Fort Boise WMA and more!

Jay and Heidi joined the Golden Eagle Audubon Society for a fun field trip out to the Fort Boise WMA this Saturday! We were just askin’ for trouble, with a car full that included Sue Norton, Mike Morrison and Gary Robinson ;)

"Team" shot (where's Jay?;-)

Our first stop was a road in the WMA where we were able to see the huge flocks of Snow and Greater White-Fronted Geese (with a few Ross' Geese mixed in) flying over and landing in the nearby ponds. (Claire, who works at the WMA and lead us through the area, said there were about 50,000 Snow Geese in the flocks this year!) We stayed there for a few hours to see the geese and other waterfowl as well as a few Bald Eagles, Northern Harriers and also 5 Red-tailed Hawks circling overhead that gave us quite a show! We also got to hear plenty of Virginia Rails, Marsh Wrens, and Song Sparrows.

GEAS members stand on the road to admire the huge flock of (mostly) Snow Geese!

(don't worry, only a few birders were hit by passing vehicles :)

After visiting the geese, Claire led us on a special tour of the WMA where we saw plenty of birds, including a cute Song Sparrow couple (that little guy was obviously 'twitterpated'!), chickadees, RC Kinglets, and a Golden Eagle. We also got to see a very patient Great-Horned Owl sitting on her nest. Everyone got a great view through a couple scopes they set up

Field trippers line up to view the owl

After a fun time in the WMA it was time for lunch, and our car-load of birders headed off for parts unknown (aka New Plymouth) to search out a Harris' Sparrow that had been reported in the area. After less than a minute in front of the house, we spotted him!! Not only was he a totally sweet bird but he was my 200th LIFER!! woohoo! *now imagine Heidi's "200th lifer happy-pants dance"...which is not at all like RL's "awesome gull happy-pants dance" *It was cool for Jay too, who's only seen 3 in Idaho. Here (and other areas throughout the day) we saw some Sandhill Cranes fly over-another cool year bird!

Sue, Mike, Gary and Heidi checking out the Harris' Sparrow (Sue is showing off her amazing talent of hiding in every one of these photos!--those are her feet at the end--you'd think she didn't want to be seen with us or something :)

Just down the road for the Harris' house, we visited the scenic New Plymouth sewage ponds. There were tons of Snow and Greater White-fronted geese there too, as well as birds like ring-necked duck, lesser scaup, pintails, and through the scopes we were able to spot a Cinnamon Teal! It was another Lifer :) It was a pretty long distance to look out over the ponds, and Sue was saying we should paddle out closer to our birdie friends in a canoe (heehee!)....we were trying to let her down easy, and explain it wasn't exactly a super-duper plan, but then she thought better of her idea when we saw a lovely dead muskrat nearby (eww! no, not because he was dead...but he'd been swimming in there!)
We left the sewage ponds and hit the highway, where we saw our first Turkey Vulture of the year! (They say TV's use their sense of smell to find their food...we wondered if he was headed for that tender muskrat morsel?)

Where might we be headed on that highway, you ask? To the dump of course! No day of birding would be complete without a stop at at least two smelly destinations. We were in search of the Lesser Black-backed gull this time, but didn't have any luck in the 1/2 hour we were there. The dump closes at 5:30 and while Jay begged us to leave him there over night (gosh, that guy might like gulls a little too much, huh? :) we didn't like the looks of some of the mattresses he was considering, and drug him outta there just in time.

hehe, maybe after this (obviously truthful) story Jay will think twice before posting incriminating photos of *ahem* certain people enjoying themselves at the dump (what? Heidi is obsessed with gulls and the dump too??)
With a little bit of daylight left, we decided we wouldn't be true birders if we didn't make one last stop before dark, so we headed off to Wilson Springs. We walked the loop there and saw lots of birds, including Coots, Ring-necked Ducks, Lesser Scaup, Mallards, Bufflehead, Pied-billed grebes and Gadwall. We also saw a Bald eagle and a red-tail, our first Eurasian Collared Doves of the day, Brewers and Red-Wing blackbirds (including one that was chasing down a Kestrel) another singing Marsh wren, and a group of almost 60 magpies! wow!

