Flathead Valley Bird Report – February 2024

Rare and Notables – December 2023/January 2024 As mild as it seemed going into the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) season, it certainly changed in early January! Pine Grosbeaks continued to show up throughout the area, but Bohemian Waxwings were present in much smaller numbers than usual. Rough-legged Hawk numbers were also surprisingly low. Common Loons…

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Sixteenth Jewel Basin Hawk Watch Season Wrap-Up

by Dan Casey, JBHW Coordinator The 2023 migration season at the Jewel Basin Hawk Watch concluded on November 1, when Jake Bramante counted 26 birds during our 47th survey of the season. We finished the season with a total of 3,131 birds counted (10.5/hr) our fourth highest. It was also a season of diversity; we…

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Jewel Basin Hawk Watch Mid-Season Update 2023

by Dan Casey With another 21 surveys conducted since the last update in the Pileated Post, the 16th season of raptor surveys in the Jewel Basin has continued to result in above-average numbers for many species. We had tallied 2,586 raptors of 17 species as of October 15th. These included record numbers of Broad-winged Hawks,…

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Flathead Valley Bird Report – November 2023

by Dan Casey Rare and Notables –  September/October 2023 It was an excellent month for migration, with record numbers of Broad-winged Hawks at the Jewel Basin Hawk Watch, and an influx of gulls (including Lesser Black-backed and Short-billed). A small group of Greater White-fronted Geese in Somers was followed by two which spent several days…

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Jewel Basin Hawk Watch 2023 Early Results

by Dan Casey The 16th fall monitoring season at Jewel Basin Hawk Watch (JBHW) kicked off August 25th, and as of September 15th we had conducted 18 surveys. It has been an interesting and rewarding early season, with high species diversity and higher than average counts. We suspect that the extensive fires in British Columbia…

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Flathead Lake Biological Station Tour Report – May 2023

by Darcy Thomas On a drizzly day in May, a group of twelve from Flathead and Mission Audubon met at the University of Montana’s field station in Yellow Bay to learn about ecology and research of the Flathead Watershed, hear the famous food web disaster of Mysis shrimp, and enjoy a quick picnic before tromping…

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