ADOPT-A-HIGHWAY
Judy Waring
On Saturday, October 3, we will be back at it again. We
meet at 8:00 a.m. at the Mica Grange Hall for the donut and juice ritual. If
you have a free morning, please join us in our community service effort. It is
a satisfying way to spend two hours. For more information call Judy at 765-5378.
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Landowners Enlist in Saving Declining Bird Species
Reprint from the American Bird Conservancy Website
Private landowners are stepping up to help a number of
cavity-nesting bird species of conservation concern. In many areas of the West,
there is a shortage of large snags (dead trees) needed by many species of
cavity-nesters, including the Flammulated
Owl
, and Lewis’s and White-headed Woodpeckers as a result of forest management
practices of post-fire logging and removing dead and dying trees. To help
spread the news and get more landowners involved, American Bird Conservancy has
produced a new booklet highlighting with the efforts of private landowners in
implementing bird conservation measures in ponderosa pine forests to help cavity-nesting
birds.
“I used to take 10-12 truckloads of dead and dying trees
off my property each year, but now I will leave a lot of those dead trees for
wildlife, especially cavity-nesting birds,” says Jim Dovenberg, a participant
in the program from Oregon who is featured in the booklet which was made
possible thanks to the generous support of the Wildlife Conservation Society
and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Produced
in cooperation with the American Forest Foundation and Forest Restoration Partnership,
the booklet, entitled “Landowners
Stories in Bird Conservation: Managing for Cavity-Nesting Birds in ponderosa
pine forests”, features the stories of six landowners
who participated in the program.”
Landowners hold the future of these birds in their
management decisions,” said American Bird Conservancy’s Dan Casey, the Northern Rockies Bird Conservation
Region Coordinator. “We hope that the stories of these folks will inspire other
people to manage their land for cavity-nesting bird species, and we are
providing a variety of resources to help them make the transition.”
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Leonard Bernstein and the Ivory-billed Woodpecker Go to Washington
Cornell Lab of Ornithology eNews, June 16, 2009
This week,
the sounds of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers earned a special place of honor in
American history: A 1935 recording from the Cornell Lab's Macaulay Library was
added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry. It was the only
nonhuman voice to make this select group of 25 recordings chosen for their
historical, cultural, or aesthetic significance. Other sounds included music
from the original cast of "West Side Story," John Lee Hooker, and The
Who. For the story and links to a montage of the recordings, visit our Round Robin blog.
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WESTERN FIELD ORNITHOLOGISTS
Shirley Sturts
"Western Field Ornithologists,
WFO,
is an organization of amateur and professional field ornithologists that
promotes the study of birds throughout western North America. Each fall WFO holds a four day conference
with scientific papers, field trips, workshops, panels, a keynote address, the
annual membership meeting, and other events. The location varies each year.
This year the meeting was held in Boise on September 10-13th.
Lisa Hardy and I attended the Boise
meeting. One of the highlights of our
trip was a visit to the Idaho Bird Observatory located at the top of Lucky
Peak.
On the first day of the conference, Greg Kaltenecker, our leader and the executive director of IBO, navigated our van up a rough 4-wheel drive
road to the top of Lucky Peak. Lisa and
I expected to arrive at a place with buildings. Instead, we came to a gate with
the name "Idaho Bird Observatory" above it and a port-a-potty (the
only bathroom available). Up the
hill and around the corner there was a
little plywood shack where they brought the birds in for banding and data
collection. Living quarters consisted
of one small camp trailer (how did they get that up there?) and a few backpack
type tents scattered here and there among the bushes.
In 1993, it was discovered that this area supports one of
the 
largest
raptor and songbird fall migration
routes in the western United States.
What makes this area unique in its attraction to migrating birds is the
topography. Lucky Peak is the southernmost peak on the Boise Ridge; looking southwest is the desert, looking
northeast is forested mountains. We had
a bird's eye view of Boise to the west and the Simplot mansion with its large
flag was visible in the foothills above the city.
