by Denny Olson From a recent, unfortunately unattributed, social media post … “When Florence Merriam Bailey was born in 1863, birds were more often seen ornamenting women’s hats than they were in the wild. In fact, on one walk through Manhattan in 1886, she counted 40 different species, stuffed and mounted for fashion. The pioneering…
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Upper Swan CBC December 15 Upper Swan held its annual Christmas Bird Count on Thursday, December 15, with nine field observers. We had decent weather with temperatures ranging from 19 to 27, cloudy skies, and wind at 7 mph. Most still water was frozen and moving water was partly open. Snow depths ranged from six…
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by Lisa Bate Glacier National Park (GNP) held its annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) on Sunday, December 18, 2022. Sixteen participants contributed to this event by covering 10 different routes in Glacier. Participants spent the day counting all bird species and individuals detected. The weather was dramatic with strong, gusty winds, heavy snow, and temperatures…
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by Jim Oates We had good weather for the 30th Annual Ninepipe Count on December 18, with temperatures 27 to 33, calm winds, mostly cloudy skies, and morning flurries. Most still water was frozen. Twenty-five participants counted about 80 species (up a little) and about 12,000 birds (down a little). About 3,000 of those were mostly…
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by Carole Jorgensen Audubon shared the recent dire study showing that 3 billion birds have declined since 1970, almost 30 percent of the North American bird population (https://science.org/content/article/three-billion-north-american-birds-have-vanished-1970-surveys-show). Some of the reasons given were habitat loss due to development, changing climate and weather patterns, pesticides and even cats, although the reasons are complex and each…
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You Can Be Part of The Team – Every Bird Counts By Darcy Thomas It’s time once again for the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), an inter-organizational effort between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Audubon Society, and Birds Canada who work together to bring the joys of bird watching to the people who love…
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Highlights from the January 2, 2023 Board of Directors Meeting SAVE THE DATE! Wings Across the Big Sky, the annual Montana birding festival, will be June 9-11, 2023, at the Heritage Inn, Great Falls, MT. The festival is being organized by Montana Audubon and this year’s local host chapter, Upper Missouri Breaks Audubon. Stay tuned…
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by Darcy Thomas River Design Group (RDG), one of the leading river restoration consulting firms in the Intermountain West and Pacific Northwest, was founded in the Flathead Valley in 2003 by four individuals with a passion for rivers. Since the beginning, the company has promoted a healthy work-life balance and maintained a culture deeply rooted…
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by Craig Hohenberger The 49th annual Bigfork Christmas Bird Count was held Saturday, December 17, under cloudy skies and mild SE winds. Temperatures varied from 19 to 28. Snow depths were about 4 to 6 inches in the valley, and at the eastern edges of the count circle there was up to a foot of…
Read MoreThe 24th Kalispell Christmas Bird Count was held on Sunday, January 1, 2023. A total of 75 species was recorded, a number which is about average for this count. Highlights included the 2nd ever Yellow-headed Blackbird (Craig Hohenberger et. al.), the 2nd ever Pied-billed Grebe (Elaine Snyder et al.), the 3rd ever Northern Saw-whet Owl…
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