What's Going On Out There?

It’s hard to deny that Lewis’s woodpeckers (Melanerpes lewis) are stunning birds. Seen in good light, their glossy green backs contrast with their pinkish bellies. An ashy gray collar separates the red-tinged head from the iridescent back. But the story of Lewis’s woodpeckers isn’t just a tale of a beautiful, relatively uncommon bird of the Rocky Mountains. There’s much more going on here than meets the eye.

Es difícil negar que los carpinteros de Lewis (Melanerpes lewis) son aves espectaculares. Cuando se los ve en buena iluminación, sus espaldas verdes lustrosas contrastan con sus vientres rosados. Un collar de gris pálido separa la cabeza teñida de rojo de la espalda iridiscente. Pero la historia de los carpinteros de Lewis no se trata solamente de un cuento de un ave hermosa y relativamente rara de las Montañas Rocosas. Mucho más está pasando acá que se ve a primera vista.

Pastures, hayfields, and streams: the area around Drummond, MT looks like a great place for winter hawks. But few of them are here. Why?

Pasturas, campos y arroyos: el entorno de Drummond, MT, EU parece un buen lugar para aguilillas invernales. Pero sólo hay pocas acá. ¿Por qué?

"Si ves un puercoespín, es como encontrar un unicornio," me dijo la bióloga Jessy Coltrane. Se refería a la parte de Montana al oeste de la Divisoria Continental, donde estos roedores previamente comunes casi han desaparecido. Esta historia trata sobre los puercoespines de Montana. Hace cuatro inviernos, tuve una serie de experiencias extraordinarias con cierto puercoespín cerca de Helena. Lee sobre éste royendo hielo, haciendo una guarida en un conducto abandonado, comiendo nieve y las frutas del árbol del paraíso. Luego exploro la biología de estos roedores longevos y enfrento las cuestiones más grandes sobre las desapariciones de los puercoespines.

"If you see a porcupine, it's like finding a unicorn," biologist Jessy Coltrane told me. She was referring to the part of Montana west of the Continental Divide, where these once-common rodents have nearly disappeared. This week's story is all about Montana's porcupines. Four winters ago, I had a series of remarkable experiences with one particular porcupine near Helena. Read about this one gnawing on ice, eating snow and Russian-olive fruits, and denning in an abandoned culvert. Then I get into the biology of these long-lived rodents and the bigger questions about porcupine disappearances.

El halcón mexicano (Falco mexicanus) se posa en un poste de electricidad en la llovizna ligera, desgarrando un topillo. Sus garras brillan débilmente, un amarillo vivo contra el cielo gris. Los cables de luz sisean suavemente con la lluvia. Hoy estoy con Sneed Collard, un pajarero ávido y escritor alabado de libros para niños. Estamos manejando despacio por el Valle Misión del occidente de Montana, EE.UU., buscando aves entre los campos cubiertos en nieve. Hace diecinueve mil años que un glaciar deslizó desde el norte, donde el Lago Flathead ya existe. Era una cinta transportadora, lenta pero poderosa, que rehízo el paisaje. Donde estamos hoy, el glaciar se derramaba en las aguas inmensas del Lago Glacial de Missoula. Mientras el hielo se convertía en agua frígida, el glaciar soltaba su carga de sedimento en el lago. Son las mismas rocas, limos y barros que componen el paisaje moderno alrededor de nosotros. El terreno suavemente ondulado es repleto de humedales en la forma de pozas. Después de que el Lago Glacial de Missoula se vació, permahielo arrugó el suelo. Al congelar, trozos poderosos de hielo hicieron montículos en la tierra. Y cuando se derritieron, dejaron miles de humedales atrás.

The prairie falcon perches on a power pole in the light rain drizzle, tearing apart a vole. Its talons glow faintly, a rich yellow against the gray sky. The electrical lines hiss faintly in the rain. Today I’m with avid birder and acclaimed children’s book author Sneed Collard. We’re driving slowly through western Montana’s Mission Valley, looking for birds in the snow-covered fields. Nineteen thousand years ago, a glacier crept down from the north where Flathead Lake exists now, a slow but powerful conveyor belt of ice, reshaping the landscape. Where we are today, the glacier spilled into the watery vastness of Glacial Lake Missoula. As the ice transformed to frigid water, the glacier dropped its load of sediment into the lake. These are the rocks, silts, and clays that make up the modern landscape around us. The gently undulating terrain is packed with pothole wetlands. After Glacial Lake Missoula emptied, permafrost heaved the ground. Chunks of ice mounded the earth with the power of their freezing. And when they melted, they left behind thousands of wetlands.

