A full day of birding Flathead Valley

I was getting tired of the usual route I have taken the last few times I went out birding, so this time I changed it up a bit, and staying out in the field for almost 7 hours! I planned a route that would have all the brushy, riparian stuffs and still have large amounts of field to maximize the possibility of Snow Buntings and such.

I went south from my house, wandering through the agricultural fields, and seeing almost nothing. I did, however, find a Harlan's and a normal Red-tailed Hawk, many Common Ravens and a Bald Eagle.

The birds didn't start to pick up until I was almost in Evergreen, a "growth" off of the much larger Kalispell. I had a Belted Kingfisher over the Flathead River, and even another Harlan's Hawk along the river. I worked my way to the Treasure Lane access to Owen Sowerwine Natural Area, a huge tract of land along the Flathead River inside Kalispell. A great area for birds, Dan Casey and I even had a Rose-breasted Grosbeak there in the summer of 08'.


There definitely is a lot of Chickadees there, like lots.

After the Ninepipes and Bigfork CBC, with a Yellow-shafted Flicker each, I have become a little paranoid about Northern Flickers. I stopped for almost all of them today, seeing if they were yellows or not. Owen Sowerwine had lots of flickers, even a Pileated Woodpecker and a Brown Creeper. As I hiked along the trail, deeper into the Natural Area, more and more Bohemian Waxwings kept flying over me coming from one area.

Maybe 300 waxwings were feeding on all the highbush Cranberry and Mountain Ash deep in the woods and groups were leaving, many many at a time. Also, with the waxwings, were 3 American Robins! Pretty good birds for the dead of winter!

At this one persons' birdfeeders near the OSNA access, was about 15 Mourning Doves, and a bunch of House Finches. As I watched, a freakishly fast bird zipped in and spooked all the birds. It was light colored Merlin! That is always cool to see. The explosion of birds had revealed a single American Goldfinch. The only one for the day!

Next, I walked this trail near Woodland Park, and here I hoped to find a Song Sparrow but after a decent walk, I came up empty for Song Sparrow. I did manage to get 2 Blue Jays, and one Dark-eyed Junco. The only sparrow of the whole day (House Sparrows aren't sparrows).

I depart Kalispell and drive south-ish to the lower valley. I eat lunch, 3 different kinds of sandwiches, and find a nice flock of PERCHED Bohemian and Cedar Waxwings. Now, the lighting was terrible, but I got to really test out the Nikon Coolpix 990 and digiscope the birds.

At this little spot I also got a Downy Woodpecker.

Farther down the road, I found more Harlan's Hawks, and more Rough-legged Hawks.

This is about the best shot I have so far of Harlan's.

After missing Snow Buntings in the lower valley, I tried to pick up a few more species in Somers Bay of Flathead Lake..... That didn't as well as I thought. Only a mess of Common Goldeneyes.

I drove through the north end of Somers looking for the day's Eurasian Collared-Doves to no avail. Not even a House Sparrow.

(I am running out of transition words) I drove home through the Ag Fields south of Hwy 35 which is south of my house. Here, I got on of the cooliest birds I know of; NORTHERN SHRIKE!!! Also, more hawks.... a few Rough-leggeds and a Harlan's.

I love driving up really slowly, with my camera out my window, and coming to a stop right under the power pole the hawk is perched, and snapping away, then it flies!!!

Along this weird, wet swampy roadside ditch 5 feet wide, I had another Belted Kingfisher. I was hoping to find a snipe here......it looked really snipey.

Finally, driving past another large house in the middle of nowhere, I spot maybe 4 Eurasian Collared-Doves!!! They totaled about 6 maybe 7 somewhere in the spruce tree. I managed to get a very.... edited digiscoped shot of one bird.

Totalled 33 species for today's efforts, with good ones such as Belted Kingfisher, Pileated Woodpecker, Merlin, Eurasian Collared Dove, Northern Shrike and Red-winged Blackbird.

