Twitch: Great Gray Owl

SUNDAY, AUGUST 18:

Today, Robi, Kathleen and I would at north toward and past Stanley, ID to search for montane birds and ultimately, my second favorite bird in the whole world: Strix nebulosa, the Great Gray Owl!

We started this beautiful day off along Warm Springs Rd near my condo where we dipped on both American Dipper and Western Flycatcher but captured this selfie in the beautiful morning light.

A pretty male WESTERN TANAGER adorned a distant dead tree:

Next stop was along Baker Creek which was gorgeous as always.

PINE SISKIN:

Titus Lake Trailhead was quiet so we headed onto the subdivision behind Smiley Creek where we always look for Evening Grosbeaks. This female RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD was present:

As well as our target bird, the EVENING GROSBEAK! Our best bird of an honestly pretty slow day so far. This is a female.

Female BLACK-CHINNED HUMMINGBIRD:

After delicious milkshakes at Smiley Creek Lodge (a must!), we continued onto Alturas Lake where the birding was slow but the day was still incredibly beautiful.

CANADA JAY was a lifer for Robi along the road, brightening up an otherwise quiet stop avian-wise:

Beautiful nearby scenery.

And then we hit a spot where we had Long-toed Salamander last year thanks to a tip from Poo, and after flipping like 40 logs, I finally turned out a beautiful adult of this species which was a herpetological lifer for Robi and a super fun amphibian to see, only my third ever!

Ground Squirrel:

Redfish Lake was our next stop where we unfortunately dipped on Spruce Grouse but enjoyed the beautiful views which never fail to amaze:

Stanley Sewage Ponds was our next stop which turned out to be the most productive location of the day.

Flyover MALLARD:

Can you spot the bird (or part of it?) in this photo? I will be super impressed if you can, and bonus points if you can identify. Answer revealed later in post.

Female LESSER SCAUP in the west pond:

From the sewage ponds, we noticed a large plume of smoke erupting from the backside of the Sawtooth Mountains and unfortunately heading straight toward where our owling destination for the night would be. Uh, oh. We had our fingers crossed that somehow our estimation on this was wrong….

Then, all the sudden, I got the most intense, violent stomach cramps of my life. I turned to Kathleen and said “I need the keys, I gotta go” and stumbled my way back to the car. I had remembered there was an outhouse somewhere along Highway 75 nearby and I was annoyingly faked out by the first building I saw, but thankfully, within 7 excruciating minutes, I had found a bathroom. Whew, that was the closest I had been to having a serious accident in decades. Lol.

Anyway, I drove straight back to the Sewage Ponds and kept on birding. LEAST SANDPIPER was nice:

As was this NORTHERN SHOVELER:

And a male RUDDY DUCK:

Yes, the bird quiz from earlier was, believe it or not, a TRUMPETER SWAN! If you missed it in the earlier photo, scroll back and see if you can see its bill hiding behind the sagebrush. This bird has a broken wing and has been confined to the Sewage Ponds for the summer…

Female NORTHERN PINTAIL:

EARED GREBE:

We then headed to a location where Kathleen had seen some Garter Snakes earlier in the year. No snakes, but this frog was cool!

Next stop: Stanley Lake. We were closer and closer to the backside of the Sawtooths, and therefore the great big ole’ plume of smoke from the fire. It was suspended in the air above us so thankfully wasn’t affecting our breathing, but I was keeping a close eye on the situation.

Basking in the weird orange glow of the sun through the smoke cloud.

The “good side” of Stanley Lake today.

COMMON MERGANSERS on the lake:

And a female CANVASBACK and her duckling, too cool!

OSPREY:

Then, we headed to our reliable Great Gray Owl spot but unfortunately got smoked out. I was not willing to even open the windows in this nasty-looking smoke so we turned around and headed back toward Stanley.

Our next stop was a pretty stretch of road along some wetlands and streams where we had good views of GREEN-WINGED:

And CINNAMON TEAL:

Iron Creek Road was slow but there were a couple of SANDHILL CRANES around:

Another view of the ghastly smoke, with a Crane in the foreground.

Views on the way back towards Stanley.

We decided to give Redfish Lake another try where we once again dipped on Spruce Grouse but did have several things closer to the Visitor Center like this OSPREY:

YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER:

RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER:

Adult WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW:

And an immature:

Smiley Creek on the drive home — delicious milkshakes earlier!

And from Galena Pass, we enjoyed the most stunning view of storms & the Boulder Front lit up in the evening glow.

So, a bit of a disappointing day up and over Galena bird-wise but still beautiful and a great opportunity to spend time with Robi and Kathleen. Robi, it has been such a pleasure birding with you!!!!

Bird-of-the-day to the Trumpeter Swan with runners-up to the Evening Grosbeaks and Canada Jay. Stay tuned for more!

Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1303 Species