“Lo hacen su profesión camuflarse,” dice Beth Mendelsohn. Está hablando de los búhos cara canela (Asio otus) – y en concreto, el búho cara canela varón quien está mirándonos desde un árbol del paraíso detrás de nosotros. Tiene una postura erguida. Sus penachos, que se parecen a ojos (pero realmente no los son), son parcialmente levantados. Beth es bióloga investigativa quien trabaja para el Instituto de Investigación de Búhos (ORI, por sus siglas ingleses), una organización sin fines de lucro basada en Charlo, Montana. Esta mañana estamos en el campo con ella y Denver Holt, el fundador del ORI. Y como supondrías, considerando el nombre del instituto, estamos investigando los búhos.

“They make it their profession to blend in,” says Beth Mendelsohn. She’s talking about long-eared owls – and specifically, the male long-eared owl who is peering down from the Russian-olive behind us. His posture is upright, his earlike feather tufts partially raised. Beth is a research biologist with the Owl Research Institute (ORI), a nonprofit based in Charlo, Montana. This morning we’re out with her and Denver Holt, ORI’s founder. And as you might suspect, given the name of this nonprofit, we’re researching owls.

How do you count up overwintering hawks and eagles? And, just as importantly, who cares?  Raptors are hunters. Our smaller birds mostly feed on insects, seeds, and fruits: foods that are often abundant on a local scale. But raptors hunt animals. Depending on the species, their diets may include deer mice, voles, ground squirrels, jackrabbits, trout, suckers, sparrows, and ducks. And for this reason, raptors are relatively rare. Just as there are countless thousands or millions of seeds in the world for every sparrow that exists, there must be many sparrows for every sharp-shinned hawk. For every red-tailed hawk that exists, there are many more voles and deer mice. For raptors to thrive, their prey must be thriving, too. And so, each red-tailed hawk, bald eagle, or sharp-shinned hawk in the Helena Valley is a sign of health. And when our overwintering raptors diminish, it’s a clue that the landscape is becoming less healthy for all life.

Una rodaja fina de la luna menguante cuelga en un cielo parcialmente nublado esta mañana. La curva azul de montañas que nos rodea sigue en sombra. Estoy con Stephen Turner, un pajarero local. Estamos manejando despacio por el valle, haciendo un circuito de 71 millas entre álamos, pasturas, campos agrícolas y zonas residenciales. Nuestra meta es directa, pero de ninguna manera es fácil. Queremos contar las aves rapaces que están pasando el invierno en este valle.

Encontramos una muerte misteriosa, un ave en la nieve cerca del Río Missouri. ¿Qué es? Y ¿qué nos pueda enseñar?

A soft gray tuft of feathers, a spot of blood along the trail... a death has occurred near Hauser Dam. What happened here?

The nest sits in the middle of the hawthorn in front of us, silent and inscrutable. We contemplate it, tucked securely among thorny branches, at the edge of a frozen slough near the Bitterroot River. Perhaps it contemplates us, too. It’s a flat, mossy cup, larger than my two fists. Our question today is simple enough: whose nest is this? But if we hope to find an answer, we’ll have to use all our powers of observation and imagination.

Encontré el capullo de la polilla de seda por primera vez en octubre, colgando de un tallo cerca de un arroyo pequeño. Lo observé a través del invierno amargo, hasta que en junio la polilla adulta emergió. Ésta es la historia de él: una historia de esperanza, transformación, luz y sombra.

Missoula, Montana's LaValle Creek is an area with a diverse mix of habitats, from grassland and hawthorn thickets to aspen groves and conifer forest. And for four years now, Steve Flood has been counting winter birds in this area as part of the Missoula Christmas Bird Count. This year, I went with him. This story is about the birds we found - and those we didn't find. And it's also about being part of something much larger: a continent-wide search, involving thousands of volunteers, to check up on the health of our mid-winter birds.

