Day 20: Last Full Day in Idaho
Monday 17 August 2015
85 °F
This post is about yesterday, Sunday, August 16, my final full day in Idaho.
During the afternoon, my mom, my sister, and I made a quick visit to the pretty Sawtooth Botanical Garden:
I spotted a few cool water bugs in their water feature like this one:
My mom found this well-camouflaged grasshopper:
Then, from 4:30pm to 9:00pm, I had one last birding trip in the Wood River Valley area with birder Poo Wright-Pulliam. Our main target bird was the federally threatened Greater Sage-Grouse, the largest grouse in North America.
WESTERN MEADOWLARK:
Immature SAGE THRASHER, an uncommon species this late in the summer:
Female AMERICAN KESTREL battling the wind:
A cool herd of Pronghorn (NOT antelope; they live in Africa!):
HOUSE WREN:
CORDILLERAN FLYCATCHER:
MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER, a beautiful and uncommon species:
Distant BALD EAGLE nest with an immature bird perched on it:
Soaring RED-TAILED HAWK:
Although we never found the Greater Sage-Grouse, we did make a stop towards the end of our outing at a location in the Starweather community of the central Wood River Valley where we found two species of owls, a fitting end to a trip in which I have identified a total of eight species of owls!
We heard three GREAT HORNED OWLS calling and also saw one WESTERN SCREECH OWL of which I only managed a poor photo because it was starting to get dark. The owl is the dark blob in the center:
All in all, it was a great last excursion! Thanks so much to Poo Wright-Pulliam for driving again and taking me to these awesome birds!
Bird-of-the-day goes to the uncommon juvenile SAGE THRASHER. Runner-up to the poorly-photographed WESTERN SCREECH-OWL which was a life bird for me only a day before this! The full avian species list for the day is found below.
Stay tuned for a summer recap post today because I will be starting my first day of my sophomore year of high school tomorrow, Tuesday, August 18.
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 864 Species (no life birds today)
47 species yesterday:
Mallard
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Swainson's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Spotted Sandpiper
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
WESTERN SCREECH-OWL
GREAT HORNED OWL
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird
CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD
Belted Kingfisher
Lewis' Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Willow Flycatcher
Cordilleran Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Common Raven
Violet-green Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
American Robin
SAGE THRASHER
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER
Yellow Warbler
Western Tanager
Chipping Sparrow
Brewer's Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
WESTERN MEADOWLARK
Brewer's Blackbird
House Sparrow
House Finch
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
Sounds like you had a great trip! How many species did you see on your trip? Are you in school now?
by isoo