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