by Big Sky Watershed Corps member Peter Dudley Montana Audubon was back on the Missouri and Madison Rivers for Black-billed Cuckoo and avian surveys this summer, after a great pilot year in 2020. For nearly a decade, we have carried out land bird monitoring in partnership with the University of Montana Bird Ecology Lab (UMBEL)…
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by Pam Willison, OSNA Chairperson Ten hearty volunteers arrived at Owen Sowerwine on October 9th and spent about 3 hours on various projects. It started as a crisp and chilly morning, but gave way to some sunshine and the slightly warmer temperatures as they got to work. Thank you so much to everyone! Rod, Cory,…
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by Gael Bissell A friend sent me this photo in late September after she heard this unfortunate juvenile sharpie, chasing finches, hit their window with a loud bang. We all have heard the crack at the window and then gone looking for a bird just hoping it flew away. Whether a bird is clearly injured…
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by Lewis Young and Kate Stone With big game rifle hunting season approaching you can help wildlife by switching to non-lead bullets if you are hunter using lead bullets . Lead bullets, even copper jacketed lead bullets, fired from high velocity guns fragment on impact losing 20-40% of their mass when they hit an object….
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by Carole Jorgensen It’s Fall Migration. Ok, if you are a hummingbird, your southerly migration may have begun in late June. If you are one of several species of waterfowl, you might hang around until late December. The Fall Migration is much less distinct than Spring Migration, and flyways are less refined according to an…
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By Dan Casey The fourteenth fall season of raptor migration at the Jewel Basin Hawk Watch got off to a great start, with 23 surveys conducted as of September 18th. We have counted 1,249 individuals of 17 species to date as the weather has mostly been forgiving and observers have spent more than 150 hours…
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Bird feeders are often a strong attractant to bears especially in the fall when they are trying to fatten up before entering their dens. Please consider not feeding birds until the bears have entered dens which usually happens by the end of November. Other attractants also create conflicts with bears. Montana FWP Bear and Lion…
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by Dan Casey A number of the most active Flathead area birders commented that overall numbers of spring migrant and local breeding bird species were noticeably low in 2021. Sparrows, warblers, swallows and flycatchers were conspicuously late to arrive, and present in lower densities than expected in most habitats. It remains to be seen if…
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by Denny Olson and Pam Willison Pat Jaquith was born and raised on a small family dairy farm in Vermont. She says she spent every spare moment (and there weren’t many) studying plants and other natural wonders in the woods on their property. As a result, she fell in love with wild orchids at a…
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