Another beautiful day on the Boise Greenbelt with Robin and finding “things” that we have been searching for. The Osprey that keeps “buzzing” us as we travel along one of the ponds and the elusive “thing” that just might be a mink. Who knows. And then there are the “other” birds and the wild flowers. 7.58 biking miles today! You be the judge. Look at these.
Wildlife Winter Habitat Area.
Robin doing push-ups.
Is this a mink? ….. (Confirmed: It Is A Mink! See comments.)
Mink, confirmed.
And look at these wild flowers. Any botanists out there that can ID these? Confirmed 30 Aug 2010 by IDFG: Chicory (See Comments, please) A related link on this blog is: Chicory
Alfalfa (Michael Young, IDFG)
Purple Loosestrife, noxious weed. (Michael Young, IDFG)
As I was riding along the river – Robin was ahead of me – this Osprey dove into the river after a fish. He missed! But it sure did wake me up. I was probably about 20 feet from him.
The crows were flying in formation overhead and calling.
Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron (See comments)
Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron (Thanks Idaho Birder and Michael Young, IDFG!)
Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron
It was a great day. Very cool as a “cold front” came through over the weekend. Extremely high winds – hope the Boise Peregrines are OK. Probably are. Enjoy the photos! Cheers!
Flight of the Peregrine 
Good stuff! I'd say "yes" on the mink. The blue flower looks like Russian Skeleton weed, which is a non-native noxious weed, but has a pretty flower. I don't know my plants very well and I'd have to look up the others.The hunchback brown bird with white spots is a female or juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron. That's so cool that you saw one along the river. The males have the same shape but are very different in appearance.
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Thanks, Idaho Birder, you are a storehouse of information!
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Bob, I have seen them whilst walking Cricket. They are mink, which I thought but did have it confirmed. The deep chocolate coat is a dead give away.
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Hey Bob,Here I am again to suggest what you saw: Mink, yes. Blue flower, blue flax. White flower, ??? a phlox of some type does look possible. Small purple flower, alfalfa. Big purple flower, purple loosestrife, noxious weed. Unidentified bird…juvenile night heron…I think black-crowned night heron to be precise. That's all I got.
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Bob, Last comment, promise … I meant that the blue flower was not rush skeleton weed. All I was doing was correcting russian to rush. There is no russian skeleton weed. But neither is correct for this blue flower.
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Hey Bob!Well, it’s a little late to post on your blog, but I thought I would mention that the unidentifiable blue flower that someone thought was rush skeleton weed is chicory. My supervisor, Mary knew what it was with a short description. I said, “What is the plant that looks kind of like rush skeleton weed but has blue flowers.” She knew immediately what it was with only that description.Chicory is native to Europe. I can’t remember if it is on our noxious weed list or not, but the plants do have some useful properties.
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