There’s nothing Country about the Nashville Warbler
Since back to northwest Montana, I have once again been treated the to presence of the Nashville Warbler. They are an explosion of color and voice. The gray head with its brilliant white eye-ring contrasts the olive back and yellow throat, chest, and belly. Its song always starts with a series of double notes. The Nashville Warbler […]
The continuation of the Wilson’s Phalarope
…When those marvelous sandpipers come around here, the little ones. While they’re in the air flying, they have one mind, they move all together. When they alight on the mud, they become individuals and they go pecking around for worms or whatever. But one click of the fingers and all those things go up into […]
My little secret Short-eared Owl spot
We all have our own secret little birding spots, those nooks of habitats that we find so magically. One of my spots is a little dirt road on the north side of the Ninepipe National Wildlife Refuge. So many times I have crept along this road as the dust settles from one of the occasional […]
First Gophersnake of 2012
This past Saturday the US Fish and Wildlife Service had opened the Red Sheep Mountain Road within the National Bison Range. We went with the intentions of seeing the unbelievable scenery and, of course, birds. The pleasant surprise of the road was a Gophersnake along side of the gravel road. When I was a child, […]
Black-backed Woodpecker – sense a theme here?
Some creatures hold a mystic grasp on my birding imagination. They are rare, elusive, or just plain odd. The Black-backed Woodpecker may just possess all three of those attributes in a single animal. Incredibly patchy in distribution due to their requirement of recently burnt forests for both nesting and feeding, Black-backed Woodpeckers are scattered widely […]
California Quail of the Bitterroot Valley
I have not seen a California Quail since moving back into western Montana, and I decided to take a break and find a few of the little buggers. And boy, did I find a whole mess of California Quail. I even managed a couple of images. California Quail is Montana’s introduced species problem. They have […]
Cassin’s Vireo from Mount Sentinel
Harsh questions and answers resonate through the Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine. The first note is always an upward, plaintive infliction, and the following an answering second, upward note. This questioning is relentless as if I am being grilled in a Turkish prison. The Cassin’s Vireo is one of three members of the former Solitary Vireo, which was split into […]
Western Skink…well worth the wait
So many posts left un-writtened…I will attempt to catch up on this blog and my photography-centric blog, http://www.raddphotography.com. I have always wanted to observe a Western Skink, but alas, the little buggers always eluded me. I remember seeing a lizard on a fencepost when I was a kid, but nothing since. That was true until […]
4 First of the Years today
Just a quick note about today’s birding. I managed four FOYs today; Cassin’s Vireo, Ruddy Duck, Lincoln’s Sparrow, and Hermit Thrush. The Hermit Thrush posed up for one quick image.
Trillium Trinitas
Meeting the neighbors
I am fortunate enough to have some pretty good neighbors. Bald Eagles, Osprey, and Canada Geese drop by for visits almost every day. Recently, a couple of new birds have moved into the neighborhood, American Goldfinch and Red-naped Sapsucker.
Bitterroot River Merganser, an uncommon experience
One of the benefits of living next to the Bitterroot River is the near constant presence of Common Mergansers has they float on past. Dressed in stately garb, the male is strikingly black and white with a bright red bill, whereas the hen possesses a russet head adorned with a ragged crest of feathers. These outfits make the moniker […]
The Greater of the two Yellowlegs
Today, I traveled down to the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge in search of a Sage Sparrow that I thought I heard yesterday, but I irrationally passed it off (bad birder, bad). I missed the one day wonder, but my consolation prize was a pair of Greater Yellowlegs. Even though the light wasn’t terribly cooperative, […]
A furry kind of day with Columbian Ground Squirrels
Yesterday afternoon, I went out to the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge for some birding and, fingers crossed, a little bird photography. Upon arriving at the Refuge, the season’s first Cinnamon Teals were feeding along the margins of the cattails. I waited for them to come within range of the 500mm lens, and they never […]
Return of the Ospreys – Past and Present
Each spring, I await the return of one particular raptor with particular anticipation, the Osprey. Always around the first of April when the ice has disappeared, they re-appear to their platform nests that sit atop numerous snags along the rivers and lakes of western Montana. All at once, there seems to be a pair occupying every available […]