Two Lifelong Goals Achieved on Western Montana / Idaho Panhandle Trip, July 6-16, 2022, Part 3 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 third of four parts summarizing our trip, covering days 5 through 8 in MT. 

Day 5 – 7/10 - Wayfarers SP, MT

We left ID after a full and successful day of birding to head back to Kalispell.  But the day wasn’t quite over yet.  Since we were a bit ahead of schedule, we had time to double back to Wayfarers SP at the north end of Flathead Lake to try for recently reported Merlins.  One or two had been reported there several times this summer, and most recently 2 birds were said to have been seen chasing a Bald Eagle through the park.  Sounded like they might be nesting.  But, with no specific locations given, it might be difficult to find them, even though the park wasn’t too big.  It was late afternoon when we pulled in, but we still needed to pay the full $8 day use fee.  Soon after we got on the narrow road that snakes through the park we started to hear some raucous calls.  I quickly pulled somewhat off the road in an admittedly less than ideal location.  Luckily it only took a few seconds to track down the source of the calls – they were begging calls from 2 full-sized juvenile Merlins at the nest which was on a horizontal branch in a large conifer.  And both parents were there as well (MT statebird #29).  I still need this species in quite a number of central states.

Sure is nice when a speculative plan comes together.  And a great way to end the day. 

Day 6 – 7/11 – Western Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier NP

This was our only full day in the western portion of Glacier NP, and we had 3 key places to bird – Avalanche Lake and campground, McDonald Lodge, and the Upper McDonald Creek trail.  There were likely benefits to birding each of these sites at dawn, but which one would be best?  It seemed like our best possibilities would be around the Avalanche campground and on the trail to Avalanche Lake, and that trail was one of the most popular ones in the park, so we decided to head there first to try to beat some of the crowds.  The other two spots would have to wait till later in the day.

We arrived at the parking lot near the Avalanche Campground about 6:15 and got almost the last parking spot.  I guess it was a good thing that we covered this spot first at least as far as the crowds were concerned.  And soon after we got out of the car I added 2 MT birds - singing Varied Thrush (#30) and Golden-crowned Kinglet (#31).  I’ve now seen Varied Thrush in all 6 states in its regular range, not to mention just as many states where it was a rarity.

So far the birds were saying it was a good choice to start there as well.  We took a slow walk around one of the campground loops but didn’t add too much.  That is except a Red Fox that got a little closer to us than we would have liked.  Then we walked a portion of the Trail of the Cedars in route to the Avalanche Lake Trail, adding another Varied Thrush and a Pacific Wren, but birding was pretty slow.

We finally got to the Avalanche Lake Trail and started heading uphill.  The first half of the trail went through a very dense cedar-hemlock forest that was great for Varied Thrush (we heard 8 of them along the way), but little else.  The trail opened up a bit about halfway up, and a blowdown afforded some nice views.

And the birding picked up a bit too, but just a little.  Finally, we reached Avalanche Lake, first arriving at the riparian area at the lake outlet.  Here we had a Warbling Vireo and MacGillivray’s Warbler, and then heard the characteristic song of the Fox Sparrow (#32).  Later the trail rose a bit above the lake providing this nice scenic lake view. 

The lake was supposed to be good for both Goldeneye species but we found no waterfowl at all despite lots of scans.  Though on one of my searches I spotted a large solid gray bird flying across the lake.  I watched it for several seconds until it landed in a distant conifer.  Although as a perched bird it was too far to ID, based on the size and color in flight I decided it was a Canada Jay (#33).  Not the best view but it would have to do.  Later we also had a nice flock of 20 or more Vaux’s Swift over the lake.  Though try as we might, we couldn’t turn any into Black Swifts which were supposed to be regular here.  We then took the long trail back to the campground, along with many, many hikers.  Needless to say we didn’t have many birds on the way down.  Though as we got to the campground to eat lunch a friendly Steller’s Jay hopped around on the next table hoping for scraps.  This bird of the Interior West race gave us great views of its white “eyebrows”.  We ended up with just 18 species for this 5-hour trip.  In hindsight this might not have been the best site to bird at dawn after all. 

Next we headed to the Upper McDonald Creek trail a short distance away.  A key target here was Harlequin Duck which nests along the cliffs, and represents a major portion of the nesting Harlequins in MT.  We read that the males leave the nesting sites in June and head back to the coast.  So by the time of our trip only females (and young) remain in the area.  But despite lots of searching along the creek we found no birds.  We even came back 2 days later and tried again unsuccessfully.  Along the way we came to 2 sites cordoned off to protect Harlequin nesting spots.

