We left Burley, Idaho after a 6am breakfast and headed to a site around 25 minutes away where a Lewis’s Woodpecker had been reported, but this turned out to be not so good. So instead of wasting any time we promptly departed and headed to a lake around 2 hours away, seeing our first Bald Eagle and Swainson’s Hawks along the way. Amidst a vast open landscape of marsh, lakes, tall grasses and ponds we found our first Canvasback, as well as a Trumpeter Swan. I think we will all remember this site for the numerous and close Northern Harriers and Swainson’s Hawks that entertained us.
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| Sandhill Crane |
Leaving here we saw a pair of Sandhill Cranes much closer than before and a field of White-faced Ibis feeding amongst bright yellow flowers before driving just a few miles away to Sage Crossroads where we duly nailed Sage Thrasher before continuing on another 90 minute drive. After a quick coffee stop and picking up some sandwiches we arrived at Henry Lake around 1.30pm.
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| Henry Lake |
What a place this proved to be as we scoped flocks of wildfowl out on the glassy calm lake that consisted of American Wigeon, Ring-necked Duck, numerous Lesser Scaups, Canvasback, Redhead, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, Northern Shoveller, Cinnamon Teal, Green-winged Teal. This was probably the best mixed wildfowl flock any of us had ever seen! Also saw another Bald Eagle, several Red-necked Grebes in fine breeding dress, a Trumpeter Swan on a nest, a Sandhill Crane on what appeared to be a nest, Caspian Tern, Western Osprey, Audubon’s Warblers, and a very confiding Vesper Sparrow.
It was another 75 minutes driving past Yellowstone amidst stunningly beautiful scenery of snow-capped mountains and steep-sided river valleys to Big Sky, where we were full of anticipation to find the water treatment works and the reported Barrow’s Goldeneye. Well, we found one pair of these much-wanted beasts immediately and then another pair on the pond across the road and amidst much excitement we tried to settle down to enjoy watching them. We couldn’t of had any better views in the sunshine and we lapped up the gorgeous purple sheen of the males head, his white crescent face marking and broad white flank streaks, with the females head shape and yellow bill very noticeably different from its commoner cousin!
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| Barrow's Goldeneye |
Buoyed by our success we drove 10 minutes further up the mountain to the ski resort in the forlorn hope of bumping into Black Rosyfinch, which we knew we were doomed to fail but at least we tried. By the time we arrived at our motel in Bozeman we were all suitably tired but rather pleased with the day’s haul.
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