Summer is quickly fading as the songsters have gone quiet and fall migrants are slipping thorough Montana. Suddenly all the birds that were waking us up an hour before sunrise are silent. During the day the sound of the young Black-headed Grosbeaks has gone as well, although one is stll slipping into the feeder area for a snack of sunflower seeds. The Northern House Wrens are stll around but surprisingly quiet. The singing of the Vesper, Savannah and Clay-colored Sparrows has been reduced to a “chip”. If I’m lucky I see one now and then. The young Red-tail Hawks, Merlins have all spread out rarely to be seen or heard. The Cooper’s Hawk family that we watched from the final nest building to the 2 surviving fledglings catching their own meals are also tough to find now. What a summer. Although we didn’t have American Kestrels nestng in the box provided 3 fledglings were seen once. It was interestng and fun to watch the Cooper’s through their entre cycle of finishing a nest, laying eggs, hatching, fledging and learning to fly. They pair fledged three, but one died of unknow causes (his body was found). “Mom” was such a big bird and fierce. There was never mistaking them for Sharp-shinned Hawks – attude as much as anything was starkly more aggressive. While observing the Cooper’s we also found several pairs of Lazuli Buntngs that must have nested – they were seen feeding young birds just learning to fly. Several Brewer’s Sparrows were also found for a pe-riod of several days – they showed up singing. Since they stand from the tops of grasses they could be seen while singing. We found that they responded to playback unintentonally when their song was played to compare and confirm the identficaton. This plain faced litle sparrow had a song that was quite different than the other 3 summer resident sparrows we were hearing. We never had to go far from home this sum-mer to find something to photograph or observe. Surrounded by a cultvated landscape we found a few pockets that atract wildlife of all sorts. What can we find this fall and winter? – Beth and Russell Hill

Baby birds abound.

Top: July 19 a young Cooper’s Hawk doesn’t stray far from it’s nest site in a thicket of box elders.
Middle: July 30 the young Cooper’s is navigating like a pro through the box elder/willow/chokecherry thickets.
Bottom: Young Eastern Kingbirds (below) could catch bugs on their own, but insist on getting fed by the adults. They grow up so fast! Photos—Beth Hill

April 24 – I believe that I saw a Swainson’s light morph sitting on a fence post along 13th St near the Ayrshire dairy. – Richard Mousel

April 22 – Saw our first Turkey in the neighborhood, thankfully not in the yard. Also a White-crowned Sparrow.  – Richard Mousel

April 21 – Yes all ready saw two small groups of them yesterday below GS in the afternoon and in the morning saw one very colorful male red necked grebe also below GS. – Arla Eckert

April 21- turkeys were near a house on 13th St S past the old Ayrshire Dairy. spotted three burrowing owls amongst the p dogs at the buffalo jump. the pair of osprey were at the nest atop the utility pole at Ulm FAS and, finally, the female American Kestrel flew out of her nest in Highland Cemetery as I drove by – Bev Axelsen

April 20 – We have our first of year Grackle. – Richard Mousel

April 20 – At Giant Springs today – I added a ruby-crowned kinglet this morning along with a house wren.  I forgot to mention the eurasian wigeon that I saw yesterday (and again today).  I caught a glimpse of a baby owls head today.  I actually saw a couple violet-green swallows today – I suspected they were back earlier but finally saw them. – Beth Hill

April 19 – Yellow-rumped Warblers are bouncing around Giant Springs.  I thought I might have heard one or two short calls yesterday, but today it was full singing – and response.  Myrtle variety with the white throat.  The osprey have completely rebuilt their nest on the industrial park platform.  They just showed up a couple days ago.  Mama owl could be seen from the chest up yesterday and today.  Spring is progressing. – Beth Hill

April 17 – I also stopped in at GS, saturday morning, sorry I missed you Steve. I saw the Loon pair plue bonus birds: a pair of Horned Grebes and a pair of Black-necked Stilts. – Jan Wilson

