Busy Saturday

I wanted to do some birding Saturday, but I was not able to do any serious until 11:30 and I headed for Market Lake Wildlife Management area. 
Early it was all raptors like this Prairie Falcon.

There were plenty of starlings for the falcons, kestrels, and shrikes for lunch and dinner.

I finally located another nesting Great-horned owl nest to make four that I have found so far.

This "big daddy" did not feel up to attacking me as he has twice before.

And spring is in the air as these two Canada geese are flirting and showing off for each other.

A great way to finish the day was watching three Golden Eagles playing tag high over head and then locating and photographing a flock of Common Red Polls (later this week in my blog, madisonbirds) after a successful fishing trip.

A great day in the wilds of Idaho.

Midge hatch feeds birds

Saturday I drove to Henrys Lake to check on spawning fish and on the way home I decided to check the Henrys Fork for birds.  Midges were hatching by the millions and were all over the snow.

The first birds I noticed were European Starlings feeding on the midges.

A little further down the road I found what I was looking for - waxwings.  About 100 Bohemian and Cedar were sitting in the bushes, flying out to pick off the hatching midges.  Only a few of them were Cedar's while the majority were these beautiful Bohemians.

At times I would catch one "sallying" or hoovering  long enough to pick of the flying insects.  Robins and Mountain Bluebirds were joining the waxwing in the feast.

What a great sight to see, spending a few hours in the wilds of Idaho.

Snow Birds

Yesterday morning I got up to six inches of snow and the birds were having a hard time finding a perch.  Each time they tried to land, the snow would give way and down they would come, birdy, snow and all.  Finally there were enough bare branches for them to gain some footing.  Here a male Housefinch is able to perch close to my blind.

A male Lesser Goldfinch is a bright spot in a snow-covered world.

As the day progressed a blizzard blew in and over a hundred birds, American Goldfinch, Lesser Goldfinch, House Sparrows, flickers, Downy Woodpeckers, Pine Siskins, Eurasian Collared Doves, Starlings, Sharp-shinned hawks and these Housefinch all came to eat.  They emptied my feeders twice and the hawks harvested a few of the munchers.

A great day to observe nature in the Wilds of Idaho.

DC trip.

Back home out of the Urban Concrete Jungle.  Flying was a mess.  Delays, missed flights, crowded planes, people who had eaten garlic or gotten drunk the night before - or both sitting next to me.  Lovely experience in the wildness of humans.  Spending four nights alone in a hotel room without a loved one with me - I can hardly wait to go back to required meetings.

But........... on the brighter side, I visited the Holocaust Museum and I saw four species of birds - not counting all the "chicks" running to catch the subway.  Boy was that exciting.

First I saw pigeons, but the most interesting was pigion feathers systematically falling from a high building.  Something was picking the feathers off a hapless bird, but I did not find out what it was.  I thought it might be a falcon - but was probably a DC rat or a homeless person.

I did see a House sparrow.

Nearby I saw a Starling, picking crumbs off the street.

But then I found an owl with a birdwatcher in Chinatown observing the wildlife in Washington DC!!!!

I am glad to be back in Idaho where the wildness of the weather does not cause me frustration.  By the way, these pictures were taken with my wife's point and shoot camera - I left my big one home.