A smaller member of the albatross family, the Light-manted Sooty Albatross (sometimes called the Light-mantled Albatross) is another circumpolar species. The species is “small” only in relation to other albatrosses. With a wingspan of six to seven feet and a weight of as much as eight pounds, the bird is larger than Golden Eagle and…
Bald Eagles get all the press, but if there is a bird you’d call the most elegant raptor in North America, it’s the Golden Eagle, Aquila chrysaetos. It’s the largest North American raptor, with a wingspan that can run to 76 inches. A full-grown female – among raptors, females are generally larger – can weigh 14 pounds.…
WC spent a few days in the Pahsimeroi Valley, a fairly obscure tributary of the Salmon River, in east central Idaho. With a couple for friends, we spent some time exploring the Pahsimeroi and the Lost River Range, the mountains that bound the Pahsimeroi Valley on the westerly side. One of the highlights of the…
So we go from a few weeks of birds that cannot fly, to birds that can only barely land, the albatrosses. The Black-browed is a medium-sized member of the albatross family, with a wing span of seven to eight feet. This bird lives in the air, landing on the ocean only when the wind dies,…
Mountain Bluebirds are in trouble. While in some of their range, populations are stable after years of decline, in other areas the Mountain Bluebird numbers are still declining. One of the reasons for the decline is that bluebirds, which nest in cavities, are being out-competed by Eurasian Starlings, an invasive species. A classic scene: a…
The Northern Idaho Ground Squirrel is an Idaho endemic; Spermophilus brunneus is found only in west-central Idaho. This area consists of five counties which have an elevation between 1,150 and 1,550 meters. It requires forest meadows for habitat. Intensive forestry management – some would say mis-management – and extreme wildfire events have destroyed much of that…
Most folks think of penguins as Antarctic birds. And, for the most part, they are. But like most things involving birds, there are exceptions to every rule. For penguins, one exception is the Humboldt Penguin, which ranges within a few degrees south of the equator. All of the Humboldt Penguins WC has seen and photographed…
