Hi Christian!
In regards to Cassias and goshawks:
– there are goshawks in the South Hills (the area you’ll be for crossbills), I don’t have specific locations but just keep an eye out when you’re there.
– Diamondfield Jack Campground is another good place for Cassias if Porcupine Springs doesn’t work out – but they shouldn’t be too hard at either spot. If you’re wanting to pay for camping, I’d go with Porcupine Springs, it’s a nice campground. But Diamondfield Jack is free, just not as nice and usually lots of people on ATVs so it can be loud. There’s also free primitive camping.
– There are Red Crossbills in the South Hills, primarily Type 2 and 5. They’re less common than Cassias but definitely could be present. So I’d recommend getting recordings of flight calls you can reference to make sure you got Cassias instead of Reds. They are indistinguishable visually. There’s no cell service in the South Hills so I’d download Merlin or Sibley in advance if you’ll need something to play recordings for reference. I don’t know how much experience you have with crossbills in general, so apologies if this is obvious, but you’ll probably hear them before you see them, make sure you’re familiar with their flight call. You can also listen for the sound of them picking apart pine cones in the treetops, it will be a kind of crunching sound (sounds silly I know, but I’ve found them that way before!).
Let me know if you have any follow up questions!
-Lucian Davis
Make your camping reservations well in advance. The number of campgrounds are limited and they see heavy use in summer. You may want to consider camping in a dispersed site. Weekends are particularly busy and even dispersed sites may be hard to find.
Great gray owls, boreal owls, and rosy-finches are all higher elevation or latitude species in summer. White-winged crossbills are a very hit and miss species. Best bet is to use eBird to check out possible locations for some of these species.
Others have already covered where you might hear mountain quail and see or hear chukar. Chukar may well be the easiest species to find. Look and listen in dry rocky areas at lower elevations.
There are recent sightings (hearings actually, I don’t think anybody is seeing them) of Mountain Quail near Riggins (they are in eBird). They were very vocal when I went to get them last week. There were also Chukars all over the hillsides (they were seen and heard). I don’t have any current info on your other species.
Darren Clark
Rexburg, ID
Get a copy of A Birder’s Guide to Idaho by Svingen and Dumroese then good luck and happy trails.
Dean Jones
Hey there,
My name is Christian Walker I’m a birder from Texas. My friend and I are doing a road trip from Spokane Washington down to the Albion Mountains and then over to Lander Wyoming in a few weeks. If anyone is willing to help out with some of my questions below I would greatly appreciate any help!
-What is a good spot to stop for camping/birding in between Spokane and Albion Mountains?
-We are going to the Albion Mountains to look for Cassia Crossbills. Looks like the Porcupine Springs Campground is a good place to camp and maybe see them. Any specific advice?
-Any good spots for Mountain Quail and advice on how to find them? This is a nemesis bird for me and I would love to see them.
-Same for Chukar – any good places to check or advice on how to find them?
-Are there any easy ways to see Black Rosy-Finches that don’t involve huge hikes up above tree line? Any good spots?
-Any info on Great Gray Owls or Boreal Owls around that would be worth checking out? I understand these are sensitive species so obviously would keep any info to myself.
-Any good spots for Northern Goshawk?
-Are White-winged Crossbills around at all?
Thanks again for any advice anyone is willing to give me.
Thanks and good birding,
Home of Idaho Birding and the Idaho Bird Records Committee
