Monthly Archives: October 2020

Listserv Posts

Re: An interesting day for yard birds!


Scott, what a remarkable “parade” through your yard, for *any* yard around here (Treasure Valley)…..  including a WCSP sub-species “bullyae”   =)   Your “where am I?” quiz would be a good one……

I thought of doing a similar thing when our Lawrence’s Goldfinch / LAGO / showed up in Grand Junction CO, at the same time we had LEGO, AMGO, and PISI at our thistle feeders…… not sure why, but our LAGO attracted birders from the east coast, west coast, gulf coast, yada yada, for two months….  but I’ll add that it was a very regular visitor to our thistle and was following a female LEGO around (“following flights”) and doing some rapid billing (“mandibulation”) with her, as in mating behaviors, resulting in thousands of photos being taken, and two stenos filled with observational notes by visiting birders.  As well as a paper published in the Colorado Field Ornithologists Quarterly.

Not sure if anyone remembers my wren quiz from a few years ago, when me and a birding buddy found all of the North American wrens in one day without driving very far.  The reason we did that was because one of our first birds of the day in our campground was a Sedge Wren, so off we went to find the others, but that involved *both* being in the right part of the country (S Texas) and the right season (winter-ish) and t’was before Pacific Wren was peeled off from Winter Wren. 

 

BTW, when I first got fascinated by hummingbirds, I went directly home from work every day for years and headed straight into our back yard in Albuquerque, where our hum-feeders were concentrated, and I took notes~notes~notes, filling a 2″ binder each year with *just* hummingbird observations because I was well beyond any hope for help from a psychiatrist, hahaha

 

Thx again Scott for notes on your observations, because it unlocked some of my own deeply buried memories/experiences   =)

 

Larry,

West Boise Greenbelt 

 

Birds Rock !!!

 

Listserv Posts

An interesting day for yard birds!

Nothing like the first cold snap of the year to stir up the bird life. It was a crazy and memorable day here at my place in the Boise Highlands area (Ada County). It’s worth a story so I thought I would share.

 

Right at first light the continuing ANNA’s HUMMINGBIRD made it’s first of many visits today to my feeders today. I brought the feeders in overnight to keep them from freezing. Out they went a bit before dawn and the Anna’s was right there. Then looking down to the ground under my seed feeders I saw at least 10 Mourning Doves – likely a yard record. There were a similar number of Juncos, whose numbers have been building slowly over the past couple of weeks. White-crowned Sparrow number spiked back up this morning after declining from an initial peak a couple weeks ago. There was a dozen or so – 75% first winter birds. A couple of Song Sparrows were in the mix. Up on the thistle feeder were a couple Pine Siskins and a few Lesser Goldfinches. The sunflower feeder had its attendant House Finches and in the surrounding trees the resident Red-breasted Nuthatches and visiting Black-capped Chickadees where moving around. It was one happy family until a Cooper’s Hawk swooped in also looking for it’s morning meal. That scattered everyone. I had to wonder if the hawk was one of the family that nested across the street this year – which is another story to itself.

 

Later in the afternoon I looked back out in the yard to see most of the same had returned and were joined by some California Quail. It is fun too see them back in the yard after my usual flock being dispersed or consumed by the Cooper’s Hawk family. Over the past week I have noticed that one White-crowned Sparrow is particularly aggressive. Whenever it fly’s in it chases away whatever birds are where it wants to feed. It is definitely of the sub-species “bullyae”. It was in the feeding group today. And, at one point I watched it go over and grab the tail of one of the quail in its beak and shake away. I have never seen this before and just had to laugh. I had my camera with me but was not able to capture it on “film”. For its part, the quail seem surprised but after the sparrow let go, it just went on feeding with its friends.

