by John Parker

Spring has definitely arrived, notwithstanding the occasional snow storm.  As is typical, the first waves of bluebirds began arriving early in March.  The first reported Mountain Bluebird in Park County, was seen March 1st by Mike Himmelspach, near Dailey Lake in Paradise Valley.  The following day Tim Preso and John Parker saw a single male bluebird on Bench Road near Three Forks.  Then two days after that, George Kelly and George Nixon came across a flock of approximately 50 Mountain Bluebirds along the I-90 frontage road between Springdale and Big Timber.  As near as they could tell, all of the birds in the flock were males.  It’s not unusual to see early arriving small flocks of bluebirds, but 50 birds together is impressive.

The same day that Tim and John saw the bluebird, they watched as 3 Sandhill Cranes glided in from the south to land in a field east of Manhattan.

A pair of Greater Yellowlegs were discovered wading in a slough along Swamp Road northwest of Belgrade on February 21st.  Ian van Coller was the first to see these yellowlegs that continued to forage at this location for at least the next two weeks.  This is the first record for this area of Montana during the month of February.  Last winter we had the first January record for Greater Yellowlegs in the same general area.

On March 13th Katja Shimkin watched a Say’s Phoebe flycatching over the Gallatin River, north of Manhattan.  This is the third earliest date for this flycatcher in southwest Montana.

Also on the 13th, Peggy Olliff spotted the first Tree Sparrow of the year, close to where the yellowlegs were being seen.

On the last day of February, while walking the Sourdough Nature Trail Joan Ryshavy and Pat Craig came across a small flock of Pine Grosbeak.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the Vesper Sparrow Lou Ann Harris saw along Bench Road on March 11th.  This spot always seems to attract some of the earliest migratory sparrows, but this bird was off the charts.  Usually, Vesper Sparrows don’t arrive till late in April, this sighting precedes the previous early record by more than a full month.

A single Snow Bunting was seen north of Bozeman March 11th, by Durrae Johanek.  As you read this these lovely birds of the open country should be well on their way to their tundra breeding grounds in the high Arctic.