Dec. 27 – I was comparing last year and this year’s December numbers. Once we added Upper HIghwood Creek Rd the time to do the survey jumped from 3.5 hours to 5.5 hours! Last year on Dec. 11 we saw 17 rough-legged hawks, 1 bald eagle and 2 prairie falcons. This year, on Dec 23, we saw 2 red-tailed hawks, 1 kestrel, 3 northern harriers, 11 adult and 11 sub-adult bald eagles, 1 golden eagle, 9 rough-legged hawks and 4 prairie falcons. Temperatures were in the 40’s both days. We did see a shrike both years.
We saw at least one prairie falcon each time in the 2024-25 surveys. We didn’t see one in our November 2025-26 survey, but 4 were seen on the December survey.
This month on my Broken Spoke walking surveys I have seen bald eagles (adults and sub-adults), northern harriers, rough-legged hawks, American kestrel and sharp-shinned hawk. Some just once, others multiple times.
Dec. 27 – It’s possible that the cranes we’ve been watching out here are headed south. We just saw cranes west of here fly from low to rather high, forming into lines and V’s. They were far enough away that it was hard to count, but we estimate the numbers to be well over 100. It’s 2 degrees right now with a north wind.
Dec. 23 – Raptor Survey East Highwoods – Every winter raptor survey has something remarkable. Today it was – several things.
First – remarkable spotting by our crew- Richard, Bill, Bev, Jack and Ava. I know we have higher totals because of all the eyes. Many thanks to Lyle for opening up his home (bathroom). This is a long trip without any conveniences.
The day was mostly cloudy. The temperatures started in the teens but quickly warmed into 40’s. The wind was barely noticeable, SW 6-10 mph all day.
Now, for the birds. Soooooooo many Canada Geese flying around and a few thousand on the ground. Our numbers may actually be half of what we saw. What a surprise to see more than 35 Cedar Waxwings (in 2 groups) on Upper HIghwood Creek Rd. It started with one bird, then a whole bunch started moving around. We looked hard to find a Bohemian, but all we could see were Cedar. That was followed shortly by a flock of American Robins. One of our stops had a couple trees by a large stock pond holding 8 Bald Eagles, there were another 2 out in a field behind the pond. Only 2 were adults – all the others were sub-adults. As we counted and re-counted they gradually took off to the east until they were gone. There were several magpies and ravens with them. We suspected a hunting kill the got cleaned up. Prairie Falcons ruled – we saw 4 today. – Beth Hill
https://ebird.org/tripreport/450268
Dec. 19 – Heard from Chris, the manager of Highland Cemetery. The wind last night knocked down the bird snag – Richard Mousel
Dec. 18 – A sharp shinned was feasting on a rock dove this afternoon; by the time I got the camera up he left his meal but posed on neighbor’s fence!
Dec. 20 – Youtube for Birders: I just found this you tube channel. Bob Duschene has some entertaining and educational shorts about birds and bird watching. It’s fun. You can start here: – Beth Hill
7 Things Expert Birders DON’T Tell BEGINNERS.
Dec. 18 – I had a Slate Junco and Downy Woodpecker this morning. Had a Townsend’s Solitaire and a Robin at Highland Cemetery. A couple of evenings ago I had a Great Horned Owl at my place, today I found one dead on the ground next to my gate, it almost made it to the count. – Richard Mousel
Dec. 18 – Happy to say that we have Cedar Waxwings for count week, now for Bohemian. – Richard Mousel
Dec. 15 – Had a small raptor that looked like a merlin land in neighbor’s tree a little while ago. But, wasn’t 100% sure til I listened to their call on Audubon app. It was very noisy, which seemed unusual and only stayed around for a few minutes. I never thought much about different raptor calls as a means to ID but this one was fairly distinctive. My guess it that it was warning the other raptor(s) in the neighborhood (maybe the one shown below) to stay away.
