Banbury Hot Springs is in the middle Snake River Canyon, right along the Snake River. After you’ve soaked yourself to a limp noodle, you can go down to the river’s edge in the late afternoon twilight and photograph birds returning to roost for the evening. It’s a pretty good show.
A part of the large flock of Turkey Vultures roosted for the night in the trees between Banbury Hot Springs and River Road. The Pelicans and the Great Blue Herons seem to have settled in about a half mile upstream.
This is a small portion of a fairly large rookery, involving at least five trees. From what WC saw last summer, the Great Blues will be joined a little later this spring by Black-crowned Night Herons. Double-crested Cormorants sometimes share rookeries with the pelicans. But that didn’t seem to be happening here, or perhaps the cormorants aren’t breeding just yet.
At least according to Idaho Fish & Game, American White Pelicans only breed at three locations in Idaho (Minnidokka NWR, Island Park and Blackfoot Reservoir), none of them anywhere near this location. So these must be non-breeding birds (American White Pelicans take three years to sexually mature).
Some evenings in the spring the wind can be cold blowing along the canyon. But the advantage of Banbury Hot Springs is that you can always return to the heated pools after dark.
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