By this Author: skwclar

Oak Park Bird Walk

Cook County, IL

Monday 16 September 2024 82 °F

In a crazy weekend of visiting both Chicago and New York, I managed to squeeze in one Oak Park Bird Walk during my time in Chicago. Photos and the complete checklist can be viewed at the following link: https://ebird.org/checklist/S195359540
Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1303 Species

Posted by skwclar 17:01 Archived in USA Comments (0)

Last morning in Idaho

Blaine County, ID

Sunday 15 September 2024 75 °F

AUGUST 23:

As this was my last morning in the state before my afternoon flights back to Chicago, I again hiked west out Warm Springs Rd to enjoy the western birds while I still could!

VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS were wheeling overhead in large numbers:

Beautiful sunflowers abound alongside the road every year:

Gorgeously-patterned RED-TAILED HAWK:

BREWER’S SPARROW is actually a pretty decent find for this stretch of road:

AMERICAN KESTREL:

CHIPPING SPARROW:

And finally, on my last morning here, I got my year bird DUSKY FLYCATCHER! Usually these are easier for me to get out here. Anyway, yay!

VESPER SPARROW:

This PINE SISKIN had particularly striking yellow epaulets:

Male AMERICAN GOLDFINCH:

Unfortunately, before I knew it, it was time to stay goodbye to the condo for the year and head to the airport around Noon. Bird-of-the-day to the Dusky Flycatcher.

Little did we know that a large mountain storm was brewing over the Pioneers and impacting operations into the airport meaning our inbound plane wasn’t able to land for several hours until after we were scheduled to depart. We therefore faced a 6.5-hour delay and the prospects of missing our connecting flight to Denver. After hours on the phone with United, we were able to change our tickets so instead of me going back to Chicago we would stay the night in Denver and the next morning mom would continue to Chicago and I would fly to New York via DC.

Finally by 8:00pm we were boarding our extremely-tardy flight to Denver.

And I did eventually make it to New York the next day, flying this little 50-seater for my last leg of my summer journeys. What a summer!

Stay tuned for more: I haven’t been able to do any birding in New York yet this fall but I will be leading an Oak Park Bird Walk when I come home very soon and will be posting about that in due time.

Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1303 Species

Posted by skwclar 15:59 Archived in USA Comments (0)

Pine & Featherville with Kathleen

Saturday 14 September 2024 80 °F

AUGUST 21:

This morning my mom dropped me off down in Bellevue again for another day of birding with Kathleen! This time, she stayed a bit and the three of us were able to catch up (and admire Kathleen’s gorgeous artwork!) which was great. PINE SISKINS abound in her area:

As do RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRDS:

And I got what I believe to be actually my first-ever decent photo of a male LESSER GOLDFINCH, how cool!

Target birds for the Pine/Featherville area today would be White-breasted Nuthatch, White-headed Woodpecker, Western Bluebird, and Vaux’s Swift among others.

Our first birding stop of the day was at Hot Springs Landing of Magic Reservoir along I-20 where we once again we had SOLITARY SANDPIPER, a nice find for the area:

And BAIRD’S SANDPIPERS again:

As well as CINNAMON TEAL:

Notice the large-ish, pale duck in the water: it is a hen NORTHERN PINTAIL with her ducklings around her! Too cool!

LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER was another nice sight here:

Then, we drove all the way to Pine, ID where we stopped at Anderson Ranch Reservoir to look at more waterbirds. AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS proliferated, among other things:

As did NORTHERN SHOVELERS:

And a whopping seventeen GREAT BLUE HERONS:

Kathleen pointed out this lone pine tree that is growing out of a crack in a rocky outcropping way above the reservoir. Too cool, and quintessentially “Idaho!”

As we were searching for White-headed Woodpeckers in Pine, we saw a group of RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRDS at a feeder:

This RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH faked us out for a Pygmy at one point:

And then I found another one of our targets for today, a WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, a species that is much more localized in distribution out here in Idaho. Very cool!

And just minutes after wondering aloud if we would find any Crossbills today, we picked up a group of RED CROSSBILLS that flew into the trees above. Awesome! Love photographing these boreal finches.

LARK SPARROW along one of the roads where Kathleen has had White-headed Woodpecker in the past.

Another Red-breasted Nuthatch:

And as we drove back along the other side of the Reservoir to get to Featherville, this immature BALD EAGLE soared over:

As did these two adults, calling loudly and occasionally locking talons mid-air:

Along with a TURKEY VULTURE, one of many today:

One nice species we picked up along this stretch of road was LEWIS’ WOODPECKER, of which we saw many.

And a herd of Pronghorn Antelope:

We stop for snakes! Luckily, Kathleen spotted the shape in the road and we stopped so I could pull this GREAT BASIN GOPHER SNAKE (nonvenomous) off the road:

More Lewis’ Woodpeckers:

And a second snake species for the day, a WANDERING GARTERSNAKE that Kathleen spotted sunning next to a mountain stream:

At this stop right beside the road we also had a number of awesome finds including this soaring GOLDEN EAGLE:

And I was THRILLED to spot and photograph these VAUX’S SWIFT, of which I have only seen briefly on my Panama trip this spring, and I didn’t get a chance to photograph them there. So these were my photographic, and my ABA lifer!!! Super awesome!!! We are right on the edge of their range in Idaho here in Pine and Featherville and Kathleen was equally excited to get them.