It'd been a fun day, but I think we were all ready for a nap as we piled back in the warm car at sunset and headed for home.

~Heidi

finishing the day at Wilson springs!
Sue, Gary, Mike and Heidi

adult ICELAND GULL!!!! (and Heidi pulls ahead :-(

Heidi & I finally headed back to 'the dump' (Pickle's Butte landfill S of Caldwell) this AM to see if we couldn't find that confusing 'Iceland-type' 1st-winter bird, the 1st-winter Glaucous, and anything else we could stumble across. Heidi had bemoaned the fact that this meant not sleeping in on her only day of the week (aside from Sunday - correct me if I'm wrong ;-) to do so ... but I'd say the below info and her smiles/excitement suggested it was worth it! And, b/c the Glaucous Gull was one of the few species I had over Heidi for the year so far, seeing it vaulted her back into the lead.

Here's Heidi scanning the gulls (garbage not too far away) - she's really hoping her non-birding friends don't get wind of this embarrassing shot!

The BIG story: soon after arrival, I caught a 2-second glimpse of an adult, apparent 'white-winged' (Glaucous or Iceland) gull in flight that went back down into the 'pile' (active dumping area) below where we could see (pretty much right where Heidi's looking in the above photo). I was pretty worked up & we set to looking for it and Heidi soon spotted what turned out to be an adult Glaucous-winged ... a nice find (!) and a new arrival to the dump this winter.

Adult Glaucous-winged Gull - note the pink legs, dark eyes, primaries (wing-tips) only slightly darker gray than the mantle (back), and chunky shape.

Raised wing of the adult Glaucous-winged Gull showing the only slightly grayer primaries.

Even though I was pretty sure I'd seen something with even paler wingtips, I eventually surmised that this was likely what I'd glimpsed - especially as 2 more hours went by and no 'white-winged' adults were seen.... As the clock struck 11 and guilt began to creep in (I'd graded tests 'til 1030pm the night before to afford some 'hooky' time in the AM but still had loads to do;-), we both kept thinking, "we should go". But, we kept noticing funny-looking immature gulls (see far below in this post) that caused a lot of head-scratching ... We finally headed towards the car around 1130 and I said, "One last scan of this area (the 'pile' and slope behind), OK?" That's when I spotted an adult Iceland Gull!!! (to be honest, it took us a few minutes of studying the bird to be sure it wasn't an adult Glaucous - see notes below photos for ID criteria) - perched out in the open in plain view. (So I wasn't totally nuts when I saw those white wings earlier!!). We watched it for 20 minutes as the wind picked up and then rain & hail began ... I was trying hard to get pics b/c an adult Iceland is BIG-TIME for Idaho (immatures of rare species like this are rare enough but adults show up even less often) but I couldn't hold the scope steady in the breeze (or maybe it was my shivering and/or excitement at what we were seeing?). Fortunately, though they're blurry (and thanks for bearing with me ;-), a few turned out decently enough to help verify the identification ...

Adult Iceland Gull - critical ID features include pale wingtips (at rest, as shown here, no contrast with mantle or even a little whiter), pink legs, deep chest/belly, rounded head, and relatively small bill (for a biggish gull). Not shown here but noted was a yellowish-colored eye (not bright yellow like a Herring Gull but not brown like most Thayer's).

The adult Iceland Gull (at left) shown here next to an adult California Gull (hard to see but note darker mantle and yellowish legs) whose bill, though tough to see in this picture, appeared relatively longer than that of the Iceland.

I know this is ridiculously blurry (better than most I tried!!) but a closer view of the wingtip pattern on the adult Iceland Gull.

