Henrys Lake Fishing and Eastern Kingbirds

I fished with Jim and Jeff again on Henrys Lake Friday, and it was not as good as it was on Wednesday, but we still caught a lot of fish, but no big ones.

On the way home, I decided to check out an Eastern Kingbird nest I located a couple of weeks ago. I set up my blind and the birds put on a show for me.

The four newly hatched chicks were very hungry and the parents were busy catching insects to stuff in the hungry babes.

A parent captures a large dragonfly and returns to the nest of four hungry mouths.

After waiting a while, the parent stuffs the large insect into the mouth of a hungry chick. If you look closely you can see the wing of the dragonfly to the right of the parent.

The parent then watches over the chicks while its partner hunts and harvests flying insects.

The other parent returns with its mouth stuffed full of insects to feed the hungry babes.

Only one hungry mouth left to fill after two trips for each parent to the nest to feed the chicks.

After feeding the last baby Eastern Kingbird, the parent apparently starts singing a lullaby as all the babes appear to be asleep. After they are all settled down, both parents catch more flying insects and roost on a nearby willow to feed themselves.

It didn't take very long before all four chicks are howling for more food.

A parent begins picking flying insects out of the air next to the nest as the babies continue to yell for food.

More food for two of the hungry mouths while the other two continue to yell for food.

After more feedings, one of the parents sits about the squalking mass of reproduced chicks. I can only imagin the thoughts running through the parents mind. "Sex isn't all it is cracked up to be!!!!" "Once a parent - always a parent." "Slavery was outlawed by the 13th Amendment."

What a show I had while I watched the family of birds. On the other side of the pond, a pair of Olive-sided Flycatchers were doing the same thing.

Red-necked Grebes on Henrys Lake

Not only the fishing at Henrys Lake draws me there several times each week. The abundance of birds there also excites me. Mountain Bluebirds, Song sparrows and swallows line the roads and utilize many of the nest boxes placed along the road. The other day I had a young Tree swallow land on my fly rod while I was fishing. I let it rest awhile before it flew back toward the shore.

For several years I have been doing a count on adult Red-necked grebes as their population continues to increase on the lake. With only four to six recognized breeding spots in Idaho, the Red-neckeds are booming on Henrys.

Last year I did four counts and the most I saw in one day was 62 adults. This year I have only made two counts and the high so far has been 87 adults and 36 pairs had chicks with them.

While fishing in the A-Frame Bay, I had several pairs swim very close to me with their chicks. Close enough for some fairly good pictures.

In 2005 there were an estimated 100 breeding pair in Idaho with the first pair showing up on Henrys Lake in 1986.

They are an interesting bird that prefer the sculpin that live in Henrys Lake. It is interesting to watch the adults dive for food and then feed it to the young. Or to watch the young chicks ride on the backs of the adults.

A chick grabs an adults feather to climb up on the back for a piggy-back ride as the adult shouts its displeasure.

I will be writing an article for the Rexburg Standard Journal newspaper in the next few weeks on them. They are a fun bird to watch.

Fishing Henrys Lake

Yesterday I guided Jim and Jeff from California on Henrys Lake. It was the best fishing day we have had this year. Both are expert fly fishermen and can cast full sinking lines.

We were fishing Targhee Creek mouth and caught a lot of nice brook trout up to 21 inches. But the fish of the day was Jim's 24 inch hybrid and Jeff's 28 inch hybrid.

We caught fish on the Mity Mouse, Hot Chocolate, RC and Light Olive CBs. We had a great time.

Red-naped sapsuckers

I am always a few days behind with my blog as it takes me a few days to get my pictures downloaded

Last Thursday I decided to spend the afternoon in the mountains east of Rexburg, in the Moody Creek area, looking for huckleberries. I found a lot of green ones, but no ripe ones yet. They are about two to three weeks away from really producing.

I was leisurely driving down a mountain road when I heard the sound of baby woodpeckers in some aspen trees. I pulled over and watched until I saw an adult Red-naped sapsucker land on a tree. After it left, I positioned myself so I could watch. Both adults would bring bills full of sap, insects and even berries to the young.

Here is a picture of an adult feeding the young.


After feeding the young the adult would fly to a near-by branch and pound away on it.
Or it would wipe its bill off on the branch before flying off to gather some more goodies.
I watched this operation as both parents were kept busy as the young ones would peer out of the nest waiting its turn for food. Sometimes yelling to get the parents to hurry up did the trick.