We followed the Payette River for a couple of hours, which brought back a lot of memories for me. I used to drive this stretch of road between Boise and McCall quite often when I lived in Idaho during the late 1970's. I love the sound of the river and the smell of the forest.There were a few fires going on in the area so one of the dominant scents in the region was smoke from burning forests.
We saw this bald eagle along a calm stretch of water. What a treat! It was just a few hundred feet from us and we had a wonderful view of it as it took off in flight.
I have a better appreciation of how large these birds are after seeing this wing span.
Magnificent, yes?
We saw a huge number of Ospreys while we were in Idaho. We stopped at a wetland reserve just south of McCall and saw about six active nests in a small area of the reserve.
These are also pretty spectacular and I'm really glad to see them doing so well in numbers.
We walked along a road that divided the lake and kept scaring up the same eight Wilson Snipes. You can follow them in flight, but as soon as they land you can't see them, they are so well camouflaged against the background. It's pretty amazing.
Lesser Yellowlegs.
A couple of dozen American White Pelicans were in the wetlands and gave us a good show as they took off in flight.
They look pretty awkward in flight, but I always enjoy seeing them.
Ospreys bite off the heads of the fish before aligning them along the length of their bellies for flight. They seem to be pretty successful at catching fish.
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