Western Montana's Swan Valley is wild and forested. It's also the location of one of over 2600 Christmas Bird Counts that take place across Canada, the United States, and Latin America each winter. This is the story of this wintry, forested Christmas Bird Count. It's a story of chickadees, golden-crowned kinglets, and red-breasted nuthatches: common winter birds in the conifer forest. But it's also a story of the birds we didn't see: the forest finches that were conspicuously missing on this day. Where are they this winter? And how can Christmas Bird Counts help us understand patterns like this over time?  Listen to find out.

Once the site of a gravel quarry, Missoula, Montana's Fort Missoula Ponds have become a magnet for ducks, shorebirds, and many other creatures. In fact, birders have recorded a whopping 231 species of birds here over the past few years. In December, the bird activity is much quieter than it would be during the warm season. Nevertheless, it's a chance to see what’s out here in the cold and to remember all of the creatures that will be returning in the spring. Besides looking at birds, habitat, and the possible future of the Fort Missoula Ponds, this story also includes the Salish place names for several landmarks in the area!

Even as the Hellgate wind blasts Missoula, MT with its icy breath, we spot goldeneyes & mergansers along the river on this winter walk with Five Valleys Audubon Society. This is part of the "town-bound birding series" - a set of short monthly walks aiming to make the wonder of our local birds accessible to all.

It turns out that a stream doesn't just end at its banks. It continues underground: a slow-moving world of water, percolating through the sands and gravels under our feet. This story is about groundwater and its intimate relationship with Rattlesnake Creek, an important stream near Missoula, MT. But these basic concepts about groundwater and its connection to streams apply just about anywhere.

The ponds and marshes at Lee Metcalf NWR, in Montana's Bitterroot Valley, were mostly frozen on this frigid day in late November. But nevertheless, we found a variety of waterfowl, raptors, and smaller birds around this extensive wetland complex. This is the story of another day in the field with the Montana Natural History Center. It's a story about habitat and the resilience of our winter birds.

Missoula, Montana's Greenough Park is an urban natural space near the edge of the city: an interesting mix of wild and domesticated, native plants and garden escapes. In mid-November, I joined a group of naturalists, led by Ser Anderson of the Montana Natural History Center, in a wintry "naturalist saunter" through the park. We found a variety of fall and winter fruits, checked out a rock outcrop that's over a thousand million years old, found some cedar and Bohemian waxwings, and saw signs of some more-elusive mammals. This is yet another story about the diversity of plants and wildlife we can find practically in our backyards - and how, when we can learn from each other, we can deepen our connection even more with the places where we live.

The diversity and complexity of the life in a stream is mind-boggling. But it's also something all of us can see and learn about, kids or adults, whatever our level of knowledge. This story is all about the little creatures of Missoula's Rattlesnake Creek - from stoneflies and mayflies to riffle beetles and midges. This was all from just one wintry day in the field with the Watershed Education Network. What did we find? Listen to this story and find out - and then go outside and start getting to know a stream near you! Let me know what you learn.

For thousands of years, Missoula's Rattlesnake Creek supported important spawning populations of bull trout, which would move upstream from the Clark Fork River each fall. But in 1901, the Rattlesnake Creek Dam blocked the spawning fish. Over a century later, in 2020, the City of Missoula removed the now-obsolete dam. This story is about a stream coming back to life, its fish, and the Watershed Education Network - a Missoula-based nonprofit and its avid volunteers who are documenting the stream as it changes.

It's common to see mixed-species flocks in the fall and winter in the ponderosa pine forest. Nuthatches, chickadees and woodpeckers travel together, helping each other watch for predators as they forage. But this was something different. On this late October day, we watched the pygmy nuthatches attacking a hairy woodpecker, driving him off. Why were they attacking their supposed flock collaborator? Listen to this episode to find out!

Kochia (Kochia scoparia): it's a horrible weed for North American farmers. But for fall sparrows, it's a source of food and cover. This is a the story of a Montana kochia patch on a late October day. We found dozens of sparrows in it: four native species, each with their own stories of migration, brought together to gather seeds from this patch of maligned weeds. And where there are so many sparrows, their predators may appear at any time...

