May 8 - Fourth of July Pass

The motel didn’t open its ‘breakfast bar’ until 7:30, so I didn’t get out of town until after 8.  I am on my way to Ohio, to meet with Shep Thorp and a group of a dozen-and-a-half birders from Washington State and from Philadelphia, for a week of birding at Magee Marsh.  Thus, I have decided to do a minimum of birding today, and just travel.  I headed east on I-90, and stopped at the Fourth of July Pass area to walk the logging roads and snowmobile trails for a bit of birding.  The abundant birds here were the warblers - mostly Townsend’s and Audubon’s – not that I could get photos of them.

There was a nice Ruby-crowned Kinglet showing off, though . . .

I admired the flowers along the way, and made my way back to the car.

Fairy Slipper - Calypso bulbosa. Calypso was the sea nymph who detained Odysseus

Dogtooth Lily - Erythronium grandiflorum

Windflowers -Anemone piperi

I continued east, pretty much straight through Idaho, Missoula and Great Falls, and ended up in a little burg an hour east of Great Falls.  I pulled into the Sundown Motel in Stanford, only to find a note on the door with a phone number.

So, I ‘dialed’ the number, and Joy answered that she was just a few minutes out of town and would be right there.  She arrived as a passel of the neighbors’ piglets got shooed back into their paddock.  We watched the farm scene, and she charged me $55 for the night.  The rooms are dated, but clean and comfortable.  She told me she has recently purchased the property and is working on upgrading the rooms.  For supper, she recommended the Water Hole Saloon in ‘downtown’, and I enjoyed a roast beef sandwich and a couple bottles of Amber Lager for $21.

Fourth of July Pass eBird Checklist is Here