Then, about 30 min later the bird shown below landed in same spot in same tree, only it was not a falcon. This is not a great pic as light not good and bird was a bit too far away,,, common problems. However, very short wings and relatively long tail indicates accipiter. Then the challenge (for me, at least…) is to determine if it is a Cooper’s or a Sharpshin. Beth has helped me with that ID problem. In addition to being smaller than Coopers (which isn’t always easy to tell), she mentioned that Sharps have very skinny legs (almost creepy, I think….) and their dark head cap tends to ‘join up’ with the dark back on Sharpshins. This bird seems to fit the sharpshin description pretty well. These raptors were struggling mightily to hold position on the branch in our relentless wind and it must be very tricky for them to catch other birds on the wing in these conditions. – Steve Leathe
Sounds right, Steve. The merlin can be pretty noisy and easily identified by Merlin app. Seeing the non-descript brown, fast bird with pointy wings and rapid wing beat helps.
The little sharpie is going to be seen more often this time of year in thick bushes, lurking for the unwary LBB. Both can lurk around feeders. – Beth Hill
Dec. 14 – Saw a male northern harrier flying over adobe creek in fort Shaw today..couple mile north of cascade colony by my house. There has been a nesting pair on that flat for a couple years now.. – Darolyn Holland
Dec. 14 – Winter Raptor Survey North – A superb day for mid-December. It was partly sunny all day, the temperatures ranged from 48 to 62 degrees and the wind was a steady SW 20-30 mph, mostly 20 mph. The roads were clear and dry with the exception of the paved segment of Millegan Rd from Eden Bridge to where it changed to gravel. There was scant snow cover left on the ground after the snow 4 days ago.
It was unusual for us to have so many “unknowns” but I was pretty sure about their ID, except they were sooooo far away (dots) – 2 unknown eagles (wings were very ‘plank’ like, probably bald), 2 unknown raptors coursing over a field like either harriers or roughies (again at a distance with sun glinting off their wings), an unown buteo that was flying with the unknown eagles – distance again. We saw one perched redtail that was nearly black, the tail was narrowly banded with a red tint. Geese – thousands the first hour, on the river and flying out to fields. The biggest surprise was a group of 150 (plus) Sandhill Cranes in a field where we saw 83 in November. Were they the same ones and more arrived? Or, was it an entirely new group? That’s a sight for anytime of the year. We always have some surprise on our raptor surveys. Again, thanks to Velda and Bev for driving and spotting.
https://ebird.org/tripreport/443030
Dec. 13 – Great Falls West – raptor survey – Just about a perfect day to be out and about, mostly cloudy to partly sunny, 10-18 degrees with an E 0-4 mph. There was no snow on the roads, so they were open and dry. Although the number and species of raptors today wasn’t high we saw some nice birds and nice looks. 4 Prairie Falcons were surprising. could some have been the same? They were close enough, but they had different “looks”. The Merlin could not have been closer and it sat still (picture in eBird report). And the Horned Larks!!!! Oh my. 400 was probably conservative on one stretch of road – a blizzard of birds. We stopped several times to look over the bunch hoping to see something other than Horned Larks. Alas, no Snow Buntings or Lapland Longspurs today. Thanks to Velda for driving and Richard for being the back seat spotter. – Beth Hill
https://ebird.org/tripreport/441685
Dec. 6 – A ka-jillion Canada geese flew over around 4p. Maybe the winter hawks are returning as there were two roughlegs near the Rainbow Dam overlooks and also a male harrier. Haven’t seen a male harrier in quite a while,,,, always females…. – Steve Leathe
Dec. 5 – Spotted at least 4 Cormorants on the river downstream fr Giant Springs and 1/2 dozen or so Hooded Mergansers by the dam and railroad bridge – Renee McKey
Dec. 5 – a rough legged hawk out here the past few days and when I drove towards Highland Cemetery this am. – Bev Axelsen
Dec. 5 – We just had 34 Cranes fly over. – Kitty and Kris Knaphus
