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Sometimes you just need to put the Lab in the car and head out on a short road trip to see what the birds are doing in other areas. So today we popped off to Benton Lake National Wildlife Refuge just north of Great Falls. Picked up 10 new species for the year. Nice break…

We ventured into the Big Belt Mountains today to see if we could find any Kelseya Uniflora in bloom on the limestone cliffs. As a staring point, we revisited our successful sighting location from last year. There was a lot of Kelseya, but from our vantage point, 100ish feet (30m) below the plants it did…

Part 1 We made it out on six hikes across several areas of Mount Helena and a nice loop over and around Bompart Hill.  I am at 22,500 steps for the day and the total trail mileage is 10.4 (16.7k). The Lab is pretty tired. The density and diversity of wildflowers on Bompart is amazing…

The early flowers, birds, and butterflies have all done a terrific job of lifting spirits and bringing color and life back into our ‘closer-to-the-North-Pole-than-the-equator’ world. In the easier to reach, lower elevations of the hills surrounding Helena, several of the flower species are peaking right now and a couple are beginning to wane. Rockcress and…

The first half mile or so of Dumpout Trail climbs nicely from Dump Gulch and then changes into a wonderfully rocky, twisty trail that kind of contours out and wraps around to a lovely meadow just before it passes through a meadow and connects with Prospect Shafts.  This is a fun trail. Too windy to…

54 years ago, the first Earth Day was celebrated. April 22 was chosen to maximize student engagement in the nascent, national environmental ethos that was developing in the years following Rachel Carson’s 1962 book ‘Silent Spring’. That, in turn, gave rise to Article IX, section 1 (1) of the 1972 Montana Constitution containing the clause…

Winter is here again, oh lord The opening line from 1978’s Wheel in the Sky fits today. Snow, wind, 30f (-1c) temps.  Springtime in Helena is always an epic battle between winter and summer. Winter is by far the stronger season here, but summer has a strong will and eventually prevails- though only for 3…

At the top of the small promontory at the end of the Ambrose accessible trail. We finally have some color in the hills. My first flower following the nearly ubiquitous Phlox was Mountain Douglasia (Douglasia montana). These two plants are typically our first to show color as soon as the snow melts. The first quarter…

This trip to Freezeout was amazing. Inaddition to all the Snow Geese (just a reminder, there were litterly tens of thousands of them) we found this lovely, if grumpy looking Great Horned Owl. This individual was unimpressed with my sudden appearance in ‘his field’. Obi and I stalked him carefully and slowly for about 30…

Today is March 25, 2024. March 25 is the date for when the largest number of Snow Geese and Trumpeter and Tundra Swans historically arrive at Freezout Lake. So the Labrador and I left Helena at a reasonable hour and made our way to Freezeout. We stopped multiple times along the way. We took quite…