In 2014 a trip to the upper Midwest enabled me to get both my SD and ND statelists above 200. Those were my 47th and 48th continental US states to exceed 200. That left MT as my last of the continental 49 states with a list below that threshold. Admittedly that is a somewhat arbitrary goal - it’s a lot easier to get to 200 in larger states like CA and TX with large statelists than in places like NH and RI with smaller lists. But ever since 2014, I’ve wanted to get back to MT to get my last continental US statelist over 200.
I started planning a western MT trip back in 2019, and had hoped
to go in June of that year. But that was
the year my wife and I moved from MA to NC, and I was focused on selling the
old house and buying the new one. So I
put the trip off to 2020. But then Covid
hit, so I delayed it to 2021. And then
with the pandemic continuing, I delayed the MT trip to 2022. Then in February 2022, being fully vaccinated
and boosted, I finally decided that it was safe enough to get back on the road
and schedule the trip. I reached out to
my good birding friend David Donsker and he agreed to go along as well. We made our plane reservations for July 6-16 to
Missoula, and were all set. That is
except for lots of planning – hundreds of hours of planning.
I’ve birded in MT on 4 previous occasions, most recently a
4-day trip in May 2014, giving me a total of 175 species. Each of these trips was in the eastern or
central portion of the state dominated by various plains and grassland habitats. So since I had never been to the mountains of
western MT with a very different mix of bird species, I had significant
statebird potential on my first trip there.
Certainly, it should be easy to add at least the 25 I needed to get to
200.
And since we’d be in the northwest corner of MT not far from
ID, I decided to add a couple days in the ID panhandle. I’ve birded ID 4 other times, but never made
it into the far northern portion of the state.
In fact, my interest in birding the ID panhandle was spawned while on a
birding trip in southern British Columbia.
At one point my route through BC took me within a few miles of the ID
border, and I was seeing several species in BC that I needed in ID, like
American Redstart and Red-eyed Vireo. I
was tempted to cross over the border on that trip, but instead decided to save
this new part of ID for a future trip.
My tentative itinerary was to make a big loop, first birding
a day each in MT near Missoula and Kalispell, then head west for about 2 days
in the ID panhandle, then back east into MT for 4 days in Glacier National
Park, followed by heading southeast for a day in the plains at Freezout Lake WMA
and Benton Lake NWR, before heading back to Missoula. That route would give me a whopping 84
targets in MT though I’d be happy if I found just 47. That would put me 6 over the old ABA
reportable threshold for MT of 216, and of course way over my goal of 200. Plus I had another 26 targets in ID with a
realistic goal of finding 12.
If I met my expected totals I would add 59 new statebirds in
MT and ID. That would give me 14,989
Total Ticks – the sum of all my US state and Canadian province lists. Just 11 short of my goal to reach the nice
round number of 15,000. But with a bit
of luck (and good planning) 15,000 ticks might be within reach. Sure would be nice to reach both lifelong
milestones, all continental states over 200 and total ticks of 15,000, on the
same trip.
With a bit of luck this could be a really exciting trip!
This blog post is the first of 4 parts summarizing our trip,
covering our first 3 days in MT.
Day 1 – 7/6 – Afternoon in Missoula
We landed at the Missoula airport in the early afternoon,
and after getting the rental car went straight to birding. Just before our trip I had reached out to
local Missoula birder Jillian Leblow for advice and she was a wealth of
knowledge. Given that we both had a very
early start to the day, we decided to focus on a few specialties in Missoula that
wouldn’t require much hiking. Our first
target was Lewis’s Woodpecker in Council Grove State Park. Jillian had told me that they were nesting
right at the parking lot so we hoped this could be a pretty easy stop for
them. And they did not disappoint – after
just a few minutes walking around we found several of these very colorful birds
(MT statebird #1). My statebird map for
Lewis’s Woodpecker is inserted below.
The blue-shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species. The cross-hatched states are those where I
have yet to find it – just 3 more to go.
And shortly thereafter we heard twittering calls coming from the tall pines right in the middle of the parking lot and found a small flock of Pygmy Nuthatches (#2). That was an easy and fruitful stop indeed!
Next we headed to Milltown State Park to try for
White-throated Swifts recently reported there.
The locations of the sightings in recent eBird reports were a little
confusing so I was a little unclear where the best spot might be to look for
them. But when we got close to the park
it became obvious – there was one tall bluff along the river that looked
perfect for Swift nesting sites. So we
parked on the road opposite the tall rock face and started scanning. We had a few swallows and singing Warbling
Vireos along the river, but no Swifts.
