The floodgates opened yesterday at our property.  Suddenly in our backyard we had  Evening Grosbeaks, Black Headed Grosbeaks, Bullocks Orioles, and  Cedar Waxwings arrive and more Red Breasted Nuthatches than usual.  Our Great Horned Owls have been nesting again this year although they never seem to hatch anything.  Our pair of Swainson’s returned a couple weeks ago and so far have built 2 new nests.  One is in a huge cottonwood directly over our corral fence where there is lots of human activity and the second is in a smaller cottonwood about 30 feet from our picture window.  This morning there were over a hundred ibis in our pasture where I am flood irrigating and I swear I saw various size shorebirds in with them.  Will have to take binocs on the next irrigation check and see if one of these days I can find a glossy mixed in.  So glad that winter is over!

Very cool, esp on the Avocets. Just walked quite a bit of Snake River Bottoms looking for morels. No luck, either too early or it’s going to be another bust year, like last spring. Just got back to house & Chipping Sparrows now underneath feeder, getting scattered seeds.

Brian Carrigan

This AM, have both Cassin’s Finch & Evening Grosbeak…males & females of both hitting the platform feeder. Also, good-sized group of Cedar Waxwings (16) in the Rocky Mtn junipers. Usually will nest in the junipers. So far, filling up on juniper berries. 

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

We took a hike out to the west end of IP Reservoir yesterday afternoon. It’s very dry and the creeks are really low. There is quite a bit of good shorebird habitat but it was kind of quiet. A Black-necked Stilt, a Solitary Sandpiper, and three Semipalmated Plovers were the highlights, although not terribly unusual. There was also a single Greater White-fronted Goose (my first during spring migration) hanging out with a flock of Canada Geese and at least one Common Tern (a bit early for this location) among the Forster’s.

Cliff

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

Down River from whitewater park, near frisbee golf Tee #10
Good Luck, Rich Rusnak