3 Oct – Six large Turkey Vultures perched on the spiky dead top of a spruce tree near our house, pruning and enjoying the last rays of the setting sun. A first for us here and unusual for a city residential neighborhood. A Crow and a Sharp-shinned Hawk also stopped briefly on nearby open tree tops while the Vultures were sunning themselves. – Marilyn Schneider & Wayne Phillips
30 Oct – It seemed futile, but I did an evening run out to Benton Lake this evening. It was still blowing whitecaps on the lake. All the ducks were very skittish and nothing was very close. Coots would “run” across the water but went sideways instead. There were hundreds of coots. A lot of ducks and just 8 Tundra Swans. I did see a Northern Harrier and my first Rough-legged Hawk of the fall. – Beth Hill
31 Oct – It paid off trudging against the wind. In the middle of a raft of Ruddy Ducks and Lesser Scaup was a “big Ruddy” – actually a female Surf Scoter. I found her twice today. The raft was mid-river not far below the “big island”. So equally hard to see from West Bank or East Bank (a scope really helped). This evening she spent most of the time sleeping, like all the others in the raft (probably exhausted from bobbing in the wind). I did get to see her grooming and doing some wing flapping which helped nail the identification. There were also a couple of nice-looking Barrow’s Goldeneye and a couple of female Red-breasted Mergansers. – Beth Hill
1 Nov – This morning (OK – it was between 11 and noon) I ventured out to the West Bank to see mostly gulls – with a twist. There were a bunch of little gulls with dark bill, white heads that had a black “spot” behind the eye area – winter plumage Bonaparte’s Gulls. They (33 of them) were walking and swimming between the Ring-billed Gulls. I could see a dozen Barrow’s Goldeneyes and today there were some females with the natty looking males.
This evening I went back out for a quick check. It was weirdly calm and warm. Lots of gulls again. No Bonaparte’s but there were 2 big, dark first year gulls – Herring Gulls. It was about time to go in (the sun was below the horizon) when all the gulls scattered, the coots scattered, the geese and mallards scattered. It had to be a Bald Eagle – finally there it was. It circled through the milling birds several times. I wondered if it was the same one that put a scar into the gulls yesterday then soared right in front of me to land in a cottonwood nearby. It was almost eye level and 20 feet in front of me – I think we were both surprised. – Beth Hill
2 Nov – We have Snow Geese flying over our place, headed south. Kris was out for about 30 minutes and saw 6 V’s with anywhere from 75 to 300 each. Winter must be coming! – Kitty & Kris Knaphus
3 Nov – Did anyone else step outside this morning and see hundreds of Snow Geese headed south? There were a lot after sunrise, but it kept up all day. Interspersed were groups of Tundra Swans. 1000 plus spent the night on the Missouri in the refinery area. We saw at least 500 leave and there were still maybe that many on the river about 8:30 am. Giant Springs finally had some waterfowl. A couple hundred Lesser Scaup with some Redheads in the mix. We saw one Common Loon and several Western Grebes.
The West Bank area had even more Scaup and Redheads. Lots of Northern Shovelers, Green-winged Teal and Mallards. Finally, the Buffleheads had some competition. I saw the same group of Pelicans I saw last night in the morning. In the evening I saw the continuing Ross’s Goose. There were a few stray young Snow Geese.
The next few days may continue this push of migration in front of that zero-weather expected next week. – Beth Hill
4 Nov – I saw 21 To 25 western grebes off Westbank around 3 this afternoon. – Arla Eckert
5 Nov – Just had about 30 snow geese fly over…and then another 60. – Richard Mousel
6 Nov – 1,000 Snow Geese at Benton Lake; they were feeding in a hillside 1/2 mile south from pond 2. I would have missed them but the park ranger drove by and pointed them out. – Jan Wilson
5 Nov – Saturday evening there weren’t many ducks out on the river. A bunch of Ring-billed Gulls, Buffleheads, a few leftover Lesser Scaup, the 22 Western Grebes, a Common Loon and a few Ruddy Ducks. There was one new arrival – a Long-tailed Duck. The wind was still fierce at the time. – Beth Hill
6 Nov – Sunday morning – hundreds of ducks. There were probably more than 400 Mallards, another 150 plus Lesser Scaup, always the crowd of Buffleheads, some Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers, a few American Wigeon and Green-winged Teal and 2 Common Loons. I watched 16 Tundra Swans leave the area. I saw a report of a (female) Surf Scoter. The Long-tailed Duck was still hanging around.
