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Gem County hotspot closed

Passing this along…

Regrettably, Fish & Game will no longer manage Emmett’s Airport Pond, which not only afforded birders a chance to stroll and observe 60+ species of waders, waterfowl, flycatchers, nesting osprey, bald eagles, even an AM bittern, etc., all the while watching small aircraft land and take-off down the middle of the municipal golf course.  There was, literally, something for everyone. No Trespassing signs are in place and I’ve heard the site goes back to the Idaho Lands Dept., but I’m going to make a request to see if the State would allow small birding groups on foot one last time this Spring.  I will keep IBLE informed.
In the meantime, if there is an ebird reviewer reading this who can inform me what happens to hotspots in these cases, please DM me.  And thanks.
Liz Medes
Emmett ID

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Re: No rain on my parade

Hi all, & Thanks for the info Tom!
We had 5 male and 3 female Cassin’s Finches at our feeders yesterday, & we’ve had a few this morning also.
Yesterday I refilled the feeder, but the wind caused a lot of it to spill onto the ground.
As a consequence, we’ve been getting around 30 birds at a time on the ground below, most of them Pine Siskins, some House Finches, Lesser Goldfinches, and Mourning Doves, but for some reason no American Goldfinches. 
I presume the snow has driven the Cassin’s to lower elevations.
John Shortis  

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No rain on my parade


It was cold and windy today, but the only snow falling was coming off the trees. I figured the weather would bring in more visitors, and I was right. Quinn’s Pond, at Esther Simplot, had a large raft of N. Shovelers, but the real treat
was all three types of Teal: Cinnamon, Blue-winged, and Green-winged. Later, on the way back, I found a Ruddy Duck as well. VG and NRW Swallows were zooming around, and the Say’s Phoebes were active.

Sadly, I don’t have a Cassin’s today (yet), but final tally was 43 species in 12 miles.

Tom McCabe, Boise

P.S. Thanks for all the kind words. 😉

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Re: Biking/Birding in the rain

I’ll add to that thanks, Tom.  I’d been alerted by a gentleman who feeds birds not far from me a few days ago. He said he’d been seeing the Cassins, too. So, I kept a closer look at my own feeders. Sure enough, two were there. Happy at clams at high tide, feeding on the sunflower hearts. Thanks for your post, Tom. It read a bit like poetry for me. Love your observations. 

Kerry
North End, Boise

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Re: Biking/Birding in the rain

Very cool! Thanks for the update! 😀

I also saw my first Swainson’s Hawk of the year at my house in west Caldwell yesterday. It looked like the same male that has nested here for the past four or five years, at least. It amazed me that after having flown ~ 6,000 miles from Argentina, the SWHA was just flapping and soaring in the strong winds that we had here. I didn’t see him touch down at all in the 20 minutes I was watching him. They must love flying! 😀

In case anyone’s interested, here is a blog post I wrote last year summarizing the life cycle of a Swainson’s Hawk. The post is illustrated with photos of our breeding pair over the last few years. 🙂

Happy spring birding!! 😀

—
Aidan Lorenz
Caldwell

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