It made me wonder if the female Harlequins were on eggs at the time of our trip.  If so, the females would only come out of their nesting cavities occasionally for a quick meal then head back to the nest.  Maybe we picked the worst time of the year to look for them. 

Our last stop of the day was the Lake McDonald Lodge which had had a number of my targets in recent reports.  But by the time we arrived in mid-afternoon the lodge and grounds were full of people and cars.  We made a quick search for hummingbird feeders (we still had no hummers in MT), and a scan over the lake for waterfowl, but came up empty on both accounts.  But we still needed Chestnut-backed Chickadee for MT, and this western side of the park was supposed to be the area for them, and in fact the only area for them amongst all our MT birding sites.  So we decided leave the lodge area for now, check into our hotel, get some dinner, and head back to the lodge grounds when it was a bit cooler to try for the Chickadee again.

We returned to the lodge at 6:30 and played some Chickadee calls at a number of spots without any luck.  Then I noticed that the cedars along one side road looked good for them so we gave it a try.  Soon we heard some Chickadee notes, and with a bit of tape had a Chestnut-backed come in to investigate (#34).  It would be our only one in MT.  Interestingly, my statebird map for the 6 states in the regular range of this species matches that for the Varied Thrush.  Though unlike the Thrush, the Chestnut-backed is not prone to vagrancy.

It was a nice way to end a long, tiring, though productive day.

Day 7 – 7/12 – Eastern Glacier NP Going-to-the-Sun Road

In my original plans this was going to be our day to hike around Logan Pass and other trails near the Continental Divide.  But the Going-to-the-Sun Road was still closed due to snow, even though the park’s website says it is normally open by early July.  There was a rumor that the road may open on the 13th, so we moved up our planned birding in the eastern part of Going-to-the Sun to the 12th, and crossed our fingers that the road would truly be open the next day and allow us to get to the highest portions of the park on the 13th. 

With the road through the park being closed, we had to drive all the way around the southern edge of the park to get to the eastern entrance around St. Mary.  Along the way we had a pair of Mountain Bluebirds and a flyby Cooper’s Hawk near Browning (#35) – a silver lining of that longer ride outside the park.  I’ve now seen Cooper’s Hawk in all the Lower 48 states plus DC.

We finally rolled into the St. Mary’s Visitor Center at about 7 and our thoughts instantly went to Veery which was our key target here.  The visitor center was in the middle of a grasslands, so I wondered where we might find the proper riparian habitat for Veery.  But as soon as we opened the doors we could hear a Veery singing a short distance away to the northwest (#36).  That was a lot easier than expected.  The references also talked about the grasslands near the St. Mary visitor center harboring a number of sparrow species, and a sparrow chorus it was.  Within minutes we heard songs from Savannah, Clay-colored, White-crowned, Lincoln’s, and Vesper.  Here’s a panorama of the surrounding grasslands.

 

Our plan for the morning was to take a 4-mile loop trail, starting with the Red Eagle Lake Trail, then return on the Beaver Pond Trail.  Recent reports from these trails had included no less than 6 of my remaining targets – Barrow’s Goldeneye, Black-backed Woodpecker, Calliope Hummingbird, Alder Flycatcher, Olive-Sided Flycatcher, and Cassin’s Finch.  Truly a target-rich location.  We began our walk along the edge of the grasslands getting many of the same sparrows we heard at the visitor center.  Then we entered a nice wetlands with several singing Willow Flycatchers, MacGillivray’s and Yellow Warblers, and Northern Waterthrush.  Then I heard what sounded like half of a song of an Alder Flycatcher.  The Sibley app calls this the “Rrreea call” of the Alder.  We played some tape and a bird flew in in response to the Alder’s “Peet call”.  We had our Alder Flycatcher (#37).  Like several of my other targets on this trip, Alder Flycatcher is mostly an eastern bird in the US, passing through many states as a migrant where I still haven’t caught up to it.  But in Canada its nesting range goes coast to coast.  The Sibley app shows it as a regular breeder in just one spot in MT near Glacier NP, but not in ID.

Farther down the trail we soon left the wetlands (and the mosquitoes!) and entered an area with many trees that had recently died.  Most of the trees had obvious spots where the bark had been flaked off by Three-Toed and/or Black-backed Woodpeckers, so we were optimistic that we might find one or both of our target woodpeckers.  But despite lots of searching and playing tape, we could only find one Hairy Woodpecker.  Maybe there was just too much good habitat and the woodpecker density was too low. 

