Two Lifelong Goals Achieved on Western Montana / Idaho Panhandle Trip, July 6-16, 2022, Part 4 of 4

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 statelists.  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 at least add 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. 

My planned 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 of 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 fourth of four parts summarizing our trip, covering days 9 through 11 in MT. 

Day 9 – 7/14 – Many Glacier Entrance of Glacier NP and Freezout Lake NWR

The plan for the day was to bird the morning around the Many Glacier entrance of Glacier NP in the morning, which would be our last birding in the park.  Then we would drive southeast out of the mountains to Freezout Lake NWR for shorebirds and others wetland species. 

On the drive to Many Glacier I spent some time thinking about my chances of reaching the 15,000 Total Tick milestone yet on this trip.  With 14 in ID and 45 so far in MT that put me at 14,989 ticks – 11 to go.  I still had a number of targets in the mountains around Many Glacier, though after spending several days in those same habitats, none of those targets was particularly likely.  On the brighter side, I had 7 reasonably likely targets in the Freezout and Benton Lake refuges, and a couple I hoped for when we got back in Missoula.  So, reaching 15,000 on this trip might be a possibility yet. 

Our Many Glacier hike would start at the Many Glacier Lodge and then head southwest on the Swiftcurrent Nature Trail along the south shore of Swiftcurrent Lake.  Then we would bird along the south shore of Lake Josephine, before heading back along the north shore of Lake Josephine.  Birding was a bit slow at first though it was a pleasant walk through a very nice conifer woodlands.  And then we came to an opening giving us a view of Swiftcurrent Lake.  On the far side there was a spit with roosting gulls and waterfowl.  It was a bit distant but we were able to pick out 14 Common Mergansers, 4 Ring-billed Gulls and one Franklin’s Gull.  Plus there was a female Barrow’s Goldeneye swimming nearby.  The Franklin’s was a bit surprising but our sighting would be put into context later at Freezout Lake.

We continued along the trail and birding soon picked up as we checked off many of the regular species in this habitat like Pacific Wren, Swainson’s Thrush, and both Kinglets.  Then we noticed some movement in the distance and we spotted a female Rufous Hummingbird that had come to a nearby perch (#46) – our first hummingbird for MT and our first of the entire trip away from feeders.  On most of my other western trips I’ve seen quite a number of hummingbirds so I was surprised that we had seen so few on this trip.  I still need Rufous in a few states where it is a regular migrant or winterer.  I’ve also seen it in 7 northeast states as a rarity.

We continued down the trail and soon heard some chirping noises that sounded like young woodpeckers.  We had found several Red-naped Sapsucker nests in the past couple days, but these calls were different from those we had heard at those other nests.  Maybe these babies were younger so they were giving different calls.  Or maybe we had found a nest of another species of woodpecker.  I bushwhacked a bit off the trail and eventually found the nest hole in a dead conifer where the calls were coming from, and waited for one of the parents to come in.  A moment later I noticed some movement and a mid-sized woodpecker flew in –it was a female Three-toed Woodpecker giving us great views (#47).  A minute later the male came in to feed the young as well.  What a show!

And then just a short distance down the trail we heard a woodpecker drumming.  We softly played some tape of various woodpeckers drumming and it was a perfect match for Black-backed.  We played some Black-backed tape and it responded several times.  But it never came into view and soon stopped drumming.  David and I talked through the options and concluded we had heard a Black-backed Woodpecker (#48).  After all that hiking through suitable habitat and seeing evidence of Three-toed and Black-backed Woodpeckers, we finally had both species. 

It's interesting that the distribution of these 2 species is quite different.  Whereas the Three-toed is principally a bird of the Rockies within the US, the Black-backed is more scattered throughout the northern tier states.

The trail continued through excellent habitat as we passed along the south shore of Lake Josephine, picking up goodies like Boreal Chickadees at three locations, and our only Wilson’s Warblers of the trip among 6 warbler species.  All in all, it was one of our birdiest single hikes in Glacier, with 35 species.  It was a great way to end our birding time in Glacier NP!

Next we were off to the prairie to the southeast especially to bird two large refuges – Freezout Lake WMA and Benton Lake NWR.  My targets were principally breeders or early migrants in the wetlands that I had missed on my earlier trips to eastern and central MT.  Breeders included Sandhill Crane (still!, after missing them at several locations on this trip), White-faced Ibis, Black-necked Stilt, Long-billed Curlew, and Short-eared Owl.  And possible early migrants included Greater Yellowlegs, and Western Sandpiper.  Plus some relative long-shots like Short-billed Dowitcher, and Peregrine and Prairie Falcons.  Certainly different species from those in the mountains at Glacier NP.