Then I heard their characteristic twittering calls behind me and there
was a flock of 5 White-throated Swifts flying across the sky (#3). And as icing on the cake we had another small
group of Pygmy Nuthatches nearby. I’ve
now caught up with White-throated Swifts in all their regular states except OR.
Our last stop of the day was to be Greenough Park, a quaint town park from which many checklists were reported in eBird. But 10 minutes into our walk a thunderstorm came through that made us scurry back to the car. Still 3 new MT statebirds with just a little birding time was a good start to the trip.
Day 2 – 7/7 – Missoula and Ninepipe NWR
The plan for the day was to spend much of the morning
birding with Jillian at Pattee Canyon southeast of Missoula. But first we took advantage of the fact that our
internal clocks were still on east coast time to get in some predawn owling
time nearby. I targeted three locations
in the Lolo National Forest south of Missoula where owls had been reported
recently. Our first 2 stops had recent
reports of Flammulated Owls, but despite calm and quiet conditions and a bright
moon, none would reply to our calls.
Best we could do was to hear a single Common Nighthawk.
Our last stop was on Larch Camp Road where there was a recent
report of both Saw-whet and Pygmy Owls. The
sky was starting to brighten in the east so we focused on the nocturnal
Saw-whet to start. But once again there
were no replies, at least initially. And
just when I started to think we would strikeout on the owls that morning, I
started to hear a Saw-whet give a single toot in response to the tape (#4). I’ve had Saw-whets give single toots like this
in the past a couple times in response to callback. Although MT was my 16th state for this
species, I still need it in many more.
We took a short walk down the road where the calls seemed to be coming from and played some more tape. This time we heard a harsh call as a reply. It sounded like an owl, but it was tough to tell which one was giving this very atypical call. Then it gave a perfect Western Screech-Owl song, followed by a second bird nearby (#5). And with the brightening sky we watched both birds fly almost directly overhead across the road. Then a 3rd bird started to call from the original spot. Maybe a Screech-Owl family? These were most unexpected birds, and apparently of interest to the local birders. A nice start to the day.
A few minutes later we were at the trailhead to Pattee
Canyon and met up with Jillian who agreed to show us around. One of the key targets here was Pygmy Owl
which had nested along one of the trails earlier in the season. But the young had recently fledged so we
weren’t too surprised not to find them at the nest hole that Jillian showed
us. Nor did any birds respond to call
back. But even though we missed our
first target, the habitat looked great, initially primarily this open pine
woodland with a grassy understory.
Jillian’s skills were tremendous, and she helped us out with all those bird songs that we weren’t familiar with. Several had songs similar to their eastern counterparts, so it was fun to compare and contrast them. For instance, MacGillivray’s Warbler’s song has lots of similarities to Mourning Warbler. Both Western Tanager’s song and call were similar to those of Scarlet Tanager. And Cassin’s Vireo was a buzzier version of Blue-headed. We were also lucky enough to get 2 targets that eBird data suggested were more likely in Pattee Canyon than at any of our other planned stops – Williamson’s Sapsucker and Evening Grosbeak. Plus we got a few of the less likely ones like Pileated Woodpecker, Cordilleran Flycatcher, and our only MT Nashville Warbler. All told I added 14 new MT birds on this most productive walk, bringing my tally up to 19 new species. Many thanks once again to Jillian for her help. And there was even some nice scenery at the top of our hike too.
Our next planned stops were three waterfowl refuges north of Missoula- Ninepipe NWR, then Kicking Horse Reservoir, and then Pablo NWR. I had a number of targets at these sites, including Horned and Red-necked Grebes, Trumpeter Swan, Sandhill Crane, Cinnamon Teal, Short-eared Owl, Black-necked Stilt, and White-faced Ibis. All had recently been reported at several or all of these waterbodies and associated wetlands, but most all were seen only occasionally and in low numbers. So the strategy was to bird all of them in hopes of running into each target at least once. Plus the refuges east of the mountains we would visit at the end of the trip could yield these targets if we didn’t get them at these western sites.
As we drove down out of the canyon to start heading north
the Low Tire Pressure light came on. Often this is not a big deal, but we still checked the tires
anyway. It turned out the front left
tire was very low, so we pumped it up and hoped it was already pretty low when
we first got the car. But a half hour
later we checked it again and it had lost pressure in just that short amount of
time. So we aired it up again and
decided to keep an eye on it.