Eventually we reached the trail junction and turned onto the Beaver Pond Trail to head back to the parking lot.  The woods were dominated by aspens, and we were able to find two Red-breasted Sapsucker nests each with at least one noisy nestling – we had 10 Sapsuckers on this part of the trail alone.  As we continued our walk we caught brief glimpses of the beaver pond, and each time we scanned for the Barrow’s Goldeneyes that are supposed to be breeding there.  Eventually we came to an opening and we spotted movement on the lake – it was a female Bufflehead and 3 ducklings.  And then we noticed a duck sleeping on a rock in the middle of the lake.  It was a female-plumaged Goldeneye, but which species?  (And how did we miss these birds on all our previous scans?)  It eventually woke up and showed us an all dark bill – female Barrow’s have mostly yellow bills, right?  We were disappointed that it was just a Common, even though only Barrow’s had been reported here.  Then we got a better look at the head shape and it was sloped forward with a shaggy crest like a Barrow’s, as shown in this passable digi-binned photo.

With a bit of research we found that the female Barrow’s only acquires a yellow bill during winter, which is the typical time of year that we might look for them on the New England coast.  And its bill is actually dark during breeding season.  So we had our Barrow’s Goldeneye after all! (#38).  I now just need this species in one more western state (SD) where it’s a wintering species.  I’ve also seen it as a rarity in WI and 3 northeast states.

Soon after we confirmed the ID a moose ambled by and came to the beaver pond to drink.

The riparian area was quite birdy including species like Least Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, Orange-crowned Warbler, and Lincoln’s Sparrow.  And several meadows we passed through were full of pretty wildflowers, though we still couldn’t come up with a hummingbird.  All in all it was a nice walk even though we only got a couple of our targets.  [As a post-script: later that day we ran into birders who mentioned that a Great Gray Owl had been seen from these trails just a few days earlier, though it had not been seen the last couple days.  That would have been a good one to run into.]

The rest of the day we planned to bird a couple short trails farther west along St. Mary Lake.  But by the afternoon it was quite hot and sunny.  And worse yet, almost the entire area had been burned and there were next to no tall trees remaining to offer any shade.  We did walk the Sun Point Nature Trail, finding a bit of shade along the lake.  And we found a spot where there was a nice breeze coming off the lake.  The only thing that was missing was a bench. 

As we watched out over the lake we noticed a small flock of birds in the distance flying low over the surface.  It was pretty far away so it took us a while to verify field marks, but we were seeing all-dark Swifts, with shallow and slow wingbeats.  David commented that they reminded him of Leach’s Storm-Petrels.  They seemed too big to be Vaux’s Swifts which might hardly even be visible at this distance.  And along with the flight pattern and coloration, we concluded we had a flock of 4 Black Swifts (#39).  MT was only my third state for this elusive species; I’ve also seen it in Canada in BC.

A short time later a family group of Hairy Woodpeckers flew into the trees right in front of us.  These were of the interior west race that have significantly less white on the back and wings than our eastern race.  We commented how similar they are to Three-toed, and could be easily misidentified by eastern birders.  Sure enough just a minute later a couple birders came along the trail, spotted the birds, and ID’d them as Three-toed.  Not sure if the little ID lesson we gave them was enough to persuade them into taking Three-toed off their life list though.

Day 8 – 7/13 – Logan Pass and Piegan Pass Trail, Glacier NP

Our plans for this day were up in the air, with options all based on whether the Going-to-the-Sun Road would be open all the way through Logan Pass.  As of 5 AM when we left the hotel the Glacier website said the road was still closed.  So we once again made the 2-hour long drive around the park to enter on the east side at St. Mary.  But as we arrived at 7 AM there was a park ranger there to tell us that the road was indeed open.  It turned out that the 7/13 opening date tied a record for the latest date the road had ever been opened. But would the late spring snows cause us problems on the trails?

Now with access to the highest stretches of the Going-to-the-Sun Road, our plan was first to hike the Hidden Lake Trail at Logan Pass to look for Ptarmigans and Rosy-finches.  Then we would head to the Siyeh Bend/Piegan Pass Trail for other boreal species.  When we got close to Logan Pass there was quite a bit of snow still on the ground, including an 80-foot tall drift at a location aptly named “The Big Drift”.  We were one of the first cars to get to the parking lot at 6,600 feet elevation and saw this beautiful landscape of snow and wildflowers on the mountains.

But the Hidden Lake Trail was nearly completely snow-covered, and officially closed even though there were quite a number of people on at least the lower portion.

