Today I went for a stroll along Bozeman Creek and, then, up to Triple Tree for little birding and a lot of relaxation in the fresh morning light. The surprise bird of the day was a calling Northern Bobwhite – obviously an escaped bird. The whole avian crew is here now except for the Willow Flycatcher.

In the evening, Vida and I went for a little drive to shoot some sunset shots. We managed to find a family group of Northern Three-toed Woodpeckers up Little Bear Creek and a Great Horned Owl near Gooch Hill.

Every year, Robin and Richard Wolcott lead an Audubon field trip to the Mission Creek area southeast of Livingston. This is a great trip, and this year’s outing did not disappoint either. Sam and I went with Ed Harper (an excellent birder and interesting guy). This trip also served as a tune-up for the 2009 Big Day and some butterflying, although the insects were extremely active due to the high temperatures.

The first stop was the Swingley Bench, where the bird of the day was sighted – an Upland Sandpiper. This was my first ever on this trip. There were many prairie wildflowers in bloom as well.

We continued onward to the Beaver Creek area and the famous grove just a couple miles further up the road.

From the grove, we went on up the road to the divide between Mission Creek and the West Boulder at the Twelve Springs Ranch. This is our turn around spot, and from here we had lunch at the gravel pit, which is where we had a Bobcat last year with Lloyd from Georgia.

After lunch, we continued down Mission Creek with a stop at the aspen stand about mile past the fork in the road.

The next stop was the Mission Creek bottom and the “The Pond”.

Complete Trip Report at WilderTrack – http://www.wildertrack.com/TripSight/ViewTrip.aspx?TripID=302

On Friday morning, Sam and I went up to Spanish Creek for a little forest birding. We also went to the Little Bear Creek area, which unbelievably neither of us had ever visited. We both had two life butterflies; Green Comma and Western Pine Elfin at Little Bear Creek Road.

This evening Vida and I went up to Hyalite for a little photography in the great light we at sundown. The images have a calm and liquid look and feel.

I’ve been largely absent from posting for awhile as I have been having a great life and along with it, too much fun. I’ve shot a lot of frames and seen a few good birds. The highlight of the past few days is definitely the Rose-breasted Grosbeak along the Sourdough (just south of Bozeman). I unfortunately don’t have pics of it, yet (it still there as of noon today). I also managed a Townsend’s Warbler at the Kirk Hill area.

May 20th

May 21st (My birthday)

May 22nd

May 23rd

May 24th

May 25th

This morning I went out for a little birding and photography, and I finally got some decent images of Red-necked Grebes at the Davis Lane Pond. Later on in the morning, I went to the Cherry River area and I encountered a group of ~20 young birders, or, at least, young adults being forced to bird…pretty cool.

Now for the big thoughts…I just know that something big is going to happen. I don’t know what it is going to be, other than it will be incredible and special. I have this overwhelming feeling that it is going to happen. Stay tuned.

This Sunday was the first really hot day of the year. I went up to the Mount Ellis area, and I was graced with wildflowers and sparrows.

Later on in the day, Non-birding Vida and i went up to the Hyalite area. There is still a considerable amount of snow up there, so no hiking to the waterfalls (maybe in a week or so). Along Hyalite Creek, there were many Milbert’s Tortioseshells and Hoary Commas.

When we arrived at the Mission Creek bench, there were upwards of 25 Chestnut-colored and McCown’s Longspurs – all doing display flights. Awesome, f’ing awesome. At the aspen grove we had a pair of Duskies – Dusky Flycatcher and Dusky Grouse. A Northern Goshawk was flying through and just above the timber. At the Mission Creek pond, we managed 2 Northern Waterthrushes among the Spotted Towhees. A single Loggerhead Shrike was seen just before the Interstate.

It was a great trip with incredible birds.

Full report at WilderTrack

Yesterday afternoon, Non-birding Vida and I went to the Cherry River Fishing Access for little sun-soaking and birding, and we, or better said I had several, firsts of the year. A Yellow Warbler was singing in the willows to the west of the ponds and a very tired acting Brown-headed Cowbird lingered near the parking lot. I managed a few shots of the cowbird.

After shooting way too many images of American White Pelicans (they’re still cool, though), I finally got an image of pelican swallowing a fish. The kicker is that this one was totally by chance.

A side note, an Orange-crowned Warbler was in my back yard – a new yard for me.