There were likely 1000+ gulls around from 9am (when we arrived) to 1150am (when we split during a hailstorm) with some gull arrivals (mostly) & departures. They were VERY cooperative and the weather was mostly so ... until the storm drove the adult Iceland and many others off towards Lake Lowell (presumably). In total we saw 7 gull species plus a couple of likely hybrids (the bane of gull-watchers - at least this one!) - including 30+ Herring Gulls of all ages, 1 1st-winter Glaucous, the adult Glaucous-winged, the Iceland adult, ~5 Thayer's Gulls, ~800 California Gulls, and ~400 Ring-billed Gulls. Charles - I'll post to eBird in the AM!!

All in all, a pretty awesome day to be at the dump!!

Parting Shots: those of you with little patience for gull ID have likely long-since fallen asleep on the keyboard (and thanks for coming this far!). BUT, for the gull-enthusiasts (Ryan O. - I know you're still with me!), here are a few individual 1st-winter birds that we observed today whose identities were challenging our brainpower (comments/opinions welcome - as always).

1st, here are a few shots of the potential 1st winter Iceland Gull found last week by Cliff Weisse. To my knowledge, Cliff, Heidi, and I are the only folks to have seen it well and all agree it definitely has Iceland 'blood' - and maybe wouldn't even be questioned as an Iceland if seen in their normal winter range - but is it 'pure' enough to definitively be an Iceland Gull in Idaho (and/or is there also a bit of Thayer's Gull blood)??

1st-winter potential Iceland Gull. Note pale coloring, rounded head, bulky chest/belly, and extensive patterning on wing coverts.

Here, note the extensive white outlines to each primary (wing-tip) feather.

Here you can see the individual primary feathers as well as - from the side - the tail. The tail looks darker than most Icelands ... but has an extensive pale base & terminal band - ???

Next, 2 other immature birds that made us wonder ... "Are they just variants on Herring Gulls or something else?"

Mystery juvenile #1.

Mystery juvenile #2 (Cliff Weisse suggested a likely Herring x Glaucous-winged hybrid which I can buy but I'd rather if it was a Slaty-backed Gull!!).

Ciao!

Jay

A Wood River Valley excursion

Jay and Heidi, along with dedicated volunteer IBO-ers Gary and Jean, headed out for a day of mountain birding on Saturday. We met in Mountain Home to pick up Gary in the early hours of the morning and were soon on our way. No sooner had we hit the highway, after listening to Jay's “Hey guys, what do you say, let’s book it to Sun Valley and only stop if we see something totally amazing” when a blinker went on, the vehicle suddenly decelerated, and we heard those infamous words: “hey, was that a gull?!” We scanned the water for a few minutes, finding mostly mallards and swans, and NO gulls before moving on. (this was grim foreshadowing of the rest of the day, as we did not see any gulls the whole trip! poor poor Jay)

We were on the road! On the drive there we didn’t see much more than blowing snow drifts and the occasional roadside magpie.

After arriving in the valley, we first stopped in Bellevue at a house that had been visited by a Harris’ sparrow. We had no luck with the sparrow, but saw our first batch of gazillions of Pine Siskins that would greet us everywhere we went throughout the rest of the day.
Then it was off to Jean’s house, between Hailey and Ketchum. On the turnoff to her house, we spotted a bunch of crossbills in some conifer trees near the road. We hopped out and soon had some good but fleeting views of both Red and White-Winged crossbills! The White-Wings were LIFERS for both Gary and I! It was great to see both males and females of each species at the same time, and getting to compare their appearance as well as the calls of each species was especially cool.

We met up with Jean, and all piled into her vehicle (with wonderfully heated front seats, which I enjoyed immensely :) and we were off to search for Black Rosy-Finches. We drove through the small community of Triumph and other area neighborhoods, but had no luck with the Rosy’s or our other 'target bird', Redpolls. We did see a new and adorable species for the year, Mountain Chickadees, along with plenty of Black-capped Chickadees, Siskins, Am. Goldfinches, Juncos, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Flickers and House finches.