You would normally look f or Ptarmigans in vegetated patches at the edge of a snow field.  But since most of the area along the trail was still snow covered, there were no grassy patches for them to feed in.  There were however quite a number of Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches flying around and feeding on the snow (#40).  And a number of American Pipits both calling and singing.  Not sure if I’ve ever heard a Pipit singing before.

If the Ptarmigans were still in the area they would have to be lower in the mountains where the snow was only patchy.  I scanned a number of such areas in the distance hoping to spot some movement but not surprisingly came up empty.  Though I was surprised (and lucky) to pick up a Clark’s Nutcracker flying along the treetops on one of my scans (#41 – that gives me 216 for my MT list which was the old ABA reportable threshold).  Nice to get the Nutcracker as a bonus bird since we weren’t able to get to the Ptarmigan’s habitat in this abnormally snowy year.

Next I was on to the Piegan Pass Trail using the trailhead starting at Siyeh Bend.  The trail started at 5,840 ft and climbed to 7,000 ft over a 2.6 mile route through mature spruce-fir forest.  At those elevations our biggest concern was that this trail too could still be snow-covered.  And along with the elevation gain, David decided to pass on this trail.  The lower portions of the trail had occasional snowy areas making the hiking a lot more strenuous, and the trail a bit difficult to find at times, but it wasn’t too bad.  Along the way the forests were beautiful with the regulars like Siskins, Golden-crowned Kinglets, Mountain Chickadees (including a family group), and Red-breasted Nuthatches.  And I came upon more trees showing Three-toed/Black-backed activity, like this tree surrounded by a pile of bark on the ground.

But the real targets for this trail were the boreal species mostly seen at higher elevations, so I had to continue higher in the mountains on my search.  Unfortunately, as I gained elevation a greater percentage of the trail was snow-covered, and in some cases the snow drifts were waist deep.  Luckily, they were packed down well enough that I could mostly walk on the surface. 

I had climbed to about 6,500 ft when I started to hear call notes up ahead that I didn’t recognize.  I recorded it with my Merlin app and it identified it as a Pine Grosbeak.  Merlin isn’t too accurate at times but this time it was right on – I played some tape of the Pine Grosbeak call notes and it was a perfect match.  Then it started singing which again matched the song on the app (#42).  If it hadn’t been for Merlin I wouldn’t have identified that one. 

A bit farther along I heard some Chickadee notes that got my attention.  The entire trip I had been working on separating the calls and songs of the four species of Chickadees that could be in the area.  And those calls up ahead sounded like they were from my last remaining Chickadee target – the Boreal Chickadee.  I got closer to the calls and played a bit of tape.  A Boreal Chickadee flew right in and checked me out just 5 feet away (#43).  Oh if I only had a camera…  I still need this species in several northern tier states, though I have seen it as a rarity in MD and MA.

I was just about to reach the beginning of Piegan Pass when I added my next bird – this one was a White-winged Crossbill that called as it flew overhead (#44). 

I was now at just above 7,000 feet, and the trail was mostly snow covered, so I decided to turn around at that point.  Interestingly the Pine Grosbeak was still singing at the same location as I passed by it again back downhill.

And this Marmot was quite inquisitive as I passed by it along one of the waterfalls.

But as they say on TV - “But wait, there’s more.”  I had just returned to my car and took off my backpack when I noticed a large raptor flying by.  It was close enough to ID even without binocs as a sub-adult Golden Eagle (#45).  A nice way to end my birding on the trail.

I rejoined David at Logan Pass and we drove west through the heart of the park on the newly opened Going-to-the-Sun Road, taking in some beautiful scenery.  One of the best shots was this classic bowl-shaped valley formed by glacial activity.

We also stopped at Haystack Falls where Black Swifts have nested in previous years, but could not come up with them.  And we made a few more stops along Upper McDonald Creek in unsuccessful searches for Harlequin Ducks.  That one will have to wait for a future trip.

 

My next blog post provides a summary of the last portion of our MT/ID trip on days 9-11.

Two Lifelong Goals Achieved on Western Montana / Idaho Panhandle Trip, July 6-16, 2022, Part 2 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. 

My best MT statebird potential was in the mountains in the western portion of the state – an area I’ve never been to.  So I reached out to birding friend David Donsker, and we scheduled a trip for July 6-16, 2022.

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 bring my MT list (presently at 175) to 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 second of 4 parts summarizing our trip, covering the ID portion on days 3 through 5. 