 

This builds up to one of the best 15 minutes of birding in my yard, ever—and I have lived here 26 year. A little before 6PM I saw the ANNA’s HUMMINGBIRD out feeding so I went outside with my camera to get some photos. As I looked down on the ground under the seed feeders there was a BLUE JAY. An all time new one for the yard. I have certainly been following the reports of them all over the state, but I was still shocked to see one in my yard. Unfortunately, I missed getting photos. As I looked around all of the birds from the morning were back, getting an evening meal before a cold night to come. I kept watch hoping the jay would come back but it didn’t. However, a Spotted Towhee came in. I have only a handful of prior yard records. As I kept watch I found the Anna’s perched in a maple tree just in front of me. I can’t wait to see how the photos turned out. A full frame Anna’s among the red and gold maple leaves. Just about then a flock of 20 American Robins flew by going one way and then a few Cedar Waxwings the other way. It was an amazing way to end the day.

 

I would love to create a quiz – “Where am I where I have an October 26 yard list with: Anna’s Hummingbird, Blue Jay, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and Cedar Waxwings”. Or something like that.

 

 

Listserv Posts

Brown-headed cowbird

I saw a brown-headed cowbird, adult male, on my way to walmart in Blackfoot today at about 11:00 am.  It had a distinct brown head, blackish body, and was built similar to a blackbird.  I got a pretty good look at him while I waited for the light to change…he was down on the grass near the gas station.  No photo, unfortunately.
Listserv Posts

Winter raptor surveys

Hi Everyone,

My name is Jeff Fleischer and I am project coordinator for the Winter Raptor Survey Project sponsored by the East Cascades Audubon Society chapter based in Bend, OR.  Our 17th season of survey work, 10th in Idaho, is about to begin and the reason for this message is to offer a chance to participate in this project if you have an interest.   Last winter we ended up with 392 active routes throughout OR, WA, ID, and extreme northern CA covering nearly 25,000 miles of transects each month and surveyed by a cadre of over 300 primary volunteers, it is an extensive citizen science project!  

Following is a list of routes in Idaho that are currently available for ownership, they average between 50-70 miles in length and designed to be completed in one day:

1.  Winchester                              
2.  Nezperce                                
3.  DeSmet – Tensed                    
4.  Churchill – Oakley                    
5.  Rupert North                           
6.  Rupert East – Minidoka.          
7.  Burley SW                                
8.  Burley SE                                 
9.  Paul
10.  Minidoka NW
11.  Heyburn
12.  American Falls SW
13.  American Falls – Rockland
14.  Arbon Valley
15.  Pocatello – Inkom
16.  Inkom – McCammon
17.  Virginia – Downey
We ask our project volunteers to commit to one survey per month during the primary months of December through February, additional opportunities are available in November and March, both optional months with usually a 50 % coverage.  You can select the day that you want to do your surveys based on your own life schedules.  Volunteers should have a good working knowledge of at least the more common raptor species in your area and of course be willing to learn more about this great family of birds :). You should have at least a pair of binoculars and if you have a spotting scope even better but not required.  You should also be comfortable with winter driving conditions, our project has a super driving track record.  

If this sounds like you would be interested in becoming a part of, please get back to me as soon as possible with your route choice, I will be filling them first come first served.  I will provide you with pertinent materials, including a survey protocol, to get you prepped for what you will be doing this winter on these surveys.  For a more detailed account of the project, I prepared a power point presentation that can be found on the ECAS website at:   ecaudubon.org   that will provide a comprehensive history of all aspects of this project.  It is a large program with 227 slides most of which have audio information tracks.  It is chock full of hundreds of wonderful photos of the 31 species of birds of prey that have been found on our surveys to date, check it out 🙂
Okay, hope to hear from you soon, this is a wonderful way of spending some time in the field during the winter months while helping gather extensive wintering data for these birds. I might add that all of our data is provided to The Peregrine Fund for inclusion in their large international data base of birds of prey in hopes of being used for research by various scholastic and governmental agencies. Thank you,

Jeff Fleischer
Project Coordinator
Winter Raptor Survey Project
East Cascades Audubon Society – Bend, OR

My email address:    raptorrunner97321@…