by John Parker
Overall, the first half of this fall has been fairly mild without any extended periods of stormy weather. Due to the mild start to the season, there were no major fallouts of birds. The two largest storm systems occurred at the end of August and mid-September, both of which created a good push of birds through this area. One of my more memorable moments this season happened during the first of these stormy periods. On the rainy morning of August 28th, while birding in the woods east of Glen Lake in north Bozeman, I witnessed a massing of around 100 Eastern Kingbirds along the East Gallatin River.
Maybe the most notable shorebird of the fall was an American-Golden Plover that Josiah Kiehl and Ian van Coller found at Harrison Reservoir, on October 4th. Side by side with the American-Golden Plover were 4 Black-bellied Plovers, for a nice comparison of these similar plovers.
So far this autumn, there hasn’t been much of a movement of Blue Jays into this corner of Montana. One odd exception, was the Blue Jay the flew in front of Bernard Quetchenbach’s windshield as he was driving the Beartooth Highway, east of the Top of the World Store on September 18th.
With only a handful of Gallatin County records, a Brown Thrasher is a rare find here. On the morning of September 16th Matt Keefer spotted the thrasher at the Indreland Audubon Wetland Preserve. The Brown Thrasher was a real treat for the many birders who got to see it that day and the next.
The fishing access at Cameron Bridge was the warbler hotspot the fall, with several out of range warblers being found there. First up was the Chestnut-sided Warbler Dave Benes found there on August 22nd. A week later, Dave spotted a Mourning Warbler skulking through the undergrowth. Then on September 7th Davey Walters discovered at Magnolia Warbler at the same location.
On the morning of October 7th, while looking out the window of her mother’s home near Gallatin Gateway, Cherie Barth was amazed to see a male Black-throated Blue Warbler moving through the nearby pine trees. The Black-throated Blue Warbler, Mourning Warbler, and Magnolia Warbler are southwestern Montana’s third, fourth, and fifth records respectively, while the Chestnut-sided Warbler is nearly annual.
I have to mention the super flight of Golden Eagles and other raptors over the Bridger Bowl Hawkwatch site on October 10th. On that day the hawkwatchers counted 290 Golden Eagles and 178 other raptors, including the first two Rough-legged Hawks of the season. As far as I can tell, this is the largest single day flight at this site in 28 years. October 17, 1997 was a special day as 636 raptors were tallied, 596 of which were Golden Eagles!
