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13 September 2011

Early September Northern Idaho Foray

Made a foray into Northern Idaho last weekend and was pleasantly surprised to find that an eBird hotspot was indeed hot! Thank you to whomever recommended this road.

Here is the link to the eBird data for this site: http://bit.ly/q63p5g

Sunnyside Road east of Sandpoint, is a pleasant jaunt through farms, past sloughs, then finally one is afforded glimpses of Lake Pend Oreille.

One highlight was learning the towhee-like vocalization of the Warbling Vireo as confirmed by iBird Explorer PRO. There were dozens of them in the bushes.

Another highlight was a large flock (100 plus) of Cedar Waxwing - we don't see large flocks of these very often; seems they flock up a bit further south from my usual haunts.

The few saskatoon bushes with fruit were well-tended by the hungry TOWHEES, GOLDFINCHES, and SPARROWS.

We also went to Kootenai NWR west of Bonner's Ferry. Here is the eBird link for that hotspot: http://bit.ly/nF7zm6

A local charity bike ride distracted us a bit but we managed to tally both YELLOWLEGS, a hen RING-NECKED PHEASANT with 6 young and, something new for me, a praying mantis in the wild.

While entering my eBird data, I was surprised to find they consider EARED GREBE a rarity in Northern Idaho. I saw one at McArthur Lake. They are not what I would call unusual here in the East Kootenay Trench. But a quick peek at its range map on allaboutbirds.com does show a big blank spot for them in N. Idaho. Wow. Seems strange.

Beautiful fall weather. Hope to go there again someday.

Here's wishing you a poke in the eye!
Dianne C.

2 comments:

  1. Glad you made it into Idaho! Is your birding friend Kimberly, the BCBirder Kim Wakelin?

    My wife has lots of relatives and ancestors from Raymond, Alberta and I as well from Beazer/Cardston.

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  2. Thx. yes, it was a beautiful trip. No, I don't know KimW. But follow her amazing photo work. I think she is further west.

    Oh, wow, relatives in Alberta! Cool. I don't get on that side of the Rockies much (gas money) but have relatives all around. Would be nice in the spring, to get the eastern warblers.

    Cheers!

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