As we pulled onto Montana 16 to start the trip home, we gave the birds of Medicine Lake rave reviews. We’d spied the piping plover piping, the sharp-tailed grouse dancing their mincing steps, and frenzied ducks and jackrabbits zigging and zagging as a hailstorm pounded our vehicle so loudly the kids couldn’t shout above it. But the best was yet to come.
“Stop, stop!” Liz cried. We were just getting up to speed when she had glimpsed a pair of western grebes in what’s known as a “rushing” display. Immediately we turned and doubled back.
Two birds glided side by side over the lake, with necks gracefully arched and bills pointed skyward in the kind of dramatic pose you might find in an ice-skating competition. At least that’s what the grebes’ upper portions were doing. The lower portions looked like they were tap-dancing for all they were worth. Good thing! That was the liquid form of water that they were madly paddling atop, not ice.
Two decades and half a dozen trips later, the only thing that has changed about birding in the Northeastern corner of the state is that you don’t have to hear about it by word-of-mouth. Now that the Northeastern Plains Birding Trail is up and running, anybody who contacts Missouri River Country for a free guide will soon know about 13 places that sample the exceptional birding of this big country.
Like to see three oriole species in one locale? Scout the treetops at Ft. Peck Interpretive Center/Campground. While you’re at it, tune your ear for the song of the brown thrasher, a masterful singer with a few thousand phrases in its repertoire. Interested in a shy sparrow with orange accents on its head and chest? Go to Medicine Lake for a Nelson’s sharp-tailed sparrow. Like to see a prairie marsh crammed with waterfowl of all sorts? Head for Bowdoin for everything from soras and snipe to ducks and pelicans. How about meeting a bunch of warblers, the colorful group that has been dubbed “the butterflies of the bird world.” The city park in Westby is the place to go. Twenty-nine species of warblers have been sighted here over the years.
Even the birding fraternity, well familiar with the four sites listed above, will find new reasons to stay a little longer now that some lesser known places have been detailed, too.
It’s a bird-rich area for sure. Consider the fact that in the year 2000 a pair of fellows reported seeing 174 species on a single day in Phillips County alone. A torrid pace and top-notch birding skills are an important part of such a feat, but a birdy place is essential, too.
So, what’s behind the diversity? Wildlife biologist John Carlson of the Bureau of Land Management’s Glasgow Field Station mentioned a combination of factors. Westby, an oasis of trees surrounded by vast grasslands, beckons migrating warblers on their way to and from the boreal forests of Canada. The Central Flyway carries birds from the Gulf of Mexico across the corner of Montana, bringing the possibility of birds like the greater white-fronted goose and whooping crane. The transition from mixed grass to short grass attracts varied prairie birds, and the less intensive agricultural use boosts the number of the more finicky species. Top all these off with the large numbers of birds drawn by wetlands and you have one of the finest birding landscapes in the state.
What grabbed our attention when the trail guide landed in our mailbox was the idea of mountain woodland birds in this part of the state. So, a few days later we headed for the Little Rockies and settled in at Camp Creek Campground.
The plan was to start with a siesta now that we’d reached the cooling shade, but the birds would have none of it. As we lolled about, a veery pulled up on a branch not 15 feet away and filled the air with its ethereal, flute-like song. As the last, haunting notes of this thrush finally floated away, a fluttering in the bushes 20 feet away called our attention to the dramatic orange and black of an American redstart, a warbler. Then a gray catbird came to feast on nearby berries.
Abandoning our napping plans, we walked the campground and surrounding trails, turning up a nestful of yammering red-naped sapsuckers, mountain and black-capped chickadees, a MacGillivray’s warbler and a Townsend’s solitaire, among others. By the time a red-breasted nuthatch yenk-yenk-yenked from the woods, we were ready to concede that the planners had it right when they made a claim for mountain birds here.
As the name “Northeastern Plains” suggests, the real specialty of the area is its Great Plains birds. You don’t want to pass these up. Many sing impressively and you’d be surprised what a pleasing fashion statement can be made with the colors white, black, gray and brown. Birds such as the chestnut-collared longspurs, with their black bellies, are quite handsome. A few dozen strutting sage grouse are a spectacle, and burrowing owls bob comically. If you prefer a bizarre shape, there’s always the long-billed curlew, like the mountain plover a member of the “shorebird” family that lives in the grasslands.
Secretive and subtle birds hide in the grasslands, too, drawing diehard birders who are up for a challenge (try the grasslands at Bowdoin for Sprague’s pipits and Baird’s sparrows, you folks.)
If watching birds away from home is new to you, the prairie marshes are a good bet. Many birds congregate on the open water. Another spot that would be especially good for novices would be the trail near Ft. Peck dam, where a visit to the tyrannosaur Peck’s Rex or live theatre can follow birding.
People are not randomly distributed across the face of Montana and neither are birds. The Northeastern Plains Birding Trail will lead you to some favorite places of the feathered ones.
A printed guide is available from Missouri River Country. 1-800-653-1319 or http://missouririver.visitmt.com.