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Today was quite a nice day. Aside from the flat tire, of course. I’m ending my day with a bit over 20,000 steps and about 9.5 miles of walking. The Labrador and I did several small hikes around the valley. The McMaster Hills east of town are going to be very interesting to explore when…

Today started cold. it was -10f when I woke up and came out to start my day at 5:30am. The temperature stayed below zero until about 2pm and it peaked at a balmy 4 above at 3:30. I made it out 5 times over the course of the day. Four of the outings were simply…

This is a pretty shot of the Montana sky- yes. Nothing wrong with that. Also nothing too surprising about it. The sky here is magical- probably 250 days a year. Maybe more. What really makes this skyscape so special to me is simply that the sun is setting nearly 25 minutes later now than it…

Today started with a bit of hope. I hoped to see a Great Horned Owl in an old, familiar place. I left early-ish, walked the Lab for a bit… and got distracted by a deep-winged, long-tailed hawk that flew over fairly high and was out of sight before I had my binoculars out of the…

Walking in nature has been shown to have positive effects on both physical and mental health. Studies have shown that even taking a leisurely walk in a natural environment can reduce stress and anxiety, as well as improve mood and overall wellbeing. Just a few minutes of walking in nature can help to clear the…

So, that heading is not quite enturely true- we did see a few birds. But considering we went from Marysville to Sieben to Lake Helena to Mt. Helena, we had hoped to see lots of birds. We didn’t, but the fun is in the trying- not always in the succeding. To that end, we did…

Middle daughter and I always take the Labrador and circumnavigate the valley trying to get as many species as we can on the first day of the year. Today’s count was not huge, but we did manage to see two species that can sometimes be hard to find. In the Scratchgravel Hills, we found a…

Somewhat sluggish end to the birding year. Although, 25% of the birds ID’ed were lifers! Despite the end of the year running a bit slowly, the year was quite good; 205 total species ID’ed. November came in cold and snowy. It was the 8th coldest November on record in Helena. It was also very snowy.…

Tempora mutanturLoosely translated- changes brought over time. At my point on the globe, today, December 10, 2022, is the start of the celestial dance that results in the light winning the battle over darkness and slowly streaming back into the northern hemisphere. One portion of this dance is the winter solstice, but the solstice is…

I’ve taken three walks across the Ambrose and Prairie Trails since the fire. So, I’ve been able to piece some things together. I walked around the western edge of the fire scar a couple of times and it looks like this little spot (pictured above) is the western-most and most downhill location of the burn.…