Not a lot of fall migrants coming through. My best yard sighting has been a female Cassin’s Finch the past 2 days, hitting the feeder. Others: White-crowned Sparrows, RC Kinglets, Sandhill Cranes on a nearby stubble field & YR Warbler. No Juncos as of yet. Others: kettle of a dozen Turkey Vultures & small groups of Red-tailed Hawks. Also, a good number of Bald Eagles nearby, including 2 adults, 2 second-yr birds & 2 first-yr birds. Plus, have seen 2 Ospreys, including one carrying a trout in its talons.

What birding has lacked, fly-fishing has more than made up for with the best fall-run of brown trout on the Snake than I’ve had in years! And the rainbows have been fat & in great condition.

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

Below is my eBird report from the north end of the Big Holes.

Other valley news: someone reported seeing a Whooping Crane 2pm Friday at the Teton River Bates Bridge. They said it flew over with a group of sandhills and it was a large white bird with black wing tips. Friday night at dusk I went to look for it at a roost near the Bates Bridge (which is on the main road heading west from the traffic light in Driggs). A white bird flying low got our hearts beating, but turned out to be a Trumpeter Swan with a green neck collar so one of the swans released in Teton Valley. Saw hundreds of cranes settling in for the night but no Whooping Cranes. There is quite a difference in color between the darkest and lightest cranes but none looked white.

Packsaddle Estates, Teton, Idaho, US
Sep 29, 2018 6:20 PM – 7:15 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 mile(s)
Comments: Neighbor reported bluebirds and flickers on his deck so I walked over there and surveyed Aspen and Grandview Drives. Overcast and completely calm. Aspens gorgeous yellow tones.
12 species

Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) 1
Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) 2
Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) 1
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) (Colaptes auratus [cafer Group]) 10 on Andy’s deck and house briefly
Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia) 1
Common Raven (Corvus corax) 1
Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) 2
Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli) 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) 1 foraging
Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides) 8
American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 12
Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) 20 flock feeding madly at dusk

View this checklist online at https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Febird.org%2Fview%2Fchecklist%2FS48830193&data=02%7C01%7C%7Ca15fa10d4a824f9d198308d6267f04b5%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636738724306626396&sdata=Skm%2F0puMxrFRUVnJoq3LItATAQwsyiSY%2FzPH6vLQtyQ%3D&reserved=0

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Febird.org&data=02%7C01%7C%7Ca15fa10d4a824f9d198308d6267f04b5%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636738724306626396&sdata=XbgW%2B8GAcCA8wjYBaVYDOCO3m3K%2FVA4NifxOc24IUvI%3D&reserved=0)

While walking the west shelter belt at Market Lake yesterday, Carolyn Bishop and I saw two White-throated Sparrows along with several WhiteCrowned Sparrows.

Also seen in the shelter belt:

Ruby-crowned Kinglets
Hermit Thrush
2 Great Horned Owls
Dark-eyed Junco
Yellow-rumpled Warblers
Wilson’s Warbler
2 Northern Flickers

Kit

Kit Struthers
Idaho Falls, ID
kit619@centurylink.net

After all these years, birding lingo still cracks me up……see in red below

This is a fascinating chase,

And fun reading…. =)

Larry

—– Original Message —–

From: co-conspirator somewhere in the Pacific NW 😉
To: “LARRY ARNOLD”
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2018 8:58:23 AM
Subject: FW: [sbcobirding] How Broad-winged Hawks get to our county

Geez, these people are dedicated! Dealing with the gobs of traffic in coastal California to track a bird the old fashioned way, wow, I tip my hat to them!

From: main@sbcobirding.groups.io [mailto:main@sbcobirding.groups.io] On Behalf Of Wim van Dam
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2018 10:41 AM
To: sbcobirding
Subject: [sbcobirding] How Broad-winged Hawks get to our county

All right, the good news is that yesterday (Wednesday September 26, 2018) the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory sighted 74 Broad-winged Hawks moving in our direction.

Obvious question: how long will it take them to get to our latitude? I found the following N=1 data point involving “Journey”, which was successfully tracked by GGRO using radio telemetry. (Unlike Red-tailed Hawks, Broad-wings are too small for GPS tracking.) Following a migrating bird with radio telemetry is extremely labor intensive and in the links below you can read the entertaining story of a team of people tracking Journey as it flew from the Bay Area to the US-Mexico border.

Some relevant data points are:

– Wednesday September 23, 2015: Journey gets caught and released in Sausalito, just north of San Francisco

– Wednesday night he roosted just south of San Jose

– Friday night he roosted around our Figueroa Mountain

– On Saturday he was south of LA

– On Monday Journey crossed over the US-Mexico border.

This trip was unusually fast with good weather, but it seems that those 74 Broad-winged Hawks could start showing up in our county as soon as Friday afternoon.

