New Year birds

The last week has been working with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, trying to radio collar female Sage grouse to track them during the summer (I will be part of that tracking) and seeing birds for the first time this season.

Probably the worst "bad hair day" every time you see them are the Red-breasted mergansers, especially the males.  Flocks were everywhere to be seen this week with Market Lake being the best place to watch them.

 

Even though not a new bird, the female Downy was followed to my backyard by a male, but she rebuffed his advances.

 

Likewise, the female Osprey cowered when the male tried playing footsy with her.  It seemed like they appeared overnight everywhere with 9 pairs showing up to repair their nests around Rexburg.

 

The comical Ruddy ducks with their strange coloration and funny actions showed up in great numbers at Market Lake also.

 

American Avocets showed up in a few pairs and a few singles trying to break up the pairings.  They are always a welcome sight as they feed mostly with their heads under water.

 

Hundreds of elk are moving from the sagebrush covered desert up to the evergreen covered hills and mountains.  Most of their winter range is still closed to human activities until May 1, but then the antler hunters will follow the herd as they head north.

 

Mule deer are also migrating to the mountains and as you can see, they wintered well as the mature does have big bellies and will give birth sometime in May.

 

In the last week I was able to spend at least an hour or two up to full days in the wilds of Idaho enjoying what God has blessed us with.  May each of you have a bless'ed week until we meet next.

Death at Market Lake WMA

Last week I drove out to Market Lake WMA for a short time but saw this mess.  A farmer had discarded his twine from his hay that he had fed his cows and left it laying everywhere.  It was all over the ground along with other garbage.  A pair of ospreys had used the twine in building their nest and one of the chicks had become tangled in some of the twine and fell from the nest where it died.

 

So I am encouraging everyone who feeds livestock to dispose of the twine in a burn barrel and burn it so this does not happen.  It was a waste of a beautiful bird.

 

 

 

 

Sorry the pictures are sideways, but don't know how to correct them.

 

 

I also met this wonderful marsh wren as it tried to visit me inside my blind.

 

Another day in the wilds of Idaho.

Great Saturday

Had a great Saturday chasing birds all over Southeastern Idaho.  First I went to the upper area of the Moody area looking for sharp-tail grouse.  I was able to find a lek of seven, one male and six females.

In the early morning sun, a Western Meadowlark was singing its lungs out.

At Market Lake WMA, the Great-horned owl has hatched the chicks, but hides them under her wings when we come around.

A Great Blue heron leaves as I pull up to watch him fish.

 

An American Avocet flies over and is just one of about a hundred working the shallows at Market Lake.

On the way home, I stopped by the Texas Slough and found large numbers of Willets and Greater Yellow-legs.  Here a pair of each compete for hidden food.

And finally my first Osprey of the season.  The male was helping the female remodel and spring clean their house.

A great way to spend another Wild Day in Idaho.

Busy Saturday

After watching four grandchildren run in a fun run, I headed for Sand Creek Ponds to work on a story about banana trout.  The turkey vultures were staging to migrate and I saw 17 of them soaring as I drove to the lakes.

I interviewed this lady who had caught a nice rainbow, but no bananas.  They had seen some swim by, but could not catch them.

So I rigged up my fly rod with a small nymph and moved to an area void of fishermen.  The banana trout would follow my fly and finally one would take it.

                                    

They were small, about six to eight inches, and  were easy to see in the water and even the ospreys got into the act and caught them.

                                 

Just another wild day in Idaho.

Ospreys at work

Most of the oprey nests are showing baby activity now.  But once you get close they hide in the big nests they have built on perches built for them.  One of those nests are just five miles away from my home and I have enjoyed watching them.

Here the female brings a stick to add to the nest even though the baby has hatched.  Maybe they continue building to keep the baby from rolling out of the nest.

While I am a long ways away, the male brings a fish to the female to feed.  You can just see the baby's head above the sticks of the nest

Several hours later, the male bring home a large sucker, probably for both the female and the baby.

Later, the female flies around exercising her wings.

Just another day in the wildness of Idaho.

Osprey #1

I need to catch up on my blogs for this week. I have spent over six hours observing several osprey nests and their behavior. In the future I will write detailed article about ospreys, but for right now I will write about yesterdays observations of a nest I have been watching a photographing all year.

A week ago there were two chicks in the nest and now there is only one. It appears that three adults have joined forces to take care of this nest. A month ago I observed three adults building and maintaining the nest on the Henrys Fork of the Snake River near Ashton.

As I watched the nest, the female started calling and making a heck of a racket. Soon I saw two other osprey show up circling above the nest. They were beautiful to watch but then they too became very vocal.

Then I saw four cormorants flying up the river toward the nest. Even though cormorants are fish eaters, I have seen them eat ducklings and destroy nests of birds nesting near the water.

As the cormorants got closer, the two osprey circling the nest would take turns dive bombing them with one of the ospreys always staying between the cormorants and the nest. The female osprey stayed in the nest while the other two seemed to be protecting the nest from the cormorants.

The cormorants circled higher and higher with the osprey circling below them. Finally the four cormorants broke up with the osprey is hot pursuit of them.

What a show. I do not know if the cormorants posed any danger to the osprey nest, but it sure appeared to. After the cormorants left, the two osprey went back to searching for food on the Henrys Fork and I did not stay long enough to see if they brought food to the nest. I was late for work I had to get done.

There is just too much to observe and enjoy out there in the Wilds of Idaho and the rest of the world.

Fishing Henrys Lake, again

Last Wednesday I ran up to Henrys Lake to try to see if the fishing had picked up. I started fishing at 5:30 and caught seven by 7. Then I spent the next four hours catching only two. This is typical after the weather warms up and we have afternoon thunderstorms roll through mixing things up.

Seven of the nine fish were brook trout with several in the 18 inch range.

I watched the guru of the lake, Harry Tupper, catch three fish while I did not catch any. He is a master of small flies and light tippets.

I spent some time taking pictures of birds on the way home. The experience of the day was watching a male osprey feeding the female while she sat on the nest. The young should soon hatch and then both parent will be very busy feeding the hungry, growing young birds. I will be exciting to watch that action.

Bringing in the food and then feeding the nest-sitter.