Category: Uncategorized
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Multi-day BioBlitz
The Middle Daughter (TMD) and I recently had the chance to take a four-day trip to the coast with very few time constraints. We left early on Wednesday and arrived back in Helena early Saturday evening. We had two clear objectives: pick up The Youngest Daughter (TYD), and see at least one Tufted Puffin. Both…
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Foreshadowing
TMD and I have a whirlwind trip planned for this week. We need to pop over to Oregon for a few days. We plan to pepper this trip with birding as much as possible. Given that we are currently showing 179 species on our year list, and given that we could conceivably record another 25…
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May – so far!
Numbers of new species for the year seen in May: 50 birds, 39 wildflowers, 11 butterflies. That’s over 100 new species seen in the last 25 days alone—accounting for about 35% of the 291 species we’ve documented so far this year. I beat this drum often, but living in Montana just east of the Continental…
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Georgetown Lake area
This was a shocker. SMR and I slipped away for a few days to celebrate out 30th, and we spent some time hiking and hanging out in the Georgetown Lake area. I would never have guessed that we would find a Harebell in bloom in mid-October, but we did. The colors and scenery around Anaconda…
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Sunset with a Bird
We were watching the sunset today and looked up into a tree and realized this Clark’s Nutcracker was doing the same. Nice to know they appreciate a good view.
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A Walk Along the Missouri
We took a really nice day trip to Great Falls and spent some time walking along the Missouri. The sky, water, and colors on the trees was a really nice change of pace from Helena’s (mostly) coniferous forests.
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Autumn Sunrises
This time of year, I find myself taking a lot of images of skyscapes. Sunrises and longs horizons. I love the colors and the textures that you get when you add a little elvation to the equation- I can’t help it. This one is from the middle slopes of Mount Helena. One of my very…
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Late Season Coneflower
I guess you never know what you’ll find if you pay attention. I would not have expected to see Prairie Coneflowers still in blossom in middle of September. Yet here they are, right along the LeGrand Canon sidewalk out at the west end. Nice!
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The Darkness is Moving In
Living north of the 45th parallel measn we get long, wonderful days in the summer and looooong dark nights in the winter. It also means that, as we approach the autumnal equinox, we begin losing our morning light and early walks require a headlamp. Today is the first headlamp walk of the year. This was…
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Turns Out They’re Meadowhawks
I finally had what I refer to as a dragonfly stop long enough for an image to be captured. I have tried – unsuccessuly – for a couple of years to get a good dragonfly image to no avail. When this one stayed still and alowed me to zoom and focus, I was really pleased.…