Day 3 – 7/8 –McArthur Lake WMA, ID

Most of my ID targets were landbirds, and in fact most were passerines.  I planned just one stop that afternoon at the McArthur Lake WMA.  Although waterfowl was the wildlife management focus of this spot, several recent eBird checklists featured landbirds including a number of my targets.  I wasn’t quite sure how to bird this site, but found a map on-line with a couple trails shown on the forested west side of the area, so that’s where we headed.  The first trail was in a riparian area with some nice vegetation which was quite birdy.  And among the first songs we heard were several American Redstarts (ID statebird #1).  Soon thereafter we had a pair of calling Red Crossbills pass over head (#2).  Other birds of this riparian area included Gray Catbird, Willow Flycatcher and Yellow Warblers. 

Having covered this spot quite well we headed off to the second trail, or at least we tried to.  Unfortunately, we were never able to find it.  That was frustrating.  We doubled back and made a couple quick stops in suitable spots along the road.  On our last stop we heard some chickadee notes.  Ever since our first stops in Missoula days earlier I had been working on understanding the differences between the calls and songs of Black-capped and Mountain Chickadees.  And these sounded a bit different altogether.  I played a bit of tape and 3 Chickadees came into view – they were Chestnut-backed (#3).  We called it quits with 31 species in some light birding in our first day in ID.

 Day 4 – 7/9 – Kootenai NWR, Coeur d’Alene

The plan for the day was to spend the morning at the Kootenai NWR where quite a number of my targets had been recently reported.  Then we would head south with a somewhat long-shot try for Western Bluebird.  Eventually we would make it to Coeur d’Alene with stops for 4 specific targets (White-throated Swift, Pygmy Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch, and Say’s Phoebe).

Our first stop was the Deep Creek Trail in the Kootenai NWR where reports from the extensive riparian habitat included two of my targets - Least Flycatcher and Red-eyed Vireo.  We weren’t even quite to the trailhead yet when we heard our first Least Flycatcher singing along the road (#4).  And moments after parking we heard our first Red-eyed Vireo (#5).  It was good that we got these birds so quickly because the mosquitoes were absolutely horrendous!  We lasted less than 15 minutes there before retreating to the car.  At least that was efficient.  Range maps for these two species are quite similar – they are mostly eastern species in the US, but in Canada their range extends all the way west to British Columbia.  These western populations barely extend to the US Pacific Northwest including the panhandle of ID.  My Red-eyed Vireo statebird map pretty closely matches their range map, minus a couple front range states where I still need it as migrant. 

My Least Flycatcher map is similar, though I still need them as a migrant in a couple southeastern states, and have seen them as a rarity in AK and AZ.

Next we were on to the trails near the refuge.  The western edge of the refuge was in the mountains and several trails took you through nice conifer forest.  We didn’t see much here, but did have some nice waterfalls.

And most of the refuge was in the floodplain of the Kootenai River, including some nice meadows with wildflowers that were quite attractive just after dawn.

Next we headed to the headquarters buildings to look for Hummingbirds and Say’s Phoebe reported there recently.  Sure enough as we neared the admin building we spotted a male Rufous perched on the fence around the building (#6).  We ended up finding 2 feeders, and the male Rufous was defending both from at least 3 other hummers – a female Black-chinned, a female Calliope, and a female Rufous.  We then continued along the trail to a couple other buildings hoping to run into a Say’s Phoebe but to no avail.  It would turn out to be the first of several failed Phoebe searches for us in ID.

We then headed north along the western edge of the refuge back in the conifers making a few stops along the way.  Here we had some of the “regulars” like Black-capped and Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Hammond’s Flycatcher, and the ever-present Swainson’s Thrushes.  We had just one new statebird - a cooperative singing Pacific Wren right along the road (#7). 

We had just one more stop at the refuge – to try for Grasshopper Sparrow in the grasslands along the auto tour loop.  Although it had nested there the last several years, none had been found there in 2022.  But we decided to give it a quick try anyway.  The grasslands looked perfect for Grasshoppers, but not this year apparently.

We were done birding Kootenai NWR early, mostly because our first walk at Deep Creek Trail was cut short because of the hordes of mosquitoes.  So we decided to bird one more nearby site that we planned to hit the next day – Ball Creek Ranch Preserve.  This is a Nature Conservancy site featuring large wetlands, conifer woodlands, and a working farm.  Our key target here was Say’s Phoebe that had been reported a number of times.  We presumed they were nesting around the farm buildings somewhere.  But despite wandering all around the farm we were unsuccessful.  Next we took a short drive up a National Forest road into the conifers.  We weren’t there long, but did hear our first Pileated Woodpecker (#8).  The range map for Pileated is similar to those of several other of my targets – principally an eastern bird in the US but found in Canada coast-to-coast, and then into the northwest portion of the US. 

