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Still no Blackburnian but did have a Golden wing, Chat, Yellowthroat, Kentucky, Redstart, Tennessee, and possible Baybreasted between storms. It has been a wild Saturday morning.

Jerry LIles

A a pair of evening grosbeaks at the yard feeder, long-billed curlews, sage thrasher (shown), feruginous hawks, greater yellowlegs, pelicans, all the ducks... and much more passin' through or nesting (G.H. owls with three fuzzies). No warblers, few passerines.
Watched a pair of canada geese do-in-it this AM
Thanks Jerry!

Warblers are peaking here now. I had a good day Sunday and added a Cerulean to the list. Only the second one I've seen in the last 40years. There was also a late Orange crowned, several Tennessee, a Black Throated Green, White and Red eyed and Blue headed vireos, Rose breasted and Blue grossbeaks,Scarlet tanagers, Mississippi Kites, Martins, Barn, Cliff, Rough winged and Bank swallows. I think I missed the Tree swallows this year. Still no Blackburnean, but I'll keep looking.

Birding is like hunting, requiring all the skills of a successful hunter with no bag limit, no closed season, very few closed areas, and you don't have to clean your catch.

Jerry Liles

Not migratory birds but my son and I saw a pair of White Tailed Kites today when we were hiking on Quail Hill in Irvine, CA waiting for a gunshop that had a front sight adjuster for his M4 to open up. And we saw LOTS of California quail.

HE'S hoping to see some chukars in the wild next deployment; I'M wishing he didn't have to go to Afghanistan to do it! (I could show him some up in the Sespe Wilderness, where the "locals" are friendlier!).

Thanks Jerry!
WOW, Those warblers are exotics in my experience. We do have some very cool birds, just not as many colorful, sweet singers. On my "to find this year list" are burrowing owl (last seen in Argentine but not in MT for many years), common but elusive Green-tailed towhee, black-throated blue warbler, and blue grosbeak. Also Mountain plover which are in MT now, but I've never seen one.

Made a birding trip to TX two springs ago and got to see (among many others) green jays and long-tailed flycatchers, got them in LA?

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MOB-Montana/

You have to be a member to see the photos...
Best,
Steve

This year all my birding has been in the woods and open ground along the levee of the Ouachita river almost out the backdoor and is just catch as catch can. If I had the time I'd have spent this last weekend down in Cameron Parish haunting the Cheniere woods along the coast and scouting the oilfield roads in the marsh behind the Cameron courthouse. Birds arriving across the Gulf make their landfall on the chenieres which are composed of wind sculpted hackberry and liveoak and are crawing with insects to refuel the hungry migrants. On really good days you can see a dozen species of warblers in one tree at one time as well as any number of other types. The oilfield saltmarsh is a wading and shorebird paradise. Day lists approaching 200 aren't that uncommon.

White tail kites are rare in Louisiana with only the occasional bird showing up around Shreveport. Now the Swallowtail Kite makes up for it in the Atchafalyah basin. Green jays don't make it much beyond very southern Texas around Brownsville. The Scissor tailed Flycatcher does get here every year but not in the numbers of South Texas. Beautiful birds.

By next week the migration will largely have passed through on its way to visit you.

Jerry Liles

Steven, I recall seeing burrowing owls a few miles SW of Broadview MT, but it's been over twenty years since I was there.

A lot of my birding is done along the Yellowstone River and other bodies of water. Being a farely scares commodity around these parts, water attracts wildlife. Photographed a long-billed curlew the other day, but at 200 yards it's not very impressive. I'm trying to catch them feeding on nightcrawlers which is a hoot to see!

Bill, on the site I linked above is a photo of a pair of burrowing owls 5 miles north of Ft. Peck. They are normally associated with prairie dogs.

We are in the midst of a rain, snow, wind storm at about 35 degrees. This happened a couple years ago and town was full of colorful Western Tanagers for several days! Everybody noticed them.

Spotted this afternoon in flight over Kalispell, Montana: small group of commercial Oberndorf actions in finger four Luftwaffe formation apparently heading for Big Fork, possibly to Jerry Fisher's shop.