Wings Across the Big Sky

20090606 - Wings Across the Big Sky

We rose at 4:00 to arrive at 5:00 at the Holiday Inn that is headquarters for the festival. Breakfast there was some artificial egg and bacon biscuit served in a cellophane bag, straight from Fort Worth, Texas via the refrigerator.

We joined a carpool to the destination for the morning field trip--some back roads along the Teton River near Choteau, MT. The roads West in this area dead end at the Bob Marshall Wilderness, a very large protected area just South of Glacier NP. Toward the end of the drive, we skirted Pine Butte, a major Nature Conservancy holding. The area was beautiful, although visibility was very limited due to clouds, blowing snow and freezing rain. The mountains were never visible, although we did get glimpses of Pine Butte and many more intimate scenes in subdued colors, whites, tans, grays, the black/greens of conifers and the emergent greens of some wheat fields, willows and chokecherries. There were dozens of winter calendar photos just waiting to be taken. We got some nice views of birds. Our traveling companions were excellent birders and conversationalists, intimately familiar with Montana wildlife and conservation issues.

Lunch was an OK salad, sandwich, and chips buffet. This was followed by a talk by David Sibley, author of several major birding books. He is a shy and careful speaker, with deep knowledge of his specality. He described his evolution, not so much as a birder, but as a bird illustrator, and took some questions. He autographed books afterward, enduring a long line of people with things they wanted him to write in their copies of his books. Patt observed that his white shirt was not pressed. I attended a flycatcher ID session in the afternoon, and we had dinner at the festival. It was good to get to bed after that early rising--to be repeated tomorrow.

Birds: McCowan's Longspur, Chectnut-collared Longspur, Long-billed Curlew, Lark Sparrow, Cliff Swallow, Wilson's Snipe, Brewer's Blackbird, Northern Harrier, Pintail, Mallard, Redhead, Northern Shoveler, Wilson's Phalarope, Vesper Sparrow, Common Raven, American White Pelican, Horned Lark, Common Tern, California Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Red-winged Blackbird, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Black-necked Stilt, American Avocet, Cinnamon Teal, Double-creasted Cormorant, Starling, Turkey Vulture, Mourning Dove, Short-eared Owl.