We are going to be in the area tomorrow and would like to see what everyone is talking about. The link shows south east of CJ in the middle of a cultivated field. Can anyone give me better directions to the Dry Lakes?
Thanks, Linda
Thanks, Linda
Monthly Archives: October 2020
Re: Dry Lakes — no plovers but 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls this evening
hummingbird report, west Boise
Gmorning hummer fans !!
Our last observed dates (LOD’s) this year to date…….
Broad-tailed – we don’t encounter hereabouts, and I dearly miss them
Calliope 12 Aug
Rufous 21 Sep
Black-chinned 21 Sep
Anna’s 12 Oct
Attached might be of interest to some of us, eh?
Larry
Re: Dry Lakes — no plovers but 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls this evening
Hi Jay and other IBLE members, Cheryl Huzinga, Bob Kiernan, and I were there earlier this afternoon and observed only a single Second Cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull. There were much lower gull numbers overall at that time.
In my recent visits shorebird numbers appear to peak around 3-5 there and drop steeply after that. Definitely a productive spot this fall. There were many sandpipers present including Dunlin and Stilt, Western, Least, and Semipalmated Sandpipers.
-Carter Strope
Dry Lakes — no plovers but 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls this evening
Hoping to run into some of the exciting shorebird action, Heidi & I tried Dry Lakes in the last hour before sunset. No golden or BB plovers but at least 1,000 gulls cycling through and we observed the most Lesser Black-backed Gulls in one location I’ve ever seen in Idaho! Some ~passable digiscope pics in this eBird checklist: ebird.org/checklist/S75005540 – no full adults but a 1st winter, a couple ~1.5 year-olds (2nd cycle), and a presumed 3rd-cycle (based on a mostly yellow bill that doesn’t show up on the pics I got before the whole flock took to the air).
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I only wish this place was a bit closer to home – if so, I’d go 2x/day 🙂
Jay
Another good day
My apologies for cluttering up your inbox, but I had enough interesting birds today that I felt the need to share. First, a W.S. Owl woke me just before dawn. Later, I discovered a Cassin’s Finch in my back yard maple. I could see him clearly, preening on a branch. The female next to him was obscured by leaves, but I think it was also a CAFI. Once I started my bike ride I had a goodly number of regulars, all being cooperative, before seeing 2 Blue Jays in the bare branches of a tree on Plantation Island.
Things started to get even more interesting after that, with a trio of Ruddy Ducks on Silver Lake, an altercation between a Great Blue Heron and a Red Tail at a bend in the river, and then a Lesser Scaup at the lower end of Veterans Pond. My final tally was 39 birds in 13+ miles, and there were a couple that I didn’t count because they didn’t repeat for me. Isn’t migration wonderful?
Tom McCabe, Boise
Oct 14th Dry Creek Plover Photos?
In case Carter Strope, Denise Hughes, or Cheryl Huizinga monitor this site, or someone can relay a message to them — your October 14th eBird list from Dry Creek mentioned: “Photos soon. Large pluvalis plover with dainty bill and dark rump” on the Golden-Plover. Any chance you can post those photos on eBird? And did you get any of the Black-bellied Plover?
Scott
Re: Dry Lakes — A whole different day
Thanks RL — I scanned every inch of this field. I remembered your notes. My bet is they were mixed in with the Dowtichers on the far side of the pond and I didn’t spend enough time to see them. But, at that distance there was no way I could ID them, and for a State Bird, I would not put it on my list.
Re: Dry Lakes — A whole different day
Hey all, RL here.
Day I went looking for the Golden Plover, took a bit, found it in the green field to the east of the playa. This is the field that if you use the road as a keyboard looks a lot like a Steinway Grand Piano in shape. The plover was ducking (pun intended) up and down in those deep furrows. The Killdeer were scattered all over instead of being concentrated on the muddy part of the harvested cornfield across the road from the playa as others had noted at the time. I made note of this in my ible posting of that day. Check out that piano shaped green field. There may be a surprise or two.
CGB. RL
Re: Dry Lakes — A whole different day
It is interesting to see how things change during the day. It was entirely possible the Golden-plovers were mixed in with the Dowitchers when I was there. They were on the far side of the water and all I was able to count were “large sized shorebirds with long bills”. I easily could have missed the Golden-plovers – not that they have long bills, and they are similar sized, though smaller than the Dowitchers, but that I didn’t take my time to carefully examine each “dot in the distance.” When I didn’t seem them up close in the mud I scanned all the surrounding fields a couple of time hoping they were out there.
Scott