We headed to a tasty burrito place in Hailey for lunch, where we met up with Robin, Jay and Jean’s cool biologist friend. Then we went for one last check on the Black Rosies in Triumph before journeying back to Bellevue. While we still didn’t find the finches, we did get an awesome view of some Cedar waxwings in the bushes right next to the car. And mixed in with them was a Bohemian! It wasn’t a Lifer, but I was still excited to see it so close up, and be able to compare it with the cedars. I’d only seen Boho’s twice before, and had never gotten to see the wing pattern! Gary also got some great photos, including this awesome comparison shot of a cedar with his big fatty cousin :)

A Cedar Waxwing (on the left) with his Bohemian buddy (right)
--Photo by Gary Robinson--

At another stop after this, Jay claimed to have seen a Hairy woodpecker fly over (a new year bird) but also claimed he didn’t see where it had gone (a likely story, I say! ;) Nevertheless, this meant that Jay was now ahead of me in the competition!

We checked one last time for the Harris’ sparrow in Bellevue, and then met up with Robin again to search for a Barred Owl and Yellow-shafted Flicker that had been reported in the area. After looking for the owl for awhile, Jay decided to try his best “who cooks for you?” call. (He actually did a good job…but that didn’t stop us from laughing at him!)

Heidi, Jay, Robin and Jean have a laugh while calling for the Barred Owl
--Photo by Gary Robinson--

Much to his dismay, the owl never answered Jay; but soon after, we were able to spot a bunch of flickers, including the Yellow-shafted Flicker! We got to check out the cool red marking on the back of its head, and of course the yellow on his wings when he flew! This was another new bird for me…though not technically a lifer.

Next we headed off down the valley to the Hayspur fish hatchery to look for sparrows. The girls took the lead in Jean’s car, while the boys followed in Jay’s vehicle. On the road there, Jay called to say they’d spotted another Hairy woodpecker. And thus we were tied on the year list again! (yeah, I guess Jay can be pretty nice sometimes ;) At the hatchery, while a little bunny looked on, we spotted a White-Throated sparrow!!! We watched him for a while and got some good looks as he hopped around the brush piles with the other birds. How cute! Another LIFER!! (This bird was probably the same one that Jean and the valley’s other birders found on their CBC. A great find!)

As the sun was setting we headed to the silver creek area, where we spotted plenty of water birds, including Lesser Scaup, ring-necked ducks, common mergansers, goldeneye, trumpeter swans, American widgeons and mallards. Finally, with the last few minutes of sunlight, we drove the back roads in the area, keeping an eye out for short eared owls and snow buntings, but finding only a few Horned Larks. After dark, we said goodbye to Jean and headed for home, stopping for burgers and malts in Fairfield on the way, and running in to some ‘fun’ patches of strong wind gusts, with lots of blowing snow! We reached Boise at about 10:30, worn out from a fun day of birding!
~Heidi

Jay and I are now tied at 120 species so far this year! We're putting together a page of other birders' year lists (with species seen as of 2/28) but need some numbers to put up first! So if you want, tally up your Idaho lists for January and February and send them in! You can post them as a comment here on the blog or just send them to heidithebirdnerd@yahoo.com! We also may be including people's 'top sighting' of the year along with their tally so far, so feel free to send that in as well!

A Day at the Dump! (or, "finally some exciting gulls")

On Monday around noon I got a call from Cliff Weisse - a birder from Island Park who was on this side of the state on business and doing some birding. In the years since I first met Cliff and starting birding with him and/or exchanging notes on bird identification, I've learned that when he calls out of the blue, it usually means he's found something good. Thus, given that I had tons of work to do and not enough time in which to do it, when the phone rang & I saw his name, I got that sinking feeling that said, "Here's another pot-shot at my productivity ....". I was right, he had just seen a potential Iceland Gull (a species with 11 prior reports in the state and none since 2002) at the Canyon County landfill (Pickle's Butte) which sits just a few miles S of Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge and a few miles E of the Snake River. Thus, (if you're a gull :-) the dump is a great place to grab a quick bite of something tasty and then head to a body of water to wash it down!

potential Iceland Gull at Pickle's Butte, Feb 23, 2009 - photo by Cliff Weisse
please feel free to post comments on the ID of this bird

