Montana Outdoors: Flat Out Gone In The Blink of An Eye...

Hoar frost turns the ordinary into the extraordinary overnight...

...though nifty as it looks signs a death warrant, the final nail in the coffin for last summer's blooms...

...too bad we can't bottle it, 'cause damn wouldn't it jazz up the ol' xmas tree...

Montana Outdoors: Birding Trails Montana

Cedar waxwing munching Russian olives

One of two Bohemian waxwing flocks we saw yesterday in Birch Creek

As posted a couple days ago I've been hard at work on our upcoming book Birding Trails Montana. And as also posted recently the time outs between key punching sessions have been devoted to Annie's rehab but...Why not kill two birds with one stone? Why not indeed... So instead of loosing Annie any old place there is room to ramble we been checking out spots we might also include in the book.

Yesterday it was Birch Creek. A tributary of the Big Hole born high in the East Pioneers, it flows for several miles through national forest before spilling out into mostly private ranch lands. Years ago a retired professor at then Western Montana College mentioned Birch Creek as one the spots he took his ornithology students. As I recall he said something along the lines, "Birch Creek is not the best but a good spot to find some forest species you don't normally find in the willows/cottonwoods/sagebrush and grass which make up most of my other spots close to town."

And sure enough we found but a handful species though we find discover something we'd heard of but never seen. Two flocks Bohemian waxwings, the small one above and another huge flock of at least 100 birds...For us a first since our biggest flock to date had been a dozen or so showed up in the backyard a couple winters ago.

Cedar waxwings are common backyard visitors all summer long. In fact we had one nest last August in the tree the one above is eating olives. Bohemians show up too in the backyard but usually in singles or small flocks of a 8 or 10. By the way 100 is no where near in record territory I read the other day of a group of birders counting several hundred in one bunch.  Whether Birch Creek will make the cut is still up in the air but we plan to return soon perhaps set a new personal record...

Montana Outdoors--Birds, Bears and More Birds...

Vermillion Flycatcher

Pyrrhuloxia

I haven't been posting as often of late mostly because I'm heavy into writing a new book...Birding Trails Montana...to be published next year sometime by Sandhill Crane Press, an imprint of Wilderness Adventures Press...which of course is the publisher of three of the four books I've had published. Anyway the list is long and by the time the book hits the streets it will no doubt have grown into yet another pretty fat tome...so be it.

Montana as you may or may not know boasts a pretty long list of birds...400+ actually...Loosely organized into birds that nest here; birds don't nest here but show up with fair regularity on their way to and from someplace else...migrants...and birds such as the two above...which rarely show up and when they do never fail to leave a last impression...To me vagrants or accidentals beg the obvious...like what (or perhaps more to the point, how) the hell you guys doin' way up here when your distribution chart clearly shows a distinct love for fun in the sun and sands of the desert southwest...Well as I say your reporter is no way near wise enough to answer that one; actually I'm hard pressed to even so much as hazard a guess.

But spying the pair on the Montana bird list did pique my interest so I did a little research and while I still wonder what/how the hell I did learn where the pair showed up...The pyrrhuloxia was observed in Billings; the vermillion flycatcher in Victor...Any way you cut it a far piece from home, eh?

On another track I read this morning Pennsylvania hunters killed nearly 4000 bears in the season just ended; no not a record kill but does rank second all time to I think 2005 when just over 4000 bears bit the dust...And we think we got a lot of bears...

On yet another track this one something of personal tragedy...Annie still is not completely healed from her rattler encounter, (October 20). Although at times you would never know it. Except for the now near hairless, obviously atrophied foot and rear leg in the yard and around the house she appears her old self. But turn her loose on the prairie and she soon tires...The good news is she seems to get a little better each day. As such we continue to hope before the season ends we will at least be able to get in a few licks.

Meanwhile Kate's still hanging in there; perhaps no better but no worse either. Then every once in awhile she makes a point of reminding us the eyes might be gone but the nose still works...Daily we take Annie up into the sagebrush either to actually hunt Huns or just practice on sage hens...Anyway the other afternoon we took Kate along. The wind was blowing pretty good and right out the truck obvious she got a snoot full ...Gale could hardly hold the old girl back...Nose to the wind, bound and determined, and not about to be denied she tugged Gale ever onward... The birds left before she could catch up but still...like how nifty is that