by Jill and Mike Fanning

Sunday June 12 to Tuesday June 14

This Year’s Tally Lake Campout provided some excellent birding to about 17 Flathead Audubon members and guests. We met at Tally Lake Sunday afternoon and after our opening birding walks had a potluck meal around the fire. Some people stayed the night and were joined by others for Monday birding. The birding was exceptionally good this year partly because we saw many nesting birds. Pam and Jake were excellent guides and we had a lot of fun together. Monday night started with a rather damp dinner and proceeded to rain heavily through the night. A few intrepid souls spent the night. By 9 AM they were gone when Jill and I arrived to check it out. By then the snow covered the nearby hills and the campground.  The only remaining bird to be seen was a solitary raven.

Here is the list of birds we saw:

  • Common Goldeneye
  • Common Merganser
  • Ruffed Grouse*
  • Common Loon
  • Turkey Vulture
  • Osprey
  • Bald Eagle
  • Northern Goshawk
  • Spotted Sandpiper
  • Common Nighthawk*
  • Vaux’s Swift
  • Rufous Hummingbird
  • Williamson’s Sapsucker
  • Red-naped Sapsucker
  • Hairy Woodpecker*
  • Northern Flicker
  • Western Wood-pewee*
  • Willow Flycatcher
  • Hammond’s Flycatcher
  • Cordilleran Flycatcher
  • Warbling Vireo
  • Red-eyed Vireo
  • American Crow*
  • Common Raven
  • Tree Swallow
  • Violet-green Swallow
  • Northern Rough-winged Swallow
  • Bank Swallow
  • Cliff Swallow
  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • Mountain Chickadee
  • Chestnut-backed Chickadee
  • Red-breasted Nuthatch
  • American Dipper
  • Ruby-crowned Kinglet*
  • Townsend’s Solitaire
  • Swainson’s Thrush
  • American Robin
  • Varied Thrush
  • Gray Catbird
  • Cedar Waxwing
  • Northern Waterthrush*
  • Orange-crowned Warbler*MacGillivray’s Warbler
  • Common Yellowthroat
  • American Redstart
  • Yellow Warbler
  • Yellow-rumped Warbler
  • Chipping Sparrow
  • Fox Sparrow
  • Song Sparrow
  • Western Tanager
  • Black-headed Grosbeak
  • Brown-headed Cowbird
  • Pine Siskin