Help with identifying


My wife and I just came back from Carson City, NV where I took these pictures at a friend’s house. First thoughts were a Clarks Nutcracker or a Gray Jay, but it doesn’t seem to quite match either.  Juvenile
Clarks?
 The fires in the Sierras have driven a lot of birds outside their normal areas, so this bird may be passing through.

 

Thanks,

 

Tom Soniville


Tom Soniville
Boise. North End

Re: Lifer

What is it with hip joints and birding? I thought I had put in enough weekly miles (uphill) for sufficient weight bearing exercise but no, says latest scan. Good luck to all you fellow commiserants.

In other news, gathering of common golden eyes, and a parent juvenile pair of bald eagles practicing touch and goes at Black canyon reservoir tonight.
Liz Medes
Gem County

Evening Grosbeak

While bicycling today in the city of Mountain Home, I stopped as I always do to study a bird feeding station, and by golly there was a male Evening Grosbeak consuming sunflower hearts. The same feeding station (just off S 5th West St.) also had a flock of Pine Siskins present.
Alan Gregory in Mountain Home

Alan C Gregory
Lt. Col., USAF, Ret.
Mountain Home, ID

Member, Idaho Native Plant Society
Air Force Public Affairs Alumni Association, life member
Member, North American Butterfly Association

Winter Migrants on the Move

Yesterday, it was Common Redpolls. Today, it was a flock of about 50 Bohemian Waxwings. Over a couple of hours, the flock completely stripped every remaining fruit from a crabapple tree. When finished, wouldn’t say the waxwings were “drunk”, just very contented! They flew up to uppermost branches of a nearby golden willow & absorbed the sun for another hour or so, before taking off. 

Between, the redpolls, crossbills &, now waxwings, definitely shaping up to be a good “irruption” winter of some rarities. Good number of Townsend’s Solitaires have appeared in Snake River Bottoms for the winter, as well. There’s a bumper crop of Rocky Mtn Juniper berries to feed on. 

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

Home of Idaho Birding and the Idaho Bird Records Committee

Idaho Birds