by Darcy Thomas The first day of November brought overcast skies to the Flathead Valley making the 30 degree outside temperature feel even colder. But that was not daunting enough to stop 11 birders intent on looking for raptors around Creston. And we were well rewarded. The first bird seen was a Sharp-shinned Hawk flying…
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Sixteenth Jewel Basin Hawk Watch Season Wrap-Up
by Dan Casey, JBHW Coordinator The 2023 migration season at the Jewel Basin Hawk Watch concluded on November 1, when Jake Bramante counted 26 birds during our 47th survey of the season. We finished the season with a total of 3,131 birds counted (10.5/hr) our fourth highest. It was also a season of diversity; we…
Read MoreConservation Educator’s Niche – November 2023
by Denny Olson I’ve been lucky enough to sit on a high promontory and watch a group of raven rascals – who always seem to have spare time on their talons – showing off their flight skills. Twice, perhaps the same raven both times, one cackled the raven version of “Hold my beer, watch this!”…
Read MoreJewel Basin Hawk Watch Mid-Season Update 2023
by Dan Casey With another 21 surveys conducted since the last update in the Pileated Post, the 16th season of raptor surveys in the Jewel Basin has continued to result in above-average numbers for many species. We had tallied 2,586 raptors of 17 species as of October 15th. These included record numbers of Broad-winged Hawks,…
Read MoreJewel Basin Hawk Watch 2023 Early Results
by Dan Casey The 16th fall monitoring season at Jewel Basin Hawk Watch (JBHW) kicked off August 25th, and as of September 15th we had conducted 18 surveys. It has been an interesting and rewarding early season, with high species diversity and higher than average counts. We suspect that the extensive fires in British Columbia…
Read MoreJewel Basin Hawk Watch 2022 Season Wrap-Up
The 2022 migration season at the Jewel Basin Hawk Watch concluded 20 October, as a dramatic shift in the weather dropped enough snow to make safe access to the site no longer possible. A season characterized by sunny skies and consistent coverage led to above average numbers across almost all species, but record numbers for…
Read MoreConservation Educator’s Niche – November 2022
by Denny Olson Owen Sowerwine Our Local Outdoor Classroom A couple of days ago, I led a small group of three on a field trip to Owen Sowerwine, that roughly 442-acre parcel of State School Trust land located along the Stillwater and Flathead Rivers just east of Willow Glen near Kalispell. The trip emphasized the…
Read MoreField Trip Summary – October 2022 outing extravaganzas for students and adults alike!
by Denny Olson The Sandhill Cranes in West Valley put on a show for students from Evergreen Middle school (2 days), West Valley School (2 days), Cayuse Prairie School, Fairmont Egan School and two adult morning and evening field trips led by Darcy and Denny and assisted by Tom and Cindy Roberts. Bald Eagles in…
Read MoreNovember 2022 Jewel Basin Hawk Watch Update
by Dan Casey, JBHW Coordinator The 2022 migration season at the Jewel Basin Hawk Watch has been characterized by sunny skies, consistent coverage, and above average numbers across almost all species. As of October 18th, we had conducted 47 surveys averaging 6.6 hours each, and had tallied 2,776 raptors of 17 species. Along the way…
Read MoreOperation Bird Collision
by Dave Manuwal The second most important source of bird mortality in North America is colliding with windows (American Bird Conservancy). Flathead Audubon has an opportunity to measure the importance of mortality associated with birds hitting windows of our homes. We propose to record all birds that die from hitting our windows for a period…
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