I must look a bit absurd this afternoon as I wade across the Clark Fork River to Missoula, Montana's Kelly Island. I'm loaded down with sound recording equipment, waders, binoculars, and lots of warm clothing. What started out as a pleasant walk through the end of autumn quickly became an adventure in (trying to) record bird sounds. Listen to learn what I found - and what Kelly Island looks like from a red-tailed hawk’s viewpoint!

"Helena is very ducky," says Mark Mariano. The Butte-based ecologist has been watching fall duck migration on Lake Helena for two years now. In early October, I went along with Mark on one of his duck surveys. From Mark, I learned about Lake Helena and its importance to tens of thousands of coots, ducks, and snow geese. We talked about the problems common carp pose for duck habitat - and what we can do about it. This story is a little snapshot of the spectacular, continent-wide tide of fall waterfowl migration. Enjoy!

Fall can be a bittersweet season, with so many goodbyes as the summer birds leave Montana. But the frigid months ahead are far from sterile. From October golden eagle migration to the American tree sparrows and bohemian waxwings of the winter, this episode is about the birds of late fall and early winter around Helena, Montana.

Nature Park is one of Helena, Montana's "birding hotspots." Through the seasons, birders have found an incredible 147 species of birds in this small urban park. And besides the birds, this is a place for community, where it's common to run across other nature enthusiasts and hear the stories of their sightings through the seasons. This episode is an introduction to this place - and just a few of its many stories.

On September 22, a low-pressure system that had been hovering over the Pacific Ocean off of the California coast swept inland. Days after the storm passed through Sandpoint, Idaho, River Corcoran found an extremely rare bird - an ancient murrelet - on a local lake. How did this oceanic bird appear so far inland? This is the story of the murrelet and the wetland where it landed.

Giant water bugs, striped meadowhawks, lyre-tipped spreadwings, green carabid beetles, mud-dauber wasps, velvet ants, assassin bugs... even the names of these creatures are amazing. The stories of their lives are equally mind-blowing - and to spend a day with other avid naturalists, learning about that, is just plain fun! This week's podcast is about just such a day, three weeks ago on Five Valleys Land Trust's Rock Creek Confluence property near Missoula. Thanks to Glenn Marangelo and the Missoula Butterfly House for organizing this field day!

It's a small, ten-year-old native plant garden on the campus of Carroll College in Helena, Montana - and it's full of Montana wildlife. Nothing as obvious as elk and grizzly bears, though: these wildlife are tiny, and very diverse. In this episode, meet the most conspicuous garden plants and a handful of the September mini-wildlife in this spot.

It's the sort of fall day when Spokane Bay (near Helena, Montana) is covered with migrating birds and anything seems possible. A great blue heron is wading in the marsh - the magpies are bothering a peregrine falcon - and a literal flood of Wilson's warblers and white-crowned sparrows has stopped over to forage here.

This week's story from Spokane Bay is about bird migration and algae. The birds: yellow-rumped warblers in the willows, pelicans and mallards on the bay, American goldfinches in the marsh elder, and a merlin hunting overhead. The algae: it's a possible trap for a kayaker or an unwary duck, but it's also a habitat for damselflies and even-tinier insects. 

They ripple over the water in a shimmery silver school... BEETLES! They're whirligig beetles in the genus Gyrinus, and hundreds upon hundreds of them are swimming on Hauser Lake, near Helena, Montana, at this very moment. This week I learned a lot about these beetles and the interesting puzzles of their lives. 

The Great Basin crackler isn’t just any grasshopper: the males have an incredibly loud, aerial snapping song. Why do they make this noise - and how? In this episode, explore the puzzle of this grasshopper’s song and learn about the specialized habitats where it lives.

At Spokane Bay, near Helena, Montana, fall songbird migration is beginning. Yellow-rumped warblers and Wilson's warblers are passing through, stocking up on insects. Many summer birds are still here: the last yellow warblers still sing occasionally, and the sandhill cranes are foraging in the marsh. Meanwhile, I spotted a small flock of pinyon jays on the hillside - the first sighting of these interesting birds at this spot in the last 22 years!

It’s a patch of pale purple among late summer’s dry crested wheatgrass. How can we recognize this native aster - and what pollinators does it support? This episode is about getting to know a plant through the identification process.

This episode is about the writing process: why I write, how I hope this writing will serve you, and what to do when that isn't working. In late August 2022, I made some major changes to my process. I started writing shorter blog posts and reconnecting more intentionally with one place on the landscape. This is also when I started the podcast to make these stories more accessible.

