October 2025

Oct 23 – There were a pair of White-winged Scoters at Giant Springs this morning.  They were floating downriver with a Common Goldeneye for most of the morning.  Nice looking adult markings.  You’ll probably need to look at least half-way or further across the river to see them.  They popped right out when I saw them – something different! The rest of my morning there was pretty ho-hum.  – Beth Hill

Oct 23 – On Saturday, October 18, 9 folks headed up to Lake Francis to see what type of birds were floating around.  We had several new folks join us including a couple of HS students.  We saw a small flock of Snow Geese across the lake, a total of 19 plus Common Loons, only 2 Western Grebes (expected many more), hundreds of American Coot (maybe thousands), 2 Horned Grebes, 2 Pied-billed Grebes and no Eared Grebes (another surprise).  Ducks – lots of ducks, we saw teal, dabblers and some diving ducks (Green-winged, Mallard, Wigeon, Pintail, Redhead to name a few).  4 Bald Eagles, 1 Rough-legged Hawk at the lake.  4 Black-bellied Plovers in their non-breeding plumage (2 pairs) and 5 White-winged Scoters (identified a lot by process of elimination).  It was exciting to hear then watch as a total of 33 Sandhill Cranes flew over then landed across the lake.  Their calls just send chills through me (how about you?)  We made a quick swing by Rock City north of Valier.  We saw a few pigeons and Horned Larks on that part of the trip.  It was a sunny day, mild temperatures and wind was tolerable compared to the day before and the day after we visited. – Beth Hill

Oct 22 – Been wandering around lately.  Was down on Missouri River in the Prewitt Creek area a couple days ago and saw a lingering osprey,,,, seems like its getting late for them..

Up by Dutton hunting yesterday and saw LOTS of horned larks, a harrier, and surprise, surprise….   a northern shrike that hung around for good looks but no camera along so no pics.  I don’t see many of them.  Saw definite signs of a grizzly bear along the Teton River which got us on edge a bit.  My friend has seen them in that same area in the past.  Yikes….

Kept my eyes peeled on both trips for roughleg hawks but saw none.  Need colder weather I guess…      That will prob come soon enough and bring them with it..   I look forward to seeing them. – Steve Leathe

Oct 18 – We just had a flock of about 50 Cranes fly over.  Just south of our place they started circling, kettling up.  When they were really high, just barely visible dots, they formed V’s and headed south. – Kitty & Kris

Oct 18 – Part of our trip report to Lake Frances today…33 cranes arrived while we were watching near the lighthouse dike end of the lake.  We heard them first.  Later we saw where they landed across the lake.

Who doesn’t get chills when they hear them? – Beth Hill

Oct 17 – I forgot to mention that we found one young owl nearly dead 2 weeks ago at the foot of the steps at Giant Springs just after sunrise.  I got a tarp from the ranger station, wrapped him up so he couldn’t grab anyone (he was actually too weak to respond) and they ran it across the road.  I’m not sure if they were going to test for ‘bird flu’ or not.  He was on his back, head twisted to one side and too weak to even twitch.  He was in good flesh – so it got sick pretty fast.  Like we’ve seen other suspect bird flu cases.  Not sure if there are any owls left.  I keep looking everytime I’m there. Just this last week they found some in the Gibson Park waterfowl.  I’ve seen reports that it has been on an upswing this fall. – Beth Hill

Oct 15 – And it was a really dark rough legged hawk.  I spotted one this morning resting on a power pole crossbar. Anyone ready for one with raptor surveys?  Coming next month. Maybe we will see some when we go to Lake Francis this Saturday. – Beth Hill

Oct 11 – Went bird watching today after the round dance in honor of Indigenous People’s Day where I ran into fellow birder Marge Wilson at Morony Dam I saw one cormorant, a small flock of geese further downstream but no other birds. saw quite a few horsehair woven bag nests (orioles). on the way back near the shooting complex off the road to Morony, I saw four or five hawks that I guessed were Harriers as they had the big white spot on top of tail at it’s base but one definitely had rust body so I don’t know what I saw. drove out to Benton Lake Wildlife Refuge where the light was poor and a few drops of rain fell on me saw lots of birds on t he water but couldn’t tell colors – by size I think I saw Canada Geese, coots, northern shovelers and one Harrier hawk hunting and one Franklin’s Gull on the gravel road in the refuge . then as I left the refuge on a fencepost along the hwy I saw this but don’t know what it was either. – Bev Axelson.