As we neared Ninepipe NWR I mentioned to David that I wasn’t
able to find much information on how to bird that site. So we would just find whatever vantage points
we could and bird from each of them. Our
first viewing spot was to be the main entrance road which entered the refuge
from the east. We pulled into what we
thought was the entrance road only to find out it was a small turnaround with
limited visibility of the water. But I
mentioned we may as well scope the water here just in case something good
happens to be flying by. And just as I
stepped out of the car a Caspian Tern flew right by (#19). That was lucky. Although Caspians had recently been reported
occasionally at nearly all the wetlands we would be visiting, that one turned out
to be our only one of the trip. I’ve now
seen this species in all but 5 states where it is regular. I’ve also seen it in CO and ME as a rarity (the
tan-shaded states).
Farther up the road we got to the real main entrance road but it actually only gave us access to a small part of the refuge. We set up the scope for some distant viewing and found a small group of Trumpeter Swans (#21), along with a large nesting colony of Ring-billed Gulls, and a number of diving and dabbling ducks. My statebird map below reflects the Trumpeter Swan range map in the Sibley app, indicating that this species is a rarity in a number of states where I’ve seen it. In reality, Trumpeter Swan is expanding its range quite a bit, so it is no longer a rarity in a several of these states.
And along with viewing from a few other vantage points we found 3 species of Grebes – Eared, Clark’s and Western, though no Horned. And we finally found my only remaining dabbling duck target, Cinnamon Teal (#22), but nothing else of interest. We drove along the western and southern edges of the refuge hoping to come upon a perched Short-eared Owl, but with no luck.
As we reached the end of the perimeter road we got out and
checked the tire. It was lower still – alas,
it was time to take care of it. After
many calls pursuing multiple options we finally got the rental car company to
send us to a tire repair shop that fixed it quite quickly. Though unfortunately we lost most of the
afternoon birding time dealing with the tire, eliminating our opportunity to
bird Kicking Horse and Pablo Reservoir. Hopefully
we could still get our remaining wetlands targets at the refuges east of the
mountains near the end of the trip. Another
casualty of our tire debacle - we wouldn’t have time to look for Merlins possibly
nesting at Wayfarers SP along the way.
But it could have been worse - at least the car was fixed that day and
it didn’t impact the next day’s birding too.
Day 3 – 7/8 – Glacier NP and Kalispell Area
The original plan for Day 3 was to bird the greater
Kalispell area. But even though that was
the most likely area for Gray Partridge and Turkey, sightings were few and far
between, and none were apparently reliable.
There were however apparently reliable spots for Red-necked Grebe and
Sandhill Crane, and an iffy site for Horned Grebe. But all 3 could be birded quickly in the
afternoon. So instead of committing our
good early morning time to birding Kalispell, we decided to head into Glacier
National Park for our first visit to the western side of the park. Then we would make those quick stops for the
Grebes and Crane in the afternoon while on the way through Kalispell in route
to ID.
By the way, if you're planning to bird Glacier NP be sure to purchase a copy of "Glacier is for the Birds" by David Benson. It's an excellent resource and proved to be invaluable for my birding in the park.
We arrived at Glacier a few minutes before the 6 AM official
opening time and surprisingly we were able to drive right in without showing
our visitor passes to anyone. As we
drove to our first stop at the Fish Creek Campground and adjacent picnic area we
heard the first of many Pacific Wrens singing a somewhat less musical song than
its eastern Winter Wren counterpart (#23).
And when we reached the picnic area we had this tremendous sunrise view
of McDonald Lake.
A short walk through the thick conifers on the way to the campground yielded a singing Brown Creeper (#24). Then a quick walk around a couple of the campground loops gave us a few of the common regulars like Hammond’s Flycatcher, Cassin’s Vireo, “Audubon’s” Warbler, and Western Tanager. When we reached the main campground road we came to a stream that had another singing Pacific Wren. And while we strained our eyes to get a view of this skulking bird a Dipper flew by – our only one for the trip. (We never did see the Wren – in fact never saw one on the entire trip though we heard many.)
Next we headed to the Inside North Fork Road which is a
secluded unmaintained road which first passes through a thick conifer forest,
and then comes to an extensive burn area with young trees and brush. Before we had gone far down the road a deer came
running right towards us. And a few
seconds later a black bear came ambling down the road as well. Luckily we were in the car at the time – yes that's my dashboard in the foreground. We
rolled our windows up when it got 5 feet away and passed right by the car.