Fortunately for me, Cliff said the gulls had just gotten up and flown away so no need to rush out there. That gave me the rest of Monday and into the late night hours to finish editing a manuscript (officially accepted Wednesday!!!) and finish writing the exam I'd be giving to my Conservation Biology class on Tuesday afternoon. I wasn't sure until I woke up on Tuesday whether I was going to go 'chase the bird' or not. The thing is ... birding in a landfill is a lot harder to justify playing hooky for than birding in the mountains or desert or other natural area. After all, most of us get into birding for aesthetic reasons - fascination with and/or love for nature and b/c it's an outlet for connecting with nature - and I don't really 'peace out' or do a lot of 'bonding with the scenery' at the dump! Thus, even for an Iceland Gull (a bird I've wanted to see out West for a long time), I really had to twist my arm .....

I met Cliff out there on Tuesday AM and he said he'd already seen 'the bird' as well as a few pretty pale Thayer's Gulls (the closest look-alike and closest relative for an Iceland) so we set to looking for it. Cliff also mentioned having seen a 1st-winter Mew Gull and I quickly was able to pick that out (no pics - too preoccupied with finding 'the bird'). Pretty soon, Cliff called out, "Here's a Glaucous!" and, though it took me a few moments, I was able to locate a 1st-winter Glaucous Gull as it flew around with other gulls. We were able to enjoy many good looks at this bird over the next hour. Even though this is one of the more frequent of the 'rare' gulls to appear in Idaho, this is only the 2nd I've seen in the state!! Thus, worth the trip already ...

1st-winter Glaucous Gull (center - photo by Jay Carlisle) - note the pale wingtips and the long pink bill with the dark tip

another view of the same Glaucous Gull - photo by Jay Carlisle

In spite of the very gusty winds (it really was a challenge to stay focused with shaking scopes and all!) and even though it left with a large groups of gulls after about 30 minutes (maybe because it had just swallowed a HUGE landfill morsel that we saw it gorge down while taking flight at one point), we were able to get several views of the potential Iceland - both perched and in flight. I say 'potential Iceland' b/c this is a tough ID and Cliff & I (the only ones to have decent, if any, views of this bird) are still uncertain if we can rule out a hybrid with Thayer's Gull. That said, at one point I could see the potential Iceland on the ground near the Glaucous and both appeared similarly pale (the Glaucous maybe being a touch paler). The big issue for me is that the primaries appear darker than the body and that's not seen on most Icelands (although some similar-looking birds from within the normal range of Iceland Gulls can be found at this link: http://www.pbase.com/jpkln/kumliens_1). Thus, more research .... and hopefully more views of the bird.

.... AND, back to that aesthetic aspect of birding, into the evening on Tuesday I was still removing sand (yes, landfill sand!) from my ears as the wind caused a frequent sand-blasting effect!

Aside from the gulls, we also ran into fellow bird-nuts Cheryl Huizinga, RL Rowland, and Mark Collie out at Pickle's Butte.... Assuming this does turn out to be an Iceland, we saw 7 gull species on Tues, including a 1st winter Glaucous, a 1st winter Mew, several Thayer's, several Herring, and the hordes of California and Ring-billed. Also a potential Glaucous-winged/Herring hybrid ...

But, I haven't counted the Iceland for my list so Heidi still has a portion of the lead (as the Glaucous Gull brought me to a tie!) ....

