While biking back from Remington St., after the rain had slacked off, I saw
something large in the river near 51 St. Binoculars revealed a mature Bald
Eagle standing out in the middle of the river near a gravel bar. As I
watched, he tried to take off several times, without success. I began to be
concerned that he was stuck to something in the water, until I finally
realized it was a fish too large for him to carry off. He was like a man
with one leg stuck in a bucket and he was trying to walk to the gravel bar.
It wasn’t clear if the fish was still alive, but the part he pulled out of
the water looked pretty big (I couldn’t help but think of the guy who just
the other day caught a 19 pound trout in the Boise River).
Eventually he gave up and let go of the fish. I watched to see if the fish
would float to where he could get at it again, but the fish disappeared and
the eagle took off. Very entertaining for me but disappointing for the bird.
The greenbelt was pretty much deserted, especially early on when the rain
was heaviest. But the birds were active and at Quinn’s Pond I found my first
Herring Gull in several years. I’ve seen reports of them in the area, but I
haven’t been that lucky-until today. Whereas all summer long the gulls at
Quinn’s are almost exclusively Ring-billed Gulls, lately there’s been an
influx of California Gulls. The Herring Gull was near a California Gull and
they were both on the shore, so size comparison was pretty obvious.
After I got home and dried out, Susan called me outside to see a Merlin that
had just zoomed by our feeders. He perched for a few minutes and then took
off. And later, near dark, as I was going through the gazillion emails I get
every day, I heard a Great Horned Owl. Susan heard it too, and we both ran
outside. He was in the top of a tree at 19th and Eastman, hooting to the
world. It was still light enough that I could even see his “horns” through
binos. He then took off heading east. Way cool.
That brought my day list to 37 birds (including 5 raptors) in 15 miles.
Another great day.
Tom McCabe, Boise
