This past Saturday (5/13), in celebration of the eBird global big day and International Migratory Bird Day, Jon Isacoff and I did a Benewah County Big Day. We ended up with 102 species (plus several provisional but unconfirmed species) and submitted 20 complete eBird checklists. We only had a few major misses, namely Pygmy Nuthatch and any hummingbird species. We also missed Bank Swallow and Belted Kingfisher (but these may be tough in the county at this time) and only had 3 shorebird species (killdeer, snipe, and Spotted Sandpiper). The main highlights included a large number (for the area) of White Pelicans (max ~60 in one flock), vocalizing Red-necked Grebes, Caspian Terns (2 on Benewah Lake), a good variety of waterfowl (15 species), Sora, Virginia Rail, and Marsh Wren (Plummer Creek Marsh), Say’s Phoebe (tougher going north in Idaho), and most of the expected (for this time) neotropical migrant breeders. We covered areas in the northern part of Benewah County including the Minaloosa Valley, a good portion of Heyburn State Park, and the St. Maries sewage ponds (east and west) and airport. We also covered some higher elevation areas to ~5000′ or so up Reeds Gulch Rd. (the road up to St. Joe Baldy) where we also had the excitement of changing a flat tire in sleet! All in all a fun day with a lot of bird species in a fairly reasonable amount of driving. Complete list is below and eBird checklists available on the eBird under Benewah County here: http://ebird.org/ebird/subnational2/US-ID-009/activity?yr=cur&m=
Canada Goose (moffitti/maxima) 1
Wood Duck 1
Gadwall 1
Mallard (Northern) 1
Blue-winged Teal 1
Cinnamon Teal 1
Northern Shoveler 1
Green-winged Teal (American) 1
Redhead 1
Ring-necked Duck 1
Lesser Scaup 1
Bufflehead 1
Common Goldeneye 1
Common Merganser 3
Ruddy Duck 1
California Quail 1
Ring-necked Pheasant 1
Ruffed Grouse 1
Wild Turkey 1
Common Loon 1
Red-necked Grebe 1
Western Grebe 1
Double-crested Cormorant 1
American White Pelican 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 1
Cooper’s Hawk 1
Bald Eagle 1
Red-tailed Hawk (calurus/alascensis) 1
Virginia Rail 1
Sora 1
American Coot 1
Killdeer 1
Wilson’s Snipe 1
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Ring-billed Gull 2
Caspian Tern 1
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 1
Eurasian Collared-Dove 1
Mourning Dove 1
Vaux’s Swift 1
Red-naped Sapsucker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Pileated Woodpecker 1
American Kestrel 1
Hammond’s Flycatcher 1
Dusky Flycatcher 1
Say’s Phoebe 1
Cassin’s Vireo 1
Warbling Vireo 1
Steller’s Jay 1
Black-billed Magpie 1
American Crow 1
Common Raven 1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1
Tree Swallow 1
Violet-green Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 1
Cliff Swallow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Mountain Chickadee 1
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Brown Creeper 1
House Wren 1
Pacific Wren 1
Marsh Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Townsend’s Solitaire 1
American Robin 1
European Starling 1
Northern Waterthrush 1
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
MacGillivray’s Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Yellow Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Townsend’s Warbler 1
Chipping Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) 1
Savannah Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 1
Spotted Towhee 1
Western Tanager 1
Black-headed Grosbeak 1
Red-winged Blackbird 1
Western Meadowlark 1
Yellow-headed Blackbird 1
Brewer’s Blackbird 1
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
House Finch 1
Cassin’s Finch 1
Red Crossbill 1
Pine Siskin 1
American Goldfinch 1
Evening Grosbeak 1
House Sparrow 1
Charles Swift