Managed to check off a new life bird yesterday! It was very exciting (because I get excited about these kind of things). My husband and I were on an afternoon walk and he suggested we head down to Hagerman National Fish Hatchery and Wildlife Refuge. If you're in southern Idaho you should definitely check it out. There are hoards of waterfowl, gulls, herons, cormorants, It's a great birding spot.
It's a quick forty minute jaunt from Mountain Home, and we arrived at around 3:30pm. We were getting ready to leave and I stopped to use the restroom while Andrew retrieved the car. When I came out I heard a different kind of bird sound a coo coo COO COO coo. If that makes any sense, which I'm pretty sure it doesn't.
I signaled to Andrew in the car to bring the binoculars and I crept slowly forward to find the cooer. Completely unrelated and not responsible for the coos, in the trees ahead, right along a waterway Andrew saw some shapes.
Looking through the binoculars I realized they were night herons! I had a mini-freakout while Andrew ran back to the car for the camera. Notice how Andrew gets delegated to binocular bringing and camera getting, he must love me. We were a good ways away from the seven night herons sitting in the tree, but we still managed to spook them and they took off in a loud rush of wok WOK WOK WOK. Yeah, they make those sounds.
We stalked them around the hatchery until one brave bird decided to fly in and around to see if we were dangerous. Andrew and I sat down in the dirt amongst the reeds to help conceal ourselves...become one with the earth. It seemed to work, the heron was less nervous and kept getting closer and closer. So, I was able to snap to great shots.
It even landed in the tree for a few short minutes before taking off again, Andrew was able to snap the last two pictures. It was an excellent sighting. The weather was beautiful, about 50 degrees! It was nice to sit there as the sun went down and observe the birds.
The light was failing and we decided it was time to go, so we stood up, brushed ourselves off and right in front of us was a huge commotion...
Next time. : )
P.S. The cooers, that led to the discovery of the herons were Eurasian Collared Doves - I'm not used to their unusual coos.
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