Tom Stephenson – More Than Birds – Episode 14
We’re back…sorry for the lay-off. In this episode, we talk with Tom Stephenson, co-author of The Warbler Guide from Princeton Press. Tom has been birding since he was a kid under the tutelage of Dr. Arthur Allen of Cornell University. His articles and photographs are in museums and many publications including Birding, Birdwatcher’s Digest, Handbook of […]
Wolves: God’s Perfect Mistake?
The bumper sticker on the truck tailgate reads “Smoke a Pack a Day” with wolves in silhouette with an overlay of scope crosshairs. To the left of this disgusting affirmation of violence is a the ubiquitous Jesus fish emblem. I stood and ponder this display of opposing paradigms illustrated upon the same canvas. One decal […]
Flammulated Owls of Wood’s Gulch, Montana
The other night, Thomas Kallmeyer and I spent the evening along the ridges above Wood’s Gulch near Missoula. The object of our birding quest was the enigmatic Flammulated Owl. Starting shortly after 10 o’clock, the first male began giving his territorial hoot with its distinctive double-tap intro. This first calling owl was high (<50 feet) […]
Coeur D’Alene Salamander – A long time in coming
I remember cracking open the Amphibians and Reptiles of the Pacific Northwest, and seeing the enigma – the Coeur D’Alene Salamander. The range map showed that its distribution included northwest Montana. I had never seen one, or even know they existed for matter. I had seen Long-toed Salamanders before and countless numbers of frogs. I learned […]
Blodgett Canyon of the Bitterroot Range
Blodgett Canyon is filled with the enticing aromas of shiny-leaf ceanothus and wild rose that hang heavy in the rapidly warming air of a June day. Pale swallowtails and Rufous Hummingbirds flit and hover at the technicolor sex organs of the flowers. Sheer granite walls rise some 2000 feet above our heads as we set […]
Rick Wright – More Than Birds – Episode 13
Rick Wright lives in Bloomfield, NJ, with his wife, Alison Beringer, and their chocolate lab, Gellert. A native of southeast Nebraska, Rick studied French, German, Philosophy, and Life Sciences at the University of Nebraska before making a detour to Harvard Law School. He took the Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Literatures at Princeton University in 1990, […]
Finding, Harvesting, and Eating the Oyster Mushroom
Every year at this time, oyster mushrooms appear from the stumps and fallen logs of cottonwoods along the Bitterroot River. This particular species (Pleurotus populinus) had inoculated a downed cottonwood. Ecology: Saprobic; growing in shelf-like clusters on dead and living wood of Populus species, primarily quaking aspen; causing a white rot; spring, summer, and fall; widely […]
BAIKAL TEAL near Missoula, Montana
Today while birding along the Maclay Irrigation Canal, just south of the Maclay Recreation Area near Missoula, Montana. Within the canal and keeping company with a pair of Wood Ducks was a pale-headed teal. Upon glassing the presumed teal, it seemed to be a Baikal Teal. I managed to fired off a volley of photos (see below). […]
Greg Miller – The Big Year – More Than Birds – Episode 12
Straight from the pages and silver screen of the Big Year, I chat with Greg Miller. Birding from childhood, Greg was prepared to undertake the ultimate birding adventure in 1998, the ABA Big Year. A member of the 700 Club (not the Christian TV show), Greg weaves a story of birding and places it will […]
Kenn Kaufman – More Than Birds – Episode 11
Birds took over Kenn Kaufman’s life when he was six. At 16 he went out hitch-hiking all over to see as many birds as he could, as described in Kingbird Highway. He has 9 books in print now, in 3 languages, including his own series of field guides. He’s in demand as a speaker, and […]
Transitions in the birding year
The first full day of spring, which in Montana means weather straight out of the ADHD mind of the godhead. Warm sun, thunder, torrential rain, freezing rain, snow, and, finally sun again, arrives with much faith and hope for the eager birder. Just as the weather is a chaotic mixture of winter and spring, the […]
David Lindo – The Urban Birder – More Than Birds – Episode 10
David Lindo (@urbanbirder) is The Urban Birder — a writer, broadcaster, speaker and bird guide. He strives to get urbanites to realize that there is a whole world of wildlife under their noses in the world’s cities. We talk about urban birding, positivity, his local patch (Wormwood Scrubs), UK birding, and appreciation of nature. David […]
Great Gray Owl – Naturalist Minute – Ep. 2
Within the maze of ponderosa pine limbs, a gray specter sits silently as it casts an intense gaze my way. A magical experience, finding a Great Gray Owl comes all too rarely to the birder. Like most owls, they make their living by remaining stealthy while night hunting and go unnoticed during the day. The […]
Ponderosa Enigma – The Flammulated Owl
Say goodbye to Otus flammeolus and hello to Psiloscops flammeolus. Flammulated Owls have always been an enigma. They are tiny, secretive, and quite easy to overlook. Take the Flammulated Owl’s historical status in Montana, where the birds went largely undetected until the 1980s. The little, and I mean little, owls tend to live higher in the […]
From the Brink – Peregrine Falcon Recovery in Montana
The following post is part of the Raptor Blog Tour celebrating the release of Crossley ID Guide: Raptors. Make sure to check out all the really great articles about this superbly fine guide. By early 1980s, the skies over Montana were missing the fastest aerial predator. The Peregrine Falcon had ceased to breed in a state where it was […]