelope Island Draft Access Management Plan - 2004 (PDF)