I must have driven past Twin Falls Idaho at 65 MPH at least 40 times in my life without ever considering stopping. This weekend I really wanted to get away from people, email, and the crush of life in this technology driven world - so of course, Twin Falls seemed perfect. I wanted to discover someplace new and off the worn tourist path. We set up headquarters in the Fillmore Inn - an amazing place to relax and spend a weekend reading a book. 

The Snake River Gorge and the South Hills turned out to be full of natural wonders. The dry Idaho farmland transforms as you descend the gorge into a land of cliffs bursting with waterfalls and springs cascading into the Snake River. We spent a day at Niagara Spring NWR and state park. The birding was great with surprises like a Great Blue Heron at the springs and Bullock's Oriels everywhere. We saw our first Wood Duck swimming on the river (too far for a photo).

Our second day we ventured to the South Hills in search of the South Hills Red Crossbill. A House Wren greeted us as we entered the canyon and we picked up our second new bird - a Yellow-breasted Chat. At the Eagle trail we began our quest for the crossbill. There were lots of mountain birds like a beautiful Red-naped Sapsucker, but no luck seeing any crossbills...until we were hiking back t the car in defeat when a single crossbill flew into the top of a lodge-pole pine - Eureka! This is the only place in the world to see this sub-species and we had a great view while it sat and sang before flying off.

I wonder how many amazing places like Twin Falls I've driven past without ever knowing what a few hours in the area would reveal. I think that's what I love about birding. It's allowed me to discover so much more of the world around me.

We had juvenile and adult Sharp-shinned hawks in our yard this week. The adult took a junco as prey and consumed it on the front walk right outside our front door. As a bird watcher it was both terrible and fascinating to watch. Observing the juvenile a few days earlier was much more peaceful  and gave us a good opportunity to closely study the markings, size and behaviors of a Sharp-shinned. It was a great way to really learn how to better distinguish this little fury from the Cooper's Hawks we sometime see around here as well. It was amazing to get up close and extended opportunities to see both juvenile and adult birds within days of each other in the exact same spot - all without leaving my warm living room.

I marvel at nature photographers who can get action shots of animals. I struggle just getting a bird sitting on a branch in focus. The raptors were so active today on Antelope Island, I decided to just try my hand at getting some flight shots. By pure luck I ended up with these shots (Rough-legged hawk soaring and a Northern Harrier taking to the air). My first self-learned lesson in raptor flight photos - don't photograph the bird, photograph the spot of sky where the bird WILL be and you just MIGHT actually end up with the subject in the frame. The next lesson will need to be how to focus on an in flight bird (tips welcome). I'll never be a Jerry Ligouri (whom I had the pleasure of meeting on a roadside a couple of weeks ago), but I'll just be happy to eventually capture some decent representation of the inspiring sight of a hawk in flight.

Rather than shopping the day after Thanksgiving we headed out birding with Tim Avery. In a pond next to the city dump this great little Common Goldeneye gave me a great look (I love the mirror reflection. A Rough-legged hawk sat nice for me too. We got 4 new life birds: Red-breasted Merganser, Horned grebe, Cackling goose and a Greater White-fronted goose. We never would have picked out those geese without Tim's expert eye.

We avoided the November cold and grey in Salt Lake City by heading south to St. George, Utah. A couple of days in this warm western desert on the Joshua Tree Road and Snow Canyon State Park gave me such an appreciation for stark beauty, the play of light on the desert and the abundance of life out there. We picked up 5 new life birds: Greater Roadrunner, Canyon Wren, Cactus Wren, Crissal Thrasher and Gambles Quail.

Picked up 2 new life-birds today on the Joshua Tree Road in extreme southern Utah.

- Greater Roadrunner

- Cactus Wren (one step closer to my dream of seeing every wren!)

Also saw:

- hundreds of White-crowned Sparrows

- House Finch

- Rock Wren

 - possible Bush Tits (just a quick look)

A Blue-headed Vireo got all the birders at Antelope Island excited today. It was a new life bird for us and a nice compliment to the life-bird Cassin's Vireo we saw last week. The Barn Owls came out and gave a nice showing. The thousands of birds around the island in September never cease to impress me and we usually pick up something new each year.

A hot August day on the Great Salt Lake had the Long-billed Curlews and White-faced Ibis cooling in the shallows, gorging on insects and I'm not quite sure what that Ibis is doing in the last shot, but I love the colors.

THOUSANDS of shorebirds this morning on the Great Salt Lake. There were just too many gulls to count with Willets, Black-necked Stilts and Avocets mixed in. Flights of White Pelicans and White-faced Ibis would glide overhead. We picked up a new life-bird today - Grasshopper Sparrow (worn adult and a juvenile)

This past weekend we finally had days warm enough to enjoy a day in the Heber Valley. It turned out to be a chance to see 2 birds we'd never seen before. A flock of funky little Bobolinks gave a goof show over the farm fields. Later we checked out the Jordanelle wetlands and happened to catch a RIng-necked duck floating through the reeds - not uncommon, but new to us. New birds are always fun, but I have to admit that my favorite moments were watching a pair of Sandhill Cranes calling  to each other and spending a minute just listening to a Grey Catbird sing and sing. Drab look, great song.

Spring (what there was of it) is ending. Migration winding down. Today we ventured out and ended up seeing a new life bird, a Long-eared Owl. This is the sixth owl species we've seen on Antelope Island (others were: Great Horned, Barn, Short-eared, Burrowing and Northern Saw-whet owls). 

The cold, wet Spring kept birds around our yard, so we were able to see several Western Tanagers and a great afternoon watching a couple of baby Lesser Goldfinches and their mother. Lazuli Buntings are everywhere and I can't resist taking hundreds of pictures. Even when they are just first-years with messy plumage,they're still so striking. When we finally got some warm weather the Barn Swallows all laid out to catch some sun. It looked like a day at the beach. At first I thought they were a bunch of dead birds, but they are just lazing away in the sun.

Cutest bird of Spring 2011 has to go to the baby Killdeer we spotted running around on the side of a road.

The wetlands and Mayflower Canyon had a surprising diversity of birds including: