Bozeman, Montana, June 16 – 17

We had an uneventful flight and were in the van birding by 1:20 pm Mountain time. Our first stop was a yard with feeders at the foot of some mountains. Here we saw some old friends (Calliope Hummingbird, Evening Grosbeak, Western Tanager) and our first lifer-the Cassin’s Finch. It looks like a Purple Finch but the details of the plumage differ. We had good looks at all the birds and plenty of time for photos.

We then continued to drive up into the mountains where we got some of the usual western birds, including Ravens and Western Grebes. We had dinner that night at a brewpub.

The morning of the 17th we got up early and headed for the Bridger Mountains, There we found another lifer, the MacGillivray’s Warbler. We missed the Three-toed Woodpecker however.

We stopped at a reservoir that had a beautiful view of the distant mountains but we were all looking at birds!

By mid-afternoon we were in the shortgrass prairie northeast of Bozeman. The landscape was flat and dry and sparsely covered with short tufts of dry-looking grass. Not beautiful scenery but exactly the habitat preferred by the Mountain Plover. It didn’t take long for Josh to spot the adult plover in the distance, foraging in the grass. After closer observation we saw that she had two chicks with her. This species has a status of “near-threatened” and Josh was excited to document a bird with young. Heat shimmer and distance prevented a better photo.

Also seen here was McGown’s Longspur, recently renamed Thick-billed Longspur. We checked a few more spots on the prairie and found Chestnut-collared Longspur, Horned Larks, hawks, and Long-billed Curlew. We finished the day with a Sage Thrasher and a Merlin, Prairie subspecies.