Idaho Day 1: Blue Grosbeak Chase

Finally…out birding again! I made it to Sun Valley Idaho yesterday, August 8, where I will spend the next eleven days with my mom and Tian. My first full day here, though, was spent enjoying the freshness of finally seeing western birds again with my friends Poo and Kathleen. It was so nice to spend time with my favorite birders in the world, birding some of my favorite places in the world!

I started off the day by birding behind my condo on the trail up Mt. Baldy. I didn’t find anything unexpected, but it was a great treat to see montane species again including STELLER’S JAY:

COMMON RAVEN:

CORDILLERAN FLYCATCHER:

And it’s closely-related and insanely-cute relative the HAMMOND’S FLYCATCHER, Tian’s favorite Idaho bird!

YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER:

DARK-EYED JUNCO of the “Oregon” subspecies:

RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH:

Flyover CLARK’S NUTCRACKER was great to see:

WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE:

NORTHERN FLICKER (Red-shafted subspecies):

Around midday mom drove me down to Poo’s house and I met up with her for some birding, at first around the neighborhood. PINE SISKINS flocked to her wonderful platform feeder set up:

A lovely CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD graced us with its tiny presence. It is the smallest of the four local hummingbird species.

The more-common RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD was also present, bullying the other hummingbirds away from the feeders:

BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK:

EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE:

RED-TAILED HAWK:

Male WESTERN TANAGER:

Then, we headed over to Kathleen’s place, picked her up, and headed south for the day. Our target bird for the day was a pair of Blue Grosbeaks that have set up camp for the summer in a remote riparian area south of Twin Falls. So, we made a bee-line to that area apart from a few sightings along the way—

BREWER’S SPARROW:

After an hour’s drive, we arrived at the appointed area where we had a few birds including VESPER SPARROW:

Flyover NORTHERN HARRIER:

Then, after about twenty minutes of searching, I spotted a bulky, dark passerine sitting on top of a nearby dead bush — but not before Kathleen excitedly exclaimed, “There it is! Blue Grosbeak!” Indeed, a very nice male BLUE GROSBEAK was posing for us:

Then a female joined him!

Followed by a third bird — a family group of Blue Grosbeaks is a sight to behold in Idaho! This was an Idaho state lifer for me and a very, very good year bird for Poo and Kathleen.

Another good bird in the area was a GRAY FLYCATCHER!

Basking in our success, we continued down the road a little ways and spotted a beautiful GOLDEN EAGLE soaring high overhead:

And an extremely cooperative SAGE THRASHER:

A quick flyover PRAIRIE FALCON, determined by shape and its medium size, was a great sighting:

Then, we headed over to the Rock Creek entrance into the South Hills in search of the Cassia Crossbill endemic to the area, as well as other montane species that might have been present. At our first stop I had a heard-only singing CANYON WREN, and a second GOLDEN EAGLE flew over.

Male YELLOW WARBLER:

Hummingbirds abounded in one particular bush including RUFOUS:

And a female BLACK-CHINNED, making that our third hummer species of the day!

Arguably our best sighting since the Grosbeak was this chunky adult NORTHERN GOSHAWK, the first adult of this species I have ever photographed! SO cool! And this happened just minutes after I was musing about the South Hills being a Goshawk stronghold. Note the eyebrow, long tail, and very bulky chest.

CEDAR WAXWING:

And while we were admiring the waxwing, Kathleen said “there’s a Moose over there!” Well, good thing we weren’t any closer. We snapped a few photos and drove away.

As luck would have it, about twenty minutes later, Kathleen spotted a second Moose off the road!

As we were about ready to call it quits, I saw a bird perched atop a snag that looked strikingly like a Crossbill. So, with our hopes up, I scoped out the bird and it turned out to be the reddest male CASSIN’S FINCH I had ever seen (note the lack of a crossed bill). Well, still cool but not what we were hoping for.

Despite missing the Cassia Crossbill, it was still a successful day of birding as we got our main target, the Blue Grosbeaks! I had also seen the Crossbills in the past with Poo so missing them today wasn’t a huge loss. So, bird-of-the-day goes to the Blue Grosbeak family with runner-up to the Northern Goshawk. Both exceptionally quality birds, and even better to bird with Poo and Kathleen again!

Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1126 Species