Author: BradinMontana
-
Off To A Good Start
The first was a full day, and while we did not see Redpolls, we did see Long-tailed ducks and a lot more. In the end, we tied last January’s number. So, For the second year running, we kick off the birding year with 43 species tracked down from Marysville to Gates of the Mountains to…
-
End of Year Wrap – 2025
By the Numbers- Steps – 5,113,235 Trail miles – 650 Paved path miles – 772 Total miles – 2,422 Birds ID’ed – 175 Wildflowers ID’ed – 159 Butterflies ID’ed – 37 Weeks in a Boot – 7 The story of 2025 Last year was interrupted by a couple of significant lifestyle changes. First, there was…
-
First Day Birding Blitz Prep
Our, now eight year old, annual New Year’s Day ritual is simple: grab the Labrador and head into the far-flung fringes of the Helena Valley. From Marysville to the Gates of the Mountains, and from Black Sandy to the Spokane Hills, and Mount Helena (of course) we spend the day hunting for a positive ID…
-
The Value of Helena’s Wildland-Urban Interface as a Recreational and Economic Asset
I’ve been resting my partially torn Achilles tendon for the last few weeks, so my recent gentle trail walk on the Ambrose trail was a welcome return. I noticed that there has been a lot of new work mitigating fire risk from the middle to western terminus of the Ambrose; soon that work will include slash pile burning…
-
Finding the Shady Trails
The Upper Waterline trail is a whole different world from the rest of the trail system right now. Lady Slippers, Richardson’s Geraniums, and a few Yellow Columbine are thriving. I suspect the Columbine are escaped garden varietals- they don’t look like the native plants to me. The shaded areas on all four of our “rises”…
-
Equinox Effort- 2025
Spring Awakening: A Birding Blitz Around Central MontanaThe vernal equinox arrived, heralding the official start of spring, and we celebrated in the best way we know how: with a whirlwind birding adventure! Our goal? To identify 55 bird species across two days of exploration in a month not known for a lot of species depth.…
-
February in the Rearview
February may be the shortest month, but holy cheese does it have some long weeks. Helena had nine days with winds above 20mph (33kph); and two of those days had gusts above 40mph (65kph). Sixteen days were below 0 (-17c). My home area received at least 20 inches (50cm) of snow. And we were cloudier…
-
Winter Birding
Winter Birding It’s winter, and it’s been quite cold, but the birding has surprisingly good. The lack of leaves on the deciduous trees and bushes helps quite a bit. The warm fall allowed us to have open water will into January and that helped, too. Some birds are more visible in the Helena area in…
-
A bit brutal, maybe?
February has been brutal. We are 17 days into the month and the average temp has been 4.8ºf. Let’s round it up and just say 5ºf (-15ºc). Last year’s average for Feb was 29ºf (-2ºc). Our low this year (so far) has been -18ºf (-28ºc). Eleven days left of Feb this year. If we’re going…
-
Mount Ascension
The views from the top of Mount Ascension, or Mount Helena for that matter, rarely disappoint.
Nature, every day. 