Through 2011 I had birded in Idaho just five days, but had tallied 189 species – just 19 short of the ABA reporting threshold. My ID state list had almost no migrant shorebirds, so when a business trip to Salt Lake City in September came up, I decided to add a couple days to work on my ID list – especially to try for those shorebirds. Though I knew the second week of September was well past the peak of shorebird migration.
My birding started at the American Falls Reservoir in southeast ID with local birding expert Chuck Trost. This spot is well-known as a shorebird magnet, and Chuck has birded the area for many years. We started just above the dam and quickly ticked off Marbled Godwit (statebird #1), Black-necked Stilt (#2), and Greater Yellowlegs (#3). With a couple short hikes we added Common Tern (#4), Pectoral Sandpiper (#5), Baird’s Sandpiper (#6), and Western Sandpiper (#7). We then drove down over the location of the original town of American Falls (which is typically under water in spring but surrounded by mud in the fall), right down to the water at the dam. Statebird #8 was an American Pipit bobbing its tail from its perch right on the foundation of one of the old buildings. Then while scanning the lake Chuck picked out an odd grebe which turned out to be an early Horned Grebe (#9). That was a great start to the trip.
Before Chuck headed home he gave me some suggestions for birding along the western side of the lake. The first stop was at Sportsman Park which had a bunch of Avocets but nothing else. Then I headed farther north stopping along the bluffs on Yuma Road. In addition to many geese, there was a flock of about 25 Long-billed Dowitchers (#10), and a small number of peeps running among the vegetation. One turned out to be an immature Semi Sand (#11) – smaller than the Westerns, shorter bill, capped look, no rusty scapulars. Nothing but Canada Geese at Bower Road near Sterling. Then off to Danielson Creek Waterfall. It took me some time to find this spot, but it was loaded with birds, including 3 Great Egrets (#12), 125 Long-billed Dowitchers, 15 mixed Yellowlegs, and >500 Franklin’s Gulls. I looked for other gulls mixed in but with no luck. The trees in the area had quite a number of passerine migrants, so I spent some time with them and found a Nashville Warbler (#13), along with Yellow-rumps, Orange-crowneds, and Western Tanagers. I was now up to 13 new statebirds for the American Falls area and 12 species of shorebirds – 8 of them were new for my state list. Not bad for mid September.
Then I headed west toward that night's hotel in Twin Falls. Along the way I stopped at a spot southwest of Burley on Golden Valley Road where a Burrowing Owl was reported on e-bird back in June 2010. I knew 2-year-old data would be a long shot, and mid September is pretty late for them to be still around, but it was practically on my way. After just a few seconds of scanning I saw a distant lump in the field. With the scope it was clear that it was a distant Burrowing Owl – and a little more scanning revealed 2 others nearby. New bird #14. I love e-bird! I ended the day at dusk looking unsuccessfully for Barn Owls. That made for a late arrival at the hotel and a long, but very productive, birding day.
The next day I started in the South Hills, dipping once again on Barn Owls pre-dawn, and Chukars in the early morning hours in the canyons along the way. I then made it up to the conifers of Red Crossbill country, and decided to start at the ski slope area since it was right along Rock Creek Canyon Road and I could see several nearby groves of lodgepole pines (which were full of cones!). I took a short hike up hill to get among the pines, and just a few minutes after I arrived a flock of 4 Crossbills flew by giving their “kip – kip – kip” call – much softer than the race (species?) I’m used to in New England. A little later another flock of 8 went by, then a heard-only bird flew overhead (#15). It only took me 45 minutes to find them this time – back in May 2010 I spent a half day in the right habitat with no luck.
That afternoon I was back east in Pocatello and quickly found both Pinyon and Western Scrub Jays in some juniper habitat east of town (#16 and #17). I then spent the late afternoon/evening at Mink Creek without seeing much.
