Calliope hummingbird male has been hitting the feeder hard this evening.
Susan

Sent via Passenger Pigeon

Interesting day here as well — wind, rain, temperature plummeting, our FOY female BC hummer showed up (13 days after our first male), and a solitaire tooted away whilst we worked on the yard. =)
Larry, Boise

—– Original Message —–

From: “lcarrigan_55@yahoo.com [ible]”
To: ible@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2018 5:09:12 PM
Subject: [IBLE] Spring (or maybe, still Winter?)

Today, Cassin’s Finches and American Goldfinches have been hitting the sunflower seeds in droves. Maybe the Cassin’s are hanging around & stocking up before headed higher only to find fresh snow. House Wrens are calling plus Yellow Warblers. I found a Mallard hen’s nest when she flushed from tall grass. Took a quick peek from a distance & rapidly moved on, so as not to disturb her anymore. No hummingbirds, orioles or Black-headed Grosbeaks yet.

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

Today, Cassin’s Finches and American Goldfinches have been hitting the sunflower seeds in droves. Maybe the Cassin’s are hanging around & stocking up before headed higher only to find fresh snow. House Wrens are calling plus Yellow Warblers. I found a Mallard hen’s nest when she flushed from tall grass. Took a quick peek from a distance & rapidly moved on, so as not to disturb her anymore. No hummingbirds, orioles or Black-headed Grosbeaks yet.

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

A pair of Bullock’s Orioles showed up today at our hummingbird feeder here in the foothills of Teton Valley.

The Cliff Swallows (70+) are also back at the Cache Bridge on the Teton River, building their nests.

Only heard one Yellow Warbler down there this morning at the river but many Song Sparrows in full throat and Wilson’s Snipe. One male American Goldfinch singing also.

The osprey is incubating on the pole nest platform north of the bridge. Another pair east of the bridge was piling sticks on a power pole.

Two Swainson’s hawks (female darker morph) hanging around as well.

Hope the snow stays high tonight!

Susan Patla

Hulls Gulch continues to be my favorite place to bird. I found 5 FOY birds
there today (Western Tanager, Bullock’s Oriole, Warbling Vireo, Bewick’s
Wren -thanks to Mary Rumple-and Swainson’s Hawk) and found lots of my
earlier FOY birds like the BG Gnatcatchers, BH Grosbeak, W. Kingbird, W.
Meadowlark, etc. I left HG with 39 species and finished with 55 in 21 miles
of biking. During my ride I tallied 8 raptors: W.S. Owl, RT Hawk. GH Owl, A.
Kestrel, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Swainson’s Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk and Osprey. Not
bad for an old fart. 😉

Tom McCabe, Boise

BTW, I heard what sounded like a Northern Bobwhite several times in HG. In
addition, a couple of people stopped me and asked if there were N. Bobwhite
in HG because they kept hearing the rather distinctive call. Has anybody
seen or heard them there? I didn’t count the bird because it is so far
outside its territory.

We got a few more arrivals yesterday and I think earlier than usual. A kettle of Franklins Gulls were working the skies, plenty noisy. Lazuli and a Black Headed Grosbeak showed as well. Bluebirds have picked out a nest box, but we’ll see if swallows run them off. Finally I think I heard a first house wren a day or so ago. All three hummer species have shown and are displaying actively.

Bill Moore
Hoot Owl
Inkom

Hi Folks 
Just got to decent enough reception to share but Ben Wright (IBO field technician) and I got some great looks at 2 female McCown’s on a private ranch in a remote area of the Pahsimeroi valley – ~50 miles N of Howe just after noon today.  The birds were ~1/2 mile onto private property – we first had them calling/flying over and eventually had them land on an especially barren and cow-poopy area, and eventually were able to get close enough for decent (?? 🙂 digiscope pics.
These are almost certainly passing through – the short grass structure is perfect but we’ve done lots of curlew work & 4 seasons of June point count surveys in this area w/o having detected them previously.  
Thanks,
Jay

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

Based on recent posts by Bill Moore & Susan Patla, I filled my hummingbird feeder &, so far, nothing. But, shouldn’t be too much longer before some arrive.

