Day 159: June 7th – Greenough Park

Sunny, mid 70s and calm

       Our first full day in Montana proves to be a picture perfect weather day and productive as far as the sighting of new birds goes.  We met a couple from down in our neck of the woods in the sunshine state last night and hooked up with them to do a little free lance birding in a local park in Missoula (aka “Zoo Town”) known as Greenough Park.

Rattlesnake Creek, Greenough Park, Missoula

       As soon as we entered the park, we were greeted by a Black-billed magpie which I have not seen in several years.  The birds are always as challenge to photograph as they have the dreaded black-on-black combo of dark eyes on a dark face.  You can overexpose, use flash, whatever you want, but unless you can get the bird into a position so that the sun is reflected off of the dark eye, the two meld together as one and you simply have a totally black face.  In this photo, you do get a trace of the eye, but I’m hoping for a better photo-op as the trip wears on.

       We were hoping to find the American dipper, a neat little gray bird which sits on rocks in the middle of roaring rapids, and then dives right into the white water, swims to the bottom and picks up aquatic bugs off the bottom of the torrent.  Great to watch and even better to photograph.  Only problem is, there were none.  I’ve had the opportunity to photograph one in the past, but that was in Ireland…..not exactly a “countable North American”  bird.  Among our other target birds today, however, was the Western tanager, and that bird was so much more understanding of our desires.  It took a while, but eventually the songster emerged from the deep foliage of the deciduous trees and alit upon a branch of a much more open conifer.  It’s been a long time since we had this bird and eventually all of us in this party had him.

       We did have our first hummingbird of the trip, the Broad-tailed hummingbird.  It flew in to a tree directly above us and remained in good light for some time.  After careful examination and recording the bird on film, we determined that the bird is our life Broad-tailed.

       We also were able to add another bird which we have had on many occasions in New York, the Red-tailed hawk.  This buteo was being harangued by a mob of crows who took exception to the hawk’s presence.  The neat thing about this sighting was that this was a dark morph of the bird.  About 20% of the Red-tails in the west are “dark-phase” genre, and we were blessed to have this sighting to add to the list.

       Finally, we tallied another bird we would eventually get back east, but this one is the first of the year for us…..the Red-breasted nuthatch. 

       We returned to the hotel and met with our guides for this most anticipated trip, John Coons and Terry McEneaney.  Terry has spent much of his life as an ornithologist and guide in the Yellowstone National Park and throughout Montana.  We are eager to get out on the road tomorrow at 5:30 AM on a road trip that will take us 2,200 miles throughout this magnificent state.  We’re on our way…….