Just had an adult female Rufous Hummingbird come into the feeder. Since I’ve never seen any evidence of Rufous breeding at our river location it appears, as was pointed out by others when I reported the adult male recently, Rufous must be on their southward migration already. It’s early to see them at our home spot in late June.
As reported by others recently, I sighted a red-eyed vireo along the Dry Creek Trail in the Boise foothills about 0.2 miles downstream of the confluence of Shingle and Dry Creeks. The bird was in the riparian area singing long and loudly. I saw it on the way up and the way down the trail. Last sighting was at 11:16am today.
Grace’s Warbler is a pretty bird. It would be exciting in the extreme if you had seen one here. I’ve been thrilled to see them in Arizona. Eyes to the skies! And in bushes and on the ground.
Missy and I were birding our butts off yesterday in Owyhee County when at 1225 hrs, coolish 64F and partly cloudy, at 6000 ft in mixed conifer (Doug Fir, Ponderosa, etc?) I came to a screeching halt and we jumped out of the car with cameras rolling and ready to get a GPS reading….. I was hearing a perfect-to-my-ears Grace’s wobbler singing right next to the road. This species had been recently expanding northward both in UT and CO, which you won’t see in most field guides, but in eBird I was surprised at How Far North !!! anyway, it turned out to be a Junco, but I’m still flabbergasted by how similar it sounded, and I’m talking about Song Detail………
Missy and I were birding our butts off yesterday in Owyhee County when at 1225 hrs, coolish 64F and partly cloudy, at 6000 ft in mixed conifer (Doug Fir, Ponderosa, etc?) I came to a screeching halt and we jumped out of the car with cameras rolling and ready to get a GPS reading….. I was hearing a perfect-to-my-ears Grace’s wobbler singing right next to the road. This species had been recently expanding northward both in UT and CO, which you won’t see in most field guides, but in eBird I was surprised at How Far North !!! anyway, it turned out to be a Junco, but I’m still flabbergasted by how similar it sounded, and I’m talking about Song Detail………
Cool observation, Brian. I’d suggest that this bird probably was an early fall (southbound) migrant. In other parts of the interior west, including much further south (Arizona and New Mexico), southbound migrant rufous (typically beginning with adult males) routinely arrive around the final week of June. The first southbound shorebirds (usually beginning with Phalaropes, Tringa sandpipers, and peeps) should also begin to appear any day. “Fall” migration begins in late June after about 10 slow days in the middle of the month.
Good Birding,
Carl Lundblad
Moscow, ID
Home of Idaho Birding and the Idaho Bird Records Committee
