Boise Birds

I've seen a lot of birds while staying in Boise.  When I walked from the rental house to the Capitol (6.5 miles round trip on the Boise Greenbelt!) I was amused by the Canada goose guarding the Porta-Potty.

Another day we drove out to the World Center for Birds of Prey where the focus is on their captive breeding program.  We saw a few captive birds, but we all felt that staring at birds behind heavy bars just wasn't much of a thrill.

Northern Aplomodo Falcon

The day we drove out to Celebration Park to see the petroglyphs we saw a raptor diving in the distance and that was much more interesting than watching the captive birds wait for a door to open and the already dead food arrive.  I was happy that our $21 will go to support the California Condor breeding program.

Orange Breasted Falcon

A better place to watch birds was the Flat Deer National Wildlife Refuge in nearby Nampa.

 Just steps from the visitor center are some nesting osprey.  Their website even has a nest webcam.

A little help with the identification of the bird below would be wonderful, hope Judy chimes in!

Same bird or something else?  I think I'm going to need a faster zoom lens to crisper shots!

I was able to get a little closer to what I think is an adult male California Quail.  I heard him calling and was able to quickly locate him.  Want to hear their call?  Follow this link.

On another hike I heard the song of the Western Meadowlark so close by that it startled me, and its bright yellow breast made it easy to find perched on a bush.  Unfortunately the only picture I got was one at the Deer Flat NWR Visitor Center.

More about that hike next time, it was a really good one!