Oct 8 –  What a fantastic day and year, a very special THANKS to my helpers Hannah and Velda, Hannah did an excellent job of driving plus both Velda and Hannah weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty and helped clean out the boxes, we had a great time and to top it off we saw 3 Mountain Bluebirds. Along the road to the boxes we came across several flocks of small birds, likely Horned Larks plus 3 Meadowlarks. The boxes are now all ready for next spring. – Richard Mousel

Oct 8 – Hi all ! It’s Darolyn Holland in Fort Shaw. I just wanted to share a great experience I had volunteering for Grant Grisak/Northwestern Energy. On September 25th a group of us, to include Wyoming Wetlands Society, Montana Fish,Wildlife & Park, Northwestern Energy staff, private land owners and volunteers convened in Ennis to release 9 cygnet trumpeter swans (3 sibling groups at 3 different sites). These releases are part of some amazing wetland restoration projects to help ( hopefully) increase the number of breeding pairs, not only in Ennis Montana, but along the Rocky Mountain Front migratory pathway into Canada. The cygnets were wild/captive raised in Wyoming ( not habituated to people) . I learned through Grant (NWE) that the research shows the swans tend to return to the location where they first fly -so that is one of the hopes . Wyoming Wetlands Society has been releasing swans for 30 years and is part of a huge success story in the increase in numbers of trumpeter swans in that time. All that aside, it was a beautiful day. The cygnets were breathtakingly beautiful, about 18 pounds and ready to fly and get on with their wild lives! A day I will cherish for sure and just wanted to share with you all! – Darolyn Holland

Oct 7 – A turkey vulture (I like the term ‘buzzard’ better…) just flew over the house,,,, seems like its getting late for them but still plenty of roadkill aroundJust put the spotting scope on the suspected collared dove nest about 50ft up in neighbors big spruce tree.  Looks for sure like one adult is sitting on the nest I saw them building a couple weeks ago and the other adult is keeping vigil about a foot away.  Anyone ever notice them nesting this late in season?  Seems pretty strange.  I will keep an eye on it to see if they actually start feeding young birds.  No sign of that yet….   They must have their spring/fall photoperiods mixed up.

Took a drive out to Benton Lake on Saturday.  There were hundreds of widgeon there and quite a few pintails and mallards as well as a smattering of other waterfowl, including a 6-8 swans but saw no shorebirds and the prairie seemed pretty empty of birds.  Did see one raptor and 95% sure it was a ferruginous.  Waterfowl still using the place despite the ongoing federal govt shutdown, guess they haven’t gotten the word.

Was over in Stanford area yesterday and saw one of the birdhouses with a bluebird painted on the side on Running Wolf road with an actual live bluebird sitting on it.  Must be one of the famous ‘Bluebird Bob’s’ houses.  Kept my eyes peeled for raptors along highway all the way over and back.  Seems our ‘summer hawks’ (mainly redtails and Swainson’s) are just about totally gone now and few (if any) of our ‘winter hawks’ (roughlegs and dark and light phase redtails) have arrived yet as I  saw none.    So, is a slow time for raptors.

Have been seeing a few large flocks of meadowlarks and robins lately that are probably heading south. –  Steve Leathe

Oct 7 – I visited Giant Springs Thursday – it was jammed with white-crowned sparrows and yellow-rumped warblers.  It took looking to find some variety.

I walked around the West Bank Park area on Friday – there were a few migrants showing up.  I considered the more than 200 coots non-migrants.  They will probably move down to Giant Springs a little later in the fall.  But, there were a few common goldeneye, ruddy ducks, western grebes, canvasback (2), redhead (1), still one pelican and a couple cormorants.  Hundreds of mallards and many fewer ring-billed gulls.

At Wadsworth Park on Saturday – nothing to see on the pond but a couple of mergansers that didn’t stick around long.  The trees were full of white-crowned sparrows and yellow-rumped warblers.  There were several large flocks of starlings moving around even in the morning.  I wonder what it might look like in the evening?

Today around my neck of the woods I was pleasantly entertained with a group of American wigeons swimming in the river, later in the day there was a pair of hooded mergansers.  There are many geese that fly up and down along the river, some landing, some hitting the fields, others just moving from one place to another.

