More Flammulated Owl Surveys near Island Park, Idaho

Two nights ago, we met up with Cory, a field technician for Idaho Fish and Game.  Cory and his boss will be helping us complete our Flammulated Owl surveys this season, so we are very grateful!  Unfortunately for Cory, we made him tag along on our 3.5 km hike in to one of our high priority grids, Grid 4.  In grizzly bear country, there is safety in numbers!  Grid 4 is at about 8200 feet elevation, and it still had a few feet of thick snow pack on it.  Surprisingly this made hiking very easy, for the most part, especially on downhill slopes, since we could slide right over it and the tangle of fallen trees hidden beneath it.  On our way up, we heard what we later figured out to be a Dusky Grouse call, which sounds pretty much like someone blowing air into an empty glass bottle.  We also came across a number of Clark's Nutcrackers, heard a Three-toed Woodpecker, and saw a Williamson's Sapsucker. We didn't hear any owls on our survey unfortunately.  On the way down, I was navigating with the GPS, and nearly stepped on a roosting male Dusky Grouse!   It was the best look we've had yet at a Dusky Grouse; he just froze and stared into our blinding lights.  Later that night on a road survey, we came across a young male moose running down the road, and were happy to be in our truck!

Last night, Cory joined us again for what should have been another long hike.  However we found a road into our grid area and only had to walk about 800 meters.  Unfortunately the habitat was extremely poor for Flammulated Owls...a thick Lodgepole Pine plantation that had been selectively cut.  I think we found one Douglas Fir near a survey point, but the habitat was pretty lame.  On our second to last point, a stomping deer came running past us on a steep slope.  Instead of running away, he stomped more, and scared the ba-geezus out of us.  He left, then came back, but after seeing his deer-like eye shine, we knew it wasn't anything too crazy.  Back out on the road, we saw a huge pile of fresh Grizzly Bear scat, but didn't get a look at the bear.  I'd rather wait until we are done doing Flammulated Owl surveys to see one, though :)

Flammulated Owl Surveys near Island Park, Idaho

Last night, Alex and I discovered the grid we wanted to head to required a 3.5 km walk in.  It is pretty much at the base of the continental divide west of Island Park on a steep slope, and as far as I can see, there is still a ton of snow just above the grid. Not a good sign!  The road towards the grid was full of mushy mud puddles, and we finally hit one that was too big about 3.5 km in.  At this point in the day we didn't have enough time to make the hike...3.5km really isn't that far, but with a name like "Steep Gulch," I wasn't planning on making good time.  We will give the big mud puddle a day or two to dry out and try again, but will probably end up hiking it.  At nearby Henry Lake while scoping out a road point, our truck was swarmed by blackflies as we watched a pair of Red-necked Grebes on the lake.  The warm weather has really brought them out lately, along with mosquitos, which are a treat in the evening as we walk to our points.

Blackfly swarm

Nearby at a reliable spot for Black-backed and Three-toed Woodpeckers, we came across this huge footprint in the road.  After finding this, I wasn't really interested in finding woodpeckers anymore.

Grizzly or Black Bear? The other prints in the snow looked a little melted over, so I think the bear passed through a few days ago, but I personally do not want to be there when he passes through again! 

Speaking of massive intimidating animals, on the grid we completed last night near Island Park, we were carefully watched over by a few moose.  The grid was in a young Lodgepole Pine plantation where the trees were packed in over recently cut younger trees that had been left on the ground.  Even though the terrain was flat, it was a challenge to hike through while avoiding tons of stumps and fallen trees.  It didn't help that you could only see about 5 feet in front of you!  To make matters worse the plantation was on top of a flooded marsh interspersed with pockets of willow, making perfect foraging habitat for moose.  Every now and then, we'd come across a well-worn moose/deer trail, which seemed to be loaded with moose/baby moose tracks. At our first grid, we heard a Great-horned Owl amongst a few winnowing snipe, and throughout the 10 minutes we heard a large antlered-animal rubbing its antlers on a tree.  On the way to our next point, we were paralelled by a very large mammal that broke branches as it walked.  And on our way out and back to the truck, we were paralelled on both sides by what we can only assume were huge tree-chrushing moose.  At our last point of the grid, a huge animal came running through a nearby puddle, and then slowly walked towards us.  A few seconds after it stopped, the huge moose let out a few loud moosey-bellows before walking away from us into a flooded meadow.  I love moose, don't get me wrong, but I'd much rather observe them from the safety of my truck in daylight!

