Presented By Sara Lamar The Southwestern Crown of the Continent (SW Crown) is a 1.5 million acre, mostly forested landscape in the Rocky Mountains of western Montana. Swan Valley Connections (SVC) has been collaborating annually with various partners to monitor rare carnivores. This monitoring project was designed to provide a baseline of the current distribution…
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At our November 2023 General Meeting, Denver Holt, Founder and President of Owl Research Institute, shared the amazing work that they are doing. They pride themselves on boots-on-the-ground field work and long term studies to get as accurate a picture as they possibly can of the health and trends of a population as well as…
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by Denny Olson I’ve been lucky enough to sit on a high promontory and watch a group of raven rascals – who always seem to have spare time on their talons – showing off their flight skills. Twice, perhaps the same raven both times, one cackled the raven version of “Hold my beer, watch this!”…
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by Darcy Thomas Northern Saw-whet Owls were the focus of the next two bird outings in October. We travelled to the Flathead Lake Biological Station to learn about owl ecology and watch researchers from the Owl Research Institute band, weigh, and measure owls they caught in mist nests during the evening. Participants got to watch…
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by Darcy Thomas In the darkness of an early October morning, a small group of birders gathered together at the West Valley Ponds viewing area with binoculars and spotting scopes and waited for sunrise. At first light, Canada Geese began to cackle and Mallards began their quacking. Then as sunrise brightened the skies with gorgeous…
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by Denny Olson The evening version of Sandhill Crane watching happened October 1, after a downpour rain delay of one day. The cranes staged at distance or just out of sight, while a few hundred Canada Geese came into the pond. A fairly good variety of waterfowl were there from the start. Just at sunset,…
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