Birds

I love seeing and hearing birds when I am on a trail. Birds are typically the most common animal anyone ever sees, but most people take them for granted, don’t notice them at all, or curse them for making ‘deposits’ on their car. In my family, we make an effort to find them. 

Montana has over 400 species of birds spread out across the state and distributed unevenly throughout the year. The Helena Valley, with its grasslands, rocky cliffs, decently high elevation around the edges, forests, lakes, ponds, streams, and the Missouri River just a stone’s throw away, offers up more than 250 species during the course of the year. Lewis and Clark County has over 300 species recorded. That makes this a great place to live if you like seeing a wide variety of birds.

From owls and other raptors, to wild turkeys, pheasant, partridges and grouse, to ducks and grebes, to herons and cranes, and all manner of songbirds. We are a fully landlocked state about 9 hours from the Pacific and more than 30 hours from the Gulf of Mexico, yet we have three to five species of gulls in the valley every year.

I’ve recorded 209 species of birds this year and only 10 were out of state. Montana in general, he the Helena valley in particular is a great place to go looking for birds.

I didn’t realize I was simply engaging in a journey that millions of people have undertaken over thousands of years, but finding one’s self in nature every day is at least a 7,000 year old called Kachou Fuugetsu. It is a Japanese concept that means to discover yourself when experiencing nature. Literally, Kachou Fuugetsu apparently means “Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon.” 

Toss in Labrador and butterflies, and this is what I’ve been doing most of my life.

Just feels right.