Here’s where you can read about the ordeal of tracking this bird:

http://ggrotelemetry.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-journey-has-begun.html

http://ggrotelemetry.blogspot.com/2015/09/thursday-sept-24-2015.html

http://ggrotelemetry.blogspot.com/2015/09/friday-sept-25-2015.html

http://ggrotelemetry.blogspot.com/2015/09/saturday-september-26-2015.html

http://ggrotelemetry.blogspot.com/2015/09/sunday-september-27-2015.html

http://ggrotelemetry.blogspot.com/2015/09/monday-september-29-2015.html

Good stuff.

Wim

—
Wim van Dam (Solvang, CA)

SBCO #377+3: Least Bittern

_._,_._,_

Howdy,
Today I went to Willow Bay looking for the jaeger reported yesterday. No luck, but there were a few shorebirds present out east of the silo and at the drying marina. They were: 3 Black-bellied Plovers, 4 Lesser Yellowlegs, 1 Am. Avocet, 1 Long-billed Dowitcher, 12 Pectoral Sandpipers, and 20 Western Sandpipers.
Good Birding!
Chuck Trost

Always forward, never straight…

In addition to Jim’s YR Warblers, which have been “infesting” my trees for
several days now, today I had a RC Kinglet joining the fun. This is my first
of the season.

Today I also got to witness a large column of Turkey Vultures rising from
somewhere north of State St. and 30th. Last night we had observed a strung
out line of them making toward somewhere west of 19th and Brumback. I saw at
least 30. Today’s kettle, rising on a thermal, consisted of at least 50
birds.

Am. Coots have apparently taken up residence at both Quinn’s Pond and
Silver Lake. Yesterday, the group at Silver Lake was accompanied by my first
A. Wigeon of the season, while Quinn’s had a raft of Ruddy Ducks yesterday
and a group of 4 today.

WC Sparrows have finally arrived at the hedgerow along Remington St., by Les
Bois track. And today was the first time I’ve seen Barn Swallows in days,
also at Les Bois.

Thanks to all the new arrivals, my daily counts have been going up again.
(Finally!) But I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Tom McCabe, Boise

Oi, IBLE birders, in case you don’t know who these birders are, you should *trust* this report!!! =)

Larry

—– Forwarded Message —–
From: ebird-alert@cornell.edu
To: larnold47@cableone.net
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2018 3:46:19 AM
Subject: [eBird Alert] Needs Alert for Idaho

*** Species Summary:

Parasitic Jaeger (2 Power)

———————————————
Thank you for subscribing to the Needs Alert for Idaho.The report below shows observations of species you have not seen in Idaho, based on your eBird observations. View or unsubscribe to this alert at https://ebird.org/alert/summary?sid=SN10357
NOTE: all sightings are UNCONFIRMED unless indicated

Parasitic Jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus) (1)
– Reported Sep 25, 2018 08:12 by David Irons
– Willow Bay Pier, Power, Idaho
– Map: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=p&z=13&q=42.8068622,-112.8356838&ll=42.8068622,-112.8356838
– Checklist: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48739906
– Comments: “Medium sized jaeger seen chasing gulls out over the lake. Fairly dark overall, slightly paler on belly, with white wing flashes on dorsal and ventral sides. Too hefty and large to be a LTJA, plus too much white in the wing above. Not bulky enough for a POJA. Both of us have lots of pelagic experience and seeing inland jaegers (collectively 70 yrs between us).”

Parasitic Jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus) (1)
– Reported Sep 25, 2018 08:12 by Shawneen Finnegan
– Willow Bay Pier, Power, Idaho
– Map: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=p&z=13&q=42.8068622,-112.8356838&ll=42.8068622,-112.8356838
– Checklist: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48739905
– Comments: “Medium sized jaeger seen chasing gulls out over the lake. Fairly dark overall, slightly paler on belly, with white wing flashes on dorsal and ventral sides. Too hefty and large to be a LTJA, plus too much white in the wing above. Not bulky enough for a POJA. Both of us have lots of pelagic experience and seeing inland jaegers (collectively 70 yrs between us).”

***********

You received this message because you are subscribed to eBird’s Needs Alert for Idaho

Manage your eBird alert subscriptions:
https://ebird.org/alerts

Have been sporadically hearing their “chip” notes around for a few days,
but this morning (Wednesday, 9/26) the trees along a full block near my
house (18th) was dripping with very active Yellow-rumped Warblers.

—
Jim Lyons
Boise

Passing along from Idaho Bird Sightings and Discussion. Jon Curd found a Jaeger at CJ Strike this evening. Photos can be viewed at this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/IDBSD/permalink/1819082124856853/?notif_id=1537492659816035¬if_t=page_group_post&ref=notif
There’s still some discussion as to what species 🙂
~Heidi

|
|
|
| | |

|

|
|
| |
Jon Curd

Jaeger – After looking over my very distant photos on the computer, I’m inclined to call today’s jaeger at CJ St…
|

|

|

Looks like a Pec.

Cliff

On 09/18/2018 01:29 PM, Robert Kiernan photobirder@gmail.com [ible] wrote:
> [Attachment(s) <#TopText> from Robert Kiernan included below]
> Yesterday couple westerns a yellow leg and this stilt with this
> drooping bill or is it a pectoral
>

—
Cliff and Lisa Weisse
Island Park, Idaho
cliffandlisa@octobersetters.com