January, 2010

Cliff, Steve, and I decided to take a quick dash to the Boise area over the weekend in hopes of seeing a reported Iceland Gull from the Boise Dump. We also planned to get in a little birding at Hagerman WMA and along the Snake River near Grandview. We had a good time and the weather was great (cloudy and around 40 degrees most of the time we were birding). It was just nice to be somewhere without snow for a couple of days. We did find the Iceland Gull as well as a few other goodies including a confusing 1st winter gull that may have been another Iceland Gull, a Snowy Egret (previously undocumented in Idaho for winter), a big flock of Yellow-headed Blackbirds, an obliging Canyon Wren, and a Cackling Goose among other things.

Here are some photographs of birds..

Cooper’s Hawk, Hagerman WMA, Hagerman, ID 2010

Cackling Goose, Hagerman WMA, Hagerman, ID 2010

Snowy Egret, Hagerman WMA, Hagerman, ID 2010

Canyon Wren with Bee, Hagerman WMA, Hagerman, ID 2010

Iceland Gull with Spread Wings, Ada County Landfill, Boise, ID 2010

Iceland Gull in Flight, Ada County Landfill, Boise, ID

Intriguing 1st Winter Gull, Ada County Landfill, Boise, ID 2010

Intriguing 1st Winter Gull, Ada County Landfill, Boise, ID 2010

Kevin is playing city basketball again this year. When he played two years ago he enjoyed himself, but wasn’t terribly excited about it, and didn’t seem that into the games. He didn’t make a shot the entire season (we were fine with it, and he seemed fine with it as well). This year he is much more aggressive, he seems much more into the games, and is more aware of what is going on. The games are a lot more fun to watch also. Oh yeah, and he has scored in both games they’ve played. Here are a couple photos.

Here are some more winter bird photographs. Most of these were taken on Saturday, the Swans were taken earlier in the week. No contest this time, enjoy the photographs.

Rough-legged Hawk, Camas NWR, ID 2010

Trumpeter Swans, Menan, ID 2010

Common Redpoll (front view), Camas NWR, ID 2010

Common Redpoll (side view), Camas NWR, ID 2010

Song Sparrow, Camas NWR, ID 2010

American Tree Sparrow, Camas NWR, ID 2010

Bald Eagle, Hamer, ID 2010

Home with Christmas Decorations and Free Kittens Sign, St. Anthony, ID 2010

Free Kittens Here, St. Anthony, ID 2010

A former student of mine who now teaches a few classes for us has been doing some really neat volunteer work for Mountain View Hospital in Idaho Falls. Our school newspaper wrote a nice article about her work. The article can be found here.

My colleague Brian Atkinson and I currently have work in an exhibition titled Landscape Interrupted at the Cococino Center for the Arts in Flagstaff Arizona. Brian sent me an article about the exhibition, which is found here. The article doesn’t mention me, but it does mention Brian and one of his photographs. If anybody is in flagstaff and sees the exhibition, please let me know how it looks. If you can take a few snapshots of the exhibit, even better. These are the two photographs I have in the show….

Potato Harvest Interrupted by Snow, Walker, ID 2008

Cove Dam Site Before and Bfter Dam Removal, Grace, ID 2004 & 2007

Taxidermy Shop (For Lease), Rexburg, ID 2010

Hawthorne Tree with Magpie Nest at Sunset, St. Anthony, ID 2010

We got a new camera and lens for the photo lab and I wanted to see how they did for bird photography. Surprisingly, I have done very little bird photography, but it was a lot of fun. So, let’s see if you can identify all 8 species. Whoever identifies all 8 correctly first wins a dollar or a little print, or whatever else you think I’m good for. All of the photographs were taken last week in St. Anthony, Mud Lake, or Howe, ID. Good luck

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A couple of my photographs were used in an article on Rexburgia (a cool little blog/website all about Rexburg). The article is here

Teton-Vu Drive-In, Rexburg, ID 2006

It’s Christmas Bird Count time. I was scheduled to go on the Howe CBC on Wednesday, but my foot has been giving me a lot of trouble, so I stayed home. Later that night I got a few phone calls on my cell phone saying I made a big mistake by missing the count, but there was no specific bird or reason mentioned. So, I called Steve last night and he said they had found a Crested Caracara on the count. Crested Caracara is a subtropical falcon that nests no closer than extreme southern Arizona. I talked Jon into heading out there with me yesterday. He and I met Steve at Sage junction and headed out towards Howe. Some birders from Sun Valley eventually refound the bird. We eventually all got good looks at it. It was a pretty fun bird chase. Tomorrow is the Rexburg CBC. I hope we find something good, but I don’t see how it could top a Caracara.

Here are some photographs. The bird photographs were taken by Jon. I took the photographs of the birders.

Enjoy.

Steve looking at Crested Caracara in a bird guide

Several local birders enjoying the Caracara