As temporary Idaho residents, we are spending a lot of time exploring our local area. We don’t tend to drive more than an hour from where we are staying in our RV and we rarely chase after rarities, especially if it means a long drive. Custer County has tremendous diversity of habitat and therefore birds.
Yesterday, we drove Spar Canyon Road. Not hugely birdy, but a beautiful drive. At the summit, we paused to enjoy the view and I was glassing a distant patch of trees on a mountain ridge. A male Rufous Hummingbird flew into my field of view and I was able to follow it as it zoomed away. Pure serendipity! 
We keep forgetting to put out our hummingbird feeder at the Land of the Yankee Fork State Park where we are volunteering and staying but with all these hummer reports, it sounds like a good time to see if I can get a Rufous on my yard list. 🙂
Wendy McCradyChallis, ID

What is a breeding bird to do with her chicks?

How does she explain this?

Curious George

Brian, please keep your hummer reports coming, need input! =)

Happy 4th you too, need firecrackers (Rufous hums)

LA, Boise

From: ible@yahoogroups.com [mailto:ible@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of lcarrigan_55@yahoo.com [ible]
Sent: Tuesday, July 4, 2017 11:10 AM
To: ible@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [IBLE] Another Hummer Report

An interesting one this AM. I’ve had a female Rufous Hummingbird coming into the feeder for about 5 days now. She came again this AM, followed by the female Black-chinned. Then, a male Rufous came in and has taken over the feeder for the past 1 1/2 hr. Living up to the male Rufous’ aggressive nature!

What’s interesting is, we have had Rufous migrate through in the spring & again late Aug/early Sept on their clockwise migration pattern. But, I don’t have a yard record for one in July. Let alone 2, & male & female at that. I looked up Rufous & it could be that they are already headed back south for their winter migration. In Latilong 21, Rufous is listed as transient. So, I suspect the 2 are migrating south & have just located a ready, man-made nectar source & are lingering. But interesting to observe.

Also, have been watching my Black-headed Grosbeaks switch from a fully sunflower seed diet to fewer seeds & more insects now. Even to the point of ticking off the resident Western Wood-Pewee, who was hot on the tail of a male Grosbeak earlier today. The Grosbeaks are even doing some fly-catching although with nowhere near the grace of the Pewees! I mainly see them stalking through the lawn, scaring & snapping up insects.

Otherwise, Happy 4th!
Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

An interesting one this AM. I’ve had a female Rufous Hummingbird coming into the feeder for about 5 days now. She came again this AM, followed by the female Black-chinned. Then, a male Rufous came in and has taken over the feeder for the past 1 1/2 hr. Living up to the male Rufous’ aggressive nature!

What’s interesting is, we have had Rufous migrate through in the spring & again late Aug/early Sept on their clockwise migration pattern. But, I don’t have a yard record for one in July. Let alone 2, & male & female at that. I looked up Rufous & it could be that they are already headed back south for their winter migration. In Latilong 21, Rufous is listed as transient. So, I suspect the 2 are migrating south & have just located a ready, man-made nectar source & are lingering. But interesting to observe.

Also, have been watching my Black-headed Grosbeaks switch from a fully sunflower seed diet to fewer seeds & more insects now. Even to the point of ticking off the resident Western Wood-Pewee, who was hot on the tail of a male Grosbeak earlier today. The Grosbeaks are even doing some fly-catching although with nowhere near the grace of the Pewees! I mainly see them stalking through the lawn, scaring & snapping up insects.

Otherwise, Happy 4th!
Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

After a couple days at cabin & hiking/fly-fishing/ birding backcountry of Yellowstone, back home. Being quite lazy this AM & relaxing on hammock within sight of my hummingbird feeder. Watched several visits by a female Black-chinned, which then flew and perched on the cottonwood right above me. A male Black-chinned then started making looping display flights just to the right of me, and twittering during the display at both apex ends of his loops. I barely moved for fear of scaring them (not exactly easy while on a hammock trying to observe the flight!) & not wanting to be impaled by a hummer’s bill! The bottom of his loop was within touching distance!

Quite cool! So, for Kim in Boise, Black-chinneds are definitely displaying now. And, though no proof, suspect this is the same female who successfully nested once already. May nest again, soon.

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

Idaho Birders.

Later this month I will be travelling through Idaho on my way from Oregon to Wyoming and back. I am hoping to connect with some Cassia Crossbill. Recent ebird posts are helpful. At the same time, I am hoping some of you could suggest areas that the birds might be using in July. I am happy to take posts outside of this list serve

Thanks in advance

Steve Kornfeld
Bend, Oregon

sbkornfeld@msn.com

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

It took about 45 minutes of patient searching, but the BLUE GROSBEAK
continued this afternoon on Narrows Road, about .7 miles west of the bridge
over the Raft River at the intersection with EY Road (Cassia County).
Eventually it began singing well south of the road and made occasional
appearances perched atop willows along the creek (but mostly staying low
and out of sight).

Good Birding,

Carl Lundblad
Moscow, ID

Cassia Crossbill is exciting, but we lost Thayer’s Gull. Dang. No more
fun trying to decide whether we saw a real Iceland Gull.

Lisa

On 07/02/2017 03:57 PM, LARRY ARNOLD larnold47@cableone.net [ible] wrote:
>
> Doesn’t look like this has surfaced on IBLE yet… we in Idaho
> finally get our crossbill, eh?! =)
>
> LArnold, Pocatello for now…
>
> *From:*obol-bounce@freelists.org
> [mailto:obol-bounce@freelists.org] *On Behalf Of *Jamie Simmons
> *Sent:* Saturday, July 01, 2017 3:32 PM
> *To:* OBOL-to post
> *Subject:* [obol] The 58th Supplement to the AOU checklist is live
>
> It’s a sad day when I read about the release of the new checklist on
> Facebook before OBOL.
>
> The AOS website still says it will be released June 28:
> http://www.americanornithologypubs.org/?code=coop-site
>
> But the NEW checklist can be seen here: http://checklist.aou.org/taxa/
>
> An analysis:
> http://birdaz.com/blog/2017/07/01/the-fifty-eighth-supplement-to-the-aou-check-list/
>
> Jamie Simmons
>
> Corvallis
>
> P.S. I haven’t looked at the “results” but I read they lumped Thayer’s.
>
>
>

—
Cliff and Lisa Weisse
Island Park, Idaho
cliffandlisa@octobersetters.com

Doesn’t look like this has surfaced on IBLE yet… we in Idaho finally get our crossbill, eh?! =)

L Arnold, Pocatello for now…

From: obol-bounce@freelists.org [ mailto:obol-bounce@freelists.org ] On Behalf Of Jamie Simmons
Sent: Saturday, July 01, 2017 3:32 PM
To: OBOL-to post
Subject: [obol] The 58th Supplement to the AOU checklist is live

It’s a sad day when I read about the release of the new checklist on Facebook before OBOL.

The AOS website still says it will be released June 28:
http://www.americanornithologypubs.org/?code=coop-site

But the NEW checklist can be seen here: http://checklist.aou.org/taxa/

An analysis:

The Fifty-Eighth Supplement to the AOU Check-list

Jamie Simmons

Corvallis

P.S. I haven’t looked at the “results” but I read they lumped Thayer’s.

Heading home after a day of birding. . At mile marker 84 Cheryl and I just saw 2 moose walking westward. It’s 95 degrees and desert.

Denise Hughes
Caldwell, Idaho