Through the post-fire forest of Blue Mountain
The Blue Mountain fire raged along the steep slopes a few years ago, and that apparent destruction has turned into a flourish of life. Mountain and Western Bluebirds patrol the naked spires of Douglas-fir and Ponderosa pine as Orange-crowned Warblers and Dark-eyed Juncos haunt the lower reaches. A warm May hike through this area is […]
Birding on Blue Mountain
The birding in the post-fire forest of Blue Mountain, near Missoula, Montana, has been phenomenal as of late. Williamson’s Sapsuckers and Western Bluebirds are definitely the stars of the show. House Wrens are making use of the previously excavated nest holes as the new tenets.
Glen Lake in the Bitterroots
On Sunday, I undertook a “short” hike up to Glen Lake in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area. I was told that the hike was 2.5 miles, but it is closer to 3.25 miles and bit more uphill than I had anticipated. Almost the entirety of the trail takes you through the post-fire environment left by the massive […]
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 […]