With coffee in hand and sleepy eyes, we met up with the Great Salt Lake Audubon in the parking lot of the Sandy REI on a recent Saturday and then played a rousing game of follow-the-leader - about seven cars long - to our birding destination.

We struggled deciding what to wear, we didn't know what equipment we needed and we didn't have a clue how the trip was going to unravel

But on our first field birding trip at least one thing was clear: We were going to see birds.

What wasn't so clear was the road up to Yellowfork Canyon in the Oquirrh Mountains. We ended up getting lost and holding up the group.

Perhaps we broke the first rule of birding etiquette by being late, but we were pleasantly surprised to be welcomed by such a friendly and laid-back bunch.

Ed Leite, the group's leader, was happy to lend us two pairs of binoculars. We fumbled around with them before adjusting them to our eyes. We were amazed at how clear they were. Both of us have such poor eyesight that we entertained the option of using binoculars on a daily basis.

The calls of various birds seemed to attract everybody's attention. They all turned their heads almost in synchronization, knowing exactly where the sounds were coming from. Both of us, on the other hand, almost got whiplash trying to locate the point of interest.

It felt like everybody was in on a secret and both of us were out of the loop. We were the only ones to ask questions like:

"What are we looking for?"

"What was that bird?"

"What makes a raven different from a crow?"

The Audubon members were great and they were not only happy to answer our questions, but they even entertained our queries about why cats like to chase birds.

We became so at ease that Maggie gave some of the members nicknames. DeeDee became Chick-a-deedee and the spelling of Roberta turned into RoBIRDa. Before too long, after seeing the usual birds that come around this time of year, we were on a search for the elusive golden-crowed kinglet.

The pattern of walking, stopping, listening and looking intensified. Every few steps, we were enamored by any small sound.

We saw our first mountain blue jay and Western scrub jay. We saw a juniper titmouse and a couple of mallards. We saw an abundance of ravens. One of the birders explained you can tell whether is a crow or a raven by looking at the shape of its tail. Ravens have wedge-shape tails while crows have more a square-shaped tail.

The best came at last when the group, heading back on the trail, spotted a ruby-crowned kinglet.

While some had been hoping to see a golden-crowned kinglet, any disappointment disappeared at sight of the ruby-crowned bird's fiery red head plumage.

Between the two of us, we saw seven species of birds. Sure, we somehow missed the other 12 species the rest of the group saw.

But it was still a satisfying trip -- for beginners and experts. The birds were chirping, the sun was out, the sky was clear and on that day, it looked like spring was on its way.

Who knew some birds could shake a couple of city girls out of slumber and into nature?

mthach@sltrib.com, rorellana@sltrib.com