Later that night on road surveys, we detected 3 Northern Saw-whet Owls and flushed a Great-horned Owl from the road.  We aren't exactly in the best Flammulated Owl habitat, but at least we are detecting owls...and large mammals. Tonight we'll head for Driggs and do our second survey at Grid 5, and hopefully re-detect a Great-horned Owl we found there last time.

You can also view this post over at Nemesis Bird!

FLOW Survey near Ashton, Idaho

Last night we did our closest Flammulated Owl survey yet to Yellowstone National Park; just 3km from the south west corner!  Grizzly bears and moose were on our minds, but we didn't run into any large mammals in the dark (phew!).  We had a 1.2km walk in, which was made easy by a trail that led us to 2 of our survey points. While doing vegetation surveys just before dark, Alex finally got his year Northern Pygmy Owl when it started its slow "toot" by a small pond in the middle of the woods.  After he stopped, a few rounds of thunder broke out, and the rain started.  Feeling a little dejected, we suited up in rain gear and hiked to our last vegetation point where we would begin our survey.  The rain turned into hail as we worked on classifying vegetation.  We can't survey when there is thunder, and anything over a sprinkle can also cancel a survey, so we were relieved when the hail finally stopped and thunder died out.  If I've learnedd anything about weather forecasts in eastern Idaho, it would be to ignore any percent chance of rain under 60% (last night was 30%). Half hour after sunset at 9:49, we started our 10 minute survey, and heard Wilson's Snipe calling in the distance.  Half way through the survey, we heard a Northern Saw-whet Owl scream (scroll down to "agitated whine"....a fairly eerie sound if you haven't heard it before).  This noise is very different than their consistent song of toots.  I'm not sure what triggers the scream versus the territorial song, but clearly our "fake" Flammulated Owl was unwelcomed here by the saw-whet. This grid will need to be surveyed 2 more times to estimate the abundance/presence of both species we found.

This morning, the first bird I heard when I woke up was a Swainson's Thrush, followed by incessant flocks of squeaky Pine Siskins flying over. Tonight we head a little north past Island Park, and will hope for a new owl species like Boreal or Great Gray!

NSWO at King's Gap State Park, Pennsylvania: Fall 2008

(part of radio-telemetry study headed by Scott Weidensaul)

I think I over-post these photos but I'll probably never get better looks at 

saw-whets on roost as I did when I worked for Scott :)

This post is a part of WORLD BIRD WEDNESDAY!

4 day birding trip around Idaho!

Alex beat me to it and made a huge post about our 4 day long trip all over Idaho and part of Nevada, with our friend Mark who was visiting from Pennsylvania.  Check it out over at Nemesis Bird!!!

American Dipper and Trumpeter Swan Nests (plus a few mammals) in Caribou-Taghee National Forest, Idaho

While doing owl surveys this week in Caribou/Targhee National Forest, we came across a variety of wildlife during the day time.  I saw my first moose (and baby!) while doing vegetation surveys for our points, and soon after, a baby Black bear ran right out in front of our truck (too fast for a photo!). Later that day, we saw a larger Black Bear but we think it was still very young. At another location, we came across a moose happily eating a salt lick, posing for the few vehicles that drove by.

baby moose running behind its momma

moose at salt lick

Driving north towards Island Park, we came across "Swan Lake" where, ironically, a pair of Trumpeter Swans are nesting.

Trumpeter Swan on nest

After camping in the national forest overnight near a stream, I found an American Dipper in a mountain stream.  He quickly grabbed some yummy food and carried it up and under a bridge, where I could hear baby dippers begging.  Eventually his mate came out and both were hard at work feeding their babies!

American Dipper with food

American Dipper about to go "dipping"

Also, all week I heard a bird calling in the lodgepole pine forests that I cannot place.  It sounds very much like Juniper Titmouse, but their range is not in the area I was in.  If anyone can think of a bird that sounds like Juniper Titmouse but isn't, please let me know while I have a temporary memory lapse.  It is a very common bird and was at pretty much every site I stopped at, staying high in the tree tops out of view.  The song does remind meof a Rock Wren, but it was for sure not Rock Wren habitat, either.

This post is a part of WORLD BIRD WEDNESDAY!

Loads of Owls...5 species!

Morgan and I have been powering through owl surveys for about a week now with great results.  Mother nature smacked us in the face on our last survey grid near Soda Springs on Friday night, with a huge tree fall area on the steep slope of a mountain.  It took about 45 minutes to get through just a few hundred meters of tree falls before we started our surveys, but we were rewarded with a Long-eared Owl responding to our call on the edge of the downed trees.  This is the first Long-eared Owl I've heard in Idaho! Our other grid near Soda Springs is still snowed in, so we will have to re-visit it later in the season. 

