The total for the day was 39 species, mostly consisting of raptors and landbirds but also including Mallards, Canada Geese, Ring-billed Gull, and Great Blue Heron that we (especially Dave) picked out along the Boise River using his 60x Swarovski scope!
A few other highlights included a couple of Merlins (coming in pretty good #s of late - see below for more info/pics), a fly-by Northern Shrike, Evening Grosbeaks, Clark's Nutcrackers, and some migrating Western Bluebirds. It was a fun thing to do and something I hope will become an annual event!
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In other news, we've been enjoying a pretty impressive flight of Merlins in recent weeks (great for me as they're my favorite raptor!!). As an example, here are three shots of 2 immature male Merlins of different subspecies that I captured in a matter of 7 minutes yesterday (the highlight of an otherwise very slow hawk flight due the passing cold front). The first bird to come in was quite dark and might represent the 'Black' (suckleyi) subspecies whereas the second bird looks to be of the 'Prairie' (richardsonii) subspecies. What do you think?
The expected subspecies in Idaho (and most of the continent) is the nominate (columbarius) subspecies, which I captured and photo'd a few weeks ago:
(for comparison) An immature female Merlin of the nominate columbarius subspecies captured on 9-17-09; note the medium brown color and the moderately distinct tail bars - photo by Holley Carlisle
A shot of the chest/undwerwing of the same columbarius individual caught on 9-17-09 - photo by Holley Carlisle
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK7IT9bggmQ0QJXoE4aLtBKY_E7pSxwLVJCwukJaw6REKtPiIE971Y2ankI5Yrh5VWLgaVsm2JpGCxiQB5IuAaEwd4777poZMVqMyByT437LZOpOUf65TTI7kq0qE7d_1SBPKaaw/s400/Merlin+%28Mom%29+2.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitQUAMpZ8Cn41yHMNh5cMa4BrTz2-3QQb607_DBNoJFLWM67e0zV_8cWa3XiiqlIrI2BB1q43MgJLKCiqMtI0j6y72KYf4Hu3GCJ4uQMeJrRMsC2mWCo9IZglHFu3gVGH3OERDAg/s400/Merlin+%28Mom%29+3.jpg)
Cheers & happy birding!
Jay
Jay
3 comments:
That's so cool that you guys did a Big Sit up there. I think we should look at doing a state-wide competition for a Big Stay in the Spring. I've been thinking about good locations and places like the IBO and Deer Flat could be very interesting.
Awesome blog.. thanks for sharing such a great creativity.
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Informative post with amazing pictures.!!
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