It was definitelyTropical Storm Rachel that brought these birds to Utah. The east side and southeast quadrant of a tropical storm are typically favored for deposition of displaced and entrained pelagic birds. Rachel moved from the Baja coast near Ensenada, northeast and along the Nevada/Utah border, and Utah was therefore perfectly positioned along with the Salton Sea (CA) and Lake Havasu (CA/AZ), both of which got multiple storm petrel species. It’s relatively unlikely that sea birds would have been displaced to the west of the center of the circulation (i.e., into Idaho or central/northern Nevada), although not out of the question, and some of these birds could be dispersing as they try and make their way back to the ocean. I did not expect pelagic birds to make it nearly so far inland from this magnitude of tropical storm, but the track was ideal and we kind of missed the metaphorical boat in the Nevada (though a few observers searched Lakes Mead and Mojave on the Lower Colorado River), not helped by the appearance of a fantastic non-storm related (presumably) rarity/first state record in Henderson, NV (a Yellow Grosbeak) on the eve of the storm.
On 10/16/26 10:12AM, lcarrigan_55 via
groups.io wrote:
Thanks for sharing, Cliff. The Pacific storms Rachel &
Simon must have really blown some birds off-course! If anyone
has any photos, please share on this forum. Would be
fascinating.
Thanks for sharing, Cliff. The Pacific storms Rachel & Simon must have really blown some birds off-course! If anyone has any photos, please share on this forum. Would be fascinating.
I just became aware of a few reports of Wedge-rumped Storm Petrels in northern Utah. One is at Hyrum Reservoir, only 30 miles from Bear Lake. If anyone is down that way, or at any southern Idaho reservoir, it might be worth taking a look just in case.
It’s rather curious the Blue Jay has yet to establish a regular visitation pattern in the Treasure Valley, but they are very enjoyable to see/hear when passing through. I did get on briefly about 7-8 yrs ago at our Valley Co. place. I also get a kick out of watching the Stellar’s jays cache peanuts under a patch of moss, high up on Ponderosa’s.
So, today a Blue Jay has appeared & the Steller’s Jay seems to be gone. The Blue Jay has been busy at the platform feeder making repeated trips, gathering as many as 10 seeds at a time, & caching them all around the yard. Stashing them at bases of trees, bushes, along crooks of tree limbs, etc. Have seen sev over the years. A few yrs back, one did quite similar and stayed for sev wks during the winter.
Same here in the Moonlight Mine area east of Pocatello where we’ve gotten 2″ of snow this a.m.. The usual winter gang, chickadees, mountain and black capped, house finches, pine siskins, red breasted nuthatches, hairy and downy woodpeckers are all around. Stellars Jays showed up a few weeks ago and have stayed. Evening grosbeaks arrived a couple of days ago too. Even had a red squirrel capture a finch at one feeder, second time we’ve seen that happen. A lack of pine cones this year might account for that.
Here, about 6 miles north of Idaho Falls, I’ve been having a mini irruption of Juncos. Normally this time of year I would be host to a few, maybe 5 or 6, but the last 2 weeks or more there must be over 100 foraging in my yard and the field next door.
Last few days, have had regular visits by: a Mtn Chickadee, sev Pine Siskins, an Evening Grosbeak &, going on a week now, a Steller’s Jay. All hitting the sunflower seeds on the platform feeder. Think they must have known, a change in the weather was coming.
