Wood River Valley Birding
Tuesday 9 August 2016
77 °F
Yesterday (Monday, August 8) I did some local birding near the town of Ketchum (right next to Sun Valley), the town in which we stay every year out here in Idaho.
A bit of birding in the morning close to home yielded some nice looks at YELLOW WARBLERS:
Juvenile YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER:
Then, in the evening, I attended a bird walk led by Poo Wright-Pulliam and we were joined by another birding friend, Hunter who is also in high school, and two other birders. Pretty soon after arriving at the bike trail near St. Luke's Hospital, we found this male AMERICAN KESTREL:
CEDAR WAXWING nest, very cool!
Here is an adult waxwing:
Female/immature type YELLOW WARBLER:
WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE:
This flyover COMMON NIGHTHAWK was a big surprise and it is the first flight shot I have ever obtained of a nighthawk!
Then, we birded at the beautiful Elkhorn Pond:
Unidentified probable "Empidonax" flycatcher (Empidonax refers to a group of hard-to-distinguish flycatchers). Maybe a Cordilleran? Does anyone have an ID?
The bird-of-the-day, in my opinion, was this ROCK WREN which vocalized not even five minutes after I expressed interest in finding one!
It was a very good day of birding! Thanks to Poo Wright-Pulliam for leading the evening bird walk!
Stay tuned, because today my dad and I will ride the ski lift up Mt. Balde in Ketchum, and then we will hike/bird our way down the mountain!
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 923 Species (no recent life birds)
Posted by skwclar 07:20 Archived in USA Tagged flycatcher yellow_warbler yellow_rumped_warbler american_kestrel cedar_waxwing western_wood_pewee common_nighthawk elkhorn_pond rock_wren
