Nov 24 – Wow… lots of goldeneyes, buffleheads and others have arrived on the river in town and at Giant Springs last couple days. – Steve Leathe
Nov 23 – The snow it makes it easier to spot different birds, we have 5 Snow birds, Pink-sided Juncos. One has only one tail feather, a white one. – Richard Mousel
Nov 23 – We have somewhere between 120 and 150 (or more) Rosy-finches at the feeders. It is hard to count as it is a feeding frenzy! Yesterday we had about 40 Swans fly over early in the morning. – Kitty and Kris Knapus
Nov 21 – Finally been able to verify a Mountain Chickadee at Maria’s house, maybe more will show up with the snow. – Richard Mousel
Nov 19 – Just had 75 Snow Geese fly over. Just had 3 more small Geese fly over, possibly Blue’s – Richard Mousel
Nov 13 – Surprised to find a female Goldfinch still visiting our sunflowers also had a couple Juncos. – Richard Mousel
Nov 13 – Drove out to Benton Lake yesterday afternoon. Absolutely nobody around. Hadn’t been there in at least a month. Last time out I saw a bunch (prob close to 20) Northern Harriers scattered everywhere but only saw a couple yesterday. Also a couple of surprisingly tame coyotes. The two big ponds were not frozen, wind blowing pretty hard. First pond had prob around 200 swans on it. Did not have a spotting scope and they were way out across the pond and curled up sleeping on the water so was tough with binocs to be absolutely sure there were no snow geese mixed in, but I think they were all swans. Not a lot of ducks and mostly scattered small groups of mallards and pintails. Second pond had only 2-3 swans but more ducks, though prob just a few hundred scattered mostly on the far lee shore. Again, mostly mallards and pintails though did see a group of widgeon. Looks like snow geese are not moving thru yet. – Steve Leathe
Nov 7 – Just had a Sharp-shinned Hawk bomb through, boy was it quick, it was across the yard in a fraction of a second. It missed, there were Birds sitting wondering what was that? Their lucky day. I saw it sitting in a tree across the street after it missed, that’s the only reason I knew what it was. – Richard Mousel
Nov 4 – Velda and I drove the raptor route titled “Great Falls West” this morning. This is a 75 mile (including backtracks) route. The weather ranged from 37-49 degrees, sunny to partly cloudy and SW winds started at 15 gradually increasing to 25-35 mph. It didn’t seem to bother the rough legged hawks that we saw (7 total) nor the northern harriers (3 total). It was ruffling the undertail coverts of the bald eagle that was perched on a power pole. All the other birds were in flight. That was all the raptors that we saw. We saw plenty of horned larks. One group of lark sized birds that may have been something else (just not so much white in the right spots and a rosy hint)(gray crowned rosy finches?) 4 species of introduced birds – pheasants, pigeons, collared doves and gray partridge. The surprise was some shorebirds at Horseshoe Lake (off Manchester/McIver Rd junction) – 5 long-billed dowitchers and 5 greater yellowlegs. 4 more to cover later this month. Stay tuned if you are curious to join a survey. Trip report: https://ebird.org/tripreport/289995 – Beth Hill
Nov 4 – This afternoon when I went to fill my feeders at my place there were Chickadeesss everywhere, I figured at least around 10 Black-capped and 3 Mountain Chickadees. Time to get the shelled Peanuts and suet out. – Richard Mousel
Nov 2 – Just had about 170 Cranes flying over and up. Heading south. – Kitty and Kris
Nov 1 – I saw my first Rough-legged Hawk on October 30 and the second on November 1. Prior to this year, my earliest sighting since 2018 was November 1 and most of the other first sightings were closer to the middle of November. I wonder what that means in terms of the weather ahead–maybe nothing? – Velda