April 17 – Took a swing by Gt Springs this morning.  Seemed like just overnite a big flock of a couple hundred or more tree swallows showed up and were busy buzzing low over the water dining on hatching midges most likely.  Likewise, at least a couple hundred Franklin’s gulls also seemed to show up overnite and were busy swimming around and also dining on the hatching midges (or maybe mayflies,,, I did not check…).  – Steve Leathe

April 13 – No snow geese at Freezeout, a few Canada geese, lots of pelicans, several white faced ibis, mallards, cormorants, gulls, avocets, pintails, robins, ravens, a willet, and tons of decaying carp along the shoreline with water level way down. maller ponds next to highway all dried up. bald eagles and red tailed hawks sitting on nests along the route. Osprey nesting near Ulm at fishing access sites near the bridge and at muddy creek. turkeys near the river. – Bev Axelsen

April 13 – Saw 3 (maybe 4) loons around Gt Springs this morning.  Also a few Franklin’s gulls showing up in that area and on the river in town today. – Steve Leathe

April 12 – Just checked Highland Cemetery birdhouses, I saw 2 Kestrels, one was on the fence near Calgary Cemetery, the other one was seen sitting on top of the box on the East side of the Cemetery. – Richard Mousel

April 11 – South Raptor Route field trip: This is always an interesting field trip.  Today was no different.  The temperatures ranged from 45-65 degrees with a variable sky of mostly to partly cloudy and light SW wind.  Bald Eagles were once again abundant – 16 adults and 14 sub-adults were either perched or soaring.  Most occupying nests likely had baby eagles.  We were also seeing Red-tailed Hawks sitting in nests besides the several kettles of hawks.  3 Northern Harriers – all males!  All 3 nest platforms outside of Ulm had an Osprey associated with it.  Turkey Vultures are back – there was one kettle of 7.  2 more were tugging on a dead cow carcass not far from the road.  What a good , close look.  Nice surprise birds – a pair of Hooded Mergansers, a small lek of Sharp-tailed Grouse, Green-winged Teal on a few potholes and reservoirs, a flock of at least 150 Red-winged Blackbirds scouring the ground, several Sandhill Cranes – all paired, several Long-billed Curlews (most in pairs)(one pair courting around) and just a nice day all around.  Thanks to Velda for driving and Richard for spotting all those little birds. – Beth Hill
https://ebird.org/tripreport/499213

April 10 – Yesterday I had a good wildlife-sighting day.. went Birdtail west to deadman’s coulee road.. came upon a sharpie lek with probably 15 displaying birds on the Birdtail, plus a pair of harriers and pair of sandhill cranes just a mile or so south of 200 on Birdtail ( right near my house) . Also saw bull and cow elk, large elk herd at west end of Birdtail. 10 bighorn sheep at base of Birdtail butte and lots of antelope. This crane photo was actually Wednesday when I didn’t have good camera of course (when will I learn 🙄) still kicking myself cause they were right there!!! Anyway yesterday a beautiful day like today! – Darolyn

April 9 –  forgot to mention that Curlews showed up on Monday. – Kitty

April – 9 – Among several new arrivals I’ve seen in the past week around Cascade county – pelicans, avocets, greater yellowlegs, turkey vulture, common loon, green winged teal, mourning dove, red-breasted merganser, barn swallow, burrowing owls, tree swallows (claiming boxes), barn swallow.  There is something (at least one) new every day right now.  Many singing red-winged blackbirds, robins, house finches, meadowlarks.  Mourning doves are “mourning” already. It appears that the GS owls have hatched and the GS red-tail is sitting on eggs.  – Beth Hill

April 9 – There was an Osprey bring sticks to the nest at the Ulm FAS this morning. – Kitty and Kris