My Rose-breasted & Evening Grosbeaks have moved on. Male Yellow Warblers have arrived & staked out their territorial perches, loudly singing. I was awakened this AM by the calls of a flight of Sandhill Cranes & had a flyover of an Osprey with a good-sized trout in its talons. Swainson’s Hawks are here & an Am Kestrel pair is setting up a nest in a nearby cottonwood cavity. Wood Ducks, Canada Geese & Mallards are nesting

I totally revamped my feeder system with new pole & feeders & added an Oriole feeder this year. Bullock’s should arrive within the next 2 wks. I haven’t been able to check on the Bald Eagle pair which nests below our place, as all the channels off the Snake River are too high. But, the side benefit is that the fly-fishing with streamers off the backyard has been great!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend,
Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

I also covered mostly Latah and a bit of Clearwater Counties for the Global
Big Day on Saturday, picking up 102 species (97 in Latah) over 14 hours. I
followed in Terry and Kirsten’s tracks for most of the day, and picked up a
similar list of highlights including:

Snow Goose: One in a field on ID-6 just north of Harvard
Tundra Swan: 6 on Little Bear Ridge, southeast of Troy, and 2 on ID-6 just
north of Harvard
TRUMPETER SWAN: Continuing bird found by Terry Gray at Moose Creek
Reservoir 2.5 weeks ago
GREATER SCAUP: Drake on US-95 near Estes Road, found earlier in the day by
Charles Swift
Barrow’s Goldeneye: Drake at Elk Creek Reservoir, Clearwater Co.
EARED GREBE: Alternate-plumaged beauty at Spring Valley Reservoir near Troy
Northern Goshawk: One was circling over the highway between Bovill and Elk
River
Black-necked Stilt: 2 at the pond on White Pine Flats Road, east of Troy
Bank Swallow: Finally, my first of the year, one was with other swallows in
Potlatch in the evening
Grasshopper Sparrow: One was along Butte Road, Tomer Butte east of Moscow

Arrivals by breeders in the past week seem to have been dominated by
Hammond’s Flycatchers, House Wrens, and Yellow Warblers, with each of those
species at several locations.

Good Birding,

Carl Lundblad
Moscow, ID

Action picking up here in Teton County with some newly arriving species in the neighborhood but still fairly quiet. Aspens started to leaf out the last few days. Today found House Wren, Green-tailed Towhee, Brown-headed Cowbird, Chipping Sparrow, and Morning Dove. Last night I also had a Broad-tailed hummer fly over my head at dusk.

What a treat May is!

Susan

________________________________________
From: ebird-checklist@cornell.edu
Sent: Sunday, May 6, 2018 2:39 AM
To: susan_patla@hotmail.com
Subject: eBird Report – Packsaddle Estates, May 5, 2018

Packsaddle Estates, Teton, Idaho, US
May 5, 2018 8:30 AM – 9:20 AM
Protocol: Traveling
1.5 mile(s)
Comments: walked the loop from our house down Grandview to creek and return on the upper road
24 species

Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) 1 male drumming
Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) 3
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) 1
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) 1 FOY in neighborhood
Red-naped Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis) 1
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) (Colaptes auratus [cafer Group]) 1
Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) 1
Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia) 2
Clark’s Nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) 4
Common Raven (Corvus corax) 1
Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) 4
Violet-green Swallow (Tachycineta thalassina) 4
Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli) 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) 1
House Wren (Troglodytes aedon) 2 FOY heard singing, first one perched high in aspen tree
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) 2
American Robin (Turdus migratorius) X many throughout the area, singing and calling, one chased a tree swallow across the yard
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s) (Setophaga coronata auduboni) 3
Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina) 2 FOY
Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) X
Green-tailed Towhee (Pipilo chlorurus) 1 FOY, male singing
Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater) 1 FOY Male percched on top of conifer
Evening Grosbeak (Coccothraustes vespertinus) 3
Cassin’s Finch (Haemorhous cassinii) 10 saw female singing top of conifer

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S45335847

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)