thx Brian…… re: “no interest in banding a single visitor……..
as another science dude I’m curious !!

I’ve mostly been biased against banding as a matter of principle, it being “old science” (imprinted long ago by discussions with Marty Collar of Pocatello), and banding reminds me of a “macro” version of HUP (Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle), which should be an easy wiki search if folks are interested…….. but – warning – it gets technical 😉

can you and I discuss this more offline? I’m very interested in your perspective……!!

thanks again, Larry

From: “lcarrigan_55@yahoo.com [ible]”
To: “IBLE”
Sent: Friday, April 5, 2019 5:41:10 PM
Subject: [IBLE] Turns Out…

Hi Larry. As it turns out, the Blue Jay returned for one short feeder visit this afternoon. Must be finding natural forage, as the weather warms. So, still around, albeit the jay’s no longer predictable in its habits. Suspect, it won’t hang around too much longer. As your provided map shows, perhaps it will head north. As far as banding a single visitor, simply have no interest in such.

Others today, were several flyovers by Sandhill Cranes and some White Pelicans. Forgot to mention, saw one Harris’ Sparrow scratching under the feeder this past Tues. And saw one Townsend’s Solitaire on top of one of our spruce trees today.

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

Hi Larry. As it turns out, the Blue Jay returned for one short feeder visit this afternoon. Must be finding natural forage, as the weather warms. So, still around, albeit the jay’s no longer predictable in its habits. Suspect, it won’t hang around too much longer. As your provided map shows, perhaps it will head north. As far as banding a single visitor, simply have no interest in such.

Others today, were several flyovers by Sandhill Cranes and some White Pelicans. Forgot to mention, saw one Harris’ Sparrow scratching under the feeder this past Tues. And saw one Townsend’s Solitaire on top of one of our spruce trees today.

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

Brian, I’m crawling out on a limb to bet Chuck Trost’s retirement check that your Blue Jay might have headed more north than east..? see BNA range map below if it survives cyberspace……

would you have considered getting your bird banded ?

Curious George / LA

From: “lcarrigan_55@yahoo.com [ible]”
To: “IBLE”
Sent: Friday, April 5, 2019 9:29:29 AM
Subject: [IBLE] Tundra Swans

Last night about 10 PM heard my first-of-season migrating groups of Tundra Swans flying overhead. Enjoy hearing their flight calls.

My most common feeder bird is American Goldfinch. And, alas, haven’t seen nor heard the Blue Jay since Wed. It may have used the brief break in weather to head back East. I’ll keep an eye out but usually the jay is the first morning feeder visitor.

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

Last night about 10 PM heard my first-of-season migrating groups of Tundra Swans flying overhead. Enjoy hearing their flight calls.

My most common feeder bird is American Goldfinch. And, alas, haven’t seen nor heard the Blue Jay since Wed. It may have used the brief break in weather to head back East. I’ll keep an eye out but usually the jay is the first morning feeder visitor.

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

Make that 59 birds today. As I was sitting at my computer, a Western Screech
Owl started serenading me. I love it.

Tom McCabe, Boise

I didn’t get an early start (I almost never do) but I had a great day biking
and looking for birds today. I cruised the North End and got to St. Mary’s
Church (for the Church Pigeons) with 10 birds. Not particularly great, but
I’ve done worse.

Then it started to get interesting at Quinn’s Pond when I found a small raft
of N. Shovelers and another bird I was convinced was a Cinnamon Teal. (More
on that later). There was also a lingering Horned Grebe, midway between
winter and breeding plumage. That put me at 25.

At Silver Lake I picked a few more, including my first C. Merganser of the
day. Normally they are all over Quinn’s and Esther Simplot. Then on to
Hyatt, where I found my first YHBB of the year, along with a few more ducks.
Then a Virginia Rail decided to grunt at me and then come out and greet me.
Always a treat.

Back to the greenbelt and on to the dredge ponds. While wondering where all
the birds were at the first dredge pond, a RW Swallow fly right at me, my
only swallow of the day. (I’ve been seeing several species at ESP, but not
today.) Then the raptors stepped up, having heard that I was short of them,
and I sighted RTHA, GHOW, TUVU, and BAEA in rapid succession.

A quick trip to the pond at Laguna Pointe and I had my FOY Canvasback and a
few others. I headed back towards home with 56, but along the way I had come
to doubt my sighting of the Cinnamon Teal. As I was riding along, seeing it
in my mind’s eye, I became convinced that I was deceiving myself, so I
subtracted the teal and accepted 55 birds as my total.

When I got back to ESP, I could see some gulls on the beach and I could hear
a Say’s Phoebe, so now I was figuring on 57 birds. But when I stopped to
glass the gulls (Ring-billed), a pair of ducks flew across Quinn’s Pond and
landed directly in front of me. It was a male and female Cinnamon Teal!!! So
my self-doubt was resolved, and I had 58 birds.