On Saturday, we headed north towards Ashton, and spent the day doing vegetation surveys for about 10 road points we would survey later that night.  Our grid points were extremely accessible, with roads less than a hundred meteres or so from each point.  Most of the habitat in this area was dense pine plantations with scattered openings and small meadows.  On our third survey point, we heard the unmistakable repetetive "toot toot toot" of a Northern Saw-whet Owl, and I thought for sure Scott Weidensaul would appear out of the woods with a tape player; when I've heard this sound in the past, it was always from a recording used to lure NSWO's into mist nets in Pennsylvania.  The sound was engrained into my memory while I tracked saw-whets in PA with the audio lure constantly playing as a back-drop for banding and trying to lure in more owls to put transmitters on.  Morgan thought she saw the owl fly in just as I thought I heard it land, so I think it came in to check out our call.  On two different road surveys within a few kilometers, we heard a Flammulated Owl, but didn't find anymore that night.  At 3:00 am we called it a night, and morning came too soon at 9:00 as the sun turned our tent into a sauna.  We spent most of the day again doing vegetation surveys for that nights road surveys, which were just under 10km from the western edge of Yellowstone National Park.  We came across a Moose and its baby, and at our closest point to Yellowstone, a baby Black Bear darted out in front of our truck!!!  When we got to our grid survey points, we found young Black Bear eating roots in a wet meadow.  He turned into a black flash though when he saw our truck...I am truely amazed at how fast they run!  Our grid survey points were on the edge of a big wet meadow, and as we arrived at our first survey point, we heard a slow repeating "toot......toot.......toot" from an aspen grove.  Basically it sounded like a slow saw-whet call, but it was a Northern Pygmy Owl! (Eat it, Alex!) He called until a few minutes before our survey, but didn't make any sounds during it.  Later that night on road surveys, we came across a few Great-horned Owls (but no more bears!) and called it a night at 2:00 am.  The hot sun woke us up by 8:00 today, but birds around our camp were pretty active (Yellow Warblers, Juniper Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch), and I found a pair of dippers feeding their chicks at a nest under a bridge.

Today we are waiting in Ashton for some rain to arrive, and hope to squeeze in surveys regardless.

FLOW Surveys near Soda Springs, Idaho

Yesterday, Morgan and I drove from Boise east towards Soda Springs, Idaho to start a week of Flammulated Owl surveys.  The weather was great last night, and we actually started off on our survey in t-shirts!  Unfortunately the warm weather brought out mosquitos and ticks, but we weren't complaining (ok we complained a little still).  The route gave us a few steep climbs, but we ran into a few Stellar's Jays and Dark-eyed Juncos along the way, and at least 2 Ruffed Grouse were drumming in the aspen.  We came across a freshly killed baby deer carcass, and at least 3 other piles of bones that must have been winter kills, including an elk.  The site is at 7000 feet elevation, so I am sure it was a rough winter.  Most of the snow was gone, but up a few nearby mountains at 8000 feet elevation, snow still covered a few areas.  Unfortunately we didn't hear any owls on the grid.  We ventured off to find some road points to survey, but most were inaccessible.  The streams are extremely high right now, and the county is in a flash flood watch.  One of our roads was completely caved-in over a culvert that couldn't handle the raging water that flowed around it.  We scoped out other survey areas today, and found the road to one grid still snowed in 10 kilometers from the point.  Hopefully in a few weeks the snow will be gone.  We have one more grid survey in the area and one accessible raod point, but we are holding off tonight due to forecasted high wind gusts and probable snow.  The weather forecast over the next few days looks great, and once we get done here in Soda Springs we will head north to Ashton, Idaho, where Alex and I ended surveys last week.

Our points were very close to Gray's Lake NWR, so we stopped and scoped the huge wetland/flooded field complex to check out what was there.  We found a pair of Long-billed Curlews, tons of  Franklin's Gulls, a few Willets, Redheads and Mallards, and of course a few pairs of Sandhill Cranes.  In the 1970's, Sandhill Cranes at Gray's Lake NWR were given Whooping Crane eggs to raise, but the reintroduction failed when the Whooping Cranes inprinted on the Sandhill Cranes. Whooping Cranes are clearly a challenging species to recover.  On a similar note, the current reintroduction in Wisconsin is still being dragged out despite a lack of success over a 10+ year period, mainly due to nest abandonments.   Reintroductions are soon planned at Horicon Marsh, and the established flock at Necedah seems like it is going to be abandoned. Lets all ask ourselves why a completely new effort is being started without fully understanding why a similar effort failed. And lets all question the current and future management of the Necedah flock, and keep our fingers crossed that those in power don't turn the Necedah pairs into a source for egg harvesting.