5 Harlan's Hawks and 3 normal Red-tailed Hawks....... that is more Harlan's to "normys" then I have ever seen.

Beginning of Winter Birds

Saturday, I went out for another round trip of birding. It felt like a good day from the start, we had crazy weather and snow so somethings had to be moving about.

First, I wandered around Columbia Falls to see if the waxwings/grosbeaks had maybe started to trickle in.... they haven't started yet. I did see many Rock Pigeons.....

Next stop was the county landfill, of course!! The mandatory stop for birding in the winter, you can't bird a day in the valley without stopping there. But the one thing about landfills isn't the smell, it's too darn cold to smell anything. It's that the area keeps changing. They have to keep burying the garbage and to the gull-viewing areas and the gull roosting sites keep changing. Sometimes they work together and they roost in good areas, but like now, they "gull" area isn't quite optimal for viewing form the non-restricted areas. This makes for the inconsistent viewing of the gulls, and a real rarity could slip through. I did get to see some gulls.

There were more Herring Gulls, (above photo) and less California Gulls and still MANY Ring-billed Gulls. Also, had a few Mew Gulls. I am sure this is a first-year Mew, but am not sure.

Ring billed Gull (above)

Common Raven tracks (below)

Young Herring Gull (above)

After viewing the gulls I was about to leave, but this gull caught my eye. Very Mew Gull like, but had a light-ish eye and blue-green legs and bill!! I first thought maybe a Mew x Ring-billed hybrid, but some quick research in "Gulls of the Americas" found that 2nd-cycle nonbreeding plumage Mew Gulls look just like this one. But that doesn't explain the light eye. It wasn't like really light, but a lot more then a normal Mew but still hard to see in my photos....

After my gull fun, I wandered down the west valley (again) and this time came across a nice flock of Bohemian and Cedar Waxwings

I like this shot of the 2 species right near each other. A great education shot on identifying the 2.

Next was the lower valley, just north of Flathead Lake. The clouds over the lake were quite interesting....This is looking south to the lake.

Not much down here, but a number of Rough-legged Hawks. Got some great shots of one perched, then of a second bird as it took off! Enjoy!

Mew Gulls

Flathead Lake, MT

Today, Thanksgiving Eve, I wandered around the valley birding. Remember the Mew Gulls I found the other weekend at the landfill? They are still there, and then some. Dan Casey counted 4 Mew Gulls at a time. Today, right away with out even a hard search, I found 2 Mews. I got close enough that I can phonedigiscope some semi-Internet worthy shots of one of the Mew Gulls.

At the main area, there was hundreds of gulls!! Mostly Ring-billeds as usual, but many Herring and at least 2 adult Thayer's and a few California Gulls. I did not find a Glaucous Gull, but I did find a Herring that REALLY fit the bill for a European Herring Gull! Like identical to one of the birds in "Gulls of the Americas". I could not grab any photos of this bird.

One of the Ring-billed found a huge chunk of misc. biological matter in the garbage, and was trying to scarf it down. I got these shot of his failed attempt. Enjoy!

The Ring-billeds weren't that shy, and some walked closer to me then where they landed.

But then flew!

I wandered down the "west valley", but there was not much to report from here except a few American Pipits on Church Rd.

I went to Foy Lake again to check on the Scoters and there they were. 2 White-winged Scoters! That is pretty cool! Here is a phonedigiscope shot of the female. Also, I had a few Townsend's Solitares and a few Eared Grebes on the lake.

On Foy Lake Road, on my way to Flathead Lake, an AMERICAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER flew across the road! That is only the second time I have ever seen one. I love those birds.

The sun came out and the water was still on Flathead Lake today. I could see REALLY far out onto the lake with my scope under these conditions. There was a few Common Loons, Red-necked Grebes, and Horned Grebes. Along on of the roads over looking Somers Bay I had a small flock of Bohemian Waxwings fly over! FIRST OF THE SEASON!

