Idaho Day 5: Birding closer to home

Ketchum, ID

Tuesday 17 August 2021 88 °F

Today, our original plan was to ride the gondola up Mt. Baldy and hike our way down, but it was too smoky for a good view so we decided to just hang around Ketchum for the morning instead.

We had a brief but lovely encounter with this female-type CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD right in downtown Ketchum:

As well as some CASSIN’S FINCHES:

After we made it back to our condo, I did my usual hike up Mt. Baldy using the Warm Springs Trail behind our condo. The lower riparian area along the creek is always rich with YELLOW WARBLERS:

VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW:

An “Oregon” DARK-EYED JUNCO:

RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH:

Male Audubon’s YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER:

HAIRY WOODPECKER. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any of the three “fun” woodpecker species yet this year that live on Baldy: Williamson’s Sapsucker, Black-backed, & Three-toed Woodpecker.

PINE SISKIN:

Male CASSIN’S FINCH:

I also had a heard-only OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER up on the mountain.

Later in the day, I enjoyed a fun thirty-minute photo shoot with the AMERICAN DIPPER that lives in the stream behind our condo. Probably one of my favorite North American birds, and definitely my favorite Idaho bird as they are quite uncommon here in general, yet this one is always extremely reliable right behind our condo. These birds have such an insulting layer of feathers that they completely submerge themselves in ice-cold mountain streams, hunting for aquatic insects. This will be my bird-of-the-day, with runner-up to the earlier Calliope Hummingbird.