all the other birds

If you saw my previous blog post, you know I took a day off from work to drive hundreds of miles to see a rare Hooded Crane in the fields of Carey, Idaho. It was quite far away, and the weather was freezing cold with a bitter wind and occasional snow and rain, but it was still a fun adventure. And, even more fun was the long, rambling, leisurely drive home past three great areas to look at birds.

On the way back Cyndi and I visited the Centennial Marsh on the Camas Prairie, then drove to Featherville (Where else would birds be seen?), and lastly near sunset time visited the Mountain Home Reservoir.

There were other great birds seen at the same place the Hooded Crane was seen, across the road from the Carey Lake Wildlife Management Area. Water was pooled and flowing along the edges of agricultural fields. Here are some Blue-winged Teal feeding in the field.

I also saw a Virginia Rail, only the second time I've ever seen one of these.

The Centennial Marsh was brimming with water and the area that will soon be filled with wet fields of blooming camas flowers resembled shallow lakes. Wading birds and ducks were everywhere.

Here are a few of the Northern Pintail we saw.

This Sparrow, which I believe to be a Savannah Sparrow from the buffy color over the eye, was seen at the edge of the water.

The first Willets of the season had arrived and they were wading in the water.

I saw some sort of hawk or something by the side of the road and stopped the car to view it. I took a couple of photos, but it sure didn't look much like any hawk I was familiar with. It has some sort of half-eaten rodent or something in its claws. When I got home Cyndi took one look at the photo and exclaimed, "That's a Merlin!" I think she's correct about that.

We then went on to Featherville, past the Anderson Dam Reservoir and saw lots of great birds there. There were Common Loon on the water, but too far away for a photo. We saw flocks of Cassin's Finches. This next photo shows just one of them.

It took us a long time to figure out the next one. The white outer tail feathers were very obvious, but it wasn't until I saw the little buffy patch on the wing that I realized that I was seeing a group of Townsend's Solitaires. With a name like Solitaire, I would not expect to find a group of them together, but they were in a group today ... maybe it has to do with breeding season or something.

During a snow squall Cyndi spotted this large bird by the roadside. A Dusky Grouse.

And, in a band of perhaps as many as 36 birds, these Clark's Nutcrackers were working on all the seeds to be found in the cones now exposed after the winter snows melted from the ground. We also saw a dozen or so Steller's Jays.

Our final stop of the day, on the way home, was the Mountain Home Reservoir. We saw Eared Grebe and I noticed that there were also Horned Grebe out there. This final photo is one of the Horned Grebe.

July Birds

I received instructions on where to see Bobolinks. They're like a blackbird that live in wet, grassy fields. Sure enough, the directions were perfect, and the Bobolinks were there, along with a Wilson's Snipe.

I was also told that there were woodpeckers to be found in a burned area and set off to find them. They were to be found 13 miles up Granite Creek, which was a dirt road. I only recently began taking my Honda Accord on dirt roads. It is the first car in my life that was purchased as a new (not used) car, and I tried hard to take very good care of it. But, since the transmission failed after only 66,000 miles (They do that on '01 Accords, as a class action lawsuit proved ... but the settlement that increased the warranty from 3 years to 7 years did me no good at year 8. In fairness, I should mention the dealership knocked 50% off the $2,800 repair bill for this faulty component.) I have now had a bit less love for this car, and it is now "of age" to hit the dirt. I wouldn't go on just any dirt road, but this one was nice and smooth -- for the first 10 miles. Then it got a bit bumpy, and at 12.5 miles it was downright rutted. But I was just too close to give up.

At mile 13 I parked, and since I'd heard a few scrapes (which I hoped would be the bumper) I cautiously looked underneath the car. Yikes! Fluid dripping. That's not good. I tossed the camera and binoculars back into the backpack and climbed under the car. I couldn't see where it was coming from, and no hose was obviously broken, or even abraded. I raised the hood. All the fluid levels were full. I got back underneath and held my hand under the drip. It wasn't slippery like oil, and didn't have any obvious color. I considered tasting it, but then imagined being broken down 13 miles in the mountains with absolutely no other person seen the whole trip, and then having to walk out while queasy (or worse) from drinking car fluids.

I thought I'd better go before all of whatever it was flowed onto the ground, and nervously started back down the road, not once looking for a bird. After a few miles I considered my hand, where I had caught the drips. It was completely clean, with no residue, like water. Water! The air conditioner was condensing and dripping just plain old water. What a relief this was, though I still eyed the dashboard temperature indicator nervously once in a while, in case I was wrong.

So, no woodpeckers were seen. And I wasn't about to go up that bumpy road again in this car. Maybe I'd come back with my little pickup. That would make more sense.

Though I didn't find the woodpeckers, I did happen upon this Ruffed Grouse on the drive back. So, seeing a Grouse up close made the adventure a bit more successful. And, I got a story to tell out of the deal. Seems as I tell my friends, they all chime in "air conditioner" at about the middle of the tale.

The moral of the story. "Don't look under the car. You may not like what you see. "

Up Before the Early Bird

On Saturday I went on an Audubon outing to see Greater Sage-Grouse strut on their lek (a place where males gather to have a dance contest to attract a mate). To see this behaviour we had to be there very early in the morning ... before the sun rises. And, since Sage-Grouse habitat is fast diminishing, it was a long drive to get to their lek.

I was not disappointed. Here a male inflates special air sacs, lowers his wings, fans out his tail and makes his a special resonant call that is amplified by the air sacs. To me, the sound is reminiscent of a stone being dropped into a pool of water. Sort of a "bloop-a-loop."


Later in the day, as the freezing temperatures warmed up to almost 60 degrees, one member of the group found this Bewick's Wren. Though more common on the coast, they can occasionally be found in Idaho. I was told that the name is pronounced like the automobile "Buick's" wren.


Some other birds that were of interest to me were the Common Loon, Ross's Goose, and "Blue Goose" (which is really just a dark morph of the Snow Goose).

We also saw this small, delicate member of the Iris family, a Grass Widow flower.