Hello birding friends,
Once again, I have returned to the Sun Valley area for the symphony season! I have been busy with music camp the last two weeks but I have had a few notable avian sightings including a soaring GOLDEN EAGLE just north of Smiley Creek Lodge along Highway 75 on the way to Redfish Lake, STELLAR’S JAY near the Community School in Sun Valley, a few CORDILLERAN FLYCATCHERS and a hooting GREAT HORNED OWL in the Warm Springs neighborhood as well as a possible tooting Pygmy/Saw-whet which I couldn’t confirm. More birding in the coming days!
Henry Griffin
(Ketchum, Blaine County)

Brian

We’ve still been having good numbers of hummingbirds coming to the three feeders – all three kinds Black-chinned, Rufous and Calliope (all breed near here). Only a Black-chinned adult male is still here. Two very competitive rufous females are being very territorial. The hummers really went through a lot last evening – it was especially smoky yesterday. The numbers aren’t so high this morning so we’ll see how many show this evening at the feeders. They are here and there in the flower and vegetable gardens and shrubs so it’s hard to tell who’s still here. I have not noticed an Anna’s although sometimes we see them later.

Many of our breeding birds are still around because the hawthorn berries are now ripe. Black-headed grosbeaks, Spotted Towhees, Gray Catbird (at least one), Western Tanagers, Chipping sparrows. At least 1 male grosbeak and 1 male tanager seen today with the females and juveniles. House wren and Robin are still feeding young in nests.

Swainson’s thrushes, Yellow-rumped warblers, Townsend’s solitaires are newer arrivals this week.

I’ve only seen a few other warblers (unidentified seen too briefly) and two vireos (one warbling, one cassin’s) this past week.

Nancy Miller

Viola

From: ible@yahoogroups.com [mailto:ible@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of lcarrigan_55@yahoo.com [ible]
Sent: Sunday, August 6, 2017 6:31 AM
To: ible@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [IBLE] 3 Types!

Overnight, our hummingbird population tripled or more. This AM, we’re seeing 3 hummingbird types at the feeder.
Black-chinned, Rufous & Calliope are present. What’s interesting, is that the majority of the birds are juveniles. A couple of adult females are feeding but haven’t seen an adult male.

As fast as they’re hitting the feeder, will have to refill by noon. I’m convinced the combination of dry conditions & area wildfires have pushed the hummers into the more moist & still flowering conditions of the Snake River Riparian Grounds, as they migrate south.

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

Overnight, our hummingbird population tripled or more. This AM, we’re seeing 3 hummingbird types at the feeder.
Black-chinned, Rufous & Calliope are present. What’s interesting, is that the majority of the birds are juveniles. A couple of adult females are feeding but haven’t seen an adult male.

As fast as they’re hitting the feeder, will have to refill by noon. I’m convinced the combination of dry conditions & area wildfires have pushed the hummers into the more moist & still flowering conditions of the Snake River Riparian Grounds, as they migrate south.

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

Unlike previous yrs here in W Boise, we see/hear no certain Rufous yet, only Black-chins, and we’re seriously attentive to our feeders and salvias…….

Hoping hums have plenty of nutrition on high! =)

Becoming hazy/smoky here,

Larry

From: ible@yahoogroups.com [mailto:ible@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of lcarrigan_55@yahoo.com [ible]
Sent: Saturday, August 5, 2017 7:48 PM
To: ible@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [IBLE] More Hummingbird Action

For a week now, the only hummingbird visitor to the feeder has been a female Black-chinned. By mid-morning today, I noticed the nectar level had dropped moreso than usual. So, I started watching. Juvenile Rufous Hummingbirds are hitting the feeder now. Appears to be both males (finely spotted streaked throats with a few central dark orange fluorescent feathers) & females. I suspect all the area wildfires have caused some dispersal into the river corridor.

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

For a week now, the only hummingbird visitor to the feeder has been a female Black-chinned. By mid-morning today, I noticed the nectar level had dropped moreso than usual. So, I started watching. Juvenile Rufous Hummingbirds are hitting the feeder now. Appears to be both males (finely spotted streaked throats with a few central dark orange fluorescent feathers) & females. I suspect all the area wildfires have caused some dispersal into the river corridor.

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

FYI………..

Yampa Valley, Steamboat, and Carpenter Ranch are delightful places to experience cranes =)

Larry, Boise

From: Grand Valley Audubon Society [mailto:karen.levad@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 5, 2017 3:08 PM
To: larnold47@cableone.net
Subject: Yampa Valley Crane Festival

Grand Valley Audubon Society

Members & Friends of Audubon

Yampa Valley Crane Festival

Labor Day Weekend

Aug. 31 – Sept. 3

Visit Steamboat Springs and the beautiful Yampa Valley in Northwest Colorado for the sixth annual Yampa Valley Crane Festival taking place during Labor Day weekend, Aug. 31 – Sept. 3, 2017.

The festival celebrates the majestic Greater Sandhill Cranes as they migrate through the Yampa Valley and features guided crane viewings, nature and bird walks, expert speakers, films, bird art, workshops, children’s activities, live raptors presented by HawkQuest, ranch tours, a community picnic at The Nature Conservancy’s Carpenter Ranch and more.

