Indeed, Denise. This has been 115 days of confinement while covering birding/fishing as much as possible in Gem Cty. But what a reward waited for us this week in Valley.
But, the big surprise – which wouldn’t have happened without a bored spouse benched from the ice rink due to Covid 19, an electric trolling motor, and a startling view of them lifting off 200 yards away, was 100+ Marbled Godwits, parked on the east side near HWY 55 among Canadian geese, pelicans, and other waterfowl. What gorgeous critters.
Yes. I’m to blame. I took on the task of updating the checklist. I found the abundance codes far too cumbersome for readability on a small field checklist and made the choice to eliminate the codes because they are located in the list of Idaho review species, which can also be found on the IBRC website. This downloadable excel file can be found at – ibrc.idahobirds.net/review-species.