This is the third trip I’ve taken to the Eagle Road area since the bridge at
Les Bois opened back up last week, but by far the best day. Also my best day
so far this year, especially with 3 FOY birds. But 25 miles is a long ride
for an old fart like me these days. I’ve attached a full list of the birds I
saw today. If anybody needs to know where I found a particular bird, just
email me.

Tom McCabe, Boise

Birders,

Awake last night beyond my usual early bedtime, and since temperatures have risen our windows have been open enough to listen for owls, etc.
Unexpectedly, at 2210 hrs / 10:10 p.m. / I began hearing Snow Geese flying by, and my first thought was “NO WAY” !!!

but looking at the BNA species account this morning (blurb below), I see “YES WAY” !!!

the birds were distant, and it sounded more like 100’s rather than a few, and I have no idea how long this went on, because I fell asleep and stitched it into a dream….. =)

Bring it, need migrants!

Larry, W Boise

Migratory Behavior

Flights usually begin at dusk, but may begin at any time of day, and birds fly both night and day ( [ https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/snogoo/references#REF2236 | Palmer 1976 ] , [ https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/snogoo/references#REF7757 | Bellrose 1980 ] ). In fall, commonly fly in very large flocks (>1,000; [ https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/snogoo/references#REF20212 | Robertson et al. 1997a ] ), spring flocks more variable in size (35-400)……

Ref — Mowbray, T. B., F. Cooke, and B. Ganter (2000). Snow Goose ( Anser caerulescens ), version 2.0. In The Birds of North America (A. F. Poole and F. B. Gill, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. [ https://doi.org/10.2173/bna.514 | https://doi.org/10.2173/bna.514 ]

Birders,

Because it’s happening, and if you have deeper interest, one of my favorite references is:
Bird Migration, A General Survey
Peter Berthold (1993, 2001)
Oxford Univ Press

e.g., check out the attached table of contents to get a glimpse at the scope of this Fascinating Subject…… =)

Good boid’n,
Larry

I just saw my FOY Turkey Vulture here in Teton Valley cruising along the northeast end of the Big Hole Range.

Also today observed 3 Sandhill Cranes dancing east of the Teton River. Snow is disappearing quickly here in the valley, and Western Meadowlarks and American Robins are everywhere.
And right on schedule some ground squirrels popped out. I always see them first on April 1, no joking!

Happy Fools Day,

Susan, Tetonia

I went back down to Swan Lake Slough and Oxford Slough Saturday. There
were about 17 tundras and 14 trumpeter swans at Swan Lake Slough. Better
than last week, but still not the hundreds that I have seen in early spring
here in other years. 130 canvasbacks here was a good number.

The number of pintail was way down from 750+ at Oxford last week to 150+
this week. But, I have been birding the upper reaches of the slough, which
is private land, from the side of Oxford and Coulam Roads in Bannock
County, not Oxford Slough Waterfowl Production Area in Franklin County.
The WPA was mostly frozen last week and I understand it has opened up
significantly since. So the pinnies might have moved over there. There
were still good numbers of green-winged teal and American wigeon, a few
more northern shovelers and sandhill cranes, and a slight uptick in
cinnamon teal. I found 4 American avocets and 4 long-billed curlews here,
the latter including birds in undulating courtship/territorial display. I
also saw my FOY Franklin’s gull. The pastures and playas are fully flooded
along these roads and I’m hoping others visit later in the spring during
shorebird migration especially.

I hit Fort Hall Mine Landfill on the way home. The number of gulls was
truly impressive. They were tough to count, but I estimated at least 3500
California gulls, less than 10 of which were non-adults. There was about
the usual number of herring gulls (14) but ring-billed gulls were way down
– only about 50. I was able to pick out 1 immature Iceland (Thayer’s)
gull. I hope other birders check out this site and are more successful at
gleaning out rarities than I have been. Birders are allowed, just stop at
the drive-up check station.

My wife and I conducted the ID-40 short-eared owl survey north of Minidoka
National Wildlife Refuge Saturday evening. The wind was very calm and skies
were mostly clear. I did this route 2 years ago and found 1 shortear on
each of the 2 survey windows, but was skunked this year. We did find
long-billed curlews at at least 3 stops, including a bird in flight display
at one stop. Large flocks of snow geese headed north at sunset made me
think they were migrating out. But I got word of large numbers of snows
still at Minidoka NWR this morning.

Steven F. Kahl
Deputy Project Leader
Southeast Idaho National Wildlife Refuge Complex
4425 Burley Dr., Ste. A
Chubbuck, ID 83202
C (208) 252-0805
P (208) 237-6615 ext 112
F (208) 237-8213

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