July 14 - Westbound through Montana

This morning, I got up to continue my way west toward home.  After coffee and cold cereal breakfast, I left the motel and stopped just out of town at the local Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks “Rosebud West” fishing access.  The site has a boat ramp and some picnic tables, but there were few birds.  I did, however, hear my first-of-the-year Yellow-breasted Chat, which made me wonder how in the world I missed that species so far during this Peregrination.

The Chat was skulking, so I shot this poor Robin . . .

Nearly as large as the birds were the horde of mosquitoes, so after birding quickly (before I donated too much of my Type A+₎ I continued west on the Interstate.

Billings:  My wife, Marty, is a Chaney, so I take photos of places with her family name . . .

I stopped at Greenough Park in Missoula after gassing up, to see if I could find a Cordilleran Flycatcher. 

This is a 42-acre city park which runs along Rattlesnake Creek for about 1 mile, though cottonwoods along the creek bottom and pines and firs on the hills.

There’s a paved main trail, with interpretive signs along to identify the more commonly-seen bird.  There’s also a lot of “social trails”; unpaved paths the creek.

The park has an interpretive birding trail named after Arnold Bolle, a University of Montana professor who - back in the dark old days (1970) - published A University View of the Forest Service.  This publication was a critical assessment of the Federal agency, and led to passage of the National Forest Management Act of 1976.  Prior to this law, it was not required for conservation to be considered when planning timber harvests, mining, grazing and such.  If we're not vigilant, the rules could be changed again; the worse for Nature, for wildlife, and for us all.

The Robins here were fattening up on Serviceberries

I walked the trail loop, but the only flycatchers I saw were Western Wood Pewees.  There were Lazuli Buntings singing in several places along the Greenway, as well as Bullock’s Orioles and Western Tanagers, which were all four new ‘year birds’ for me, as I’ve been Out East so far during the migration.

La-zooley?  Lazz-you-lie?

Bullock's Oriole is named after an early 19th Century polymath, William Bullock

A red squirrel kept an eye on me.

This is a nice little walk, just outside of downtown, and I can tell that if I lived here, I’d be a regular visitor.  Leaving the park, I drove through town to buy some adult libations at Tamarack Brewing, as Marty had requested that I pick up some ‘local’ beer. 

Back on the Interstate, I continued west out of Montana, through Idaho and arrived at 7 p.m. in Spokane.  Marty was checked into the downtown Holiday Inn, as she has several meetings through the week, for her work at NRCS.  This place is much nicer than many of the establishments I've stayed in for the past several weeks.  We supped on fresh greens from our garden, leftover pulled pork, and the smoked whitefish I’d brought from Michigan.  A fine repast, and it was good to be “home” - or at least as near as I’m going to get for a few more days. 

Random photo of a handsome Waxwing I saw today

West Rosebud Park eBird Checklist is Here

Greenough Park eBird Checklist is Here