An excellent article on bird migration and human thought.

Bob Perata
Boise/Punta Del Este, Uruguay

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-van-hemert-migration-birds-spring-20190310-htmlstory.html

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There’s a few signs of spring in Bannock County. The Portneuf River
wetlands along Siphon Road didn’t have as many new waterfowl migrants
as I hoped this weekend, but 6 double-crested cormorants flew over and
the first ruddy duck of the year appeared. The number of singing
red-winged blackbirds and song sparrows certainly increased. At least
one yellow-rumped warbler and a white-crowned sparrow survived the
winter here, but it’s been three weeks since the last marsh wren.

Not much at the Pocatello Water Pollution Control Plant except my
first killdeer of the year. Very little at my birdfeeders except a
new high count for the season of just over 200 pine siskins.

A big push of gulls came in during the week so I checked out Fort Hall
Mine Landfill. There were 1300 California, 300 ring-billed, and 7
herring gulls. After combing through them for almost an hr I finally
turned up a second winter lesser black-backed.

The golden eagle pair at Red Rock Pass appears intent on nesting there
again this year. The number of rough-legged hawks has gone way down
the past two weeks. A western meadowlark was just down the road from
Red Rock Pass also.

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On east side of state, haven’t seen nor heard any Snow Geese, yet. But, at lower Snake River Plain elevations, fields are thawing & winter wheat just showing. In those fields seeing lots of Canada Geese & steady numbers of Trumpeter Swans. Found one field this AM with hundreds of Canada Geese, 17 Trumpeter Swans & 15 Wild Turkey, just out into field, but staying close to some cottonwood trees. Recommend scanning open fields around Pingree & Springfield areas.

At our place, still getting daily Blue Jay visits (present since 10/21/18), a dozen Pine Siskins at a time & numerous American Goldfinches & House Finches. The last two, getting more colorful by the day.

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

Tuesday evening March 5, there were hundreds (if not thousands) of snow geese and white fronted geese in the Roswell area near the Snake River near Parma. Farmers were hazing them to keep them out of the winter wheat so it is hard to count. I heard sandhill cranes, too. Whole flocks of meadowlarks. Many red tails and harriers working the crowd.

Birds were very quiet at Martin’s Landing at the confluence of the Boise and Snake. A few juncoes and lots of redwings.

Wendy Wilson
3209 N 39th
Boise, ID 83703
wlwilson@cableone.net
208 869-4091

I see Jason found an osprey yesterday, but for the rest of us the link below provides our first look, eh? =)

LA

From: “Elizabeth Graves”
To: “Missy Arnold” , “Larry Arnold”
Sent: Wednesday, March 6, 2019 8:21:45 AM
Subject: interesting osprey item and video

Hey,
I loved this video showing the osprey’s wing action and how it gets out of the water after catching a fish.
[ https://earthsky.org/earth/osprey-recovery-global-conservation-success-story | https://earthsky.org/earth/osprey-recovery-global-conservation-success-story ] ?

I walked up the West Fork of Mink Creek Trail on Caribou National Forest on
a beautiful, sunny morning Saturday. Three pine grosbeaks were the bird
highlight of the walk. There were almost as many red-breasted nuthatches as
mountain chickadees and pine siskins were all over the place. A few
Cassin’s finches and red crossbills flew over. The non-bird highlight was a
yearling moose about 50′ away.

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

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I spent the last hour of Saturday daylight scanning the lake and sorting
through gulls at CDA City Beach. 600-700 gulls were present, dominated by
the expected Ring-billed Gulls, a good count of up to 250 Herring Gulls,
very few California Gulls, and highlighted by a continuing first-cycle
“KUMLIEN’S” ICELAND GULL, at least several “Thayer’s” Iceland Gulls (likely
more hiding among the Hergs), an adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL, and an
adult MEW GULL. 1-2 drake RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS were in the area, and a
drake GREATER SCAUP was directly off Independence Point.

The Lake CDA region remains in deep winter, and it’s hard to believe that
Violet-green and Tree Swallows should be trying to arrive any day…….

Good Birding,

Carl Lundblad
Moscow, ID

Neighbor & I took a long drive yesterday covering the Lost River Range. We were on the look for wildlife & birds & weren’t disappointed. Our best sighting was a wolf from 2 & 1/2 mi away. Dark gray back and light gray sides & belly through the spotting scope. We could watch it howl with the scope & it took to the count of 13 for the sound to reach us. We closed the distance by a mile on snowshoes but couldn’t get any decent photos. Then a second wolf howling attracted its attention & it moved from a sunny snowfield into a forested slope.

Birdwise: Rough-legged Hawks are staging, Golden Eagles were fairly common, as were Balds. Saw Prairie Falcons & 1 gray phase Gyrfalcon. I’m sure it will be gone soon with the Rough-leggeds, headed back to the Arctic. If interested in the Gyr, contact me but will say, must have truck-sized 4WD (or will high-center), be prepared to cover many miles with no guarantees & confidence driving on snow/ice.

At home: Blue Jay, Am Goldfinches, Townsend’s Solitaire, Pine Siskins & Trumpeter Swans both flyovers & on Snake River.

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

Nathan Palmer of Moscow found a RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER in central Moscow on
Wednesday afternoon. I easily relocated it near the intersection of Polk
and B Street, this morning. The face pattern and apparent lack of black on
the breast look good for a “pure” individual. I believe this is a third
record for Latah County, and a statewide review species. Thanks to Nathan
for the great find.

Carl Lundblad
Moscow, Idaho

Interesting note about your collared doves, Steve.
They’re still increasing in number in our hood, west Boise.
2600 ft elevation here…
Larry

From: “Steve Kahl Steve_Kahl@fws.gov [ible]”
To: “IBLE”
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2019 9:29:32 AM
Subject: [IBLE] Subtle changes- Pocatello

The influx of pine siskins reported in the Blackfoot area has been
occurring around Pocatello the past couple weeks. I had been seeing
6-12 siskins at my feeders all winter. Now there are usually 60-80,
with a high count of 130!

I started out the winter with a song sparrow, spotted towhee and a
Harris’s sparrow visiting my feeders but they petered out by mid
January. Although I have some good brush on the slope behind my yard.
I figured the birds left because the brush wasn’t thick enough for the
coldest parts of winter and there wasn’t good enough water for them…
Lo and behold all three were beneath my feeders at the same time this
morning. The Harris’s sparrow (an immature) had quite a bit more black
on its face than the last time I saw it.

Paramyxovirus seems to have swept through the Eurasian collared doves
in my neighborhood. The neighbor down the street used to strew buckets
of mixed seed on the ground for them. Consequently, during my backyard
bird counts I would often count 30-50 collared doves in the big
cottonwoods near their yard. I thought it not a good sign when I
started seeing birds that acted more lethargic. Now I only see 1 or 2
collared doves at most.

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