Other more regular species included Red Crossbill, Siskin, and Red-breasted Nuthatch, along with a less common Steller’s Jay.

Next we headed south toward Coeur d’Alene to try for several species that were less likely near the northern tip of the state.  Our first stop was to look for Western Bluebird along West Shingle Road near Sandpoint.  There were several Bluebird reports in recent years along this road, and one report of a nesting pair earlier in the summer.  We found a number of boxes along the road, but no Bluebirds.  This would be just the first of many failed Bluebird searches for us during the trip.

A short ride later we arrived at Falls Park in Coeur d’Alene where a small group of White-throated Swifts had been reported in the cliffs below the park.  The good news is that we found them quite quickly.  The bad news is that it turned out I didn’t need them for my ID list after all.  On the brighter side we did find Pygmy Nuthatches in the park, one I truly did need for my list (#9).  I just need this species in two more states to finish filling in my statebird map.

Then it was on to the adjacent Q’Emiln Park where White-breasted Nuthatches had been reported.  But as we got close to the park we saw that they were having some kind of event there, the park was loaded with people, and the parking lot was full.  So it was off to our next spot, Higgens Point where a family of Say’s Phoebes had been reported recently.  But when we got there the habitat was all wrong, and again it was teeming with people.  So much for birding on a weekend afternoon in good weather.

As we headed back north to our hotel on a whim we did a quick search for other recent Bluebird sightings.  It turned out that there were 3 recent sightings at Farragut SP which was just off our route.  One report was assigned to the park hotspot and 2 were at specific locations in the park.  When specific locations are provided instead of using the general hotspot it can really be helpful in finding your targets.  We were cautiously optimistic.  We headed to the first specific location only to realize that the pin was an incorrectly placed in a random location.  Ugh.  Then we headed to the next location which turned out to be perfect.  It was at a disc golf course, which the birder had apparently birded while playing a round of golf just 2 days earlier.  And he had both Western Bluebird and Say’s Phoebe.  Alas, we walked the entire course, going through good habitat for both species, but found very few birds at all.  Chalk it up to the challenges of afternoon birding in the summer I guess.  It was a long ride to Coeur d’Alene and back for just 1 new species, but it was 1 more than I had the day before.

Day 5 – 7/10 – ID Boreal Habitat and Chasing Stakeouts, Wayfarers SP in MT

This day featured birding just south of the US/Canada border in excellent boreal habitat.  And this time the site did not disappoint.  Our birding started with a 9-mile uphill drive on Smith Creek Road.  Soon after we began we had the first of many singing Varied Thrushes (#10), and a bit later flybys of 4 Vaux’s Swifts (#11). 

At one point we got this great shot of the valley down below. 

Other birds along the way were typical of the boreal habitat and included Mountain and Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Pacific Wrens, Red-naped Sapsuckers, Red Crossbills, a Steller’s Jay, and an Evening Grosbeak.

Next we were on to Saddle Pass even higher in the mountains.  But first we took a short side road because Spruce Grouse had been reported there recently.  We hadn’t gone more than 100 feet when I spotted an out-of-place “lump” on the side of the road.  I quickly put it in my binocs and it was a hen Spruce Grouse (#12).  And she had 2 chicks that couldn’t have been more than a couple days old.  One of the key highlights of the trip!  As is often the case she was very tame, allowing me to take this photo holding my phone up to my binoculars.  The 2 chicks are in the grass close to the road edge with mom to the right.

And this is a close-up of the hen while the chicks are under her hiding.

Then we backed up and returned to the road to Saddle Pass.  Although we didn’t add anything new here the habitat was tremendous.

And there were many clumps of this Bear Grass that were in full bloom.

Typical birds along this route included Black-capped, Mountain, and Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Golden-crowned Kinglets, Red Crossbills including a family group, Nashville Warblers, Fox Sparrow, and Townsend’s Warbler.

On our way back down we made a few more stops hoping for a couple more of our boreal targets, and it’s a good thing we did.  At one stop we had a group of 4 White-winged Crossbills fly right over our heads calling (#13).  What a great way to end our morning in the mountains!

Our next stop was just a few miles to the south in the Parker Ridge Burn along Westside Road.  A family of rare Alder Flycatchers have bred for several years at one spot in the burn area, mixed in with a number of the expected Willow Flycatchers.  Directions on eBird have been excellent, so it was easy to find the right location.  We drove up to the spot and waited.  Within just a few minutes an Alder Flycatcher began to sing – we heard it many times during our brief visit there (#14).  That was easy. We also had a Merlin pass overhead while we were there.  Luckily it was not chasing after small Flycatchers.

