2nd, it’s not the first occurrence of this type of thing, eh?
3rd, so many easy ways to prevent this
a couple inches of wet sloppy snow here this morning in west Boise, so I did our WinCo grocery shopping at 0430 hrs, before traffic wakes up, my usual jumpstart time anyway
as this bit of weather began, we had an insane rush of bird activity at our feeders yesterday afternoon
ebird list here – https://ebird.org/checklist/S80837721
No guarantees for re-locating, if one takes a drive to find, but have seen sev large groups of Snow Buntings in past wk. One group of about 30 was just north of Challis on Hwy 93, west side of road. And, yest 3 good-sized groups on Hwy 26 between Arco & Craters. One group had at least 100 birds. The groups have been “flighty” &, unlike Horned Larks, not keen on returning immediately to roadside, often setting down 50 yds + off hwy & then just, taking off. All have been in fields with open expanses of snow coverage. Didn’t see any Larkspurs, wind was brutal & difficult to stay focused on any one bird. Wouldn’t surprise me if some were present though.
One month ago, I observed a leucistic red-tailed hawk in the hills east of Ammon. It was hunting the stubble fields on the edge of the new developments and was easy to see on power poles and fence poles. It hung around for two days and I haven’t seen it since. Interesting to have so many sightings in one year. A coincidence?
On Feb 3, 2021, at 12:41 PM, Elizabeth Medes <liz.medes@…> wrote:
My guess would be barred, the dark eyes, the defined streaks. Great puzzler!
Liz Medes
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
Awesome!! That looks like the one we saw in Idaho Falls last spring. The front was almost totally white and we couldn’t figure out what it was till its back was to us. We just had a 300zoom with us that day. This is a very cropped photo that wasn’t a total blur.
MaDWhitham
Suivez vos rêves aujourd’hui!! Demain n’arrivera peut-être jamais
Definitely a Barred Owl :). From the description of what happened, it probably saw its reflection in the window and thought it to be an intruder in its territory. It was probably bewildered when the intruder didn’t move, actually “fighting back” :). Birds are funny, yeah they are 🙂
Jeff
Home of Idaho Birding and the Idaho Bird Records Committee
