well of course our daughter graduating from Law School at UI Moscow, and her two girls, plus Missy’s sibs – these dudes are tall !!!
My heroes include Ardith Fichter, Edson Fichter, Sarah Fichter, and Dr. Chuck Trost,
do you have Idaho heroes?
At Roberts sewage pond.
Kit
Kit Struthers
kit619@centurylink.net
Idaho Falls ID
Sent from my iPhone
I was fortunate to find a snowy plover in Bannock County yesterday. There
is a large alkaline playa at the upper reaches of Oxford Slough, southeast
of the intersection of Oxford and Coulam Roads. The bird was at the north
end.
Interestingly, I have been drooling over this playa all spring because of
extensive mud/wet sand flats. It was superb for waterfowl back in late
March and early April, but has largely been disappointing for shorebirds.
I was hoping for lots of stilts, long-billed dowitchers, and maybe a peep
or two. But when I arrived it only harbored 1 killdeer, 1 American avocet,
and 4 Wilson’s phalaropes. I was scanning it a 3rd time in disbelief that
it was so empty when the plover flew in. I took notice of it right away as
something that could be interesting because of it’s overall small size and
light coloration. Wasn’t expecting this species though!
Other noteworthy sightings include a steady stream of hundreds of
white-faced ibis flying back and forth out of their nesting colony at
Oxford Slough Waterfowl Production Area, out toward Swan Lake Slough and
Marsh Valley. Displaying and calling long-billed curlews, willets, and
Wilson’s snipe were a treat to enjoy. There was also a daytime short-eared
owl along Coulam Road and a great-tailed grackle at Swan Lake Slough.
Steven F. Kahl
Deputy Project Leader
Southeast Idaho National Wildlife Refuge Complex
4425 Burley Dr., Ste. A
Chubbuck, ID 83202
C (208) 252-0805
P (208) 237-6615 ext 112
F (208) 237-8213
*Like and follow us on Facebook
Because of my limited mobility this is my best chance for a great trip so
I will pay $2000 to some one please help an old man 208 318 3085 we need
more people or they will cancel
Carl, you rock! thank you man! =) laughing at the plug for FB, yeehah
bird was mostly snoozing among actively foraging COGO about 100 ft above dam, and white wing patches were visible esp on L side, with overall structure of scoter face plus bill obvious, a sleepy bird “grounded” by this wx?
we love you Heidi =)
LA
From: “Carl Lundblad carl.lundblad@gmail.com [ible]”
To: “IBLE”
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2019 12:20:12 PM
Subject: [IBLE] FWD: White-winged Scoter continues at Swan Falls, Ada County
Larry Arnold reports (via Heidi Ware on Facebook) that the White-winged Scoter is still present today on the Snake River at Swan Falls Park in southwest Ada County (location details available on eBird and Google).
Thanks to Larry and Heidi for the report!
Carl Lundblad
Moscow, ID
Larry Arnold reports (via Heidi Ware on Facebook) that the White-winged
Scoter is still present today on the Snake River at Swan Falls Park in
southwest Ada County (location details available on eBird and Google).
Thanks to Larry and Heidi for the report!
Carl Lundblad
Moscow, ID
Actually I did the road trip to Texas for this species in 2004, but at the time it was “Green Violetear”
I see in Wiki that it was split to Mexican and Lesser, and learned that i have both
so i gained a hum species whilst sitting here! š
Larry
Mexican Violetear (Colibri thalassinus) (1) CONFIRMED
– Reported May 15, 2019 09:55 by Dina Perry
– Private Residence, West San Antonio US-TX, Bexar, Texas
– Map: [ http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=p&z=13&q=29.476122,-98.711293&ll=29.476122,-98.711293 | http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=p&z=13&q=29.476122,-98.711293&ll=29.476122,-98.711293 ]
– Checklist: [ https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S56308074 | https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S56308074 ]
– Media: 2 Photos
– Comments: “Continuing immature bird coming to feeder abt every 20 min.”
this just in from one of my corespondents on the West Coast……
was news to me!
soothing gentle rain this afternoon here in River City =)
[ https://theweek.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=533a8449522e198f5a133e200&id=bc321e7d9e&e=f82734e4ee | Scientists discover formerly extinct bird species made a comeback ]
A previously extinct species of bird made a miraculous return from the dead, scientists write in a new study published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society . The white-throated rail previously inhabited the Aldabra Atoll in the Indian Ocean, but when the island disappeared below the sea about 136,000 years ago, the bird died out, CNN reports. Scientists digging around found fossils from before and after the island slipped under the sea, and discovered the bird reappeared several thousand years later after sea levels declined; it still inhabits the island today. Scientists call this phenomenon of a species repeatedly evolving from the same ancestor “iterative evolution,” and this marks one of the “most significant” instances of it occurring in a bird species, CNN says. In both cases, the white-throated rail colonized the island and evolved to be flightless due to a lack of competing predators. [ [ https://theweek.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=533a8449522e198f5a133e200&id=bbd6c8925a&e=f82734e4ee | CNN ] ]
I always hope to see a YB Chat in the spring on our place but, over the years, chats have always been rare. When I saw Larry’s post the other day mentioning chats, I was hopeful.