There’s always something to see if you just look. – Beth Hill

Oct 4 – Still had 2 this morning, sure hope they were about to head south. – Arla Eckert

Oct 4 – We can see Northern Goshawks here in GF. I have seen a male at Mount Olivet cemetery and got photos of him a few years ago. I also had a female or young one in my yard a few years ago. At that time I was finding a lot of long gray feathers in my yard over a few weeks making me think that bird had found it was easy to get Eurasian Collared Doves for dinner. So check your books and keep your eyes open. – Arla Eckert

Oct 3 – This bird (identified as possibly a Coopers) has been dining on the Eurasian doves in my yard. Seems immature but has been successful in getting dinner. – Grayce Holzheimer

Oct 3 – saw robins, a few northern flickers, magpies at both but really enjoyed watching the chickadees hanging upside down at water spigots at Highland getting a drink from the drips before the water was turned off! /// I haven’t had robins at my house in a long time so now I know where they’ve been!

didn’t see any Eurasian collared doves at the cemeteries but have hundreds of them out  here and wish they’d move on. /// enjoyed seeing three whitetail does and three fawns at Highland yesterday

the robins were in a small puddle at Highland yesterday. /// I spotted a couple of peanut feeders at Mt Olivet today – no wonder the magpies and northern flickers hang out there! – Bev Axelsen

Sept 22 – Sitting on patio yesterday and a good-sized falcon flew in and land in tree about 100ft away.  Was def not a kestrel and not a merlin.  It was a prairie falcon,,, a pretty rare sight for me here in the city. / / / Took a walk at Gt Springs this morning thinking it might be jammed with migrants moving with the cold front.  Was a little disappointed, not near as many birds there as I hoped for.  Saw a towhee, a few white throated sparrows (I think…) and a few LGW’s (little green warblers) that I could not ID positively.  Very few ducks/waterbirds on the river there other than some ringbill gulls but did see my first goldeneye (just one…), first bufflehead (just one…), and a pied billed grebe (just one…).  Watched a ringbill gull flog a big crawdad on the pavement and when satisfied it was dead the gull swallowed it whole, tail first.  I was surprised it could swallow such a big item and hopefully the crawdad was fully dead because it would not be good for the digestive tract if the pinchers were still working.  – Steve Leathe

Sept 21 – Whatever raptor/hawk it is that has the white spot on top of tail near base of body at Freezeout – quite a few of them scattered throughout the area. most of the dead (and now dried up) carp are still on the shores at Freezeout, those warblers were deep in thick brush and I could not photograph them but this  white crowned sparrow cooperated / / / I saw a lot of Swainson’s enroute to GNP via Hwy 89, on Duck Lake Road, and on my way back to Freezeout.  Saw one very dark raptor that made me wonder if it was a dark morph Swainson’s. – Bev Axelsen

Sept 18 – Saw 3 Swainson’s on the way to town yesterday.  i looked back for Swainson sightings in my list of birds since 2016, and the last days I have seen them in my area was 9/20-23.  I wish them well every time I see them–until next year….Velda

Swainson’s everywhere indeed. Six of them gathering & soaring over the neighborhood right now – Steve Leathe

Sept 17 – Bev Axelson called me from Freezout Lake this morning.  She wanted to report a really large number of White-face Ibis in one of the shallow lakes along the highway (last lake on the west/left) as you head to Priest Butte.  There are also lots of pelicans, all manner of ducks, she saw a large raptor perched on one of the vault toilets that was pretending to be a second vent (it was the same size as the vent from a distance).  She has been enjoying a few days away in Glacier and now Freezout Lake. – Beth Hill

Sept 16 – This morning I saw a Swainson’s Hawk at the top of our birch tree (eastside GF). He prolly stopped to say good bye.

Sept 16 – Today there were a few juncoes in the mix of sparrows and warblers at Giant Springs. No Swinson’s – Beth Hill

Interesting….  I woke up yesterday to quite a few sparrows and some Wilson’s warblers in the backyard.  That made me head to Gt Sp yesterday morning to see what was there.  There were quite a few Wilson’s in the uphill brushline at the park but just about none of them down by the river, where there were a few yellow-rumps and one distinctive warbler-ish bird I just could not id after spending lots of time later at home with the bird books and apps.  I expected a lot of sparrows down there but saw darned few, almost none, and was surprised by that.  I have one hell of a time trying to ID sparrows,,,, they all look the same to me, unless they have a distinct white crown or chin…  Didn’t see any of those white-marked ones yesterday down there so it looks like things change virtually overnight this time of year.  Was looking for buffles or goldneyes on river but did not see any. –  Steve Leathe