The next morning I was at Camas NWR pre-dawn, hoping for some good migrants. As I waited for the sun to come up, I had a nighthawk flying around my car, was serenaded by Great Horned Owls, and saw several Sharpies come in off the fields. It was shaping up to be a good morning. I then went over to a double row of cottonwoods which is well-known as a magnet for passerine migrants. Although the Chestnut-sided Warbler seen the day before was not around, I had a pretty good fallout including –
Yellow-rumps -52
Wilson’s - 40
Orange-crowneds – 7
Townsend’s – 3 (#18)
MacGillivray’s – 1
Yellow – 1
Nashville – 1
W Pewee – 1
Hammond’s Fly - 2
Cassin’s Vireo – 4 (#19)
Solitaire – 1
Western Tanager – 2
Black-headed Grosbeak- 2
I was just about done birding the cottonwoods when a newly arriving birder mentioned he had Gray Partridges (one of my targets) by the ranger’s house about an hour earlier. I went right over there and started playing some tape – one bird called back almost instantly (#20), apparently quite close in the sagebrush though I never saw it. I had the same experience getting Gray Partridges to respond to tape in Iowa earlier in the year. Later I was back at the HQ area and flushed 6 Gray Partridges in the dry grass just south of the HQ – right where they were the day before. Though I had walked through that same small patch of grass twice earlier in the morning and didn’t have them there.
After a few minutes unsuccessfully looking for a Mockingbird that had been seen off and on during the summer east of Camus, I went down to Market Lake WMA. Not much around in the wetlands nor much in the west shelter belt (my visit there in 2010 had similar results).
Next it was off to the Curlew Grasslands in southern Idaho. My first stop was at the Grandine Ranger Station SE of Stone Reservoir – at least I think it was the ranger station. The location matched the e-bird location, but it was just a couple abandoned buildings. The only other buildings there were residences so I hoped I had the right spot. I walked around a bit and played some tape, but with no luck. A flock of Mountain Bluebirds were nice, and the trees were full of migrants including two Solitaires. Next it was on to the west to try for Ash-throated Flycatcher and Scott’s Oriole in the junipers. One road en route was lined with sunflowers, complete with a fair number of goldfinches. One group flushed as I approached, leaving a single bird behind on the sunflower plant. It turned out to be a Lesser Goldfinch (#21). It was soon rejoined by the Americans giving lots of great comparisons.
When I finally got to the area where the Ash-throated and Scott’s were noted on e-bird along W 8500 S I found that the location was about a half mile behind a barbed wire fence. And the roads to get there were just 2-tracks. That area was heavily wooded in junipers, so it looked like it could be a good spot. If I were to take this location literally off of e-bird then it would mean crossing (trespassing?) past a barbed wire fence, with a long round-trip hike. At the time I decided e-bird’s location was just a general one, and instead drove along farther west on W 8500 S until I found other good patches of junipers. Since coming back from my trip I’ve heard the e-bird location was correct and it is BLM land. So apparently it would have been OK to cross the fence to bird there. I made short hikes into two juniper patches along the road and didn’t find much of anything except for 1 Pinyon Jay, a calling Great Horned Owl, and a Gnatcatcher which was my 124th species for the 3-day trip. I would imagine the Ash-throated and Scott’s, along with the Grosbeak, had already headed south. Although I missed my targets at the last stop of the trip, my last birds were several Vesper Sparrows teed-up on the fence along the road which are always nice to see.
So now I’ve met my goal to be reportable in Idaho - my 41st reportable state (see map below). But I can’t rest on my laurels in ID. Being only 2 over the threshold could easily mean that the threshold could creep up over my total. I usually try to get at least 15 over threshold in a state to ensure that I stay reportable. So I’ve tentatively planned a birding trip in summer 2013 to include some time up in the ID panhandle and maybe some time in southwest ID. That should get me into some new ID habitats and hopefully some new ID species, getting me safely over the threshold. On that trip I’ll also be working on my NV, OR, and WA lists.
I’ve inserted four statebird maps below (shaded states are those where I’ve seen that species). The first is for Great Egret – a pretty common bird in almost every state. ID had been one of three remaining gaps for this species – I guess I need to work on that MT list. And not sure how I missed it in NE where I have a pretty good reportable list.
The next map is for Lesser Goldfinch which is typically a bird of the southwest, which barely gets to southern ID.
The third one is Burrowing Owl which is seen throughout the west. But my map is pretty spotty as I’ve struggled to find it in a number of states. It seems that their numbers are on the decline in many parts of its range.
And finally there’s the Red Crossbill map. I’ve had it in a number of western states and all of the New England states. And now I have the South Hills race (?). Will ABA someday decide this is a new species?
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