I went back home via the "lower valley" and got this shot of a Rough-legged Hawk

At Church Slough, viewed from the new fishing access, there was a large number of Swans, mostly Tundra Swans, but I did find at least 6 Trumpeter Swans. Also, quite a few Ring-necked Ducks and a few Greater Scaup.

Good Birding

Josh

From Sunup to Sundown, Always Birding

Waking up Sunday, brought a sigh of relief, as I stared out my window at a beautiful sunrise. I was grateful that the day would be sunny, rather then what it was like Friday, all icy and cloudy, and RAINY!!

Looking out the living room window, I discovered I live in Nepal, at the base of Mt. Everest! Fascinating!! Excuse me a minute, while I go look at some Guldenstadt's Redstarts, and Siberian Accentors!

Mt. Everest, I wish!
Walking by the spooky fog in the forest along my driveway, I headed for my local/secret patch, or called my neighbors yard. I was hoping to find some more birds, then I did Friday. Arriving, I ran into a flock of Pine Grosbeaks! That is cool no matter how often you see them! Luckily I saw the only sparrow in the whole area, a Song Sparrow. I managed to get a few semi-good shots as I chased it around and around the old garage.


This House Sparrow, though not a sparrow at all, but a weaver finch, was cooperative in letting me take a few shots of him.

After the fun I had at my neighbors, my granddad and I went into town to photograph, you guessed it, Pine Grosbeaks, and Waxwings. Our first stop help nothing but multiple American Robins. They seem to be increasing in numbers, as a few filter in from the south. This flock had about 15 birds, but the flock I saw Thursday, at the same spot, held more then 40 birds!

Just a short walk from the robins, was a little flock of Pine Grosbeaks, and like always, they offered some great photo opts.

This bird (above) looks like a first year male, in advanced molt, because it is the right color, but just on its head, and not breast.


On to the next location. Here, we found more Pine Grosbeaks, but none offered great photo opts, so I resorted to chasing White-winged Crossbills (the first seen of the day) into peoples yards. White-winged Crossbills have been decreasing in numbers, as our invasion wears off, so I felt honored and lucky to see and photograph an adult male.

This poor Sharp-shinned Hawk was right in the other side of the street from the Crossbills, and sadly enough was killed that morning, only a few hours earlier. It appears to have been shot, or hit by a car, and the hole in its side was made by magpies and not a projectile, or car. I assume it was killed by some kids or old person, who felt they must protect the flocks of waxwings that were feeding nearby. Vigilante justice isn't always the best.

We ran acrossed a small flock of waxwings, and in fact that was the bulk of the waxwings we saw! The rest 1,000+ must have moved on to greener pastures.



After the wonder through Columbia Falls, we headed over to the site where the road service dumps roadkills, mainly deer and elk. At this secret place, there are maybe 50 crows and ravens, and 7-10 Bald Eagles. It is a suckish place to photograph the birds, because they are so skiddish, so you spook them all, and hope one flies right by you in the sun. I capture this picture of a Common Raven as it flaired and went the other way.

This picture is looking down my driveway

I decided to do a little Bigbying after I got back from birding in town. I grabbed my bike and rode down to the old bridge that is now decommissioned, that crossed the Flathead River. Down by the bank, I found a great little spot for birds, to bad it has no winter birds, but it looks AMAZING for spring migration and breeders! I trompted around down by the river, until I realized that I might of been on private property! It is some beautiful country down by the river.

Leaving, after seening like NO birds, I headed home, and on my way out, along the little dead end road, I ran into a couple Black-capped Chickadees which gave semi-open photo opts. Just beyond that, someone planted bunch if apple trees, and eating those apples, was many Cedar Waxwings and a few American Robins. It looked like a good yard to be search in for Varied Thrush in a month or sooner.

I got home, and found this beauty in my Grandpa's ash tree. A single Townsend's Solitare. The first time I had the chance to photograph one. Then, a dozen Pine Grosbeaks flew in and started chowing down on my grandparents apples. I had to snap a few shots, and post then to prove it. It was getting dark, so the record shot had to be lightened a bit.

Have fun birding!!