Monthly Archives: August 2020

Listserv Posts

Re: photo ops up in Camas Co.

Chuck, what a crazy good rail sp for Idaho !!  I had to peek at accepted eBird reports, of “intermountain west” reports, really surprised me….
if you can zoom out enough to see much of the west…  a recent one near Bozeman MT !!
https://ebird.org/map/yelrai?bmo=1&emo=12&byr=1900&eyr=2020&env.minX=-124.416&env.minY=32.531&env.maxX=-114.129&env.maxY=42.01&gp=true
hope this link works…  if not, start with Calif and zoom out a bit  =)
https://ebird.org/barchart?byr=1900&eyr=2020&bmo=1&emo=12&r=US-CA
Larry
Listserv Posts

Re: photo ops up in Camas Co.

Howdy,

I know it is a long way from you folks, but there is extensive mud exposed on the north east edge of American Falls Reservoir, specifically at the Danielson Creek outlet (from Springfield Ponds).  I was out there on Sunday birding with my former grad student, Dan Taylor, and saw many KILL, AMAV, PESA, WIPH, and GRYL.  After I left Dan walked out along the edge to see them better.  On the way he flushed a Yellow Rail!  I’ve urged him to write it up for IBRC.
Good Birding!
Chuck Trost

Always forward, never straight…
Listserv Posts

Re: photo ops up in Camas Co.

It’s an amazing accounting, Roland. While I’ve never heard of most of those reservoirs, much less visited them, my dad was a hydrologist with the Soil Conservations Service and may have been familiar with them all. I saw a great blue heron and a and three great egrets out near the south boat ramp at Lake Lowell yesterday. A couple of sandpipers and a couple of grebes. 
Listserv Posts

Re: photo ops up in Camas Co.

Thanks RL. We came back from McCall through Indian Valley from Council to Emmett Tuesday 8-25. Past C Ben Ross and Crane Creek reservoirs both still have water we did not spend much time at C Ben Ross and saw more fishermen than shore birds. We did not go over to Crane Creek since we had been going since 3 AM chasing and finally finding and photographing a Pileated Woodpecker.  Some other smaller even unnamed reservoirs that frequently have water along this route were dry.

On Aug 27, 2020, at 12:17 AM, R L ROWLAND RONALD ROWLAND <rlrowland@…> wrote:


Hey “ible”, RL here.
World Shorebirds Day is upcoming, so I was out scouting reservoirs in preparation for the shorebird counts that I do. I knew folks would be looking at Black’s and Indian Ck. Res.’s so decided to pass those up and went further out. I’ll catch those on my count days.
Some bad news about water. Little Camas, Long Tom and Mtn. Home Res.’s are, for all practical purposes, dry as they could be. Only LC Res. had any behind the dam, not much but there were a few ducks, plenty water in the pool below the dam but it is inaccessible except by scope. LT Res. had only a trickle from two of its feeder creeks, cows grazing where there would normally be 30 feet of water over them. MH Res. was completely dry, not even a mud spot. There are birds in these places, you just have to pound the brush/willows for them.
The bright spot was Mormon Res. in Camas Co.. Maybe 5′ down but plenty action, except for shorebirds, though I did have a flyover of five WESA’s (likely?). However, all the canals, stream beds and any other channels were totally dry. BTW, Mormon is posted for possible algae contamination. The note is from last year’s posting, could tell by the wear on the signs, but, I could see a thin blue-green ring along parts of the shore. It’s been checked evidently and the news still holds for this year. I did not stop at Camas Prairie Marsh.
Why I am really writing this long, for me, message is the for the photogs among us. In the part of the prairie south of Fairfield down to Mormon and between Hwy 46 and the Camas Prairie Marsh the ranchers are cutting/baling hay and the place is lousy with Swainson’s Hawks. They were everywhere, sitting on the ground, on poles, hay bales, you name it. Though it’s all private property, but from the road with a good lens, the right light, it can be a bonanza. I also had Red-tailed’s, Ferrug’s, Harriers, Kestrels and an Osprey. Did not see an Golden Eagle though looked for them. If I’d stayed a bit longer I am sure I could have seen/heard at least two species of owls.
Not into raptors to photograph. There were sparrows everywhere also: Brewer’s, Savannah’s, Vesper, Song, Lark, Spotted Towhee’s, I know of some possible Grasshopper’s. In the borrow pit brush along the roads, in the willows and bitterbrush/sage. Some especially good spots were: Mormon Res. willows and the main boat ramp; Dixie Cutoff Rd. (Elmore Co.), from the east end riparian area where it “Tees” into Anderson Ranch Dam Rd. west to the summit before it drops off into Long Tom Ck. drainage; the summit of Prairie Rd. (off Hwy 20, near mile-marker 111) before it also drops off into the Long Tom drainage.
I did note, except for Camas Prairie, that most of my sparrows were being seen on the hilltops. As I was going in to Long Tom, for example, there were no sparrows as I went up Prairie Rd. but at the turn off on the summit there were buckets then as I dropped into the drainage to go to the reservoir there were very few again. The opposite of what was going on there in the spring. Curious.
Best times for you to get your photos what with all the smoke in the air would be the last 3-4hrs before sunset or the first couple hours after sunrise. It was really incredible up there last evening. Smoky haze, cloud cover, a couple rain sprinkles, temp.
I am not sure if this is the right place for this, but, I do not Facebook. I check/read ID Sightings there, but, joining to post… I think not. I’m not that social.
Well, Continued Good Birding. RL