April 5 – After a visit to the buffalo jump this morning we came home and 4 adult bald eagles appeared overhead – making big lazy circles in the sky.  At one p[oint a gull joined the circle – getting higher and higher.  It made me wonder where 4 adults came from – I know of 2 local nests, but the female should still be in the nest, either incubating or keeping new hatches warm. First burrowing owls (1 or 2) seen at the buffalo jump.  There were LOTS of singing meadowlarks.  Even a couple flickers (no trees nearby, just cliffs for them).  – Beth Hill

April 4 – Was extremely fortunate to have the Benton Lake Wildlife Refuge Grouse blind this morning, we had a terrific time. Beth, Russ and Jack joined me for a Birdafull day. There were 30+ Grouse, we also had a small flock of Snow Geese fly by. This morning was by far the best Sharptail Grouse photographing I’ve ever had. – Richard Mousel

It was amazing.  We stayed until way past 8:30 (sunrise 6:59).  I haven’t had a morning that good in years.

Just got home and haven’t had a chance to look at photos and videos yet.  We all saw the same thing.  I want to look at the muddy feet pictures!  (after it warmed up they began to get mud “boots”) – Beth Hill

April 1 – BLWR -Far fewer snowgeese on the second pond; more ducks on the first/large pond today. today I was surprised by what I’m pretty sure was a northern harrier hawk that flew up from the grass/weeds along the pond where I observed the snow goose yesterday. lots more horned larks today and fewer meadowlarks than yesterday. the best viewing was a pair of sandhill cranes slowly walking down the road along the big pond where I’d seen them before (also saw coyote in that area where I’d observed it before)

April 1 – Spring can’t be far away, our Chickadees are cleaning out the sawdust out of our Chickadee birdhouse in our backyard. I put in sawdust as Chickadees seem to enjoy cleaning house before nesting. It seems like it’s earlier than usual. – Richard Mousel

March 2026 Bird Report

March 24 – Richard and I cleaned out 6 boxes this afternoon, then I completed 2 more boxes.  It was easy to tell which box had starlings and which had kestrels.  2 boxes seem to have kestrels interested already.  So – it is definitely time to get them done and ready. – Beth Hill

March 23 – Winter Raptor Survey – West (airport bench). The weather was remarkable because it was mostly sunny all morning, the temperatures had a narrow range of 30-45 degrees and the wind was almost non-existent at 3-10 mph.  It was also remarkable because of the few raptors seen – 1 Northern Harrier and 4 Bald Eagles.  This route usually has a few more.  There were plenty of Horned Larks flitting about.  Western Meadowlarks were heard singing as well as Red-winged Blackbirds.  Highlight – a shrike.  Photo confirmed a Northern Shrike.  It is a little early to have a Loggerhead.  The waterfowl were added at several ponds that we pass. – Beth Hill

https://ebird.org/tripreport/491753

March 22 – I thought I heard sandhill cranes but never did spot them; they usually  nest on the north edge of Gib Flats near the cliffs below town in a brushy wet area  / some neighbors who live nearer to the cliffs say the sandhill cranes do not raise young out  here because we have fox and coyotes but I’ve seen them fly over, feed in the fields, and head back north late in the day / the flickers have aerated the lawn well / have starlings, sparrows, house finches, Eurasian collared doves at the feeders but haven’t seen a downy or hairy woodpecker lately / haven’t seen any raptors, either – large or small / the man made pond (in a low spot) with two islands and a goose nesting platform on Eaton Ave had two Canada geese in the water today / the shallow pond off Gibson Flats Road is dry but the larger one well off the paved road is full of water and had Canada geese in it

