Day 18: Birding with Kathleen!

Today, as you can tell, I had a wonderful day of delightful birding with my friend Kathleen C! Huge thanks to her for driving me about 250 miles in total today (!!!!!)

Starting the day off on Cottonwoods Road which leads to the Magic Reservoir, we spotted this far-away flock which we couldnt identify at the moment but what now are obviously WHITE-FACED IBIS. What a unique shape!

TURKEY VULTURE waking up in the morning sun:

This AMERICAN ROBIN posed with two SAGE THRASHERS, a common specialty of the sagebrush desert here in central Idaho!

COMMON NIGHTHAWK, we saw many of these both flying and roosting today:

AMERICAN KESTREL, one of over one hundred we found!

Then, our first birding surprise of the day came when Kathleen spotted this NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD, an unexpected/vagrant species for this for north! Far out!

Female BELTED KINGFISHER hunting below the Richfield Diversion Dam:

Off she goes:

CEDAR WAXWING:

LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE is always a nice treat to see here in the desert:

Finally, we arrived at the Magic Reservoir and though water levels were higher than in the past, we were able to soak up a few species including this LESSER YELLOWLEGS:

LEAST SANDPIPER:

Extremely-shaggy GREAT BLUE HERON:

Then, all of the sudden, Kathleen spotted a raptor sitting on a far away telephone pole. Upon realizing it was a PRAIRIE FALCON, we drove over fast so I could obtain this photo of this LIFE BIRD! The first new species I’ve had since Italy, very cool, and long overdue!!

WESTERN KINGBIRD:

SAY’S PHOEBE:

CLARK’S GREBE — notice that the eye is separate from its black cap:

Transitional-plumage EARED GREBE:

OSPREY with lunch:

BREWER’S SPARROW:

SAVANNAH SPARROW, beautiful looks at this guy:

Then, all at once, a flock of AMERICAN COOTS (as well as other waterfowl) took off. Maybe they saw the falcon?!

GREATER YELLOWLEGS:

Along the desert road west of Fairfield, we spotted this Antelope:

HORNED LARK:

Our next stop was drive-through of Camas Prairie, where to our surprise we found this rare and beautiful FERRUGINOUS HAWK! This is the largest and one of the palest hawks in America, and was a complete surprise to us considering they are a declining species.

CINNAMON TEAL in one of the few remaining water pockets there — dry season takes its toll on Idaho:

The next stop was the countryside near Andersonville a Reservoir to search mainly for White-headed Woodpeckers which call the Ponderosa Pine forests there their home. Inside the actual reservoir we saw these AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS:

WESTERN GREBE, notice the eyes are within its black cap:

LEWIS’ WOODPECKER in a woodland savanna:

MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD — in this area, we checked for their counterpart the Western but failed to find any.

Immature BALD EAGLE:

Female LAZULI BUNTING:

Far-off female RED CROSSBILL, Kathleen and I were overjoyed to find this secondary target bird!

Although we failed to find the White-headed Woodpecker, the other species found served as decent consolation prizes. After a long drive back, we were birding by car in Rock Creek Ranch where plenty was to be seen including this BARN SWALLOW:

LARK SPARROW:

Beautiful CALIFORNIA QUAIL in “Golden Hour:”

Molting/immature type male HOUSE FINCH:

When we arrived at our last stop, the Draper Preserve in Hailey, it was absolutely loaded with birds! WARBLING VIREOS like this were common:

And this RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER was a cool surprise too:

A fantastic, fantastic day! Big thanks again to Kathleen

Bird-of- the-day to the PRAIRIE FALCON, my first life bird in quite a while! Full list is attached below!

Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 952 Species (1 life bird today: Prairie Falcon)

1. Canada Goose
2. Cinnamon Teal
3. Mallard
4. Common Merganser
5. California Quail
6. Eared Grebe
7. Western Grebe
8. Clark’s Grebe
9. American White Pelican
10. Double-crested Cormorant
11. Great Blue Heron
12. White-faced Ibis
13. Turkey Vulture
14. Osprey
15. Bald Eagle
16. Northern Harrier
17. Swainson’s Hawk
18. Red-tailed Hawk
19. Ferruginous Hawk
20. American Kestrel
21. PRAIRIE FALCON
22. Virginia Rail
23. Sora
24. American Coot
25. Killdeer
26. Least Sandpiper
27. Wilson’s Snipe
28. Spotted Sandpiper
29. Lesser Yellowlegs
30. Greater Yellowlegs
31. Ring-billed Gull
32. Rock Pigeon
33. Eurasian Collared-Dove
34. Mourning Dove
35. Common Nighthawk
36. Black-chinned Hummingbird
37. Belted Kingfisher
38. Lewis’ Woodpecker
39. Red-naped Sapsucker
40. Downy Woodpecker
41. Hairy Woodpecker
42. Northern Flicker
43. Western Wood-Pewee
44. Willow Flycatcher
45. Say’s Phoebe
46. Western Kingbird
47. Eastern Kingbird
48. Loggerhead Shrike
49. Cassin’s Vireo
50. Blue-headed Vireo
51. Clark’s Nutcracker
52. Black-billed Magpie
53. American Crow
54. Common Raven
55. Horned Lark
56. Tree Swallow
57. Violet-green Swallow
58. Northern Rough-winged Swallow
59. Barn Swallow
60. Black-capped Chickadee
61. Red-breasted Nuthatch
62. Brown Creeper
63. House Wren
64. Mountain Bluebird
65. American Robin
66. Gray Catbird
67. Sage Thrasher
68. NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD
69. European Starling
70. Cedar Waxwing
71. Yellow Warbler
72. Western Tanager
73. Black-headed Grosbeak
74. Lazuli Bunting
75. Western Meadowlark
76. Red-winged Blackbird
77. Brewer’s Blackbird
78. House Sparrow
79. House Finch
80. Cassin’s Finch
81. RED CROSSBILL
82. Pine Siskin
83. American Goldfinch
84. Spotted Towhee
85. Chipping Sparrow
86. Brewer’s Sparrow
87. Vesper Sparrow
88. Lark Sparrow
89. Savannah Sparrow
90. Song Sparrow