The banding station for migratory song
birds, established in 1997 on Lucky Peak, is active everyday from July 16th
to October 15th . Using mist nests, researchers and volunteers
capture and band 4,000-6,000 song-birds every year, representing 60 species.
Besides banding the birds, they measure wings and tails, determine age
and sex. weigh them, check for the
amount of fat on their bodies and for parasites lurking in their feathers. During our visit, the banding crew caught and banded Hammond's Flycatcher, Western
Tanager, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Red-breasted Nuthatch, 5 warbler species,
Spotted Towhee, and White-crowned Sparrow.
Some were handed off to us for releasing. It was interesting seeing these birds close up. We had trouble 
identifying
some of them because they look very different in hand than in the field. This banding program has added several new
species to the Idaho bird list.
A Chestnut-sided
Warbler was sighted by one of our fellow visitors, a top birder from North
Dakota. It was not captured, but photos
were taken and we all got to see it.
The Chestnut-sided Warbler is on the Idaho State Review List. There are 7 accepted records for
Idaho, one being banded at Lucky Peak on September 3, 2001, plus 25 other sightings
between 1974-2009. These sightings are
all from southern Idaho.
In the afternoon, we took part in the daily hawkwatch which
is conducted every fall from the 25th of August through the 31st
of October. While that is going on,
they are also trapping raptors for banding and measuring. They band between 1,000 and 2,000 diurnal
raptors and forest owls each fall.
There is an owl crew that sleeps all day and traps and bands owls most
of the night. While visiting the
trapping station, we watched raptor crew catch several Cooper's and
Sharp-shinned Hawk and American Kestrel.
Again, we had a chance to hold and release the birds after they 
were banded and measured. A Red-tailed Hawk came into the
trap but escaped. A Golden Eagle flew
over but didn't attempt to come in.
Charles Swift, from Moscow, said they saw a Broad-winged Hawk during his
visit on Saturday.
Besides the banding
program, IBO is involved in a year-round environmental education program for
local schools, K-12 and programs for university students and the public.
IBO is funded completely through grants, contracts and
donations from individuals. See their
Website at:
www.boisestate.edu/biology/IBO
Lisa
and I are considering a possible field trip to Lucky Peak next fall. See our November issue for more highlights
of our trip, including the filed trip to the South Hills Crossbills.
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BEGINNING BIRDING TRIPS WITH LYNN SHERIDAN
Birding
the trails on The Nature Conservancy's Cougar Gulch Nature Preserve
On August 20, 2009, Pat Bearman, Valerie Zagar, Vera
Taggert, Adela Sussman and Jan
Severtson joined me on a two hour,
morning trek along the Nature
Conservancy trails. The marshy area
was thick with reeds and grass with
one old nest box peaking out at
us. We set off on a level trail that
rose slowly for some distance before turning uphill through the forest. We expected to see swallows feeding over the
marsh but there were none. Jan heard a
Steller's Jay and a Red-winged Blackbird. Later we all got a good look at
a Red-winged Blackbird in the marsh. As we started uphill, several
Dark-eyed Junco flitted across the path. We heard Red-breasted Nuthatch, chickadees, Pine
Siskin, and Northern Flicker. Jan
identified two other birds for us: Cassin's Vireo and Willow Flycatcher.
As Jan and I lagged
at the back of the homeward bound 
procession, we heard and then saw a Gray
Catbird. Back in our cars, as we
joined Hwy 95, a flock of 30-40 Red-winged Blackbirds blanketed the marshy area on the west side. We couldn't
stop --- maybe that's where all the
swallows were feeding, too!
Thank you everyone, Lynn
Sheridan
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eastern washington migrant extravaganza
September 13th, Sunday
Jonathan Isacoff
Eight birders from
CDA Audubon Joined Jon and Ann for a great time touring some of the hottest
(literally and figuratively!) migrant traps in Adams and Franklin
Counties. The
locations we visited were: Bassett Park in Washtucna, Palouse Falls State
Park, Lyons Ferry State Park, and Sprague Lake.