On our way to Freezout Lake we picked up a few new birds for the trip like Horned Lark, Western Meadowlark, and Swainson’s Hawk.  Then just outside of the little town of Bynum we spotted a flock of good-sized birds in a cultivated field next to the road.  We were able to pull over and counted 10 Long-billed Curlews just loafing in the field (#49).  I’ve seen this species throughout the west, but still need it in several states there and along the southeast coast as an uncommon wintering species.

There had been a lot of Curlew reports at the refuges earlier in the summer, but I had been a bit worried about finding this target once they were done breeding and might disperse from their breeding sites.  A couple minutes later we had a lone Franklin’s Gull over “downtown” Bynum.  A bit of foreshadowing for what was to come.

The first wetlands we came to was Priest Butte Lake just north of Freezout.  A number of my targets had been reported here recently, so we were optimistic.  We found what was likely the only viewing spot for the lake, and set up our scopes.  Much of the lake was quite distant and just as we started to scan a Bald Eagle came by flushing a flock of about 100 Avocets.  We searched through the flock hoping to find some darker Stilts mixed in but to no avail.  Other shorebirds were limited to a Long-billed Curlew, a couple Spotteds, and a Willet.  Great Blue Heron was the only wader we could find.  A raft of about 200 Eared Grebes floated by, along with about 20 White Pelicans, a few Clark’s and Western Grebes, and a couple Ruddy’s.  A small group of Franklin’s and Ring-bills rounded out the list.  Pretty slow all told.

Then we went a short distance down the road to the entrance to Freezout Lake WMA.  We weren’t quite sure how to bird this site – there were many miles of roads through the refuge and waters levels seemed lower than normal, so it might be difficult to find the best viewing spots.  But we found a brochure at the entrance titled “Birding at Freezout Lake” which gave info on suggested birding spots throughout the area.  Unfortunately, it was a bit out of date, but still a help.

We started birding along the auto tour route but frustratingly the water edges were quite far away.  The marshes featured many singing Marsh Wrens and Red-wings, and we picked up a number of dabbling and diving ducks in the distance but nothing unusual.  Then we spotted a large flock of perhaps 300 Marbled Godwits flying by to the north.  We watched as they landed in the distance in a nearby impoundment and tracked them down.  Not only was it an impressive flock of Godwits, but there were at least 50 Dowitchers mixed in.  The flock was pretty distant, and lighting wasn’t good, but I started to scan the Dowitchers to try to find a rarer Short-billed among the expected Long-billed.  Quickly I picked out one bird that was perhaps 20 percent smaller, lacked the hump-backed “swallowed a football” look, and had a shorter bill.  We had our Short-billed Dowitcher (#50).  Short-billed is mostly a bird of the east and the immediate Pacific coast, but it will mix with Long-billed flocks throughout the west as well.

We also had a few Wilson’s Phalaropes that looked tiny compared to the Godwits and Dowitchers but couldn’t find any peeps. 

We left the tour road and headed to 5th Lane NW - a dirt road along the west side of the area where Short-eared Owl had been spotted recently.  Although there were several recent Short-ears seen throughout the refuge (all daytime sightings by the way), this was the only one where a specific location was mentioned, so we targeted this site.  The bird had been photographed perched on a metal fence post, so we kept our eyes open along the way looking at all the posts we could find, but with no luck.  The habitat at the southern end of the road looked great for Short-ears, so we decided to give it a try at dawn the next morning.  On the way back to the main road we picked up both Sora and Virginia Rail in the adjacent cattails, along with a cooperative Upland Sandpiper.

We made one final stop back at the headquarters buildings hoping to run into Gray Partridges at the shelter belt but just added Eurasian Collared-Dove for the day list.

Day 10 -7/15 - Freezout Lake WMA and Benton Lake NWR, Missoula

I started the day just 6 short of my 15,000 Total Ticks goal.  I had quite a number of potential targets to hope for that day, many of which were, dare I say, likely.  So, with a bit of luck July 15 might just be the day I hit 15,000!

Our initial plan for this day was to head right to Benton Lake NWR to get an early start to the day.  But given our reconnaissance of the area at Freezout Lake with a recent Short-eared Owl report, we decided to try our luck there at dawn first.  It was just 15 minutes from our motel in Choteau, and the sky was just getting light when we arrived at the Short-eared area a full 30 minutes before sunrise.  We drove along slowly checking all the possible low perches and scanning the fields.  And just a couple minutes later I picked out the characteristic floppy flight of a Short-eared Owl (#51).  It must have been actively hunting because I was only able to watch it in flight for a few seconds before it dropped down in the vegetation out of sight.  Unfortunately, all this happened before David got on it.  While we were standing by the car hoping in vain for the owl to reappear a Sandhill Crane called in the distance (#52).  Thankfully the bugling call really carries.  And a bit later we had a second bird calling as well.  Nice to fill in the MT gap in my statebird map for this species, which I’ve seen in most of its regular central and western states, as well as 12 in the east where it is a rarity though expanding.

