Royal Outfitters Montana Elk Hunting

Woke up to a dusting of snow this morning,  and almost had some second thoughts about the planned float trip on the upper Clark Fork for the day.  But I had a cup of coffee and threw some soup in a thermos, and packed some extra warm clothes and headed for the River.    Well the fishing was quite slow, but the clouds broke up and there was enough sun eventually to warm us up and allow us to peel of a layer of warm clothing. 

 Anyway since the fishing was slow I thought I would at least make a list of the birds I saw today. 

Long billed curlew, sand hill crane, yellow rumped warbler, march wren, many mallards, green winged teal, cinnemon teal, mourning doves, spotted sandpiper, common merganzer, red tailed hawk, golden eagle, bald eagle, black capped chickadee, and Canadian goose. 

The most interesting thing was a large white goose that was acting as and flying with a group of Canadian geese.  It was not albino.  It had some dark flight feathers but not the dark wing tips that you would see on a snow goose.  It also had orange legs and bill that lead me to think it may be a Canadian/Domestic goose cross.  Not sure about this though, I haven’t seen this before.  It acted exactly like the other geese it was hanging with.  It did have a different call also.

Anyway, it is nice that even when the fishing is slow, there is still a LOT of wildlife to enjoy.

DD

We watched a belted kingfisher catching his breakfast this morning in the creek.

We have made a habit of spreading sunflower seeds out in strategic spots around the yard so we can watch the birds this winter and now spring.  Well of course the winter brought the usual mix of nuthatches, chickadees, comon redpoll, Clark’s nutcrackers, and the cedar waxwings have been hanging out in the cedar trees of all things. 

 But over the last week or so the juncos have showed up.  Then the first robin appeared a few days ago.  Mountain bluebirds are back, and I have heard the calls of the sandhill cranes that nest in the area. 

Other new ones this week.

 Red crossbill, varied thrush, (new to our list), red winged blackbirds, song sparrow. 

The kids are having fun with their new bird book trying to identify all of the new birds that are arriving.