Jay

Jay pulls even! ... but Heidi regains the lead

Headed out birding on Saturday, Feb 21 along with Heidi, Louie Quintana, and Tom McCabe from Boise and we met up with Gary Robinson (Mountain Home, a long-time MVP volunteer with IBO) at Ted Trueblood WMA near Grandview.

from left: Heidi, Louie, Tom, & Gary plying the waters of CJ Strike Reservoir (probably trying to find gulls to make me happy ;-)

Our main target birds for the day were a couple of White-throated Sparrows (that Cliff, Darren, and Steve - E Idaho birders - had found the weekend before), gulls, and anything else fun. After scoping the main pond at Trueblood and enjoying a variety of waterbirds (including hearing a Virginia Rail) but very few gulls, we moved onto Riverside Rd in Grandview where we searched in vain for White-throated Sparrows (would have been a lifer for at least Heidi, Louie, & Tom) - we'll have to keep searching. But, at one of the spots we ran into 100+ White-crowned Sparrows and, while chatting with the friendly nearby homeowner, we noticed a female Varied Thrush that had perched up pretty high in some dead branches. I was definitely a bit surprised to find this species here (b/c the vegetative cover is not very extensive).

We moved on to the dam at CJ Strike Reservoir where the sometimes elusive Great-tailed Grackles were very cooperative - including a singing male and this silent male that was out in the open.

Great-tailed Grackle male (photo by Louie Quintana)

Much to Heidi's chagrin, this pulled me even with her in our year list competition since she had already seen it in January!!

Heidi looks on disapprovingly while Jay enjoys close views of a cooperative Great-tailed Grackle (photo by Louie Quintana)

In spite of the strong winds, we enjoyed good company and several more birding highlights interspersed throughout the day. Possibly most exciting was a pretty close view of a Long-eared Owl in a Russian Olive thicket (no photo - we didn't have cameras handy and were trying not to harrass this bird). This was a life bird for Heidi and it's always fun to enjoy the excitement that a new species brings - especially something as cool as a Long-eared making itself as long and thin as possible to avoid detection! Other highlights were a Common Loon on the reservoir, a few Red-breasted Mergansers (swimming right behind some Commons offering a nice comparison - according to Tom, the first of this species he'd seen well in over 30 years!!), both Western and Mountain Bluebirds, and - always a favorite for me - an adult male Merlin that was burning some ground.

Western Bluebird female at Bruneau Dunes SP (photo by Louie Quintana)

One of the last birds of the day - and one of the most exciting for Heidi - was an adult Northern Shrike (too distant for photos) that flew across Hwy 78 as we were heading towards the dunes. It took a while to re-find it once we'd turned the car around but it cooperated by perching up at a distance and allowed us to study its features through the scope. I'm always excited to see a shrike of any kind (I became obsessed with shrikes when I studied Loggerheads in CA years ago) and, especially since we'd been aiming to find one for Heidi for months (and I'd heard, "we need to find a shrike" many times ;-), this was no exception. BUT, because I had seen one on the way back from a solo snow-shoeing trip back on Superbowl Sunday, this was a new year bird only for Heidi which means that by day's end she had regained her slim lead (she was pretty pleased about this part!).

Happy birding & blog-reading ;-)

Jay

The Competition Begins!

So, some of you many be wondering how this all started:

While still in Venezuela around the turn of the year, Jay (who has kept an ABA area ‘year list’ since 1994) suggested to Heidi via e-mail that she might enjoy starting and maintaining an Idaho year list for 2009 (year list: list of bird species observed in a calendar year). Some history: Heidi and Jay became friends after Heidi became a regular and enthusiastic volunteer at Lucky Peak for the Idaho Bird Observatory in summer 2008. Both are avid birders in their free time and will be in the field a lot doing bird surveys for the bird observatory during the spring, summer, and fall of 2009. Because Heidi is newer at birding (but learns very quickly and has a lot of passion for birds), Jay was thinking that the year list might be a fun way for her to track her progress during her first full year dedicated to birds.

Then, after arriving back to the states and heading out for a birding day, (partly under the evil influence of fellow birders Louie and Harry :-) Jay & Heidi started discussing ways to make it into a fun competition. (… at least that’s Jay’s story—and he’s stickin’ to it—although Heidi suspects he had the competition idea in mind all along!). Although Jay has kept ABA area lists annually and, while supposedly working on his PhD research, tried a big year in South Dakota (314 species; 6th in state) in 2002, he has never maintained an Idaho year list. Thus, 2009 will be the first time either Heidi or Jay has kept an Idaho year list.