March 21 – Raptor Survey – South – It was a day full of surprises.  39 Bald Eagles with 7 occupied nests.  The one nest that has been consistent from year to year appeared vacant.  Red-tailed Hawks are returning – we saw one working on a nest from a prior year, many clearly had “red tails”, the 7 we saw along Millegan Rd may have been migrants.  One was clearly a northern bird – nearly black.  Both the Prairie Falcon and the Merlin gave us thrilling looks.  Non-raptors – starlings dominated on every single checklist.  Sometimes 200 or more, most in numbers of 5-15.  Pheasants were also well represented – the roosters were out strutting.  And then there was the weather.  It started mostly (almost partly) cloudy and not much wind (E 5-8 mph).  By 10 am the clouds had built up and the temperature had already peaked at 60 degrees.  Suddenly it was in the 40’s.  Our first raindrops arrived at 11:30, we had snow from noon to the end.  The heaviest snow held off until we were past the area of highest Bald Eagle density.  The 8 Sandhill Cranes were all within 1 mile of each other (or less).  Last year we saw 31 species in March, this year we had 39 species.  The one “taxa” was a gull – either California or Ring-billed.  Great spotting by the crew once again – Steve, Richard and Bev with Steve driving and keeping us on the road. – Beth Hill

https://ebird.org/tripreport/490640

March 21 – We had Tree Swallows show up today to inspect the housing situation.  Have good numbers of Robins, Red Winged BB and House Finches.  A few Grouse are still stopping by to scratch under the feeders.  We also have a small flock of Juncos and at least 3 Golden Crowned Kinglets.  – Kitty Knapus

March 17 – 63,500 Snow Geese at Freezeout. I visited Freezeout late on Tuesday afternoon. The wind was blowing hard and there were lots of clouds. But a patch of blue showed up and I had 1 hour of good light from 4 – 5pm. I found the geese in a farmer’s field, between the lake and hwy 89. I took photos until they all left for the lake, about 5:30pm. – Jan Wilson

March 15 – We have at least 3 Flickers visiting our feeders, both peanuts and suet. – Richard Mousel

March 11 – Went out to Benton today.  It was very windy and cold.  Lakes are about 80-90% frozen, generally.  All sorts of waterfowl out there. Lots of swans, pintails, mallards along with some honkers, canvasbacks, redheads, widgeon, goldeneyes, and a few other species here and there.  Took a bunch of pics and had a couple surprises when I got home and looked at them, which is always nice.

Looked at the swan pic and I think the two species are together.  Got lucky.  A pair of trumpeters (I think..) are in the back, they are bigger than the tundras in the foreground, they don’t have yellow at base of bill, and they have a “v-hull” (like a boat) where forehead meets the bill.  The tundras in foreground are a bit smaller, have yellow at base of bill (usually) and have a ‘unibrow’ (almost straight across) where forehead meets the bill.

Second pic is not great but I I think it shows a pair of white fronted geese on the right hanging out with swans and pintails on the ice.  They do kinda look like the Tundra Bean Goose that Jan saw at Giant Springs but the bill and forehead are different.

Beth – can u confirm the ID’s?     Is it common to see white-fronted geese at Benton? – Steve Leathe

March 11 – Grouse House at Benton Lake. I was out there today.It looks like they picked up all the pieces.

Since they have some big work buildings, they may try to put it back together inside – where there is no wind and it is warmer.  It is made to be transportable, so if they do – no problem to put it back.

March 11 – There must have been a fallout at Benton Lake after Sunday’s windstorm, there were 100-200 pintails on an ice sheet at the last pond. Most were chilling, there were many courtship flights and almost all occasionally lifted-off after an unknown scare. Swan’s numbers have decreased, lots of mallards, canvas backs, some wigeons. 11 Snow Geese flew over but did not land on pond 3, maybe the first pond. As I turned the corner for pond 3 there was a Bald Eagle on top of a lone snow goose but flew away when i approached. Goose was alive and upright, but not a pretty sight. – Jan Wilson

March 9 – Meadowlark !!! I heard meadowlark!!! Absolutely positive twice! Fort Shaw! – Darolyn Holland

March 9 – Just had 30 Snow Geese fly over. – Richard Mousel

I had a flock of 100+ heading toward Benton Lake or Freezout as I left home at 5 pm this evening. – Beth Hill