Sept 15 – I could hear what sounded like a new migrant call coming from the backyard so I quickly turned on Merlin and got suggestions for three different sparrows White-throated, White-crowned and Song Sparrows. – Richard Mousel

Sept 15 – I’ve been seeing mixed little groups of chipping, white-throated and white-crowned sparrows and sometimes a Lincoln’s or song sparrow the past week.  Merlin has been suggesting them and I waited, watched and they will pop out for a quick view.  Keep looking – you never know what you might find. – Beth Hill

Sept 14 – I was curious what was going on in the evening at West Bank Park, so today we made a visit.  Not much.  A few kingfishers chasing each other around, gulls, geese, mallards, finally saw a few yellow-rumped warblers.  The best bird was a first year Sabine’s Gull down toward the refinery picking bugs off the water.  It was pretty close for once – we usually see them mid-river and far away down or up stream and the middle of a raft of Franklin’s.  This fellow was alone.  A little after 7 “black birds” began to fly about in small groups and when we left there could have been 2000.  Not many compared to years past.  – Beth Hill

Sept 13 – Have what appears to be 2 young male Downy Woodpeckers feeding on the sap of a Willow tree. – Richard Mousel

Sept 13 – In a matter of less than 30 minutes we counted at least 90 Swainson’s Hawks pass overhead while at Giant Springs this morning (10:15-10:45 ish).  They may be continuing. (I’d park myself at the L&C river overlook and watch if you considered it).  They would kettle around then head off up river, then some more would appear behind us (from down river – or north/east).  Just when we thought that might be it another couple would show up, then more then more and another kettle formed.  Incredible to watch.

Interesting if some hawk watch spots are seeing a peak today. – Beth Hill

Sept 13 – I think what we are hearing and seeing is this years young owls are being tossed out of the places they were born in. Time to go find their new homes. Each fall you will see young owls in different places like my yard. Two different falls I have had an owl during the day in my yard or and hearing one a night. This also may explain why the owlets are not at GS. – Arla Eckert

Sept 8 – Maria and I went to Belt to check out the potential of restoring the Belt area Bob Niebuhr Bluebird trail. We started up Willow Creek Road then met up with E Highwood Road then turned down Burley Road then ended at Hwy 331, 32 miles. We found about 6 birdhouses mostly unusable, a couple had recently been used by Tree Swallows. We will essentially be starting from scratch. It will probably take some time to restore the Bluebird numbers that this area has the potential to produce, there are additional Road spurs worth checking out as well. If you own property in this area or in other areas that could use Bluebird boxes please let me or Beth Hill know. Or if you know about landowners in this area please let them know that we would love to get their permission to install and monitor Bluebird boxes along their property. We could easily install at least 50 Bluebird boxes to start. A Bluebird trail in this area has the potential to fledge hundreds of Mountain Bluebirds annually. – Richard Mousel

Sept 4 – Orange-crowned Warbler and a Clay-colored Sparrow. – Richard Mousel

Observed what looked like a female redstart – Steve Leathe

Sept 2 – A couple days ago I watched small groups of 10-20 or so gulls high (very high) over town doing the same thing,,,, apparently gathering up and heading south. / / / Had a definite male Wilson’s warbler in our ‘aphid tree’ this morning… could only ID because he had a distinct black cap.  The warblers do not stick around long and never sit still. / / / The only singing birds around here are a pair of Eurasian Collared Doves that are making a lot of noise and are actually building a nest in the neighbor’s spruce tree.  Seems a bit late for that but maybe that is how they do it in Eurasia. – Steve Leathe

Aug 31 – When I was at Giant Springs this morning we watched one, that joined 2, then 3 more Swainson’s Hawks, riding thermals.  They crossed the river from behind us then circled around on the opposite side of the river then zippe out of sight to the south. / / / I did manage to find a couple of Wilson’s and Yellow-rumped Warblers.  It was not exactly hopping with birds. / / / A big branch of one of the creek willow branches broke off overnight and completely blocked the trail at the lower footbridge!  And only one staff person present for the next 2 days.  We saw a couple of beavers eyeing the fresh willows – but people were starting to arrive and they slipped away. – Beth Hill