January Ends – 59 Species ID’ed

It’s dark out now, and I have just one last walk with the Lab planned for the evening. There is a small chance I might hear a Great Horned Owl if the wind dies down, but barring that, January is over. It closes with a new monthly record of species seen—and a lot of effort to make it happen.

After at least eight or nine attempts to find the Short-eared Owl that it seems every other birder in Lewis and Clark County has seen, the month ends without us finding it. Keeping with the owl theme, however, the last bird I positively identified was a Northern Pygmy Owl on Mount Helena. I never made eye contact, but the call is unmistakable. It went on for several minutes, allowing me to get a clean sound ID in an area where I’ve spotted the species once before. It was a lovely experience.

The penultimate species was the highlight of the month for me, though all six of the final IDs were excellent. Number 58—the bird that tied us with last year’s record—was a Pileated Woodpecker. While walking from my car to work, I saw a massive bird performing that classic woodpecker undulation: flap-flap, glide, drift. Then I spotted the brilliant red crest. It flew less than 10 meters away from me, just a few meters off the ground, before landing in the nearby wetland. True to the “Bird’s Code of Conduct” when a birder is present, it waited just long enough for me to pull out my phone before flying off before I could get the shot.

The rest of the final countdown included:

• #57: Ring-necked Pheasant. Non-native, perhaps, but always striking to see. I set the image for this post to be the pheasant looking at me from behind a tangle of downed Russian Olive branches near Lake Helena.
• #56: Greater White-fronted Goose. A life bird for both my daughter and me! This species really shouldn’t be in this part of Montana in January.
• #55: Redhead. A striking duck spotted at Lakeside.
• #54: Sharp-shinned Hawk. This was another lucky flyover. I was driving on Euclid Avenue when it swooped right in front of my car into a pine tree. I managed to pull over for a clear view of it perched near the trunk—small, with skinny legs, “googly” eyes, and that distinct squared-off tail.

February dawns tomorrow. The downside of a record-breaking January is that February tends to be slow; last year we only saw five species, and our all-time high for the month is only eleven.

Onward!