The big group of ducks is probably best seen from the east side of the river (from the tennis court area). I wonder how long this fall-out will hang around with the bitter cold coming the next few days. – Beth Hill
6 Nov – Just had 19 swans fly over. – Kitty & Kris Knaphus.
6 Nov – I counted about 36 sleeping swans from West Bank at noon today.
The ‘fall out’ continues. – Beth Hill
7 Nov – Lots of Snow Geese continue to fly over this AM. We were doing other things outside and didn’t get counts but there has been a fairly constant parade of large V’s going over. We have about 6 inches of snow here so far. – Kitty & Kris Knaphus
7 Nov – We’ve had a lot of snow geese flying over Fort Benton in the past week. – Wendy Kamm
9 Nov – It doesn’t take long for the river to freeze over in the West Bank Park section. There was a little rim of ice yesterday but today the river was mostly ice. A few birds in small pockets except one large pocket that was attracting Canada Geese. I watched the numbers double between 4:30 and 5:00 PM Wednesday evening – from over 600 to well over 1200. They were streaming to the river in large groups from the north. I spotted one clearly Cackling Goose, it was barely bigger than the Common Goldeneyes (they are finally back in numbers). There were several others that were on the pretty small size. A few Snow Geese were arriving with the Canada Geese – I saw a total of 7. It was neat to listen and watch them arrive at the only open patch on this stretch of river. – Beth Hill
9 Nov – Watched a black-billed magpie in hot pursuit of a small songbird this morning, doing an apt imitation of a raptor. The songbird dodged, but the magpie did, too. By now the action had gone from four feet above the snow to right in the snow, where the magpie pivoted, grasped the bird, and delivered a few blows with its beak. It ate, scattering feathers in the process, for about 10 minutes, then carried off the remainder of its meal to a more secluded place in the windbreak. I found a scattering of feathers on the snow at the fight site, after I bundled up to see if I could identify the victim’s species with a close look (answer: no). I think I’ll assume it was a house sparrow until I know otherwise. This is the first time I’ve seen a magpie attempting to capture a bird in flight. – Liz Larcom
9 Nov – I have regular magpies under my feeders. I’d be horrified if they got one of my chickadees, juncos, nuthatches, or the solitary harris sparrow! It’d be ok if they thinned out the house finches. – Susan Hillstrom in Choteau
12 Nov Hundreds if not thousands of waterfowl at sunrise. The noise was incredible. Mallards and geese were the greatest number. They started leaving about 9 am, so if you came later in the morning, you would not have seen the crowd. The several hundred Common Goldeneye stayed. I counted over 200 Bufflehead and did not get all of them. The Common Goldeneye were 2-3 times (or maybe 4times) as common as the Bufflehead. There were Redhead, Lesser Scaup, a few Common and Hooded Mergansers, American Wigeon, Ring-necked Ducks, the obligatory hundred plus Coots. A single Long-tailed Duck and a Pacific Loon (great photo confirmation showed the thin chinstrap besides the lack of the neck “notch”. The pair of owls were located. Little birds were harder to come by. I added some seed to the feeder and had a Downy Woodpecker fly off the suet block, the Chickadees were grateful for the refill. I also saw House Finches at the feeder. – Beth Hill
13 Nov – We had Cranes flying over, headed south most of the morning. Never saw them, due to the low clouds but could hear them. – Kitty & Kris Knaphus
13 Nov – Took a drive along the river yesterday – in a short time in a relatively close space on the river downstream from Giant Springs, I saw a pelican, a swan amongst coots, and a bald eagle on the ice feeding on a fish. I have a few faithful chickadees at my feeders, lots of sparrows, an occasional finch or two, and a pair of downy woodpeckers. Saw a northern flicker out front hammering in a Russian Olive tree, too. The Collared Eurasian Doves are hanging around en masse and chase the smaller birds out of the feeders and scatter seed onto the ground my squirrel friend brought a second squirrel to the squirrel feeder and then a third…….. I took all feeders down, including the squirrel’s nut/acorn jar and am just using one large glass dish filled with birdseed and a suet block that hang from under the metal porch roof. I don’t think the squirrels can get to it and hope they find a better buffet. – Bev Axelsen
15 Nov – There were a lot of geese and mallards early. Once they leave you can spot the other birds on the river. There were 3 pelicans still around – 2 were traveling together. The Pacific Loon surfaced very briefly and like before he gives you a couple seconds then he dives and 5 minutes later you still don’t know where it resurfaced. Songbirds are limited. I did hear and locate 3 American Tree Sparrows. We didn’t find the owls Tuesday day, but the last time we saw both. The bird feeder had a lot of activity from House Finches, Chickadees, Juncos (on the ground) and a Downy Woodpecker. I saw 2 young squirrels scrounging for leftover. – Beth Hill
22 Nov – We saw some interesting birds at our bird feeder at Giant Springs Tuesday, the 22nd. An American Goldfinch and Harris Sparrow were surprises. The usual House Finch, Chickadee, Junco mob and a stealthy Downy Woodpecker also showed up.
Turning around to watch the river we saw several different age classes of. And Eagles. There are hundreds of Mallards and Canada Geese, but the numbers vary every day and with the amount of ice and whether there are hunters active. A single Western Grebe and a couple of Pied-billed Grebes seem to be regulars. Yesterday one of the Pied-billed Grebes came up with a fish as wide as its head….and it managed to swallow the whole thing. I don’t know how it fit. A tiny bit of tail hung out for half a minute, but then it went down. I don’t know how it could move after that meal. – Beth Hill
23 Nov – A lone Slate-colored Dark-eyed Junco has been hopping around on the ground underneath our bird feeder for the last few days, but never flying up to the feeder to compete with the 4-6 Black-capped Chickadees, up to 50 House Finches, a few House Sparrows, a daily visit from Downy Woodpecker, and an occasional Red-breasted Nuthatch, and a Flicker, and of course the predatory visits by the Sharp-shinned Hawk. – Wayne Phillips and Marilyn Schneider