County Big Years

Dr. Stephen Lindsay did a Big Year in 2001. He attempted to see 200 birds in Kootenai County during the year 2001. He tallied up only 199 and on January 1, 2002 he found a Snowy Owl on Rathdrum Prairie. Had he found it the day before he would have made his 200. This gave me the idea of doing a Kootenai County Big Year as a group. I started this project in 2002 and published our progress on the two list serves, Inland-nw-birders and IBLE. The idea of doing County Big Years caught on. Twenty-four out of 43 Idaho Counties are doing Big Years this year. The results are posted on www.idahobirds.net. Shoshone, Bonner and Benewah counties are also our Audubon website. Washington State birders are now doing county big years.

Kootenai County Spring Arrivals and first date seen for the year 2002 - 2012

This is a chart showing the first date a species was observed for the year. In the case of migrants, it would be a first arrival date (although the bird could likely have arrived a day or two earlier but was not observed and reported until the date given). Because of the size of the chart, it is presented on three web pages. If you want to see who reported it and where, check the Kootenai County Big year pages. You can compare Kootenai County arrival dates with other counties doing Big Years on www.idahobirds.net.

Checklist of Birds Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes

This checklist is compiled by Lisa Hardy. It is a PDF file and may be printed out (2 pages). Click here for checklist

The Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes traverses a diverse array of habitats, including some of the best birding locales in North Idaho. Ranging over 1100' feet in elevation, from the shore of Coeur d'Alene Lake at 2150' to the mixed conifer forest around Mullan at 3250', and including wetlands, agricultural fields, urban streetscapes, cottonwood groves, and deep water, the Trail bisects all the major low-elevation habitat types found in North Idaho. This habitat profile yields a potential list of 189 species, plus an additional 48 very rare specie

Christmas Bird Counts

Science in Action: From December 14 through January 5 tens of thousands of volunteers throughout the Americas take part in an adventure that has become a family tradition among generations. Families and students, birders and scientists, armed with binoculars, bird guides and checklists go out on an annual mission - often before dawn. For over one hundred years, the desire to both make a difference and to experience the beauty of nature has driven dedicated people to leave the comfort of a warm house during the Holiday season. Each of the citizen scientists who annually braves snow, wind, or rain, to take part in the Christmas Bird Count makes an enormous contribution to conservation. Audubon and other organizations use data collected in this longest-running wildlife census to assess the health of bird populations - and to help guide conservation action. Read More

Our Chapter sponsors three Christmas Bird Counts

Coeur d'Alene -compiled by Shirley Sturts
Spirit Lake - compiled by Shirley Sturts
Indian Mountain - compiled by Don Heikkila

See results:

Century Counts

Every year we do a Century Count covering one of the 5 northern counties. Our goal is see if we can find at 100 or more species in one day. This is an all day effort, from around 5 a.m. to dusk.

Yardlist

Compiled by Hardy 2009-2011

Compiled by Doug Ward 2012

2012
2011
2010
2009

Raptor Survey

Compiled by Doug Ward

2012-2013