I believe this one is from Camas NWR. I will cc: Brian at Camas NWR for confirmation

Tim

On December 11, 2018, at 4:05 PM, “Chuck Trost trostchuck@cableone.net [ible]” wrote:

This afternoon I found a green collared TRSW on the Snake River at Pipeline, about five miles west of Am. Falls. The code was “R35”. It was an adult with one unmarked juvenile. I tried to report it to the banding office at www.reportband.gov, but my server said this was an invalid address.
Good Birding!
Chuck Trost

Always forward, never straight…

Hey Chuck,

I tried the address and got redirected to:
https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/BBL/bblretrv/

Cliff

On 12/11/18 5:05 PM, Chuck Trost trostchuck@cableone.net [ible] wrote:
>
> This afternoon I found a green collared TRSW on the Snake River at
> Pipeline, about five miles west of Am. Falls. The code was “R35”. It
> was an adult with one unmarked juvenile. I tried to report it to the
> banding office at www.reportband.gov, but my server said this was an
> invalid address.
> Good Birding!
> Chuck Trost
>
> Always forward, never straight…
>
>

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

This afternoon I found a green collared TRSW on the Snake River at Pipeline, about five miles west of Am. Falls. The code was “R35”. It was an adult with one unmarked juvenile. I tried to report it to the banding office at www.reportband.gov, but my server said this was an invalid address.
Good Birding!
Chuck Trost

Always forward, never straight…

Neil Paprocki and I checked out some birds in Benewah and Kootenai
Counties, this last Sunday. We started at Heyburn State Park, east of
Plummer, where a SWAMP SPARROW was pretty much the first bird we
encountered near the start of the boardwalk. I’ve looked for Swamp
Sparrows in fall and winter at that location for many years, so it was nice
to finally connect with one. Chatcolet Lake had a mix of ice and open
water, and still hosted good numbers of waterfowl and other water birds,
perhaps highlighted by a few lingering BONAPARTE’S GULLS. The spray fields
along Shepard Road in southwest St. Maries (south of the St. Joe River)
were loaded with hawks and other rodent-hunting birds including bout 15
Red-tails, 3 Rough-legged Hawks, a couple of N. Harriers, and 4 Great Blue
Herons. The St. Maries Sewage Ponds had small pools of open water near the
aerators and a small collection of expected ducks. Nice birds along
Gooshaven Lake Road, northwest of St. Maries, included a Marsh Wren,
Slate-colored Junco, Cassiar Junco, a Northern Shrike, and 2 Killdeer
flying around in search of open water. The Harrison Harbor area produced a
first-cycle “Thayer’s” Iceland Gull and my first PEREGRINE FALCON for
Kootenai County. 25-30 Great Blue Herons were mostly standing around on
the ice in Harrison Slough, and an adult “Thayer’s” Gull was present with
the gull flock, there. Good numbers of Bald Eagles were present from
Heyburn SP to Harrison, and a Northern Pygmy-owl was perched, roadside, in
the Thorn Creek area south of St. Maries.

After parting ways with Neil in Viola, I stopped by the seasonal pond on
US-95 near Estes Road north of Moscow and found 2 lingering KILLDEER
standing on the ice. 4 late BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS were quite a surprise
near the UI Dairy Ponds.

Good Birding,

Carl Lundblad
Moscow, ID

In recent winters we have had over 1,000 wintering around American Falls
Reservoir, usually roosting on the reservoir or backwaters of the Snake
River. The majority forage in fields NW of the reservoir and east of the
reservoir on the reservation.

Back in the early 1990s we captured nearly 200 wintering Trumpeters at
Harriman State Park on the Henrys Fork in Island Park and released them in
the Fort Hall bottoms at the north end of the reservoir, as well as other
potential new wintering habitats. Most were migrants from Canadian breeding
grounds. The goal was to disperse wintering swans from high risk winter
habitat in Island Park following termination of winter feeding at Red Rock
Lakes NWR and create a new wintering area at Fort Hall.

Our hope was to rebuild southward migratory traditions and encourage the
swans to explore southern Idaho and hopefully follow the historic route
through Utah and Nevada to milder wintering areas. Fort Hall was one of
our most successful new wintering sites.