Ken Miracle
chukar28@…
208-570-2780
“Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God” 2COR 3:5

Listserv Posts

Re: photo ops up in Camas Co.

thx for posting, RL…. 

re shorebirds, Missy and I recently checked a few places along one of our routes thru Elmore and Owyhee Counties…  Ted Trueblood was almost dry, but had good mud and there were shorebirds aplenty (11+ species), Jack’s Creek water level high and had only long legged critters (yellowleg sp, avocets, BN stilts), Bruneau Duck Pond was completely DRY, heard only a flyby G yellowlegs, Loveridge Bridge S pond was mostly dry, but on the Snake River to the east was a nice collection of waders and shorebirds, our count of Gr Egrets hit an eBird filter…..  and about anywhere along the Boise Greenbelt is devoid of shorebirds, unless Tom McCabe or others know of any…?
Larry and Missy 
Listserv Posts

photo ops up in Camas Co.

Hey “ible”, RL here.
World Shorebirds Day is upcoming, so I was out scouting reservoirs in preparation for the shorebird counts that I do. I knew folks would be looking at Black’s and Indian Ck. Res.’s so decided to pass those up and went further out. I’ll catch those on my count days.
Some bad news about water. Little Camas, Long Tom and Mtn. Home Res.’s are, for all practical purposes, dry as they could be. Only LC Res. had any behind the dam, not much but there were a few ducks, plenty water in the pool below the dam but it is inaccessible except by scope. LT Res. had only a trickle from two of its feeder creeks, cows grazing where there would normally be 30 feet of water over them. MH Res. was completely dry, not even a mud spot. There are birds in these places, you just have to pound the brush/willows for them.
The bright spot was Mormon Res. in Camas Co.. Maybe 5′ down but plenty action, except for shorebirds, though I did have a flyover of five WESA’s (likely?). However, all the canals, stream beds and any other channels were totally dry. BTW, Mormon is posted for possible algae contamination. The note is from last year’s posting, could tell by the wear on the signs, but, I could see a thin blue-green ring along parts of the shore. It’s been checked evidently and the news still holds for this year. I did not stop at Camas Prairie Marsh.
Why I am really writing this long, for me, message is the for the photogs among us. In the part of the prairie south of Fairfield down to Mormon and between Hwy 46 and the Camas Prairie Marsh the ranchers are cutting/baling hay and the place is lousy with Swainson’s Hawks. They were everywhere, sitting on the ground, on poles, hay bales, you name it. Though it’s all private property, but from the road with a good lens, the right light, it can be a bonanza. I also had Red-tailed’s, Ferrug’s, Harriers, Kestrels and an Osprey. Did not see an Golden Eagle though looked for them. If I’d stayed a bit longer I am sure I could have seen/heard at least two species of owls.
Not into raptors to photograph. There were sparrows everywhere also: Brewer’s, Savannah’s, Vesper, Song, Lark, Spotted Towhee’s, I know of some possible Grasshopper’s. In the borrow pit brush along the roads, in the willows and bitterbrush/sage. Some especially good spots were: Mormon Res. willows and the main boat ramp; Dixie Cutoff Rd. (Elmore Co.), from the east end riparian area where it “Tees” into Anderson Ranch Dam Rd. west to the summit before it drops off into Long Tom Ck. drainage; the summit of Prairie Rd. (off Hwy 20, near mile-marker 111) before it also drops off into the Long Tom drainage.
I did note, except for Camas Prairie, that most of my sparrows were being seen on the hilltops. As I was going in to Long Tom, for example, there were no sparrows as I went up Prairie Rd. but at the turn off on the summit there were buckets then as I dropped into the drainage to go to the reservoir there were very few again. The opposite of what was going on there in the spring. Curious.
Best times for you to get your photos what with all the smoke in the air would be the last 3-4hrs before sunset or the first couple hours after sunrise. It was really incredible up there last evening. Smoky haze, cloud cover, a couple rain sprinkles, temp.
I am not sure if this is the right place for this, but, I do not Facebook. I check/read ID Sightings there, but, joining to post… I think not. I’m not that social.
Well, Continued Good Birding. RL