Lastly, because it is always a challenge to raise enough $$$ to run the Idaho Bird Observatory’s fall migration study at Lucky Peak, we then realized that we could also make this into a fund-raising effort (see details below). Disclaimer: we fully understand that today’s economic climate is forcing people – including us – to be more careful with $$. Thus, we would very much appreciate any support for the Idaho Bird Observatory you can provide but we would also be very happy to simply get comments, birding tips, etc. from you.

The Handicap: Because Jay has many more years of birding experience than Heidi and, therefore, is likely to be able to detect/identify more species seen poorly and/or heard but not seen, we agreed that a ‘straight-up’ year list competition might not be completely fair. But, what would be a fair handicap? Jay has more birding experience and knows the vocalizations better BUT Heidi & Jay will be birding in many of the same locations throughout the year (birding on weekends, field work during summer and fall in the same general areas, etc.). During this time Jay will be trying to help Heidi observe and learn as many species as possible (after all, if she’ll be conducting official bird surveys in the summer, it’s in Jay’s best interest that she know the birds!!). Meanwhile, Heidi may or may not be trying her hardest to prevent Jay from getting as many species as possible (after all, it is in Heidi’s best interest!). Strategies such as, “What? that’s not a great-tailed grackle…are you blind?” or “LOOK behind you! An eagle!” may be employed to further her goal of thwarting Jay’s birding. However, Heidi is not completely cruel-hearted, and may ‘allow’ Jay to find the occasional good bird … such as a hybrid sapsucker :).

After long deliberations and discussions with a number of Boise area birders, we have settled on a ‘handicap’ of 20 bird species for the year and 15 species for the mid-year cut-off (July 10). Thus, to win, Jay will have to see 21 more bird species than Heidi for the year and 16 more species by July 10.

The ‘Loser’: Our friend, and fellow bird-nerd, Melanie (who is very creative and has ‘exotic charm’) has agreed to help embarrass the loser at both the mid-year cut-off (July 10) and the final year list total. We have, in principle if not in detail, agreed upon the ‘punishment’ for the mid-year ‘loser’ but are still seeking ideas for the final year list total.

The ‘loser’ at the mid-year cut-off will have to wear a T-shirt designed (to embarrass) by Melanie during the first week of training the new field crew at Lucky Peak and other embarrassing locations to be determined in the future…birding fieldtrips with the Golden Eagle Audubon Society? classes at BSU? parties with friends? The possibilities for humiliation are endless!

While Heidi and Jay are confident in their creative abilities (thoughts of pink frillies and “I wish I was as awesome as _______” on the loser’s T-shirt are already dancing in their heads) they would also appreciate any other creative suggestions you can offer! Feel free to post these publicly in a blog ‘comment’ or, if you’re more shy (or feeling a bit sneaky and devious!), you can send ideas directly to your birder of choice through email (Jay: jaycarlisle@boisestate.edu or Heidi: heidithebirdnerd@yahoo.com). We foresee inspiring conversations beginning over this topic, and know that if we all work together, we can accomplish something great!

Raising $$ for the Idaho Bird Observatory:
If you are so inclined, 100% of ALL DONATIONS will benefit the Idaho Bird Observatory’s fall migration study at Lucky Peak.
People can support the Idaho Bird Observatory in one of two ways: direct donations or pledging (read more about how to donate <--here or on the side bar) As pledges come in, we will post updates and a bar graph showing who (Jay or Heidi) has raised more $$!! Other Birder’s Year Lists: If you are a birder that is also keeping an Idaho year list in 2009, please feel free to tell us/other blog readers about it and keep us posted!! We may even come up with a ‘2009 Idaho Year List standings’ feature ….

Tips on finding rarer species that we haven’t seen yet? Feel free to send them in!


That's all for now, Folks!

More updates (and refinements to the site) are coming soon!

-Jay and Heidi

THANKS!

