by John Parker
In late fall visiting nearly any lake or pond before freeze-up will eventually produce surprising birds. Maybe it will be a first for the location, or possibly even a new county or state bird. This fall was no exception with many interesting birds appearing at this area’s bodies of water.
During the period of stormy weather late in October, many birds were being pushed from the north, in particular, large flights of swans and geese. The biggest surprise of the fall was a Brant that Reder Daughenbaugh found October 27th during a snow storm. The Brant was on a pond in the Home 40 subdivision south of Bozeman. There have only been fourteen previous records of this small goose in Montana. This bird record will be reviewed by the Montana Bird Records Committee, but it does appear to be an immature Brant swimming with a flock of Canada Geese. Two days earlier as the storm system first arrived into the area, a single Greater White-fronted Goose appeared on Glen Lake in northeast Bozeman. Matt Keefer, Lou Ann Harris, and Andrew Guttenberg were the first to see this bird late on the afternoon of October 25th. Over the course of the next ten days, many other birders were able to see as many as 5 Greater White-fronted Goose on Glen Lake.
The same day Andrew and Lou Ann saw the Greater White-fronted Goose they also found a Short-billed Gull among the many Ring-billed Gulls on Glen Lake. This sometimes difficult to identify small gull is rarely seen in Montana away from Flathead Lake, and this is only the second sighting for Gallatin County (the previous county record was also at Glen Lake).
In mid-October Surf Scoters turned up at two different lakes in this area. On October 14th Reder Daughenbaugh spotted 2 Surf Scoters on Hyalite Reservoir, and the following day Kevin Ellison found a single Surf Scoter on Cottonwood Reservoir north of Wilsall. Then on November 11th Laura Dykstra discovered another Surf Scoter at Glen Lake. After the afore mentioned stormy weather, Hobart Collins and John Parker found single White-winged Scoters on Ennis Lake and Harrison Reservoir on November 1st.
Long-billed Dowitchers by John Parker
Late this fall there was an impressive wave of shorebirds moving through the area, with Greater Yellowlegs and Long-billed Dowitchers being the most numerous early in November. While on their trip to Harrison Reservoir the 1st of November, Hobart and John were excited to find seven species of shorebirds including the expected Killdeer, yellowlegs and dowitchers. More surprising were a group of 11 Wilson’s Snipe, and one each of an American Avocet, Pectoral Sandpiper, and Black-bellied Plover. But the most exciting find of the day were the 3 Sanderling. A week later Nate Kohler discovered another unusual shorebird at Harrison, a Dunlin.
On October 18th, while scanning through numerous Common Loons along the east shore of Ennis Lake Vic Fesolowitz spotted a Red-throated Loon. Red-throated Loons are quite rare anywhere inland, and are seen only every few years in this corner of Montana. Vic also found a somewhat more common Pacific Loon November 1st on Harrison Reservoir. Matt Keefer saw another Pacific Loon November 11th at the Three Forks Ponds.
A few nice late fall passerines made appearances in the area. Two different Varied Thrushes were seen within two days of each other. The first Varied Thrush was in Matt Tekiela’s Manhattan yard on October 26th. Then on October 28th Peter Sellin saw another Varied Thrush in east Bozeman.
Swamp Sparrow by Robin Wolcott
On October 21st, while walking the Sourdough Nature Trail Robin Wolcott heard a different chip note coming from the dogwoods along a ditch. Robin confirmed the call of a Swamp Sparrow with an excellent audio recording and later photographs. In the woods east of Glen Lake, Cathleen Stamm saw a Black-headed Grosbeak on October 19th. This is a full month later than the last Black-headed Grosbeak is typically seen here. And finally, perhaps a harbinger of things to come, George and Valerie Nixon had this area’s first Common Redpoll coming to their feeder on October 22nd.
