Highlights from February 5, 2018 Board Meeting A Grants Committee has been formed with Rod Wallette, Mike Fanning, Gail Linne and Gael Bissell as members. A letter was sent to our Congressional members in support of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The education bird trunks have been relocated to Lone Pine State Park. The keynote…
Read MoreAmerican Three-toed Woodpecker
by Lisa Bate There’s an easy answer to the question: how many toes does an American Three-toed Woodpecker (Picoides dorsalis) have? They have three! So why give this birds such an obvious name? It turns out that having three toes in the woodpecker world is unusual; most woodpeckers have four toes. The only other woodpecker…
Read MoreMarch 2018 Program
Common Loon Conservation and Management A Success Story That Began 35 Years Ago presented by Chris Hammond Join us Monday, March 12 , 7-9 PM at the Gateway West Community Room, US Highway 2 West, Kalispell, for an informative and entertaining program on loons. Chris Hammond, will discuss the history of Common Loon conservation in…
Read MoreKalispell CBC 2017 Report
by Pete Fisher, compiler The 19th annual Kalispell CBC was held on Sunday, December 31. A total of 78 species were counted. This is a respectable number given the harsh weather conditions (subzero temperatures, up to 3 feet of snow). The count’s first ever Northern Shoveler was found as well as the second ever Common Grackle. Record high numbers…
Read MoreTroy CBC 2017 Report
by Don Jones, compiler The Troy Christmas Bird count was scheduled to be on December 30th 2017 but was postponed one day (the 31st) as the Troy area experienced a large snowstorm dumping 14+ inches of snow. Due to the change in count dates, we lost a number of participants due to conflicts. We still managed to…
Read MoreGlacier National Park CBC 2017 Report
by Lisa Bate, compiler This winter, Glacier National Park (GNP) held its annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) on Sunday, December 17. Twenty-nine participants contributed to this event by covering 10 different routes in Glacier, and one bird feeder in West Glacier. Participants spent the day counting all bird species and individuals detected; and the main description…
Read MoreEureka CBC 2017 Report
by Lewis Young, compiler The 25th annual Eureka Christmas Bird Count was held on Saturday, December 16 in mild weather that ranged from 22F to 35F. Twenty-two field observers and 15 feeder watchers recorded 69 species and 2779 individual birds. The 69 species were the second highest total in our history. Three new species were…
Read MoreBigfork CBC 2017 Report
by Craig Hohenberger, compiler The 44th annual Bigfork Christmas Bird Count was held Saturday, December 16th, under cloudy skies and mild weather conditions; snow depth 1-4 inches, temperatures ranged from 28-34 degrees F with little or no wind. Rivers and lakes were mostly open and there was a little ice on Flathead Lake at the edges….
Read MoreShort-eared Owl Monitoring – Volunteers Needed
The Owl Research Institute is embarking on a 3-year collaborative study to monitor Short-eared Owl populations in the western U.S. The study will rely on volunteers to make it a success. Project WAFLS (Western Asio flammeus Landscape Study), involves 15 other agencies and organizations across 8 states and is designed to assess the population status,…
Read MoreConservation Educator’s Niche – February 2018
by Denny Olson We are about to transition into the traditional winter-spring conservation education schedule – Great Backyard Bird Count with at least two different schools, FVCC Senior Institute Birds of NW Montana for six weeks, four weeks of the Beauty of Birds class for the general public at Flathead High School (Wednesday evenings), Earth…
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