Birding

Bird Notes – May 2023
by John Parker

To say that this past winter was long might be an understatement. Not surprisingly, some of the early migrating birds were late arriving this spring. The Mountain Bluebird that Mary and John Griffith spotted on Pass Creek Road north of Bozeman on March 16th was the first of the year to be reported in Gallatin Valley. This arrival date was 7–10 days later than the typical first sighting. Tree Swallows still hadn’t arrived by the end of the first week of April, which is 2–3 weeks later than usual. March 16th was also the date of the first reported Sandhill Crane, which was heard by Brooke Everest over south Bozeman.

The biggest news of the early spring migration was the pair of Whooping Cranes seen on March 27th by Patrice Walker Dello-Russo and Robert Dello-Russo. As Patrice and Robert watched from the Livingston Hospital parking lot, the pair of Whooping Cranes were visible for more than two minutes. Ascending from 50–100 feet above the Yellowstone River, the cranes circled, gaining altitude, and then flew to the northeast. With such a close and extended viewing, Patrice and Robert were able to get good looks at all the field marks—and as a bonus, the cranes were calling as they circled above. Whooping Cranes are rarely seen outside of far eastern Montana, so this is truly an exceptional sighting, no doubt influenced by the large low pressure system that had moved across Wyoming the previous three days.

Sharp-tailed Grouse are an uncommon sight in the vicinity of Bozeman, so it was notable that Brian Cassell had a flock of up to nine birds visiting his yard east of town. The grouse were in the neighborhood from early February until early March.

On February 12th, Andrea Stierle spotted two Turkey Vultures in Paradise Valley for a rare winter record for the species.

A beautiful male Eurasian Wigeon was discovered at Central Park Pond on March 27th by Andrew Guttenberg. Over the next couple of weeks many people were able to see this uncommon migrant, along with the more expected waterfowl at the pond.

In Gardiner, Howard Wienberg and Katy Duffy had two early surprises visiting their yard. On April 1st a Spotted Towhee appeared in the yard, then five days later a Lincoln’s Sparrow joined the towhee. Both of these bird species were a good three weeks earlier than the expected first sightings in this area of Montana.

And finally, the twelve Common Redpolls that Harold Ziolkowski saw on April 6th were unexpected—unexpected because very few redpolls had even been reported at all in the western United States this past winter.