by Craig Hohenberger The 47th annual Bigfork Christmas Bird Count was held Saturday, December 19, under cloudy skies, periodic light showers, with mild to moderate SW winds throughout the day. Snow depths were non-existent and/or limited to the higher eastern edges of the count circle; temperatures ranged from 36-46 degrees F. Lakes and ponds were…
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Honoring Butch and Buzz, The Osprey Twins by Gael Bissell We were in 9th or 10th grade, says Doug “Butch” MacCarter, the just five-minute older twin brother of Don “Buzz” MacCarter, and we rode our bikes, as we did most every day since Kindergarten, to the rim rocks above Billings.” It was 1958-59. “Our goal…
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by Dan Casey After more than ten years of experience monitoring fall migration of raptors in the Jewel Basin, we should typically see about 2,600 raptors (mean, 2,598) on about 45 survey days between the end of August and early November. This year we once again conducted 45 surveys, although our average survey length of…
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by Dan Casey The 10th annual hawk migration survey at the Jewel Basin got off to a roaring start; we recorded birds at record rates from late August through Sept. 22nd. But just as we hit our usual peak season, the snows started to fall. As much as we welcomed the early season snow following…
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By Cory Davis. On Saturday, October 7, twenty-six hardy folks participated in a Sandhill Crane Watching Tour at the West Valley Wetlands just northwest of Kalispell. Denny Olson of Flathead Audubon led the trip that was co-sponsored by Flathead Land Trust, Flathead Audubon and the West Valley Naturalist’s Association. The participants weathered some cold, windy…
Read MoreAs 2016 comes to an end, Flathead Audubon volunteers and our funding partners have conducted nine years of season-long hawk migration surveys at the Jewel Basin Hawk Watch. After recording 60 birds over four surveys during the last week of August, we conducted 22 surveys in September, including a six-day stretch (Sept 25-30) where 1,129…
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By Dan Casey This fall season marks the 9th year of full-time surveys at the Jewel Basin Hawk Watch, and the second year with Flathead Audubon as the primary sponsor of the effort. Thursday, Oct. 13th marked the 31st survey of the 2016 season, bringing us to 2,417 birds counted. We were on a record…
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By Laura Katzman and Gael Bissell. Forty people joined Flathead Land Trust, Flathead Audubon, and the Flathead River to Lake Initiative, on a sunny Saturday morning, May 14, for the 2016 spring Bike and Bird field trip. The group met at McWenneger Slough at the 412-acre Fisher property that is protected by a conservation easement…
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by Lewis Young The 23nd annual Eureka Christmas bird count was held on Sunday December 20 in mild weather. We are one of about 30 counts in Montana that are part of National Audubon Society’s long running citizen science Christmas Bird Counts. Twenty people went to the field and 19 people counted at their feeders. …
Read MoreBy Jim Graves We have been watching a family of raptors swoop and soar around a neighborhood wetland throughout the summer. These relatively small hawks are Northern Harriers. Harrier means hunter and the harrier jet, which can take off and land vertically, was named for it. This avian hunter was formerly known as the Marsh…
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