If you view the species map on e-bird you can see how their winter range
has expanded as we had hoped. Hundreds can also be found in the Bear River
drainage of Idaho and Utah. Over the past 20 years the swans have made a
major ecological shift to winter field feeding which has greatly aided
their successful expansion in southern Idaho and westward along the Snake
River corridor. Expanded winter food resources have enabled the Canadian
nesting Trumpeters to repopulate many areas where they had been extirpated
by 1900 and increase strongly in the last 25 years.

Once again the black rosy finches have arrived.  Happened with three “scouts” four days ago, and now around a  hundred scarfing up sunflower seed prodigiously.  
Oddly, only three juncos two weeks ago and none since.  They are usuallyvery numerous here at this time of year.  
And yesterday six goldfinches came to the back feeder (we have many goldfinches summer and winter) that were so different I thought it was a different species til I got binocs on them.  They were almost white on the belly and a light cream on the back, which made the black and white of wings very prominent.  From a distance they appeared to be white with black wings.
They stayed together, were only here for an hour or so, and haven’t been seen since. 
Boy, I wish I had a decent camera!  Santa? ?

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad

Before I could even get dressed this morning, I noticed a commotion in the
back corner of the yard. Binoculars revealed a fairly large Sharp-shinned
Hawk on top of a still struggling Mourning Dove. Since we haven’t seen a
Sharpie in the yard for a while, I sat down with binos and watched the scene
play out. The Sharpie kept plucking at the back of the head of the dove,
which struggled for a long time. At one point, when I hadn’t seen any signs
of life from the dove in some time, the dove suddenly made a huge effort to
get out from under and they were both flapping their wings as they fought.

Eventually the struggle ended, and the Sharpie continued to pluck feathers.
Then I started seeing some red so I went about my morning routine, with
occasional stops by the window. After a while even the Sharpie was still,
but his crop was huge by this time. I watched until he flew away, and then I
went out for some “clean up on aisle nine.” For some reason I thought there
would be something besides feathers, but other than a few red spots on the
snow, feathers was all that remained. So beak, skull, legs, wings, rib cage,
etc., were all inside the Sharpie when he flew away. Amazing, and quite a
show.

Tom McCabe, Boise

Interestingly, I found the 1st winter Harris’ Sparrow feeding beneath a cottonwood this afternoon, with a group of 7 juncos. I always scatter some black-oil sunflower seeds underneath that particular tree, to keep the Spotted Towhees coming in. The sparrow allowed for satisfying, lengthy binocular observation. So, he’s still around, too.

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

Just got home from Island Park & filled my feeders. Before I could even get back into the house, my Blue Jay flew in & immediately started filling his crop with seeds. So, in spite of single digit lows the past week, he’s still here. Nice to know at least 2 are in SE Idaho.

Also, at Osborne Bridge crossing Henry’s Fk, I counted a total of 35 Trumpeter Swans yesterday. This AM, at the house, I had a group of 20 fly over. I’ve seen as many as 150 in a single group in the area where Chuck reported his sightings. So, depending on the winter, can get such numbers in the surrounding fields. Seems that early single digit cold temps with snow, will concentrate them, esp in winter wheat & alfalfa fields.

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

Wow! How typical is it to have large flicks of Trumpeter Swans at AFR? Are
they just resting prior to further migration or do they winter in the area?

Diann Stone Boise Depot Bench

On Sat, Dec 8, 2018, 5:42 PM Chuck Trost trostchuck@cableone.net [ible] < ible-noreply@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

>
>
> Howdy,
> This after noon I counted Trumpeter Swans in fields on both sides of AFR.
> On the NW side along about 3 miles of Vambaur Rd. there were 456 resting
> and feeding in snowy fields. And on Rio Vista Rd near Sheepskin Rd on the
> Fort Hall Reservation there were 180, for a total of 636! No neck collars
> were seen. Much of the upper end of the reservoir was frozen, as was some
> of Springfield Ponds.
> Good Birding!
> Chuck Trost
>
> Always forward, never straight…
>
>