Our last two stops in ID were to chase after recently reported targets.  The first was a Say’s Phoebe found just a few days earlier along Copeland Road.  We got to the site and found a number of farm buildings and fence posts that looked ideal, but again we missed the Phoebe.  Then we went to grassy fields next to ball fields in Bonners Ferry where Grasshopper Sparrow had just been reported.  But we struck out on this one too. 

Although we weren’t able to end the ID portion of our trip on a high note, I still added 14 new birds for my ID list – 2 more than I expected.  And our 93 species in ID was a good total for just a couple days of birding.

 

The remaining MT portion of our trip, days 5 through 11, is summarized in the next two blog posts.

 

Northwestern South Dakota Grasslands – 22 New State Birds, May 2014

Each year I take an extended birding vacation somewhere to work on my various statelists, and hopefully move a step closer to my lifelong goal of reaching the old ABA reportable goals in each of the lower 48 states and DC.  Way back in February when I started to think about where to go this year, my thoughts kept coming back to MT and ND because those were my last 2 states where I had very small lists.  And then when I realized that several possible birding locations would put me only a short drive from SD, I considered a short extension to work on that list as well.  I had a respectable 181 in SD, though had never birded the northwest corner of the state where many of the grassland species breed, so I had a fair potential there as well.

There was no SD birdfinding guide to consult, so I reached out to the SD listserve for advice.  I got several very helpful replies, including one from Dave Swanson who was in the process of writing a guide for SD.  He sent me drafts of siteguides for two sites in the area which were most helpful.  I also was able to connect with Charlie Miller who was the local expert for birds in the area.  In addition to his excellent local knowledge, he was also known for the Saw-whet Owl nesting boxes he had constructed and mounted to trees in the Custer National Forest.  He offered to bird with me in the area, and take me to see the owls.  So I set up a plan for a short trek into SD consisting of two half days, with a goal of adding at least 15 birds to my statelist. 

Day 8 – PM – Custer National Forest and Locations en Route to Lemmon

I entered SD after a successful morning in Rhame Prairie in ND, and soon met up with Charlie.  Our first stop was in the Picnic Spring and Cave Hills portion of the Custer National Forest.  This area is an elevated island of ponderosas and deciduous trees that rises out of the prairie.  Soon after we arrived we had a Say’s Phoebe perched on a cliff edge (statebird #1), and a singing Lazuli Bunting (#2).  We then hiked around in the area a bit and I was lucky enough to spot a soaring Golden Eagle (#3 – and the only one on my trip), and then a cooperative Mountain Bluebird (#4).  I added Mountain Bluebird to all 3 states on my trip, so I have now seen this species throughout most all of its regular range (see my statebird map below).

Birding was a bit slow – it was a hot afternoon – so we got in the cars and headed a bit south and were surprised to spot a lone Avocet (#5) in a small pond.  Charlie then took me to a cliff where Prairie Falcons had nested last year.  And sure enough, they were back again this year (#6).  Couldn’t have gotten these without Charlie’s local knowledge. 

We were then headed to Gardner Lake, principally to try for Brewer’s Sparrow in the sage along the lake entrance road.  But I mentioned to Charlie that I needed some shorebirds for my SD list, so along the way he took me to a small pond where he had seen some recent shorebirds including Avocets that morning.  The Avocets were gone (good thing we saw that one earlier), but we had a few distant shorebirds that had not been there that morning.  In with the Stilt Sandpipers was a Semi Sand (#7) and a Pectoral (#8).  We then headed to Gardner Lake and started to play some tape in the sage area.  It took a while, but eventually we noticed a small sparrow fly in just a short distance away.  And then the Brewer’s Sparrow popped up for a quick view (#9).  Charlie suggested a quick stop at the lake just to see what might be around.  In addition to the regular dabblers, there were 8 Aechmophorus grebes.  The first seven were Westerns, and the 8^th kept diving and didn’t give me good views.  I told Charlie that it was most unlikely that this would be a Clark’s but I wanted to be sure.  And just then it surfaced and stayed up long enough to give me a good scope view – it was indeed a Clark’s Grebe (#10).  That was a surprise.  Along with my sighting in MT, I now have pretty good coverage for this species.

We then headed to the Slim Buttes portion of the Custer NF, which is where Charlie had his Saw-whet boxes.  By far the highlight of the SD part of the trip was when Charlie took me to 2 boxes with active Saw-whet nests.  In each case the female was poking her head from the box when we arrived (#11). 