We tallied 70
species; no mega-rarities but lots of good ones. Among others, we had a
possible Least Flycatcher at Bassett Park -- photos are at www.flickr.com/photos/isacoff.
If anyone has guesses, let me know.
Some of our best birds were: Clark's Grebe 2 , American White Pelican 10, Peregrine Falcon
1, Sabine's Gull 4, Eurasian
Collared-Dove 20.
Our Complet List
1.
Canada Goose 5
2. California Quail
25
3. Wild Turkey 15
4. Pied-billed Grebe
2
5. Western Grebe 4
6. CLARK'S GREBE 2
7. American White
Pelican 10
8. Double-crested
Cormorant 20
9. Great Blue Heron
1
10. American Coot 200
11. Osprey 1
12. Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
13. Swainson's Hawk 1
14. Red-tailed Hawk 3
15. PEREGRINE FALCON 1
16. American Kestrel 2
17. Killdeer 4
18. Spotted Sandpiper 1
19. Baird's Sandpiper 3
20. Red-necked Phalarope 3
21. SABINE'S GULL 4
22. Ring-billed Gull 20
23. Great Horned Owl 1
24. Rock Pigeon 10
25. Eurasian Collared-Dove 20
26. Mourning Dove 28
27. Common Nighthawk 1
28. Belted Kingfisher 1
29. Downy Woodpecker 2
30. Northern Flicker 4
31. Olive-sided Flycatcher 1
32. Western Wood-Pewee 2
33. Willow Flycatcher 1
34. LEAST FLYCATCHER 1
(Possible)
35. Hammond's Flycatcher 13
36. Dusky Flycatcher 2
37. Pacific-slope Flycatcher 1
38. Cassin's Vireo 2
39. Warbling Vireo 4
40. RED-EYED VIREO 1
41. Black-billed Magpie 5
42. American Crow 10
43. Common Raven 5
44. Horned Lark 10
45. Barn Swallow 10
46. Red-breasted Nuthatch 5
47. Ruby-crowned Kinglet 12
48. TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE 1
49. SWAINSON'S THRUSH 1
50. Hermit Thrush 5
51. American Robin 7
52. European Starling 50
53. Cedar Waxwing 1
54. Orange-crowned Warbler 4
55. Nashville Warbler 1
56. Yellow Warbler 1
57. Yellow-rumped Warbler 194
58. Wilson's Warbler 33
59. Western Tanager 3
60. Chipping Sparrow 20
61. Savannah Sparrow 1
62. Lincoln's Sparrow 1
63. Song Sparrow 1
64. Vesper
Sparrow 1
65. White-crowned Sparrow 30
66. Dark-eyed Junco 23
67. House Finch 5
68. Pine Siskin 1
69. American Goldfinch 22
70. House Sparrow 10
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Observaton
Post
2009
Kootenai County Big Year - as of
September 20 is 185 -- go to our website for a complete list
Great
Egret
- 1 on September 10 at the Sawmill pond
near Cataldo Mission by Larry Miller, 2 on September 15 at the same location
and 1 in Lane Marsh by Lisa Hardy. Carrie Hugo also reported 1 in this area
during this time period
Black-necked
Stilt
- 9 on August 27 - IBA Survey along the NIC
dike road by Lynn Sheridan and Jan Severtson
Killdeer - Adult with 2 young - July 14 -Rimrock
area
Black-headed
Grosbeak
- nest w/4 young- photographed by Tom Davenport (visit his website http://www.prairiephoto.biz/
Calliope
Hummingbird
- Nest w/2 young (first confirmed sighting for Latilong 2) - CDA - photographed
by Tim Christe
Blue
Jay
- 7-9 (breeding suspected) July 24 Powederhorn Bay Road, CDA Lake by Doug
Shonewald
