Wow!  

About half an hour ago, I had nice looks at scissor-tailed flycatcher ~50 meters south of the hq office in cottonwoods. It was mobbed by territorial Western kingbirds and flew off behind a cottonwood nearby and has not been refound since. 

—

Weather sure has taken a turn. Thunderstorms build over the mountains by every afternoon & highs have been flirting with 100° for 4 days now. Unfortunately, wildfire season has arrived. Bird activity has slowed, significantly, during heat of the day. Only needing to fill the black-oil seeds once a day, as zero activity after around noon, until the evening cool-down.

Seeing a change in hummingbird migration, too. Haven’t observed an adult male Rufous since Thu. Now, female & a few juvenile Rufous Hummingbirds are coming through. Same with the Black-chinneds, more females & juveniles appearing. Though, still have adult male BC coming in. 

Also, with the heat extremes, cleaning the nectar feeder every 24 hrs. The other day, let it go to 48 hrs & the little nectar remaining already had hint of an “alcohol” smell to it. 

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot 

Hi,

For those wanting to see one, I encountered a Stilt Sandpiper yesterday morning along the east shore mudflats at Blacks Creek.

Cheers,

Scott

There is a Sanderling at the lower dam at Deer Flat NWR. I think this is the first one that I’ve seen in breeding plumage in Idaho. It’s hanging out with a killdeer and least Sandpiper

Denise Hughes
Caldwell, Idaho
Any day might be a special one-you just had to go outside and see if it was.—-Kenn Kaufman

Thank you!

That dirt road is a private farm access road. In addition to looking for No Trespassing signs, you need to look for orange paint on things like fence posts, trees, and tires.  Under Idaho law that also means No Trespassing. —

It’s all private property.  Those roads are from long ago before the no trespassing signs went up.  The playa was used by people flying model planes.  And birders used to walk along those roads to get closer to the birds.

We’ve been to Dry Lakes a couple times. We are always cautious to follow posted signs (and even so if there are no signs) not to trespass. The last time we were there, we  noticed a what appears to be a ‘well traveled’ dirt road with telephone poles all along it. The no trespassing sign off of Stage Coach ‘appears’ to be marking the land off to the side of the road but not the dirt road…but as I said, we are always very cautious not to trespass. So, I wanted to ask if this dirt road with all of the telephone poles is private or just the land off of the road? I’m including a photo of the dirt road I’m referring to. 

Lynda Ackert
Eagle, ID