March 9 – We had 15 GC Rosy Finches stop by the feeders first thing this morning, also had a dozen ST Grouse perched in the top of the ash tree. Then a couple of hours later there was a Sandhill Crane that flew over. – Kitty Knapus

March 9 – There was a pair of sandhill cranes at Benton Lake this morning! – Beth Hill

March 9 – Winter Raptor Survey – Highwoods Today. The wind was wild today.  The 25-30 mph winds didn’t last long, by 10 am the wind was blowing 35-45 mph (or more).  Temperatures were 46-60 degrees – quite warm for early March. The birds were few and far between.  One Red-tailed Hawk was still in the territory we’ve found it all winter.  Bald Eagles were gathered along Upper Highwood Creek.  One bird swooped by so fast it challenged identification.  First reaction was Prairie Falcon – the wind was carrying it fast and straight away from us.  The pointed wings were a tip off.  There was a patch of white, but more underneath than a rump patch.  The 2 Northern Harriers we saw were both flying around with their typical  dihedral, teetering flight coursing over a field.  It just flew differently than the harriers. Thanks to Velda for driving and spotting and ‘backseat” Richard for additional spotting. – Beth Hill

https://ebird.org/tripreport/485402

March 7 – Saw this little fellow battling the wind and eyeballing the finches in the neighbor’s spruce tree this morning.  At first I thought it was just another collared dove til I looked more closely with binocs and it eventually flew to another perch for more pics.  It was really small with skinny legs and I am reasonably sure it was an adult sharpshin (red eyes…) and prob a male as it really was ‘flicker-sized’.  But…. as u know I have been wrong before. – Steve Leathe

March 7 – Saw 500-800 swans today at Benton Lake, along with large numbers of Pintails, Common Goldeneyes. – Jan Wilson

March 2 – Lots of pintails (doing courtship flights) at Giant Springs yesterday – almost none today.  I guess they just hopped over the hill to Benton Lake. – Beth Hill

March 1 – Hey Beth: could this be a juvenile Greater White-fronted Goose? He was hanging out with the with the Mallards in the river, half-way between GS park and Rainbow dam.
Jan, both Merlin and lens says it’s a tundra bean goose.

March 1 – Nothing as exciting as a tundra bean goose, but we spotted a lesser black-backed gull at Giant Springs this morning.  It was on the far side of the river, so the image is quite cropped.  Yellow eyes and legs, and an extremely dark mantle makes the California gulls look almost white.  Red dot on lower bill.  A nice adult.

Lots of variety this morning, courtship flights of pintails, wigeons, gadwal, scaup, ring-necked ducks, and lots of cackling geese.  Maybe that’s how I didn’t see the bean goose – got tired of looking at the little geese (I stopped counting at 34).  – Beth Hill

March 1 – Fairfield Bench Raptor Survey Completed. Today was overcast, the temperature ranged from 18-21 degrees and the wind was a non-factor.  There was no snow on the ground although an occasional snowflake floated by.  This area is highly cultivated even though there are quite a few herds of cattle grazing.  The cultivated fields might have a lot of geese, but we didn’t see one ground squirrel running about.  Interesting, we saw 4 Snow Geese.  We did see 6 individual raptors again this month, 1 nice male Northern Harrier, 4 adult Bald Eagles and 1 Rough-legged Hawk.  One pair of geese were standing on the ridgeline of a metal outbuilding, another was sitting in a nest high in a tree (probably red-tail) and a third was sitting on a knob of a broken limb high in a tree.  Why do some seek high spots ?  Horned Larks were scattered all about.  Although it isn’t in this survey area we did see the regular American Kestrel near Largent Bend, she had a fresh small rodent kill in her grasp.  A nice quiet, easy to count survey today.  Thanks to Bev for driving and additional spotting with Richard. – Beth Hill

Here is the full trip report-

https://ebird.org/tripreport/482708