Today, I had one give some of the best views I’ve ever enjoyed of this elusive spring visitor. I spotted it in some willows, working through a particular patch. I backed away, found a spot to sit & enjoyed the show. It was gleaning insects from the willows, working back & forth, then started its noisy “chatting” calls. A good 20 minutes of entertainment.
My last visit from the Blue Jay was 5/12, 3 days shy of a full 7 months. Now that I’ve posted, it will probably show again! But, I’m thinking the jay may actually have moved on. I like to think its semi-circle flight around the yard at my last sighting was the jay’s way of thanking me, before heading off, for feeding it through & helping it survive a long winter.
I’ve watched for answers to Larry’s question if folks still post their lists to IBLE & not seeing a lot of responses. Think Facebook, Twitter, etc may have made inroads to the likes of forums on Yahoo Groups. I leave Facebook to my wife & personally avoid it. And, as have previously noted, not returned to eBird. Sure hope the lights don’t shut for IBLE, as it’s been an enjoyable way to share birding observations & info from around the state. Guess time will tell.
Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot
I read the posts in IBLE faithfully every day. I also love to see the pictures and sightings in Facebook. But I think I use the daily alerts from eBird to do most of my planning for my next outing. Of course FB and eBird are lacking Larryās humor and stories which make me smile every time!!
Yvonne Motherwell
Meridian, Idaho
> On May 15, 2019, at 10:41 PM, LARRY ARNOLD larnold47@cableone.net [ible]
>
>
> Darren, sorry, no TURNSTONE. T’would be a good one, eh? that was just an azimuth check. wicked grin. before moving back to Idaho 7 yrs ago i got on IBLE and noticed it was quite active. but since then, i see that other state listservs have also caved to FB, so IBLE isn’t alone in going by the wayside. sad we have no single “bird channel” any more, but it’s our new reality.
>
> From: “Darren Clark”
> To: “Larry Arnold”
> Cc: “IBLE”
> Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2019 10:21:40 PM
> Subject: Re: [IBLE] Turnstone !!
>
> So thereās no Tunstone?ā¦
> Anyway, To be honest, I rarely check or post to IBLE anymore. Itās sort of sad, because in its early days I found a great community of birders and learned a lot about the birds of Idaho. For better or worse, Facebook is much more convenient (posting and viewing photos is really cumbersome in IBLE) and itās what I use to share and receive news about recent Idaho bird sightings and information (as well as Ebird).
>
> My apologies to my friends Cliff and Steve (a couple of serious Idaho listers) who donāt use Facebook.
>
> Darren
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> On May 15, 2019, at 9:30 PM, LARRY ARNOLD larnold47@cableone.net [ible]
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> Behzinga!
>
> Do Idaho listers read or post IBLE anymore? Just checking…
>
> Our agenda today was Elmore County, as much and as long as we could handle. We missed most of our eight target species, snagging only two, but the sheer abundance of Lazuli Buntings, chats and snakes (yes snakes) was insane and worth the trip, plus we snagged 70 sp +/- by noon.
>
> The recent Short-billed Dowitcher spot was not on todayās radar screen, but since we would be driving by it on our way home, and since we had never heard of the place, we had to find it and look for birds. One of the first things we saw made me LOLā¦. A Red-winged Blackbird along the shore of Pond 3 was turning every stone the size of golf balls and tennis ballsā¦.. what a hoot!!
>
> After scanning the visible shorelines 40 minutes or so, THE dowitcher appeared on the SE corner of Pond 3, having the shortest bill (relative to head) of any dowitcher Iāve seen, and Iāve seen a zillion LBDO across the country and many SBDO on the Gulf Coast and elsewhere. But of course, relative bill length āisnāt a field mark per seā so we focused on the flanks and belly, and soon realized that even Sibley doesnāt do justice to the species. This bird made sense here in brackish water (likely) and it was alone among the ducks and a few other shorebird species. We hadnāt seen recent reports on IBLE or eBird (since Sunday), so we werenāt expecting the bird to be here.
>
> Happy campers are us =)
> Larry
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