Magic, The Desert Road, and Rock Creek Ranch

FRIDAY, AUGUST 16:

This morning, I finally met up with my wonderful birding friend Kathleen C for a joyous day of birding, the first time in over a year since I had such a short visit out here last year! Even better, we were also birding for the first time ever with Kathleen’s sister, Robi, who is an equally wonderful birding companion and friend.

Our game plan today was to hit Richfield Diversion Dam, the Magic Reservoir, West Magic Desert Road, Hot Springs Landing, and Rinker Rock Canyon Ranch to see what we could see. A few new Idaho species for the year for me were around Kathleen’s house this morning such as HOUSE FINCH:

And EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE:

Richfield Diversion Dam was pretty productive and we birded a side of it that I had never experienced before. EASTERN KINGBIRDS proliferated, as they did throughout the day:

Female RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD that buzzed us at one point:

YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT was the obvious highlight at this spot — a life bird for Robi!

WARBLING VIREO:

VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW:

Red-shafted NORTHERN FLICKER:

SAGE THRASHERS were also common throughout the day as we spent much of our day in sagebrush desert habitat:

PIED-BILLED GREBE, also a new one for Robi:

OSPREY:

BARN and BANK SWALLOWS:

Then, we drove West Magic Road over to the dam of the Magic Reservoir where a WESTERN KINGBIRD greeted us:

COMMON MERGANSERS were in large numbers today:

AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN:

Two LESSER SCAUP front and center with MALLARDS, CANADA GEESE, and Teal Sp in the background:

On the way out from the dam, we spotted a couple small herds of Pronghorn Antelope!

Next stop was the town of West Magic where Kathleen and I pointed out a few roosting COMMON NIGHTHAWKS to Robi. So cool they always return to this exact location in large numbers!

Discussing about and admiring the roosting nighthawks.

Roosting RED-TAILED HAWK:

Can you spot my F.O.Y. female BLACK-CHINNED HUMMINGBIRD in this photo??

The edge of Magic Reservoir had a lone CINNAMON TEAL:

Female BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD, HOUSE SPARROWS, and a CALIFORNIA QUAIL under a feeder in town — a nest parasite and two invasives!

SAY’S PHOEBE was an F.O.Y. for me and a lifer for Robi:

Male “gray ghost” NORTHERN HARRIER:

This was the view of the secluded town of West Magic — where Kathleen used to live! — from one of our birding vantage points:

Three GADWALL with an AMERICAN COOT and a GREEN-WINGED TEAL:

Two AMERICAN WIGEON:

A group of WILSON’S PHALAROPES was really nice to see, here with a Pied-billed Grebe and Gadwall:

This duck stumped us but turned out to be an immature male BARROW’S GOLDENEYE with that tiny bill — my Idaho lifer!!! Super awesome.

This VESPER SPARROW was a lifer for Robi:

As were this group of HORNED LARKS along Desert Rd on the way out of West Magic:

Harrier flying over a perched Red-tailed Hawk:

At a northern access point to Magic Reservoir I spotted this CLARK’S GREBE, the rarer relative to the Western Grebe, distinguished by the large yellow bill and the fact that the eye is in the white part of the face rather than the black cap.

Male AMERICAN KESTREL:

Hot Springs Landing had quite a few shorebirds around including this nonbreeding (and therefore unspotted) SPOTTED SANDPIPER:

Busy scoping the shorebirds:

BAIRD’S SANDPIPERS proliferated as by far the most common migrant shorebird at this location with 40 counted:

WESTERN SANDPIPERS were also present with their rather long, droopy bills and the fleck of rusty rufous on their shoulder area:

This SEMIPALMATED PLOVER triggered the Idaho Rare Bird Alert so was arguably our best find of the day so far! Too cool!

Can you spy the two Green-winged mixed in with the Cinnamon Teal?

Two new additions to the mix here: a SOLITARY SANDPIPER in the back left which is also quite a good bird for the area, and a KILLDEER up front:

This was about as obvious of a GREATER/LESSER YELLOWLEGS comparison as you can get!

Male RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD:

It was a great stop for the day count, and we soon headed over to Rinker Rock Creek Ranch to see what else we could add to the day list. We got more beautiful looks at Eastern Kingbirds, one of the most common species throughout the day:

LARK SPARROW, another lifer for Robi:

We stopped at this beautiful overlook of the town of Bellevue and picked up a bit of trash that was strewn about — great idea to do that Robi!

And this Coyote was super cool, too! It appeared to be hunting.

Then, just a bit further up the road, and just before 6:00pm, Robi shouted “Grouse!” and Kathleen came to a gradual stop so as not to scare whatever was to the left of the road. Heart racing, I peered out the window at a majestic group of GREATER SAGE-GROUSE that were cowering among the sagebrush, hoping to rely on their camouflage for protection.

Incredible!!! This preserve was also where I got my lifer last year; however, that was an extremely brief view, so it was just amazing to get such great views of this rare, endangered species outside of their lekking season. And even better that Robi had spotted them as they were here lifer!!

Also, these were “good karma” as just minutes before, Robi had rallied us to pick up some trashy litter that had been strewn about that beautiful viewpoint overlooking Bellevue. The fact that she was the one to spot this bird, and that we had perfectly timed it (otherwise they might have been out of sight!) was a testament to her being a good person and caring for our environment.

Then, just as we were finishing up admiring the first group as they wandered up the hillside, Kathleen spotted a SECOND group of four Sage Grouse crossing the road in front of us! Just crazy!

We eventually ended up right next to them as there was a fence blocking their progress up the hill and only took a couple photos so as not to distub unnecessarily.

Not two minutes later, we flushed up a group of twenty-two GRAY PARTRIDGE that were roosting on the road which was just crazy — a species I have not seen in about seven years since I got my lifers! Unfortunately, they settled down far into the brush so photos were not obtained. We continued on birding and had a few songbirds alongside the road like this female AMERICAN GOLDFINCH:

And this WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE:

Then, before a delicious dinner of Thai and Japanese food, Kathleen wanted to try for one more game bird since we had been having such luck today. So, we tried for Chukar on the other side of Bellevue and CHUKAR we had!!! Also a bird I have not seen in a number of years so these cute little introduced guys were awesome to see.

We enjoyed a wonderful evening and dinner together and then I took the bus home.

What a day!!! Bird-of-the-day to the Greater Sage-Grouse with runner-up to the Semipalmated Plover.

Stay tuned and happy birding!

Henry
World Life List: 1303 Species