Idaho Day 1: Search for the Great Gray & more!

Sawtooth National Forest, ID

Tuesday 16 August 2022 82 °F

SUNDAY, AUGUST 14:

Today, Will Schenck and I headed up north to search for a number of Idaho & general lifers for him. His main target was the Great Gray Owl but other lifers and state lifers he wanted to net included Boreal Owl, Gray Jay, Lincoln’s Sparrow, both Arctic woodpeckers, and basically any shorebird species.

So, I threw together a detailed itinerary and our first productive stop was the Titus Lake trailhead where we had two GRAY JAYS do a quick fly by, an Idaho lifer for Will! Hell yeah — and a surprise since I had never had them at this particular location (we were looking for Pine Grosbeaks here, which we missed).

And on the Corvid train we had CLARK’S NUTCRACKERS, too!

A beautiful view from the Titus Lake trail.

Our next stop on the other side of Galena failed to get us Williamson’s Sapsucker, but we had a few more common things like this male WESTERN TANAGER:

SPOTTED SANDPIPER:

This little creek that we found ourselves birding was so darn picturesque. This is why I love Idaho so much.

Our best bird of this location so far was this NASHVILLE WARBLER which I believe was a state bird for Will, too:

RED-TAILED HAWK:

Our next stop, Redfish Lake, was for Spruce Grouse and we unsurprisingly dipped yet again on this extremely-elusive grouse species. This WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW tried its best to cheer us up, though:

And this ratty Audubon’s YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER:

And a RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH:

At our next stop, the Stanley Sewage Ponds, this ground squirrel greeted us:

And we were thrilled to spot AMERICAN AVOCETS in the upper pond!

And upon peaking over the edge to the lower pond, there was plenty of waterfowl as usual including this CINNAMON TEAL:

NORTHERN SHOVELERS:

MALLARDS:

This young PEREGRINE FALON came dive-bombing in at one point:

Female REDHEAD:

An absolutely sick find were these two WILSON’S PHALAROPES. The one was taking a bath in the sewage pond water — nice.

I would call this a LESSER YELLOWLEGS based on the shorter bill length:

And conversely, this a GREATER — would you agree?

LEAST SANDPIPER:

AMERICAN AVOCETS in front of the Sawtooth Mountains, where mom and I will be hiking on wednesday!

And a GREEN-WINGED TEAL in the icky algae:

Gorgeous Stanley Lake on our way to the next spot.

Next, we headed up to Cape Horn Road to try for the Great Gray Owls (among other targets). One of the other targets was a Lincoln’s Sparrow, and I had us stop the car by some appropriate willow habitat and sure enough, as soon as we started spishing, a LINCOLN’S SPARROW popped up! Cool! This brought back memories of the same exact thing happening with a Saltmarsh Sparrow down in Florida a few years back.

This OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER was another state bird for Will:

And right alongside, he spied his life mammal AMERICAN BADGER! Awesome!

Here’s its den:

A visit to Cape Horn Road is never complete without proper SANDHILL CRANE photos.

And Antelope:

Oh, and juvenile CHIPPING SPARROWS.

We got excited over this woodpecker for a minute but it turned out just to be a RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER. Still cool, though.

A little further along the road, we saw a huge owl flying away from us which was assuredly a Great Gray Owl but unfortunately it never perched, never allowing for a clinching ID to separate it from Great Horned. So unfortunately that left us with a big “owl sp” for the day which was incredibly frustrating. We even parked the car and hiked along the woods it disappeared into but nada. Very frustrating, but that’s birding sometimes.

The owling the rest of the night was quiet but we did spot 3 shooting stars! Hopefully more luck when I return on wednesday to search for the Great Grays again with Poo and Nubs. We shall see! Still a great day out, and wonderful to bird with a new friend. Bird-of-the-day goes to the Wilson’s Phalaropes for me with runner-up to the Gray Jays. A fairly solid day of admiring the birds in this beautiful western land!

Stay tuned — tomorrow I will bird a bit on Mt. Baldy, and tuesday I will hike up Thompson Peak in the Sawtooth Mountains with my mom! Birding shall ensue.

Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1138 Species

Posted by skwclar 04:03 Archived in USA