Monthly Archives: December 2019

Listserv Posts

probable “Nelson’s” Gull (Glaucous X Herring) @ Lake Lowell

Yesterday Bryce, Heidi, Lucian, & I headed to Canyon Co to scan for waterbirds.  Met up with Cheryl & Denise at the upper dam near the visitor center.

LOTS (1,500+??) of gulls loafing and feeding but pretty far out.  The best bird was a 1st-winter that seemed almost a good fit for a Glaucous (biggish, narrow pink bill with black tip, pretty creamy overall) but just a bit too dark on the secondaries/tertials and maybe a bit splotchy on the chest.  It was too far away for decent photos (even through Bryce’s high-powered Zeiss) so we couldn’t be entirely certain it wasn’t just a really dark end-of-the-spectrum Glaucous or possibly a hybrid with Glaucous-winged.  If anyone sees this bird (at lake or at either of the dumps) from a closer vantage, I’d be excited to see pictures 😁
Also a single distant C Loon, a few RB Mergs, etc.
Jay

Listserv Posts

Boise CBC December 14

Boise area birders
As many of you are already aware, it’s almost Christmas Bird Count season (!) and the Boise count is this coming Saturday, Dec 14.  Please join us if you’re interested in helping to assess the winter bird population here!
Details:
  • Where to meet: unless you’ve communicated to Rob & I
    about an alternate plan, please come to Idaho Fish & Game’s state
    headquarters office at 600 S Walnut at 7am – go around the back (~NE entrance) and find us in the Trophy Room
    • by 730-745am, we’ll aim to have everyone assigned to a territory/team and on their way to finding/counting birds
  • Post-count dinner – our plan is to gather after dark (~530-6pm, depending on how long it takes folks to commute from where they finish counting)
    at Smoky Mountain Pizza at 1805 W State St where we’ve reserved a back
    room and will pre-order at least some pizzas to be sure the early birds
    get fed!
    • It will be very helpful for us to have a head count to approximate how much food to order – thus, please:
      • RSVP (not to IBLE! but to myself & Rob)
      • let us know your ideal for toppings
      • bring some cash to pitch in for the food & drinks!
  • The attached map file shows the CBC circle and the different “territories” we’ve divided the count circle into.  For most of these we have CBC veterans already assigned but we’re always happy to enlarge the team and very happy to add bird identification & counting skills 🙂
  • Rob Magill (rmagill@…) and I (carlislejay@…) are the co-compilers – you don’t have to sign up ahead of time but, if you haven’t already reached out and are planning on participating, we’d be happy to hear from you
  • Interested in some pre-dawn owling?  We’d love your help with that!  Please just coordinate with us so we don’t send 2 groups to the same area 🙂
Thanks for your interest & happy CBC season!
Jay