Hi Everyone,

My name is Jeff Fleischer and I am project developer / coordinator for the Winter Raptor Survey Project sponsored by the East Cascades Audubon Society based in Bend, OR. Last winter we wound up surveying 551 routes covering more than 32,000 miles of transects throughout all of OR, ID, WA, the northern portions of CA and UT, and western MT. A total of 450+ volunteers survey these routes once a month during December thru February with additional optional survey months available for November and March.

We are about to enter our 20th survey season and I have several routes in your state that need a volunteer to do surveys and I would be grateful if some of you would like to take on a route or two this winter 🙂 I have done these route advertisements on IBLE in past years and have been successful in securing help, hopefully some of you will keep that success going:)

Here is the list of routes with their corresponding lengths:

Culesac 56 miles
Winchester 73
Nezperce 71
Moscow South 56
Troy – Deary 78
Coeur d’Alene 75
Churchill – Oakley 68
Jerome North 63
Richfield 44
Heyburn 41
Acequia 39
Rupert North 69
Rupert East – Minidoka 55
Burley East – Lake Walcott 67
Burley SW 51
Burley SE 34
Albion 36
Raft River – Idahome 65
Lava Hot Springs – Bancroft 54
Lidy Hot Springs 75

There are only a few requirements to participate:

1. I ask that volunteers commit to doing one survey per month for the three primary months of December thru February, surveys can also be done in November and March but these are optional months. More than one survey can also be done for any given month as an additional option

2. Volunteers should be comfortable with IDing the common species of raptors in your chosen area and be willing to increase your knowledge of these regal birds

3. You should have at least a pair of binoculars to help you spot and ID birds, a spotting scope would be nice to have but not a requirement

4. Survey dates are determined by each volunteer based on their monthly life schedules and hopefully to skirt inclement weather when birds can be sheltered and out of view

If this sounds like something you would like to do, please email me as soon as you can with your choice of route(s), to be fair I will fill the routes on a first come first served basis. I will then provide you with the necessary material to get you properly prepared for what you will be doing:)

I would really like to make this 20th season something special and filling these routes will be a big part of that effort, looking forward to hearing from you soon, thank you 🙂

Jeff Fleischer
Project Developer / Coordinator
Winter Raptor Survey Project
East Cascades Audubon Society – Bend, OR

The bird in your photo looks like a female American Kestrel.

White-crowned Sparrows coming through in large numbers, mainly juveniles. Groups of 20+ pushing through, esp in sagebrush area. DE Juncos are showing up & many will stay through the winter. And, American Robins in groups of 15+ have been hitting the Russian Olive berries, along with groups of (uggh) European Starlings. Still have sev RB Nuthatches coming in for sunflower seeds at the platform feeder. Last weekend, saw a few groups of Yellow-rumped Warblers & Ruby-crowned Kinglets push through, but appear to be gone now. Waiting for my fave winter resident, Townsend’s Solitaire, to appear. 

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot 

You can not identify Male and Female White-crowned Sparrows by their plumage.  You are probably seeing the immature and adult plumage differences.

Last evening right before dark I watched at least a dozen White-crowned Sparrows haul up into a large rosebush visible from my kitchen window,  Watching them with binoculars I could see that most were females, or possible this years crop of youngsters, but at least three and possibly four were adult males.  I’ve always seen them as single birds, or pairs, but never that many at once, so this is a first for me as far as numbers go.  Can’t wait to see what shows up next, but most of the small tweedle birds have come & gone at this point.