One of our key targets once we got into the burn area was the Dusky Flycatcher. Their song is virtually identical to Hammond’s Flycatcher, and except for a shorter primary projection, has a very similar plumage. The key differences are that Dusky prefers more open, brushy habitat, whereas Hammond’s prefers a thick conifer forest. Dusky also sings from a lower perch while Hammond’s typically sings from a higher perch. Here’s a typical shot of the burn area and the low trees and brush revegetating the area.
Soon after we reached the young forest in the burn area we started to hear the characteristic song of the Dusky and Hammond’s Flycatchers. Although it sounded like the Hammond’s we heard earlier in the tall conifers, this one was singing from the brushy vegetation. We played a bit of tape of the Dusky and a bird flew right in in response. We had our Dusky Flycatcher – the 25th new MT statebird and #200 for my MT list. I reached my first milestone of the trip - at least 200 species in all 49 continental states.
I still need Dusky Flycatcher in a couple states where it’s
regular, plus I’ve seen it as a rarity in migration in KS and OK.
Further up the road we got to an area where a stream bed paralleled the road, and we picked up a number of American Redstarts and Tennessee Warblers in the riparian vegetation – our only ones for the MT part of the trip. A bit farther along the stream bed widened into a nice wetlands where we heard my fourth and final warbler target – Northern Waterthrush (#26). I had been worried that my warbler targets might not still be singing this late in the year, but I guess I didn’t need to worry after all. In fact, we had 8 warbler species singing just along this road, which is a nice tally for western birding. At 10 AM we turned around and headed back toward Kalispell after a most successful morning in the park.
As we headed back through the Kalispell area in route to ID we
planned 3 quick stops for specific targets.
And along the way we’d keep our eyes peeled for Gray Partridge and
Turkey. The first stop was for a pair of
Horned Grebes reported in a small pond on Monegan Road in Whitefish. The birds had been reported there a few
times, but not too recently. I knew this
one was iffy, but just maybe a pair was nesting at the pond. It didn’t take us much time to survey the pond
when we arrived – it truly was a small body of water. But Mallards, a pair of Ruddy Ducks, and a
nest of Coots was all we found there. I
knew it was a long shot.
Next, we were on to 2 spots in an area called West Valley to
try for Sandhill Cranes. Both places had
reported Cranes in the double digits as recently as just 2 weeks earlier, whereas
there were just occasional reports from other wetlands in the area and generally
of just 1 or 2 birds. So I was cautiously
optimistic. The first spot we went to
was the West Valley Bird and Wildlife Viewing Area, which was on a hill giving
us a nice view of a couple nearby lakes.
But the lakes were quite small and lacking cattails or similar
vegetation for Cranes to forage or nest in.
We had some dabblers and Lesser Scaup, but little else. The best bird was a singing Clay-colored
Sparrow right next to the parking lot. Unfortunately,
it was a similar story at the nearby West Valley Ponds – limited habitat and
just a few dabblers. Where were the
Cranes? Migration was long over so the recent
reports had to be of local nesting birds.
Maybe they truly were breeding in the area but only occasionally coming
to the ponds to feed. In any case, we
were disappointed to strike out at what appeared to be the best Crane spot of
our trip.
After a short drive we were on to our next site – Smith Lake
Waterfowl Production Area. Several recent
reports from this site had multiple Red-necked Grebes, potentially of nesting
birds. This appeared to be the best spot
for them in the region – our other planned stops only had occasional reports of
single birds. So although I was
optimistic, this story sounded just like the one for the Sandhill Cranes at our
last stops. Smith Lake was a large
wetlands and the only potential viewing spot I could find on-line was from a
boat ramp on the southeast edge. We
headed right for the boat ramp, and one of the first birds I saw on the open
water was an adult Red-necked Grebe (#27).
I ended up counting at least 13 birds, including a pair with 3
young. I’ve now seen this species across
most of its breeding and wintering ranges, along with IA and WY as a rare
breeder, and several east coast states where it’s a rare wintering species.
And over the adjacent cattails there were at least 10 Black Terns flying about in their sharp breeding plumage. Plus with singing Marsh Wrens of the western subspecies, it was quite a spot. Here’s a view of the wetlands from just above the boat ramp.
Although that was our last stop in MT, the Grebes weren’t the last new bird in MT. As we neared the MT/ID stateline in Troy, MT we had a Vaux’s Swift pass over the car (#28). Luckily, we would get much better views of this species later in the trip after we were back in MT.
The ID portion of our trip is summarized in the next blog
post.
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