Dams, Dumps, and Cemeteries

Jay and I had a pretty cool day of birding today! 61 species total!
Raven mobsters, Rosy Finches, dashed hopes, gazillions of Robins and more! :D

We started out the morning heading to Swan Falls Dam. On the way, we spotted a couple bunches of Horned Larks (even a couple that were singing) and raptors, including Rough-legged hawks, Golden Eagles, Ferruginous Hawks, Red-Tailed Hawks, and a Prairie Falcon.
We also saw tons of Ravens.

On the road, we spotted some big bird chasing a much smaller bird, flying very fast! We realized it was a raven, chasing a pigeon! the raven followed right on the pigeons tail, and then totally took it to the ground! (poor pigeon) Then a mob of about 6 ravens started attacking the pigeon while it was on the ground. They would swoop over the pigeon's head and tumble it, or walk up and poke at it.
A rough-legged dropped by for a while to check out the action, but didnt end up taking the pigeon, even though it was right in front of him!
(we wondered why the mob didnt kill the pigeon after going to all that trouble....maybe the dude owed them money? ;)
After a while most of the ravens left, and we decided to continue on the road, leaving one dorky raven dancing around not knowing what to do with himself.

At the dam not much was happening. Besides some ravens goofing around on the canyon walls, we saw a bunch o' coots on the water, along with a few common goldeney and a western grebe.

BUT, on the road out of the dam we spotted a flock of unusual looking birds. They flew up by the car, then landed on the side of the road. gray-crowned rosy finches!!!

A LIFE BIRD for me! :D

They ate on the side of the road and worked their way to within a few feet of the car, and we were able to watch them for about 10 minutes. We counted 15 birds. Mostly Hepburn's, with at least 2 of the interior race. They flew and landed a couple more times as we drove up the road.

it was awesome!

Then it was off to Canyon Hill Cemetery for the crossbills. On our way we spotted other birds including a pheasant, meadowlarks, collared-doves, some cute kestrel-couples and some more of the same raptors as before.

At the cemetery we saw pretty much everything except the crossbills! Creepers (one climbing up the side of a tombstone), both kinglets, BC chickadees, yellow-rumps, townsend's solitaires, siskins, house finches, nuthatches, A. goldfinches, starlings, robins, flickers, canada geese, green-winged teals, a cormorant, and mallards. Also a pair of cool displaying red tails!
after more wandering, we finally heard crossbills! a group of four came in and landed in the tree tops. All females, and no white-wing's!

next we headed to Pickle's Butte, where we ran into the SIBA gull group, lead by RL Rowland; just leaving after not finding much there. We tootled around with them for a while, searching for barn owls, and seeing mostly song and white-crowned sparrows and one northern harrier.

A short drive took Jay and I to the park in Marsing, where the third time was not the charm, and the Green Heron still eluded us. (this wasnt surprising though, since with the warm weather came lots of families and fisherman)

We saw plenty of other birds though, including a few immature herring gulls (mixed in with the ring-billed' s and california's) marsh wrens, ring-necked ducks, a pied-billed grebe, common mergansers, and 5 red-breasted mergansers-3 males and 2 females
There were plenty of goldeneyes, but sadly (oh so sadly!) for Jay's year-list situation, not a single barrow's could be found!
He scanned and scanned with the scope (in the shade of course, because DUDE it was HOT!...yes, this was coming from the previously-dubbed tropical flower :) Thats at least one species on Heidi's Idaho year list that's not on Jays! hahah!

then we returned to Canyon Hills Cemetery, with no luck on crossbills. But we were able to find one of both a Cooper's and Sharp-Shinned hawk's.

Our last stop, just at sunset was to Dry Creek Cemetary on Hill road. The hoped-for Eurasian Wigeon wasnt spotted, but in the cemetary itself were TONS of robins, starlings, and california quail! We guessed there were at least 1,000 robins, flying in to roost from all directions. And who knows how many starlings and quail (enough birds that we were surprised we made it out without being poo'd on :) and it was crazy-loud!
we also saw brewers blackbirds, cedar waxwings, juncos, house finches and a great-horned owl there.

it was a totally sweet day! :)

~Heidi