Of birds.. =)

Missy and I are home from our trek north of the 45th parallel. The
Panhandle is one of our favorite places in Idaho at this time of year, light
enough to use optics from 0430 hrs to 2130 hrs, feels other-worldly. Our
bird pile weighed in at 145 sp, of which 20 were year birds. Favorite
birding places included Smith Creek Rd, West Side Rd, Snow Creek Rd to Roman
Nose (all in Boundary County), Johnson Creek Rd from Clark Fork, Hoodoo
Valley (Bonner County), Moose Meadows, East Fork Rd, Freezeout (Latah
County), and Seven Devils Rd to Heaven’s Gate (Idaho County). Toppermost of
many trip highlights were these:

Boundary and Bonner Counties – Passerines were out in force! Flycatchers,
vireos, chickadees, nuthatches, thrushes, warblers, and northern finches.
Congratulations to you thrushes (all 8 sp of you) for grabbing first place
among the songsters! =)

Seven Devils in Idaho County – Speaking of avalanches, road closures due to
snow slides are not always a bad thing, eh? The Seven Devils road to
Heaven’s Gate was blocked about two miles below Windy Saddle, forcing us to
hoof it upslope from there. We were rewarded with an extraordinarily scenic
hike (on par with the Sawtooths), no wind, no people, no vehicles on the
road, virtually no ambient noise, and *many* woodpeckers and corvids:
Red-naped Sapsucker 1, Hairy Woodpecker 6, Three-toed Woodpecker 5, Pileated
Woodpecker 1, Gray Jay 5 (about 150 m past mm 16), Steller’s Jay 3, and
Clark’s Nutcracker 10+. The Gray Jays started dropping hard little
pinecones on us! LOL. There was an Olive-sided Flycatcher / OSFL / with a
speech impediment, singing in four syllables instead of the usual three,
sounding kind of like a hiccup in the middle of its 3rd syllable. LOL
again. I’ve heard OSFL singing in January in E Venezuela that sounded more
convincing than this guy. Mammals thereabouts (6800+ ft elevation) were
also a treat, e.g., Snow-shoe Hares and Loud-mouth Pikas.

Placerville area in Valley County – Several nighthawks at dusk (our FOY),
Flammulated Owl 1, Northern Saw-whet Owl 4, Veery 3, Swainson’s Thrush 2,
and Killdeer 1 (1130 pm). I think we were inspired by birders like Stoddard
who don’t know when to hit the sack. 😉

In celebration of Birthdays, Father’s Day, Feather Days.. this trek rivaled
our first pelagic trip out of Seward AK in search of puffins,
oystercatchers, kittiwakes, etc. (1994)

Larry and Missy

Boise