This afternoon I was floating the South Fork of the Snake River upstream
from Heise and I had good looks at a small dark swift foraging over the
river with Violet-green Swallows. It looked slightly larger than the
swallows, was dark blackish gray overall with slightly contrasting rump
and paler throat than the rest of the underparts. My impression at the
time was Chimney Swift but Vaux’s is obviously more likely and I don’t
feel like I saw enough to nail down the ID despite close looks (30 yards
at times) with trees/cliffs behind the bird so it wasn’t back lit,
making color easy to see. So despite my initial excitement I’m calling
it a Vaux’s/Chimney Swift, either of which is a good bird for the location.

There was also a flock of 14 Pinion Jays in the area (further upstream
than I’ve seen them before). Quite a few Yellow-rumped Warblers and
Western Wood Pewees as well.

Cliff

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