Memorial Day Weekend Bio-Bender

I took Friday off to prepare for a weekend of guests coming over for dinner. This weekend is my dear, sweet wife’s birthday and we had guests coming in from out of town and out of state that we have not seen since before the pandemic. Then there is the family obligation. I knew that at least two of the evenings would be filled with cooking, eating, stories and laughter. Nice.

So, the middle daughter and I decided that mornings could be for birding. We struck out each day to see what we might find. Day 1 was amazing. We made positive ID’s on an astonishing 78 species of birds. We have had two days previously that were “better”. One was 79 species and one was out best ever 85 in one day.

Day 2 we added 14 more- that put us at 93 for two days. With 100 species over a long weekend in sight, we set off to break the 100 mark on Day 3. In fact, we slid past it by going up to Marysville, Montana. Marysville is a quasi-ghost town. It has a small year round population, a slightly larger seasonal population, a steakhouse, a few abandonded building, and lots of birds.

The small pond to the left of the road as you enter Marysville is simply alive with birds. As are the woods around the edges of town. In particular, there is one year-round residence that has a few bird feders they keep stocked. I don’t know if they like or loathe the birders who make their town a stop on a birding day, but it always pays off. Midway through Day 3, we sit at 103 species ID’ed over the last three mornings.

With 433 species known to visit, nest, or transect Montana annually, we have seen 24% of the possible species in roughtly 24 hours of birding. We have not taken any hard (or even moderate) hikes- all of this has been glorified dog-walking combined with birding. Living in the fourth largest state with so few people and so many species of birds is really quite nice. Mind you, this is 103 species of birds without leaving the confines of the Helena Valley. We have not been more than 20 miles (32k) from home for any of this.

Montana lacks much in the way of human diversity, but it sure has a diverse range of biomes and smaller habitats- and along with that, comes the attendant wide variety of animal life that makes all that open space home.

Memorial Day weekend is almost always cold and wet. This year’s was no exception. Wednesday (last week) was 84 degrees (29c). Friday and Saturday were in the 70’s (low 20’s c) and Sunday (so far) has been a high of 54 (12c). At one point this morning we were walking in a cemetery that dates to the late 1800’s and it was 44f (6c) and raining quite nicely.

Tomorrow, we leave the Helena Valley to add another 15-20 species to the Holiday Weekend Bio-Bender list. With good forture, we should hit 120 species for the weekend by around noon tomorrow.

For what it is worth, my wife’s birthday celebrations have been quite nice as well!