Day 17: Bald Mountain
Ketchum, ID
Wednesday 15 August 2018
88 °F
Today I rode the gondola up Bald Mountain right next to Sun Valley and I birded my may down!
A bit of birding at the base before the gondola ride up yielded this male YELLOW WARBLER:
And this cool female BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK:
The hike down the mountain was beautiful.
Once I saw this MACGILLIVRAY’S WARBLER, I knew it would be a great day!
Having trouble identifying this falcon. Ideas?
This VESPER SPARROW was a cool find:
Finally, I found this OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER which was a species I had been searching for!
RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET:
Male HAIRY WOODPECKER:
What is this sparrow? A juvenile? I obviously had some tough identification times today. Hah!
BROWN CREEPER:
Suddenly, a bright yellow light glimmered into the forest in front of me and I found this TOWNSEND’S WARBLER for the third year on Bald Mountain!
DUSKY FLYCATCHER:
Then, I saw a huge crow-like bird and it turned out to be an amazing PILEATED WOODPECKER! I love this bird!
WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE:
STELLER’S JAY:
CASSIN’S VIREO, another seldom-seen species!
Fawn Mule Deer:
And my bird-of-the-day was this WILLIAMSON’S SAPSUCKER, another rare mountain species found on Baldy! Runners-up to the Townsend’s Warbler & Pileated Woodpecker. Five hours of fairly strenuous downhill hiking paid off! Boy do my knees feel it...
Stay tuned, tomorrow I will be birding with my friend Kathleen south of the Wood River Valley! Good stuff!
And as always good birding-
Henry
World Life List: 951 Species