Semi-lifer dance!

And the final fantastic find here was CLARK’S NUTCRACKER which apparently is rare in this particular mountain range as it tried the eBird Rare Bird Alert when we submitted the checklist. Cool!

At this point, I actually started to feel a bit under the weather (probably just from exhaustion from birding and hiking so much) so we decided to head back towards the highway. The views on the way out from Anderson Ranch Reservoir were just phenomenal:

And a group of trees right along this incredibly high road on the way out was full of passerines like WESTERN TANAGERS:

YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER:

And stunning looks at this WARBLING VIREO:

Bird-of-the-day to the Vaux’s Swifts with runners-up to the Golden Eagle and White-breasted Nuthatch. A phenomenal day out birding with Kathleen in a beautiful part of the state. It was so great, as always, to spend such dear time birding with her, and Robi this year! You two are so special to me and I am already looking forward to planning next year’s adventures.

Stay tuned for one final Idaho post, coming right up!

Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1303 Species

Posted by skwclar 12:45 Archived in USA Comments (0)

Johnstone Pass

Pioneer Mountains, ID

Friday 6 September 2024 80 °F

AUGUST 20:

This morning, my mom and I drove all the way down East Fork Canyon west of Gimlet in the Wood River Valley to a hike called Johnstone Pass. I chose this hike specifically because of the poor road conditions on the way there and taking advantage of the fact that, this year, we had a Ford F150 truck capable of tackling Idaho’s gnarliest roads.

The view from the drive in was incredible!

And there were several sections of road that were so sketchy that I had to get out, clear some debris, and guide mom through:

A short way up the hike we passed next to a scree field where I pointed out this Pika:

The views along the hike were just world class.

Female WESTERN TANAGER:

DARK-EYED JUNCO:

Snowshoe Hare abounded — it was a total boom year for them and I saw at least one everyday I was out in Idaho this year, which I have never noticed happen before!

Female CASSIN’S FINCH:

WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE:

CLARK’S NUTCRACKER:

This flyover GOLDEN EAGLE was pretty cool, seen soaring over Johnstone Peak once we were near the top!

The hike started to get incredibly steep as we ascended up the southern wall of the canyon.

Unfortunately, we decided to “declare victory” before reaching the top of the steep ridge — the trail was frankly just too exposed, steep, and dusty for both of us to feel comfortable continuing on this rather unmaintained section of 45-degree-angle. Still, we were rewarded beautiful views of the East Fork Canyon through which we had just ascended.

DUSKY GROUSE were one of the most common birds along the trail and I counted thirteen of them, most of which were flushed and then flew away with a whir of their wings. One individual was quite obliging though and will therefore earn this species bird-of-the-day for today:

On the way down, we also met a fellow who lived out on East Fork and keeps a home for adopted Labrador Retrievers. Five such dogs were along with him today (as well as a walking stick and a pistol!) and we admired the dogs and chatted him up briefly. He mentioned that he had broken his neck hiking earlier in his life, so it was amazing he still gets out and tackles this steep of a trail.

This puppy didn’t want to say goodbye to mom!

And beautiful views of a pair of ROCK WRENS in the same scree field as the Pika was earlier.

It was a gorgeous hike and a beautiful day to spend with mom. We drove back to our condo and enjoyed an afternoon at the pool. Definitely will keep these views in mind throughout the gloomy winter!

Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1303 Species

Posted by skwclar 19:50 Archived in USA Comments (1)

Muldoon Canyon

Blaine County, ID

Tuesday 27 August 2024 85 °F

MONDAY, AUGUST 19:

After bidding adieu to Robi in the morning, Kathleen and I headed out for our fourth consecutive day of birding near the Wood River Valley of Central Idaho. We decided on Muldoon Canyon for the day since, being right outside Bellevue, it seemed the right choice after yesterday’s long trip.

We started off with the trusty CHUKAR in the wash just east of Bellevue:

And a group of AMERICAN KESTRELS mobbed by a BLACK-BILLED MAGPIE:

An offshoot canyon, Sharps Canyon, seemed promising so we tried our luck there. We managed to snag Kathleen’s F.O.Y. OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER!

Female-type LAZULI BUNTING:

HAIRY WOODPECKER:

SAVANNAH SPARROW:

Adult male LAZULI BUNTINGS:

HAMMOND’S FLYCATCHERS abounded on this particular valley which was great to see:

Back on Muldoon Canyon Rd, a lone DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT on a pond:

And shortly after Sharps Canyon, we found our first LEWIS’ WOODPECKERS of the day and my F.O.Y. — so cool!!!

Quite a bit later I lucked into spotting a PRAIRIE FALCON that flew up to some bigh cliffs above the road and perched:

And flew again, showing off its black armpits:

Closer to the Little Wood River, we had more WILLOW FLYCATCHERS:

And female YELLOW WARBLER:

And one shy GRAY FLYCATCHER:

As well as a WARBLING VIREO:

Out on the Little Wood Reservoir I spotted this CLARK’S GREBE:

And on our way back to Bellevue, we stopped at a spot the other day where we had a roosting LONG-EARED OWL, and Kathleen spotted it again, almost exactly in the same position as yesterday! Better yet we got to show her close friend, Fooh, (not Poo!) and this bird which was most likely her lifer. This will therefore be my bird-of-the-day for today.