We had a first today. A Mountain Chickadee dropped into our backyard for a quick bite and a sip at the bird bath. In 22 years in Boise, we have never had a Mountain Chickadee
come into our yards. Great treat. Also, we had hawk sightings for seven days straight in the yard. All sharp shinned, one was banded. Our dearth of birds has ended and when the hawks aren’t hanging around we can empty seven feeders in a day. The front coming
in this afternoon really pushed the birds to the seed.
On my daily bike ride, I go up 24th St. in the North End, hoping to find the resident flock of W. Turkeys. I didn’t encounter them today, but on the way back down 24th, I heard an unfamiliar call. I started to head
east on Heron when I saw 3 gray birds running along the ground. My initial reaction was that they were some kind of quail. They disappeared under a trailer, and I stopped in the street and activated Merlin. The unfamiliar call was still coming from somewhere
nearby, so I waited to see Merlin’s opinion. I was quite surprised when it said Gray Partridge. The call continued, but the 3 birds never showed themselves again. From what I saw, they were consistent with a Gray Partridge, but other than color and behavior,
I didn’t see any field marks.
Needless to say, I will be looking for them (and the turkeys) tomorrow.
Tom McCabe, Boise
Over the years, I have advertised vacant winter raptor survey routes in Idaho on IBLE. In one week we are about to embark on our 21st season of surveys for the Winter Raptor Survey Project sponsored by the East Cascades Bird Alliance (formerly Audubon Society). Surveys will be conducted on 580+ survey routes covering more than 34,000 miles of transects throughout all of ID, OR, and WA, through the northern tier of CA and UT, and throughout western MT. More than 470 primary volunteers will do once a month surveys from December through February, with additional options to survey in November and March.
I would like you to know that the following survey routes, with their mileage lengths, are still available for volunteers to be assigned to this winter :
Winchester 73
Craigmont – Mohler. 60
Nez Perce 71
Troy – Deary 78
Churchill – Oakley 68
Dietrich 63
Richfield 44
Heyburn 41
Acequia. 39
Rupert North 69
Burley East – Lake Walcott 67
Burley SW 51
The fact that we have 153 routes throughout Idaho and that we only need these 12 routes to fill the entire state for this project says volumes regarding the dedication that Idaho volunteers in this project put forth 🙂
To participate, I ask that our volunteers commit to one survey per month during the primary survey period from December through February. Volunteers can select survey dates each month to dovetail with their own life schedules. November and March are also available for surveying but these are optional months as they do contain migrational activity and this is a wintering project. You should have at least a pair of binoculars to help you find and ID the birds, spotting scopes are encouraged but not mandatory.
If this sounds like something that you would like to do, I encourage you to email me soon so that you can hopefully cover the route(s) of your choice, I will necessarily fill these on a first come first served basis. If you make that decision, I will provide additional information and instruction to get you properly prepared for what you will be doing on these surveys. This is a fun way to enjoy winter birding while at the same time collecting valuable population data for this wonderful family of birds, I hope that you will join us this winter! :). Thank you,
Jeff Fleischer
Project Developer / Coordinator
Winter Raptor Survey Project
East Cascades Bird Alliance (formerly Audubon Society)
Bend, OR