The festival’s keynote speaker is George Archibald, co-founder of the International Crane Foundation. Additional presentations feature naturalists/ photographers Sandra Noll and Erv Nichols, Birding magazine editor Ted Floyd, Denver Zoo’s Curator of Birds John Azua.

For the complete crane festival schedule and registration information, visit www.coloradocranes.org

Visit our website www.audubongv.org for more information about Grand Valley Audubon and other bird watching resources.

Like us on Facebook

Our most up-to-date information is posted on the Grand Valley Audubon Facebook page!

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Nic Korte’s Daily Sentinel Blog

Grand Valley Audubon Society, P.O. Box 1211, Grand Junction, CO 81502

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This morning (late morning) I found a Blackburian warbler at Camas Wildlife Management Area on the straight-a-way. The straight-a-way is just north as you enter the refuge and has a Canal running on the east side of it. I was just told that it has been refound via text by Jake and Blair Briggs. I did not relocate the pair of Blue Grosbeaks that were located earlier this wing along the Marsh loop.

Steve Butterworth

Folks, here’s a “stretched version” of Denise’s note yesterday, just for
fun, eh?

Larry

Note from a birding bud who lives on many listservs. =)

This person is excited, thinks this is the best thing to happen since sliced
bread! In case you haven’t seen it yet—>

From: aznmbirds-request@list.arizona.edu
[mailto:aznmbirds-request@list.arizona.edu] On Behalf Of trose
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2017 7:07 AM
To: aznmbirds@list.arizona.edu
Subject: [AZNMbirds] No Birds – THANK YOU eBird New CHANGE SPECIES Option

OH MY GAWD, this is the BEST thing ever that eBird could have come out
with!!! Yay! LOL.

Anyone who eBirds probably just received an email from eBird letting them
know of the new “Change Species” function they have just implemented. But in
case you didn’t read it in detail or went to the “Change Species” how-to
link, please do!!! (I provide the link in this email near the bottom, as
well).

eBird will now let you change a species in one of your individual eBird
lists, including ALL its accompanying photos, notes, breeding codes, etc.,
in one fell swoop by using the new “change species” option. No more deleting
the species from the list, entering the new, correct one, then reentering
all of its notes and codes and re-uploading its photos. Just choose “change
species” instead, and viola! All gets updated at the same time. Or you can
switch species on just the photos. Or just the audio. Or just one single
photo amongst several. Whatever you need.

Some examples eBird gives are: updating an unidentified gull or shorebird
from a generic species level to its individual species, once it gets
identified. If you’ve uploaded a whole buncha photos and entered copious
identification notes, what a pain it the butt it has been in the past to
delete everything under that species, enter the new species and
copy/save/transfer/reenter all those notes and codes, and then re-upload all
those photos. Not any more!!! Now just one change, and be done with it.

Or, let’s say you accidentally plopped one of your many photos into the
wrong bird’s slot and a fellow birder pointed it out to you? Whoops! Go
click “change species” on that individual photo, and eBird moves it for you
within that list. Awesome!!!

So here’s the link – go look! Pretty darned cool stuff, there.
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/changespecies/

Tonya Holland
Three Points AZ
————————
***Personal case in point if anyone is interested: I very recently updated
all of my listings of the domestic Swan Goose (type) seen at both
Christopher Columbus and Kennedy parks in Tucson, because both eBird (and
the Arizona eBird reviewer team) would prefer that they be entered as
“Domestic Goose species (domestic type)” instead of the more specific Swan
Goose domestic option. Apparently since domestic Swan Geese and Graylag
Geese frequently interbreed and can look like either type, making it often
impossible to determine actual parentage, eBird just wants this domestic
jumble entered at a generic level.

Okay, I love eBird and always want to do things the way eBird requests that
they be done (they have *reasons*!), so I dutifully changed all my lists.
But hey, it’s a DOMESTIC! It’s annoying to most birders to even have to add
them in, in the first place (side note: you SHOULD, by the way – just
because it has no “importance” to you as a species doesn’t meant it
shouldn’t be entered. Entering domestics and escapes is a great way to track
historical progression and expansion of a species if it ever becomes an
established breeding population, and then eventually even perhaps countable
by the ABA, such as the Scaly-breasted Munia in California). But if you’re
like me, it still just seems like really annoying extra work to do all of
the above-described delete/transfer/update steps just for a dumb old
domestic! LOL.

So the new “Change Species” option would have been SOOOOO much easier to
implement than the whole rigamarole that I ended up doing. In the words of
Maxwell Smart, I “missed it by THAT much!”

For those who use ebird and have misidentified or attached a photo/video/audio to the wrong bird. (I have, more than once). Ebird has added a new feature to make correcting the error easier.

http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/changespecies/

Denise Hughes
Caldwell, Idaho

A female Black-chinned Hummingbird just sipped from my front feeder then
grabbed a few insects from a nearby lilac bush and returned for a little
more nectar. Earlier today a male Black-Chinned fed from the same feeder. I
have two feeders in the front yard, two in the back. Based on consumption,
all four get some use, but I don’t know which birds use which feeders.

I’m thinking about an article that said when it’s very hot give the birds
at least one feeder that has water rather than nectar and the birds will
choose what they need. I guess I’ll change one to water.

Diann Stone
Boise Depot Bench