Saturday, April 11, 2009

Moscow area sightings, 4/10-11/09

Great to see all the posts of spring arrivals around the region. Yesterday I had a few hours in the PM to drive around a bit north of Moscow.

Black-necked Stilts - still present at the lower Foothill Rd pond as Terry mentioned - I counted 6 around 3 PM.

Wilson's Snipe - 1 calling at the Sora spot

Northern Harrier - a nice male ("gray ghost") near Potlatch just south of the bridge over the Potlatch River (also interestingly I watched a Red-tailed Hawk fly under this bridge to join its mate on the other side) any male at this date might be suspected of breeding nearby

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - first of spring for me singing along Pine Crest Rd.

also of interest around my east Moscow house today & yesterday -

Eurasian Collared-Dove - heard one nearby this morning, no doubt its origin is the group that has been hanging near Ray & Bettie Hoff's, a new yard bird (gets me close to 100 species heard or seen from or in the yard), briefly made me think I was in Florida!

possible (probable??) Bohemian Waxwing flyby, typical low trilling call, plenty of starlings in the area although I'm not sure this call could be readily mimiced

Varried Thrush - an individual has been singing on and off near our house for a couple of weeks now, nice to have one even though we haven't seen it yet

Pine Siskins - seem to be a lot around town now and they are very noisy!

White-winged Crossbills - I've continued to hear small flocks and individual birds flying over almost daily that I presumed were these but figured I better check some out and managed to track down a male and female near the house atop tall spruces, they appear to be still in the lowlands and breeding should be watched for (not unusual after irruption years), have been giving a variety of calls incl. harsh flight calls

thanks, Charles.


--
Charles Swift
Moscow, ID
chaetura@gmail.com

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