Last night I was in Warm River (9 miles east of Ashton) and we sat down outside to eat dinner right at dusk. A Buteo flew over the ridge and glided towards us. It was fairly low and immediately caught our eye as different. As it approached I couldn’t see any markings on the underside of the bird and it was dark enough to make it hard to make out the dark border around the wings or see the tail pattern. Eventually it was right overhead at the right angle and I could detect the dark border as well as two wide black bands on the tail. I said “that’s a Broad-winged Hawk” and Lisa responded “that’s what I thought”. As it flew off I realized it had pointed wing tips, not the blunt/rounded wing tips Redtails have. Pretty cool sighting for not even having binocs at hand.
Cliff
— Cliff and Lisa Weisse Island Park, Idaho cliffandlisa@…
We get Stellars jays hanging around here every few years. They are in the area through winter and show up and hang out within a few miles.
We get bluebirds every Spring and they often nest in pasture, especially if I keep up with bird house repair, which I don’t because the swallows take over and share with house wrens.
Cool sighting of the Stellar’s Jays! At our location along the Snake River, I’ve had a single appearance by a lone Stellar’s Jay, years ago. Farmer neighbor tells me Stellar’s, like Mountain Bluebirds, were fairly regular in this area 60+ years ago. Have only seen Mountain Bluebirds a couple of times here, for brief visits, during the Spring. Neighbor tells me bluebirds used to nest in the horizontal pipe his Dad had welded to the mailbox post, for the newspaper. Said, when nesting, the paper would be on top of the mailbox in the morning.
Also, that as Starlings appeared, the bluebirds disappeared. Kind of like newspapers, themselves. But, don’t think I can blame disappearance of newspapers on Starlings…
I’ve had a Red-breasted Buthatch hitting my feeder for a few days now. They are an infrequent visitor to my place, as I live in a small oasis surrounded by farm fields.
But what’s more significant for me is the appearance 2 days ago of a pair of Stellars Jays, a bird I’ve never seen here, and a long ways away from their typical habitat.
They didn’t stay, but it was a pleasant suprise. I wonder if this years fires are moving birds into other areas?
Many years since I’ve seen a Pygmy Nuthatch, and never here, & the Red-breasted was always a Fall visitor, but only in past few years, has it become year-round. White-breasted has always been rare for us. That’s neat that you get all three, Nancy.
Fall migrant birds are slowing here, too, Bill. Just a handful of YR Warblers & more winter residents arriving with DE Juncos showing & a few Townsend’s Solitaires starting to stake out juniper trees. Have a good bunch of White-crowned Sparrows appearing, but they never stay for long. And the kettles of Swainson’s Hawks appear to have pushed on through.
We’re sparse here. Two kinds of chickadees, black headed and mountain, magpies and turkeys with a several times a day red tail flyover. Turkeys are getting sparse because season opened.
Here on Moscow Mountain’s edge we are fortunate to have both red-breasted and white-beasted nuthatches appear daily year round. Pygmy nuthatches also come often but don’t appear every day. All come to the bird water features, glean from the trees, and come to the seed/suet feeders.
Nancy Miller
Viola, ID
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