Sam Koenen and I great day of birding today. We started the morning off at Cottonwood Resevoir in the Shields River Valley. Here we sighted the following notable species;

• Vesper Sparrow
• Savannah Sparrow
• Brewer’s Sparrow
• Brown-headed Cowbird
• Northern Rough-winged Swallow
• Marbled Godwit
• Willet
• American Avocet
• Black-necked Stilt
• Wilson’s Phalarope
• Baird’s Sandpiper
• White-faced Ibis (very extensive white on the face)
• Blue-winged Teal
• Western Grebe
• Sage Thrasher
• Long-billed Curlew

We continued our tour down the valley toward the Yellowstone River, and we turned up a Wood Duck near Clyde Park.

We next went up to the Mission Creek bench near Livingston where we had McCown’s Longspur and Barn Swallow. Red-tailed Hawk descended from on high and netted itself a snake (not identified).

Once back home in Bozeman, we stopped by Cherry River Fishing Access and had good concentrations of the usual cast characters and our first herp of the year, a Western Terrestrial Garter Snake.

A great day of May birding was done and a nice IPA was earned. So, imagine my surprise when Sam called in the evening saying (ok yelling) about a Dunlin. It was such great news the pizza was slammed in the frig and we quickly proceeded to the Gallatin Regional Park where the most cooperative Dunlin posed for several (another correction, 178) photographs. You can see these in my gallery as well a shot of the Solitary Sandpiper and Sage Thrasher from the day.

Trip Locations