June 21, 2023 was a good day.
Just pre-dawn, I found myself on the roof taking a picture of the sky in the NE. The way the orange fades to blue is simply breathtaking when the sky is clear, and the sun has not yet come up over the Big Belts. I was immersed in birdsong while I stood and shot a couple of images.
I knew we were planning to spend the day in nature, but at this point all I knew was aspirational- there were no firm plans.
We had a quick breakfast at 6am and were in the car and leaving the driveway at 6:30. Long-story short, we pulled back into the driveway at 6:30pm after logging 316 miles of driving, 9 miles of walking, ID’ing 108 species of birds and seeing so much Yucca in bloom it was almost absurd.
We birded on the way out of town and found about 40 species before we left the valley.
A quick side-quest resulted in our pulling off the Interstate and looking at the massive number of Yucca in bloom. A few images later, we were back on the road.
One other stop along the Interstate was to grab a quick image of a Turkey Vulture sunning himself.
Our first main stop was First People’s Buffalo Jump in Ulm. We hoped to see Burrowing and Short-eared Owls but were blanked on both. ELR grabbed a spectaular shot.
Instead, we picked up Grasshopper Sparrows (yes, plural), Curlews, Rock Wrens, and saw a beautiful coyote. The Curlews dive bombed me at one point coming within about two meters of me. We left the area to give them the space the requested and deserved.
Next stop was Benton Lake National Wildlife Refuge. This stop was amazing. Black Terns doing their dance over the water, Forester Terns, Black-crowned Night Heron in flight, several Upland Sandpipers, and lots of White-faced Ibis were the highlights.
The sheer number of and volume of the calls from the Franklin’s Gulls was amazing. We could hear them from at least a half mile away.
Next, we headed into the GF and went to Giant Spring State Park. This place is amazing for walking. The nature paths have signage for native plants and the fact that the main walking path follows the Missouri River means there are birds to the left and the right. We picked up Least Flycatcher, Bullock’s Oriole, a lovely Northern Blue butterfly on a Flax flower, and a few more good images of Yucca in bloom.
Onward.
At this point, we decided to go for it. We had about 80 birds already and the century mark has been a daily goal of our since June 20, 2020 when we set our first daily record of 79 species. So, we headed for Freezeout Lake.
This was such a good idea. We were able to see an American Bittern in flight being harassed by smaller birds. Neither of us have ever seen a flying Bittern. So that was totally cool. We also saw both Yellow-legs, Willets, a single American Avocet, Gulls, Pelicans, hundreds of Cormorants, and several species of Ducks.
Choteau is just a bit up the road- so off we went. Nothing new was found, so we headed for Augusts to find Thick Billed Longspur and Ferruginous Hawks (with success on both counts).
Then on to Wolf Creek.
The road I like to take back into Wolf Creek is more remote than Hwy 287. Route 434 is one of my favorite roads. Some of it is prairie, some is riparian, and some is forest. If you stop, listen, and look, this road can provide a lot of bird species. And so it did. Northern Flicker, Pine Siskin, Warbling Vireo, Lazuli Bunting, and American Redstart were all ID’ed along this route.
Last stop was Gates of the Mountains. We were hoping for grebes, but we got White-throated Swifts by the dozens and a beautiful flyover by a Peregrine Falcon.
After arriving home with 106 species to our day, we decided to take a stab at hitting 110 with a 30-minute walk on Mt. Helena. We picked up Pygmy Nuthatch and Evening Grosbeak, but didn’t find any other birds.
So- we ended the day with 108 species and a lot of amazing memories. June 21, 2023 was an epic field day and not one I will soon forget.
Nature, every day. 
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