What a great start to the day!

The sun was just starting to rise when we got back to the highway to drive by the Freezout impoundments.  I noticed a large number of white birds at one of the impoundments in the distance so we pulled over to check it out.  It was a huge flock of Franklin’s Gulls feeding on the flats – I made a wild estimate of 4,000 birds.  It was a spectacular site looking to the west with the rising sun illuminating the birds.  At one point the whole flock took off to fly north.  Here’s a still shot of a video I took of part of the flock as it was passing by.

The impoundment also had a number of shorebirds, including a flock of about 100 Avocets, and this time we picked out Black-necked Stilts mixed in – 21 of them (#53).  Other shorebirds included 100 Wilson’s and 20 Red-necked Phalaropes, 45 Marbled Godwits, 15 Willets, and 50 Long-billed Dowitchers.  Plus a calling Sandhill Crane – perhaps one we had earlier.  An amazing spectacle enhanced by the dawn lighting!

Although we thought we’d head right to Benton Lake we had another change in plans.  We were going right by a possible spot for Burrowing Owl which I had planned to try after Benton.  But Burrowing Owls can be difficult to find when it’s hot as they will tend to hide in their burrows to avoid the heat.  So rather than stopping there in the afternoon, we decided to try for them first.  The location was a prairie dog town at the First People’s Buffalo Jump SP.  I had traded e-mails with a birder who had them there a month ago, and with his specific directions, we were hopeful.  We pulled into the spot and soon realized it was a very large prairie dog town covering many acres – this might not be easy.  There were lots of potential burrows for the Owls.  We did several quick scans but came up empty.  I got my scope out and started looking in the more distant portions of the area and finally picked out a pair of Burrowing Owls (#54).  Not the best view but good enough.  Just a couple more states to go to fill in my statebird map for this species.

Other birds at the park included a number of Horned Larks and singing Vesper Sparrows, and a pair of Rock Pigeons that might actually have been nesting “naturally” on the cliffs of the mesa.

Now we were finally heading to Benton Lake NWR, two ticks short of 15,000.  The entrance road cut through beautiful grasslands full of Savannah and Vesper Sparrows and Horned Larks., accentuated by the occasional Upland Sandpiper.  We even found a family group of Uplands with a couple half-grown fledglings. We made a few stops along the way and heard Sandhill Cranes at 3 different stops.  I guess there was no need to make all those stops looking for Cranes near Kalispell earlier in the trip. 

As we neared the main lake on the refuge we could see that it was full of birds.  We parked at the first arm of the lake we came to and quickly spotted a number of White-faced Ibis feeding in the distance (#55).  There were large mixed flocks of Wilson’s and Red-necked Phalaropes spinning on the surface nearby and in the distance.  We conservatively estimated perhaps 200 Wilson’s and 50 Red-necked.  I was lucky enough to get a phonescoped photo of this White-faced Ibis with both Phalarope species in the background. 

And here's a shot of one of the mixed Phalarope flocks.

Then we started to notice a few Yellowlegs along the water’s edge.  We spent a bit of time to be sure but were able to pick out several Greaters in with their smaller Lesser cousins.  Greater Yellowlegs was my 56th new MT bird, making it Total Tick #15,000!  Here I am with the wetlands in the background where we had the Greater Yellowlegs.

I guess I had hoped #15,000 would be a rarity, or perhaps at least a very attractive eye-catching species.  But I certainly had a lot of both while building my state and province lists over the decades.  As a comment on how common Greater Yellowlegs is, I've now seen it in 50 states and DC - just need it in ND.

After a couple minutes of muted celebration we were back to birding – after all there were a lot more birds to look through on the lake.  Larger shorebirds included roughly 100 Marbled Godwits and 4 “Western” Willets that were small in comparison to the occasional Long-billed Curlew mixed in.  We even had family groups of both Godwits and Curlews in the grasses along the tour road, complete with half-grown babies.  Then we spotted a small group of peeps in the distance which at first looked to be 10 Baird’s Sandpipers.  Then with a little more searching we noticed one smaller peep in the group.  Eventually this bird gave us a nice profile view revealing a noticeably downturned bill - a Western Sandpiper (#57).  Later we came to small islands with roosting flocks of about 50 Avocets and an exact count of 52 Black-necked Stilts. 

And we can’t forget the waterfowl.  We estimated 150 Eared Grebes, with a single young baby following most every adult.  Dabblers were in drab plumage, but we were able to pick out Cinnamon Teal and Pintail among the Mallards.  Plus a few Redheads and Coots rounded out the mix. 

Then there were the gulls and terns.  Our conservative estimates of Franklin’s Gulls was 300, along with 50 Ring-bills and 75 California’s.  And at least 3 Forster’s Tern were feeding nearby.

