A glorious sunny day
in the mid 70’s with calm winds
What a day on which to wind
down our Montana birding experience.
Bright sunny skies, calm winds and beautiful scenery make for a picture
perfect climax to a great journey.
 |
| Flathead River |
The first leg of
our trek back down to Missoula takes us along one of the largest and one of the
cleanest lakes in the United States, Flathead Lake. We stopped at the research station run by the University of
Montana to see what birds were waking up along with us in the early
morning. First sighting was of the
Northern flicker. Normally, we’d
think of this as just another bird we see back east, but the race we find in
Montana is the “red-shafted” variety and at times the difference is
notable. A last look at the
Violet-green swallow and Red-breasted nuthatch (above) along with a myriad of
spectacular wild flowers makes this stop worthy of mention.
From there, we head south
along Route 93 through Polson and on down to our last official national refuge,
the Ninepipes Wildlife Management Area.
We’ve only had two owl species up till now, those being the Burrowing
owl and the cute little Great Horned owl chick, but on this one stretch through
the WMA we pick up two more nice sightings. The first is of the Short-eared owl, the best sightings I’ve
had in years. We were able to
spend a good amount of time watching the bird soar, perch on a fencepost, and
then take off back into the air as it hunted along the grasslands.
Several red-tails, a handsome
Ring-necked pheasant which was flushed as our vans drove by, Long-billed
curlew, Greater yellowlegs, and a Sora which we all heard and several of our
party saw.
A splendid vantage point
of a nesting Great horned owl is the perfect ending to this very productive
birding venue.
We head over to the
National Bison Range where we stop for lunch and try to find the tiny elusive
Saw-whet owl which had nested here earlier this year. To our chagrin (well, it wasn’t all that bad) we never did
lay eyes upon the little bird. We
did get some last looks at the Black-billed magpie…..won’t see him back in the
northeast! We thought we heard the
owl call as we were preparing to leave the site, but when we located the source
of the call, it was a Red-tailed hawk making one of the strangest vocalizations
I’ve ever heard this raptor make.
Last stop of the
trip was at Council Grove Park just outside Missoula. The park marks the site where in days past, local Native
Americans would meet for pow-wows.
Today, we were hoping for two more trip birds, one of which would be a
lifer for me. First on tap was the
Lewis’s woodpecker. We hadn’t seen
this bird since our New Mexico trip several year’s ago. But our guides Terry and John know
where to look and within minutes of arriving on site, we have the bird. Distant, yes. But as they fly overhead in the waning hours of the day, I
manage to get a shot good enough to document our sighting, but truthfully not
much more. Our final sighting is
the Pygmy nuthatch, my final life-bird of the trip.
We end up with a visit to
Terry’s Montana home and his incredible little Irish pub which he built in his
basement. You’d swear you back in
the green isle when you walk in, and the feeling of friendship and our common
bond with all our new birding friends was certainly crystallized by this time
together. A trip we will never
forget and may well repeat down the road.
Tomorrow’s blog will include our final talley of the birds we found
including the total trip list, how many year birds we picked up, how many new
“life birds” were added to our list and how many new “Photo life birds” I
managed to capture respectable images of.
Time to pack and head back east.
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