Idaho Day 9: A grand tour of Idaho!

MONDAY, AUGUST 22:

By 6am, Poo, Kathleen, and I were off on a great full-day birding adventure through the Idaho Snake River Plane. Our itinerary included Howe for Sagebrush Sparrow, Camas & Market Lake Wildlife Refuges for assorted birds, Blackfoot for Great-tailed Grackle, American Falls Reservoir for shorebirds & other waterbirds, and finally, the Snake River at Twin Falls for a vagrant Neotropic Cormorant. Fingers and toes were crossed for a successful day!

We were treated to a beautiful sunrise to start the day.

Our first mini-stop on the way to Howe was at Carey Wildlife Management Area where we had a few PIED-BILLED GREBES:

Including a young one with a fish!

And distant flyby SANDHILL CRANES:

Next, we saw a bunch of waterfowl in Lava Lake so of course we had to stop and scan. Here are some RING-NECKED DUCKS:

Male RUDDY DUCK (back):

CINNAMON TEAL with a young AMERICAN COOT mixed in:

Before we knew it, we made it to our first planned stop of the day. It was a dirt road through sagebrush areas near Howe, ID to search for Sagebrush Sparrow, a species I have only seen once before — and at this exact location, too. I immediately spied some pieces of wood strewn about and of course I had to flip. To my great surprise, what was underneath was not a herp (in the traditional sense of the word), but a Scorpion! Specifically, a Northern Scorpion. This was a lifer species for me and only the second Scorpion I have ever had the pleasure of finding. Absolutely awesome!

After admiring the Scorpion with Poo and Kathleen (it was also a new animal for them), we went on to picking through the many sparrows scattering through the area as we drove by. Here is a BREWER’S:

There were also SAGE THRASHER present:

And to our delight, we soon came upon a good number of SAGEBRUSH SPARROWS — at least ten! Absolutely an awesome year bird and my second sighting ever! They posed extremely well for us, too.

Another neat sighting was LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE.

We even observed a fledgling begging from a parent!

Absolutely awesome. Target #1 achieved. Next, we stopped briefly at a pull-off in Howe proper to look for warblers, and we did have a beautiful male WILSON’S, Poo’s first for the year I believe:

Unfortunately, Camas National Wildlife Refuge was a total bust as they had drained the whole formerly-wetland preserve and not a drop of water could be found anywhere. Bummer. This was because the preserve was going through a 7.8 million dollar restoration project to actually enhance and protect the wetlands in the long term which I suppose is a good thing. The only bird I photographed there was a roosting COMMON NIGHTHAWK in a dying line of trees that used to be rife with warblers:

We picked up a few YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRDS on our way to Market Lake.

Market Lake Wildlife Refuge itself was much better. There were decent numbers of shorebirds including BAIRD’S SANDPIPER:

LESSER YELLOWLEGS, one of a whopping high-count of 80 of these:

WHITE-FACED IBIS:

NORTHERN HARRIER:

An introduced Red-eared Slider:

We then walked a hedgerow that is typically good for warblers and GREAT HORNED OWLS, which, as you can see, did not disappoint:

We even found its mate further along:

And a fledgling!!!

After a rather successful time at Market Lake, we continued on to Blackfoot, ID where Kathleen remembered having seen reports of GREAT-TAILED GRACKLES in the Walmart parking lot there. Again, as you can see, not a problem getting them — we saw them before even parking the car. Here’s a male:

And a female:

A nearby park held FORSTER’S TERN:

AMERICAN AVOCET with RING-BILLED GULLS:

COMMON TERN (left), CALIFORNIA GULL (back), & RING-BILLED GULL (right):

Then, we continued on to our next stop which was American Falls Reservoir for hopefully large numbers of shorebirds. Unfortunately, our first stop there was majorly disappointing at first with only WILLETS seen with the many hundreds, if not thousands, of FRANKLIN’S GULLS:

But then, right as we were leaving, it picked up when I spotted nine MARBLED GODWITS mixed in. An awesome shorebird and only my second ever in Idaho.

EASTERN KINGBIRD on the way to our next viewing location for the Reservoir:

Luckily, the second location was much, much better though we had to make this stop a very quick one. GREAT EGRET was my Idaho lifer, here pictured with a LESSER YELLOWLEGS:

BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON, another that was only my second ever in Idaho!

WESTERN SANDPIPER in front — a small Peep with a long, slightly drooping bill — with a PECTORAL SANDPIPER in back, a larger bird with a clean cutoff between its white belly and darker breast.

SOLITARY SANDPIPER left, GREATER YELLOWLEGS back, and KILLDEER right:

Solitary again front right, Killdeer middle right, and two Peeps in the back.

We left American Falls Reservoir with a respectable eleven shorebird species and continued on to our last stop of the day, the Snake River canyon in Twin Falls, ID. A 90-minute drive away, we were betting on the last half-hour of daylight to identify a rare Neotropic Cormorant that has been hanging out the entire summer. The views on the descent into the canyon were fabulous:

AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN with a MALLARD:

We almost right off the bat had a flyover group of DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS:

But wait, does that second-to-left bird have a white outline to its bill? Please let me know whether or not you think this is a Neotropic Cormorant. It doesn’t seem smaller than the leftmost bird but the white outline sure looks good.

We also had a Beaver:

And a nice male CALIFORNIA QUAIL:

And an OSPREY perched across the river to end the day!

For now, bird-of-the-day goes to the Sagebrush Sparrows and Marbled Godwits with runners-up to the Willets, Great-tailed Grackles, and Great Horned Owls. Nice birds to choose from, even before mentioning the possible Neotropic Cormorant. We shall see!

Huge thanks to Kathleen for driving the whole day and to Poo for being a wonderful birding companion for the day, as well as providing her usual wealth of knowledge about everything natural. What a fantastic day!

Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1139 Species