The last new species for the refuge were a Loggerhead Shrike and an obliging Swainson’s Hawk perched in an adjacent cottonwood as we drove by.  We left Benton Lake after 2 ½ hours with 40 species.  What a great spot!

Our hotel for our last night in MT was back in Missoula where we planned to do a bit of evening birding.  Along the way we stopped for lunch in the little town of Lincoln, MT.  As we sat at a picnic table behind the restaurant David noted that the pine forest surrounding the restaurant looked good for Cassin’s Finch, one of my last remaining targets.  A quick eBird search showed that there was actually a recent Cassin’s Finch report from the town, at Hooper Park, which turned out to be less than a mile away.  We drove to Hooper Park only to find that some kind of fair was occurring there.  So we decided to turn onto a small road that passed along the edge of the park that was still in nice pine woodland.  At the end of the road we took a trail through the woods and almost instantly heard a singing Cassin’s Finch (#58).  And we heard 2 others as we drove back to the main road.  That was quite a pleasant surprise.  I’ve now seen this species in each state in its regular range except for its local populations in NE and SD.

When we got back to Missoula we unfortunately continued 2 trends on our trip – limited success in general birding in the late afternoon and evening, and no success with Western Bluebirds.  We headed to Blue Mountain in western Missoula specifically to try for Western Bluebird where there had been numerous recent reports.  We found a number of bluebird boxes but no Bluebirds.  We also searched several areas of nice habitat but again couldn’t come up with a Bluebird.  The best we could do was find our only White-breasted Nuthatches (of the Interior West race) of the trip.

Day 11 – 7/16 – Upper Rattlesnake Canyon in Missoula

In our last morning of MT birding we met up with Jillian Leblow again and birded Upper Rattlesnake Canyon in Missoula.  Jillian first took us to a riparian area where she had routinely had both Rufous and Calliope Hummingbirds.  We arrived in the area of excellent habitat soon after sunrise, and waited for it to warm up a bit for the little hummers to become more active.  Jillian described how a Rufous and a Calliope had territories adjacent to each other, and there was an area along the trail where the 2 could be seen interacting to defend those territories.  She also pointed out the Calliope’s favorite perch.  A few minutes later we spotted our first Rufous, and a few minutes later a male Calliope (#59), both in their territories just as Jillian had described.  And a bit later the Calliope landed on its favorite perch again as Jillian had said.  Just one more state to go to see this species in each state in its regular range.

Later we would find a pair of Rufous and a pair of Calliopes there.  We walked a bit further along the trail adding birds like Veery, Catbird, and MacGillivray’s Warbler in the riparian area, and then entered into pine woodlands with species like Western Tanager and Hammond’s Flycatcher. 

Just before we got back to the car Jillian took us to the site where she had a family of Western Bluebirds a few days earlier.  But once again we struck out on this target.  We even found a nearby homestead with boxes where the birds likely nested, but they were nowhere in sight.  I guess they really scatter after fledging.  A tough way to end the trip, but as they say, it gives me a reason to go back.

Trip Summary

We ended the trip with 170 species in MT and 93 in ID, and a total of 180 for the entire trip.  The eBird Trip Reports can be found here –

              Entire Trip - MT/ID Trip 2022 - eBird Trip Report

              MT – MT Trip - 2022 - eBird Trip Report

              ID - ID Trip - 2022 - eBird Trip Report

I added 73 new statebirds - 59 in MT bringing my total to 234, and 14 in ID giving me a new total of 224.  That was way over my initial goal of 59 for both states combined.

Plus of course those totals enabled me to reach my two big lifelong goals.  Dusky Flycatcher on July 8th was my 200th bird in MT.  I now have 200 or more species in each of the continental 49 states. (I’ll never be able to get to 200 in Hawaii).  My eBird profile map of my US totals is inserted below.

Then there’s the goal of reaching 15,000 total ticks, which I achieved with the Greater Yellowlegs at Benton Lake NWR on July 15th.  I ended my trip with 15,003 ticks - 13,506 in the US and 1,497 in Canada.  Here are my maps showing my totals by state and province.

In reality, 15,000 total ticks wasn’t exactly a lifelong goal.  Early in my birding career I hoped for 10,000 total ticks.  But I reached that smaller goal relatively early in my birding career on December 11, 2003 (Lapland Longspur in Arkansas) so I had to set a much loftier total tick goal to strive for.  It “only” took me about 18 ½ years to go from 10,000 to 15,000 total ticks.  What’s next?  16,000?

And I’m already thinking of what my next state/province birding trip may be.  Perhaps it will be to eastern WA and OR – a part of the country I’ve never birded.  Or maybe Manitoba or Saskatchewan where each of my province lists are less than 50.  Lots of state and province bird potential remains.