Dude, that’s a nice bird haul.

I’m in heaven about the Boise River being down! Geeze, I’m hyperventilating
already! 😉

Congrats on that WWDove.

We get the Rock Wren situation, strange winter, strange year.

59 sp on the Greenbelt including nighthawk, with no gas burned, way cool.

On our recent jaunts to both SE Idaho and to N Idaho, Missy and I noticed
many places perfectly suited to biking for birds, ja baby, no traffic to
speak of..

LA

From: ible@yahoogroups.com [mailto:ible@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of ‘Tom
McCabe’ tmccabe9@cableone.net [ible]
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2017 10:41 PM
To: ible@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [IBLE] Dash (kind of) to the Dam

When one of the Boise bike officers told me you could bike all the way to
the dam despite the high water, he planted a seed. Then the river went down,
and I had to give it a try.

Since I was planning on going to the dam, the birds I identified while lying
in bed gave me a head start, especially the Downy Woodpecker, since I don’t
always see or hear them on my rides. I left the house with 7 birds, picked
up the local nesting Swainson’s and Cooper’s, and headed to the river.

I left Esther Simplot Park with 32 birds, which would make a good ride any
day. I stayed on the north side of the river because the Western Grebe was
back at Quinn’s (apparently he/she doesn’t mind a little e. coli) and headed
to Main St. The tunnel under Main was still flooded (the only flooded
pathway I encountered all day), but I knew the south side was clear all the
way to Ann Morrison Park. The Gray Catbird at AMP was cooperative and I
headed to BSU with 37 birds.

By the time I got to Warm Springs G.C., I remembered that folks have been
seeing a White-winged Dove there, a bird I haven’t seen since our Arizona
trip. I went just past the club house and stopped to look around when I
heard the distinctive call of the WWDO. Fortuitously, this was bird #40.
Already a great day and miles to go.

At Marianne Williams Park, I stopped when I heard a Common Yellowthroat, a
FOY bird for me. Within a few seconds I heard a Virginia Rail, another FOY.
A Bank Swallow made 45 and I wasn’t even to Eckert Rd.

Above Diversion Dam I found another FOY, a Canyon Wren (but Rock Wren eluded
me). Turkey Vultures were cruising above the black rock walls where climbers
were enjoying themselves, but since it was Friday there was a lot of traffic
on Highway 21 and hearing birds was difficult.

At Sandy Point I decided to turn around instead of trying to go up and over
the dam to Foote Park. I was already several miles beyond my longest ride
this year, and I wanted to keep some reserves in my tank, especially with
the temperature rising. By that time I had 55 birds, and I was a happy
camper.

On the way home I picked up 2 more birds, Red-tailed Hawk and Yellow-headed
Blackbird, both of which I’d looked for unsuccessfully on the way out. Then,
when I got home, I realized I had never seen a Black-chinned Hummer on the
ride, but one was waiting for me on its perch in the neighbor’s yard. 😉

The finale for me was a noisy flyover by a Common Nighthawk this evening,
and I had 59 birds. Not bad for an old fart: close to 32 miles of biking and
some walking and no gas burned.

Tom McCabe, Boise