Mid to late fall is a season of surprises, and once again, this year is producing its share of unusual birds. Typically, lakes are the go-to locations to be searching for the unusual strays, but there may be a surprise waiting to be found in your yard.
With the exceptionally mild September, the waterfowl numbers and variety hadn’t really changed by early October. But even so, an outing to three Forks Ponds on October 4th rewarded Robin Wolcott with 4 Greater White-fronted Geese.
On October 11th Andrew Guttenberg and Davey Walters spent the day combing through thousands of American Wigeons at Hebgen Lake, and eventually Davey found an adult male Eurasian Wigeon. But the most outstanding bird of the day was the Iceland (Thayer’s) Gull seen moving up and down the Madison Arm of the lake. This is the first time an Iceland Gull has been recorded for Gallatin County.
Several Sabine’s Gulls have been seen at this area’s lakes including Cottonwood Reservoir, Harrison Reservoir, and Hebgen Lake. The first sighting of the season was the single Sabine’s Gull seen on September 14th by Vic Fesolowitz at Cottonwood Reservoir.
Now that there are more people out looking for birds on a consistent basis, a Red Phalarope seems to turn up about every couple of years in this area, especially so at Harrison Reservoir. So, it wasn’t a total surprise when Taylor McDowell discovered a Red Phalarope at Harrison on September 27th.
On October 4th John and Tamie Parker saw a hummingbird at their house south of Bozeman, but their photographs proved inconclusive. They were shared with experts, who were speculating that it was some sort of Anna’s Hummingbird hybrid. More satisfying was the female Anna’s Hummingbird that made a brief appearance at the half-frozen flowerboxes early in on the morning of October 13th.
John Steele had over 30 Pinyon Jays visit his feeders in Manhattan. This was the first time he’d had them at his house. A few Blue Jays have turned up this fall, from Big Timber to Three Forks. The first to arrive was a single Blue Jay that Chris Keil spotted at Sacajawea Park in Livingston on September 4th. The other five or so Blue Jay sightings were clustered around the end of September and early October.
A gorgeous adult male Magnolia Warbler made a stop in Lila Siggins’ Big Timber yard on the 10th of October. This “eastern” warbler is quite rare in southwestern Montana, with fewer than ten records.
