by Dan Casey Twice a year, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and eBird sponsor Global Big Days, 24-hour opportunities to celebrate birds near and far. This year’s fall eBird Big Day will be Saturday, October 9. We encourage all Flathead eBirders to submit a variety of checklists on that day. By taking part in October…
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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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by Denny Olson Locally, with the frightening uptick in Delta variant COVID cases, it would be easy to sink into the “not again!” cloistering depression of our past year. If you are tempted to resignedly wallow a bit, here are some alternatives I gleaned from our old FAS phenology calendars. The key, as usual, is…
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by Margaret Parodi Sandhill Cranes are truly magnificent birds and are usually seen in large, awe-inspiring flocks. They have a very distinctive loud, rattling bugle-like call that is memorable and are also known for their ritualistic dancing and leaping displays during the courtship and mating season. Sandhill cranes have been around for a long time…
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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 Rare and Notables – Aug/Sept Cold fronts were few and far between, and correspondingly, the quantity of fall migrants seemed low. But several rarities were found, including two county firsts (Chestnut-sided Warbler, Ruddy Turnstone). Sandhill Cranes began to gather in the West Valley as the last hummingbirds, swallows and Ospreys moved on…
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by Cory Davis, President You and the Flathead community donated an amazing $24,508 by the Sept. 17th deadline; soon the Whitefish Community Foundation will add a considerable match to these contributions. This is our big fundraiser of the year that helps fund our education programs such as our Birds Rock!! videos and conservation efforts such…
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presented by Mark Ruby As part of the Collaborated Forest Landscape Restoration Program, the USFS engaged in multi-party forest carnivore inventory and monitoring across the Swan, Clearwater and Blackfoot Valleys between 2013 and 2016. The target species for detection were wolverine, fisher and Canada lynx. The methods utilized non-invasive winter survey methods across the 1.5…
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Our September meeting kicked off the 2021-22 season with our very own Dave Manuwal discussing the Brood X Cicada swarm that happened in the summer of 2021. He compares them to the wide array of cicadas including the few that live in northwestern Montana! Click on the video below and thanks again Dave for shining…
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