by Jake Bramante While on a bird walk in Yosemite National Park with a naturalist with the Yosemite Conservancy, someone saw a bird and said something along the lines of, “Oh that’s just a raven” or something to that affect. The naturalist cleverly noted that in his bird books, he’s never seen any species named…
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By Doug MacCarter. On a beautiful June 19th, fifteen scientifically curious folks met at the Flathead Lake Biological Station to learn about birds and research conducted at the University of Montana’s field station at Yellow Bay. The group was met first by field trip leader Doug MacCarter, and later by the Station Assistant Director Tom…
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by Brian Williams The Ninepipes Christmas Bird Count was held on Sunday, 18 December 2016. Sixteen observers braved the single-digit weather and treacherous roads to count birds. The deep cold made open water scarce and held our total species down a bit from 5 and 10 year averages, but we found some excellent birds. Short-eared…
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by Lisa Bate This year’s Christmas Bird Count in Glacier was fantastic! We had a number of rare birds, first-time birds, unusual birds for this time of the year, and some new high counts for species. It was also 25 degrees warmer than the morning before (minus 15° F) and we had light, fluffy snow,…
Read Moreby Pete Fisher The 18th annual Kalispell Christmas Bird Count (CBC) was held on January 1, 2017. Twenty-eight intrepid field observers braved wind and drifting snow to count 75 species of bird. Four feeder watchers contributed data as well. Major highlights were an Iceland Gull at the Flathead Dump and a Northern Saw-whet Owl at…
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by Denny Olson One of the unfortunate curiosities of Western Neo-European culture is that pesky illusion we have of disconnection from nature (when we are in reality totally comprised of nature, and nature is partially comprised of us). The natural outgrowth of that illusion is two-fold: (1) we assume that we can stand apart from…
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By Steve Gniadek On Saturday April 23, eight people participated in the Flathead Audubon early bird walk on the FVCC campus, from 7 to 9am. Led by Denny Olson, K.C. Voermans, Lisa Flowers, and Steve Gniadek, the group birded near the Stillwater River on the southeast end of the FVCC property. We also birded on adjacent private…
Read MoreHARBINGERS OF SPRING By Jeannie Marcure The arrival of the first bluebirds is a welcome sign that spring has returned to the Flathead. This year that event took place for me on March 13 when a Saturday morning drive on Smith Lake Road provided us with the first bluebird sightings of the season. What birder’s…
Read MoreRETURN OF SPRING’S HARBINGER By Linda de Kort February seems to be a time when we begin to question the length of our winter. Will Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow on February 2? Will we have 6 more weeks of misty skies and crystalline trees? One of the reassuring events of this month is the…
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By Jeannie Marcure Although my years of bird watching have familiarized me with many of the beautiful birds in our area, I have to confess that when it comes to raptors I’m still often frustrated by my inability to make positive identifications. Most people tend to think of all the day-flying birds of prey with…
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