Charlie needed to monitor the status of the young, and when he opened the box the female would fly out and sit just a short distance away while the box was opened as in this photo taken with my iPhone.

The last new statebird was a not so cooperative Rock Wren that only called once (#12) from some seemingly nice cliff habitat.  Other notable birds were the only 2 Western Tanagers of the trip and a colony of White-throated Swifts (also the only ones for the trip). 

I thanked Charlie for all his help and started the drive northeast to my motel in Lemmon.  Along the way I was driving through some nice cropland and flushed a pair of Gray Partridges and then another one (#13).  That was only my 5^th state for this species that has been elusive for me in the past, though I saw it several times on this trip.

And later I passed by a flooded field with several Marbled Godwits acting like shorebirds instead of prairie nesters (#14).  It was another excellent end of the day.

Day 9 – Morning in the Grand River National Grasslands

When I came out to the car at dawn the ground was wet from a little rain overnight.  Plus the sky to the west and north was extremely dark and I could see numerous lightning strikes.  I didn’t know it at the time but just 8 hours earlier a rare tornado had hit the town of Watford City just about 150 miles northwest of Lemmon.  The clouds I was seeing were undoubtedly part of the same storm system that caused the tornado.

My first quick stop was to check Flat Creek Lake along SR73 for waterfowl and I found a pair of Buffleheads (#15) along with the normal dabblers.  I then headed east into the grasslands at Pasture 7, and as soon as I crossed into the National Grasslands there were numerous Chestnut-collared Longspurs right in the road as if to greet me (#16).  And a short distance farther I stopped and heard the first of many Baird’s Sparrows I had that morning (#17).  Baird’s was a key target of mine on this trip and I heard and/or saw it numerous times in all 3 states.  Although SD was only my 4th state for this species, I’ve now seen it in virtually all of its regular breeding and wintering range in the US.

It was also amazing how many Upland Sandpipers there were – 5 or more per mile.  With two key grassland targets out of the way I headed to a spot where a Sharp-tailed Grouse lek was supposed to be located.  Along the way I stopped briefly at a wet grassy area where a Sedge Wren was singing (#18).  And on the other side of the road was a singing Dickcissel which was a good bird for this location, though not a statebird.  I eventually got to the lek spot and sure enough there was 1 Sharp-tailed Grouse sitting on the crest of the hill (#19). 

Next stop was Lemmon Lake on the east side of the Grassland to try for my last missing waterfowl – Canvasback.  As I was getting closer to the lake I looked back to the west and the clouds were getting more ominous, and the lightning more frequent.  Plus there was this odd low white cloud that was in front of the dark clouds called a roll cloud. 

In any case, the lake was at least 8 miles from paved roads, and I didn’t want to be too far out on the dirt roads if a rain storm should hit.  So I only made a quick stop at the lake and left as soon as I spotted 2 male Canvasbacks (#20).  On the way back to the main road I had one singing Sprague’s Pipit (#21), heard more Baird’s Sparrows, found another Sharp-tailed Grouse lek, had numerous Upland Sandpipers, a few Marbled Godwits, and many longspurs.  It was quite a spot for prairie birds.  I now have Sprague’s in all 3 of its nesting states and 2 states where it is a winterer or migrant.

 

The last stops were to the west to Shadehill Reservoir and the campground at the Hugh Glass Recreation Area.  With one brief stop there didn’t appear to be much on the lake, so I headed directly to the campground.  Migration was pretty much over by now, so I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t have many migrants in the woods and brush around the campground.  Though eventually I ran into a small group of Empids which looked like Willows.  Then one started to sing a good Alder Flycatcher song (#22) which is pretty far west of its normal migration route.  I reported the others as “Traill’s” Flycatchers as who knows which species these silent birds were.  My statebird map for Alder is pretty spotty at least partly due to the fact that these birds are frequently silent during migration.

  

As I was heading out of the campground I heard what I thought was a Lazuli Bunting singing.  It was close to the road so I made a quick stop to track it down and realized it was a Lazuli x Indigo hybrid.  The upper chest was blue instead of rusty red with just a couple rusty feathers on the sides, and the belly was white.  Pretty neat bird on my last stop in SD before heading back into ND.

I tallied 111 species in two half days of birding in SD, including 22 new statebirds.  That gives me 203 for my SD statelist - my 46th state over 200.  And of course I’m closing in on the ABA threshold of 216.  I still need a number of eastern birds in SD, so I’m thinking that a trip to the eastern edge of the state in spring migration might be enough to reach and then exceed the reporting threshold.