I didn’t get an early start (I almost never do) but I had a great day biking
and looking for birds today. I cruised the North End and got to St. Mary’s
Church (for the Church Pigeons) with 10 birds. Not particularly great, but
I’ve done worse.

Then it started to get interesting at Quinn’s Pond when I found a small raft
of N. Shovelers and another bird I was convinced was a Cinnamon Teal. (More
on that later). There was also a lingering Horned Grebe, midway between
winter and breeding plumage. That put me at 25.

At Silver Lake I picked a few more, including my first C. Merganser of the
day. Normally they are all over Quinn’s and Esther Simplot. Then on to
Hyatt, where I found my first YHBB of the year, along with a few more ducks.
Then a Virginia Rail decided to grunt at me and then come out and greet me.
Always a treat.

Back to the greenbelt and on to the dredge ponds. While wondering where all
the birds were at the first dredge pond, a RW Swallow fly right at me, my
only swallow of the day. (I’ve been seeing several species at ESP, but not
today.) Then the raptors stepped up, having heard that I was short of them,
and I sighted RTHA, GHOW, TUVU, and BAEA in rapid succession.

A quick trip to the pond at Laguna Pointe and I had my FOY Canvasback and a
few others. I headed back towards home with 56, but along the way I had come
to doubt my sighting of the Cinnamon Teal. As I was riding along, seeing it
in my mind’s eye, I became convinced that I was deceiving myself, so I
subtracted the teal and accepted 55 birds as my total.

When I got back to ESP, I could see some gulls on the beach and I could hear
a Say’s Phoebe, so now I was figuring on 57 birds. But when I stopped to
glass the gulls (Ring-billed), a pair of ducks flew across Quinn’s Pond and
landed directly in front of me. It was a male and female Cinnamon Teal!!! So
my self-doubt was resolved, and I had 58 birds.

This is the third trip I’ve taken to the Eagle Road area since the bridge at
Les Bois opened back up last week, but by far the best day. Also my best day
so far this year, especially with 3 FOY birds. But 25 miles is a long ride
for an old fart like me these days. I’ve attached a full list of the birds I
saw today. If anybody needs to know where I found a particular bird, just
email me.

Tom McCabe, Boise