Last morning in Idaho
Blaine County, ID
Sunday 15 September 2024
75 °F
AUGUST 23:
As this was my last morning in the state before my afternoon flights back to Chicago, I again hiked west out Warm Springs Rd to enjoy the western birds while I still could!
VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS were wheeling overhead in large numbers:
Beautiful sunflowers abound alongside the road every year:
Gorgeously-patterned RED-TAILED HAWK:
BREWER’S SPARROW is actually a pretty decent find for this stretch of road:
AMERICAN KESTREL:
CHIPPING SPARROW:
And finally, on my last morning here, I got my year bird DUSKY FLYCATCHER! Usually these are easier for me to get out here. Anyway, yay!
VESPER SPARROW:
This PINE SISKIN had particularly striking yellow epaulets:
Male AMERICAN GOLDFINCH:
Unfortunately, before I knew it, it was time to stay goodbye to the condo for the year and head to the airport around Noon. Bird-of-the-day to the Dusky Flycatcher.
Little did we know that a large mountain storm was brewing over the Pioneers and impacting operations into the airport meaning our inbound plane wasn’t able to land for several hours until after we were scheduled to depart. We therefore faced a 6.5-hour delay and the prospects of missing our connecting flight to Denver. After hours on the phone with United, we were able to change our tickets so instead of me going back to Chicago we would stay the night in Denver and the next morning mom would continue to Chicago and I would fly to New York via DC.
Finally by 8:00pm we were boarding our extremely-tardy flight to Denver.
And I did eventually make it to New York the next day, flying this little 50-seater for my last leg of my summer journeys. What a summer!
Stay tuned for more: I haven’t been able to do any birding in New York yet this fall but I will be leading an Oak Park Bird Walk when I come home very soon and will be posting about that in due time.
Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1303 Species
