This a.m.pond way down.lots of yellow legs and a few of what looks like a
winter dunlin because of low water birds concentrated east side

Thomas D. Burleigh lived in Moscow ID for 11 years (1947-58), working as an ornithologist for U.S. Fish and Wildlife and he was charged with completing a detailed study of the bird life in Idaho. He had collected much of the material that he presented in his Birds of Idaho, and he included descriptions of then known subspecies. Other publications by Burleigh include The Birds of Newfoundland (1951) and Georgia Birds (1958). For more about his life please refer to his “memoriam” in The Auk 92: 539-46 (July 1973): [ http://vertebrates.si.edu/birds/Hall_of_fame/InMemoriamPDFs/Burleigh.pdf | http://vertebrates.si.edu/birds/Hall_of_fame/InMemoriamPDFs/Burleigh.pdf ]

I didn’t think I’d ever get my hands on a copy of his book, thinking it to be a collector’s item and out of circulation. But last week I almost tripped over a copy at our local (Garden City) library. It was part of an impressive display about birding that included not only books, but Nature Packs for kids that could be checked out of the library! =) These Packs are still available and include a pair of 8x binoculars, Sibley’s guide to western birds, as well as local birding guides and checklists!

Burleigh’s Birds of Idaho is hardbound, 467 pages, of which 441 pages are devoted to “species accounts” for 318 species of birds. This represented the entire avifauna recognized for Idaho as of 1971, i.e., including only species that had been well documented by sight records and/or collected specimens. Each species account follows a basic format of 1) general distribution, 2) status in Idaho, and 3) habits. I was a little disappointed not to find any type of analysis or summary, e.g., a state checklist or something. So, I developed a half-baked, “attenuated” species list with some notes for species considered “accidental” at that time (41 species). It’s an Excel spreadsheet (attached) for visualization of that old phylogenetic order that some of us grew up with, i.e., of the sequence of orders, families, species and of the common names we learned. For this work, Burleigh had referenced the 5 th edition of AOU’s Checklist of North American Birds (1957). For comparison, i f our IBRC “Birds of Idaho Field Checklist” (2007) were current, it would likely include the 433 species now listed in eBird, maybe?!

Me and my wonky projects!

Larry Arnold

Boise ID

p.s.

Fun Fact #1… At the time of publication, Barn Owl was considered “accidental” in Idaho, with only one specimen collected near Moscow (Arvey, 1947), and there were no sight records anywhere else in the state, eyiyi!

Fun Fact #2… Using Google and by searching old obituaries, Missy discovered that Thomas Burleigh was the great-grandfather of our daughter’s boyfriend in Grand Junction CO. This didn’t surprise Katey because her boyfriend’s middle name is Burleigh.

Heard him before I saw him, then saw him land on the last hummingbird feeder that I failed to bring in. I’ve heard from this group before that Anna’s are around during the winter. I didn’t get a photo, but looked at the Sibley pages long and hard, and an Anna’s male fits the bill (little red central patch, straight tail in line with the body, etc.) Am I crazy on this one? I put out fresh feeder food, but should I continue to do this?

Kerry Fitzharris
Boise North End

Howdy,
This afternoon I found two Pacific Loons on the north side of AFR. One was near the boat ramp at Aberdeen’s Sportsman’s Park. The other was at the corner of Strang and Yuma Roads. Also present at this corner were six Dunlins mixed in with about forty Long-billed Dowitchers. A flock of about 70 Snow Geese were present there too.
Good Birding,
Chuck Trost

Always forward, never straight…

Today at Silver Lake I found my first of season Goldeneyes, both Common and
Barrow’s. There were about a dozen birds total, but the real treat was
seeing males of each species swimming side by side. While the white on the
face is diagnostic, they sometimes stay far away from me (was it something I
said?), and I have to rely on other marks. This gave me a great chance to
compare.

Also, there was a Merlin at Esther Simplot and another downriver by Veterans
Parkway bridge. Susan and I were on different schedules today and we each
saw a Merlin at around the same time but in different locations.

Tom McCabe, Boise

Fyi we had one at fish hatchery near Bellevue in March of 2004

Thanks for the notice. I’ll be looking.

On Thu, Nov 1, 2018, 10:35 PM jmeredit@bendnet.com [ible] < ible-noreply@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

>
>
> A very dark MERLIN flew over the river near the Payette brewery during
> the marathon/runs on Sunday. Perhaps it will winter around Boise and the
> Greenbelt. Good birding, Judy, jmeredit@bendnet.com
>
>

Hi Birders,
Yesterday Amy and I found 2 Dunlins foraging with about 12 Long-billed Dowitchers. Heard Tringa sandpipers also (prob Yellowlegs), but no visual. The Dunlins and Dowitchers were on the concrete-looking island on the pond. Only ducks we saw were 2 female Shovelers  and 2 Redheads. Also a single Horned Grebe. All the other birds on the water were Coots, at least 500 of them. For other birds in the marshy areas, Song and White Crowned Sparrows, close up Marsh Wren, several Virginia Rails heard.
John Shortis.       

Sweet! But a bird in the yard is worth 3 in the bush, right? lol… I don’t mind being outdone! Great sightings… yes, the AMKE here definitely did not like having the Merlin around…

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

________________________________
From: ible@yahoogroups.com on behalf of ‘Tom McCabe’ tmccabe9@cableone.net [ible]
Sent: Thursday, November 1, 2018 9:03:00 PM
To: ‘IBLE’
Subject: [IBLE] A Merlin trio

I’m not trying to outdo Jonathan’s new yard bird, but at Esther Simplot today I found 3 Merlins within a stretch of 50 to 75 yards of river. I had not seen a Merlin there in a while, but they have over-wintered in that general vicinity for several years. So I was quite pleased when I found the first, surprised when I saw the second and amazed when I saw the third. They were each perched on a branch overhanging the river, and they seemed unperturbed by the serious destruction/construction that was going on nearby.
Another hundred yards or so up the river, I found an American Kestrel, which was surprising since the two types of falcon don’t seem to get along that well. I then found another AMKE in the park itself. From my vantage point I could see both at the same time. I also encountered a female AMKE across Whitewater Blvd., but it might have been one of the ones I’d already seen.
My impression is that the weather brought in a bunch of birds, since I saw multiple Hooded Mergansers in multiple places, plus my first male Common Merganser, and Ruby-crowned Kinglets seemed to be everywhere.
Tom McCabe, Boise

A very dark MERLIN flew over the river near the Payette brewery during
the marathon/runs on Sunday. Perhaps it will winter around Boise and the
Greenbelt. Good birding, Judy, jmeredit@bendnet.com