I wanted to pass this video along since I was surprised at the similarity in flight patterns between Long-eared and Short-eared Owls. I’d never seen a LEOW in flight in the open until this week. I thought the flight of the SEOW was unique.
I thought I had a SEOW (rare) at Eagle Island SP in Ada County earlier this week until I was asked if I had considered LEOW. I ran across the following video.
It flew across the field with a Cooper’s Hawk harassing it (explaining the unusual behavior of LEOW flying during the day). It then disappeared into the Russian Olives (unusual for SEOW) until Magpies notified me of its presence. I got a brief look but just enough to know it wasn’t a Barn Owl. I noticed it had dark comma-shaped marks near the wrist of the underwing but LEOW and SEOW have this.
I wanted to pass this along to help others not make the same mistake. You won’t run across this very often. It makes me wonder if I misidentified SEOW one early morning at Blacks Creek a couple years ago now knowing this.
There’s always something new to learn in the birding world!
Separating Short-eared and Long-eared Owls
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Separating Short-eared and Long-eared Owls
As difficult species go, the Long and Short-eared Owl pairing are amongst the most challenging to identify, espe…
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Lisa just spotted a new bird for our yard, a male Varied Thrush. Very
cool. And very late for Island Park. I’ve seen a few here in spring and
even had one singing at Island Park Dam, but never during winter (6
degrees this morning). It was foraging in bare patches under trees and
picking the last few Snowberries off the bushes. Lisa tried for a photo
but it flushed as soon as she touched the door handle.
Cliff
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Cliff and Lisa Weisse
Island Park, Idaho
cliffandlisa@octobersetters.com
Lake Lowell lower dam I have never seen this many together ‘there were nine
others nearby for a total of 20 cove off orchard 23 hooded mergansers only
3 adult males
With apologies for its lateness (but nevertheless timely with the 118th CBC
about to start!), here is the summary for Idaho’s CBC during the last
period –
https://idahobirds.net/birding-idaho/resources-and-links/christmas-bird-counts/.
Perhaps reading over this will get Idaho birders excited and thinking about
the upcoming counts. It seemed like the frigid weather was the highlight of
many Idaho counts but even with a general lack of exciting bird phenomena
last winter, there was plenty of interest for birders as you will see in
the summary. The overall CBC summary and other regional summaries,
including from surrounding states (and Idaho eventually), can be found here
http://www.audubon.org/summary-117th-christmas-bird-count-2016-2017. Thanks
to Stoddard Davenport for help reviewing southern Idaho CBC’s and for
really helpful formatting of the CBC summary data. Also thanks to Lisa
Weisse for publishing the summary on the idahobirds.net web site.
Charles.
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Charles Swift
Moscow, Idaho
chaetura@gmail.com
After finding the SWAMP SPARROW in Moscow, birding was again superb at Mann
Lake east of Lewiston, this morning. I had several encounters with the
PALM WARBLER, ranging from the area before the settling ponds to well
beyond the model airplane area. It is usually near the Yellow-rumped
flock, but sometimes off by itself nearby. It forages low, very often on
the ground, and it really seems to like the areas of dense short (~1 foot)
willow saplings close to the lake shore. The DUSKY FLYCATCHER continues,
but still being very inconspicuous and difficult to see. I had at least
one SWAMP SPARROW, an American Tree Sparrow, an extremely late SAVANNAH
SPARROW, one DUNLIN, and a Peregrine Falcon. I finally tore myself away
from all those great birds, but as I pulled out of Mann Lake onto the
entrance road, a flock of juncos with one obvious sparrow flew across the
road in front of me. I stopped to investigate and immediately saw a nice
HARRIS’S SPARROW.
New and somewhat better photos of the Palm Warbler and some of the other
rarities are in my eBird checklist (
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S40864407).
Hell’s Gate State Park had lots of birds but I didn’t see the Mockingbird
or anything particularly unusual.
I just found a SWAMP SPARROW at the Sand Road Wetlands in Moscow. Sand
Road Wetlands are just south/southwest of the UI Arboretum and Botanical
Gardens, on the south side of West Palouse River Drive/Sand Road. You can
park at the Arboretum parking. The sparrow is due south of the westernmost
lone Ponderosa Pine sapling, visible from the road, and currently quite
vocal.
I’ll put photos on eBird later. I’m not sure if there are previous records
for Latah County, but it’s been an incredible fall for this species in the
Inland NW!
Good Birding
Carl Lundblad
Moscow, ID
Home of Idaho Birding and the Idaho Bird Records Committee