Kate Wilburn's urban Missoula, Montana yard is an oasis of native plants and fruit trees in the middle of the city. Is this yard providing habitat for a diversity of insects, as we would hope? In this episode, I focus on the insects visiting five late-summer flowers in this yard: purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), smooth blue aster (Symphyotrichum laeve), Rocky Mountain beeplant (Cleome serrulata), Missouri goldenrod (Solidago missouriensis), and Maximilian sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani).

This episode is an in-depth look at a stream restoration project and the birds that this habitat supports in early August. From eastern kingbirds and a Cooper's hawk to a bobolink and a peregrine falcon, it's a story of bird diversity and behavior as the breeding season transitions into early fall migration. This episode also includes the songs or calls of 12 common bird species from this day: eastern kingbird, western meadowlark, sandhill crane, Bullock's oriole, Savannah sparrow, red-winged blackbird, common yellowthroat, house sparrow, horned lark, gray catbird, American goldfinch, and yellow warbler.

Mentzelia decapetala, ten-petal blazingstar, is a mysterious plant. Covered in barbed hairs, it impales small, soft-bodied insects, holding them until they die. But for bumblebees, sphinx moths, and at least one syrphid fly, this plant's evening-blooming flowers are a luminous resource at sunset. This episode is a deep dive into the world of Helena, Montana's Mentzelia patches.

This episode is a mid-summer dive into Helena, Montana's bumblebees and the flowers that they favor. During this day of bumblebee observation, we caught 35 bumblebees, identified 6 species, and found some interesting patterns about the flowers that attracted each bumblebee.

In western Montana, monarch butterflies seem rare. But where there are patches of showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa), it's still possible to get up-close with these endangered butterflies. I spent a late July morning looking closely at a large patch of showy milkweed in the Helena Valley. And I found monarchs! I also looked at this plant's weird pollination system, the hazards these flowers can pose for honeybees, and a few of the other specialized insects that inhabit our milkweed patches.

In July 2022, I spent a morning immersed in the life of a big sagebrush shrubland (Artemisia tridentata) near Silver City, Montana. This episode features the songs of vesper sparrows, Brewer's sparrows, and sage thrashers. A white-tailed jackrabbit shows up briefly. There are ladybugs of three species, spittlebugs, and investigations into the connections between these invertebrates and the sagebrush birds. So give it a listen - and then, next summer, I encourage you to spend a morning in the sagebrush, too! When the sun is rising and the Brewer's sparrows are singing, it's a magical place.

In July, I spent a morning getting to know a prairie dog town in the Helena Valley. This episode is an exploration of prairie dogs - along with the animals and plants that their towns support. 

This is the story of a male Polyphemus moth (Antheraea polyphemus). I found him in October, hanging from a goldenrod stem near a stream. Over the winter, I learned about his life. I watched him hanging from the goldenrod through snow and subzero temperatures. In March, concerned that an animal would eat him, I brought him into a terrarium where I could watch more closely. On my dad’s birthday, June 25th, he emerged from his cocoon, and I released him into the night.

Two-groove milkvetch (Astragalus bisulcatus) is an enigma: a beautiful native plant, it's also a toxic selenium-accumulator. For Pollinator Week 2022, I took a close look at the bees visiting this plant, searched out other native flowers in the habitat surrounding it, and explored how we might encourage more biodiversity in our yards.

Leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula): it's a much-hated, non-native plant, listed as a noxious weed by the State of Montana. But surprisingly, it's also a haven for a diversity of pollinating insects, especially ichneumonid wasps. This is the story of a day in the field and all of the pollinators I found on a small patch of leafy spurge.

Nesting Brewer’s sparrows are rare in the Helena Valley of west-central Montana. But five years ago, I found four of them singing from a small patch of sagebrush near Devil’s Elbow Campground, along the eastern edge of the Valley. In June 2022, I went back for another look. I didn’t find any Brewer’s sparrows, which raises some great questions about what makes good-quality sagebrush habitat. I did find many other creatures, though: mountain bluebirds feeding young, a violet-green swallow building a nest, desert evening-primrose flowering on the slopes… This podcast is the story of that day.

The only way to understand a grassland is to get up close and personal with it. In June 2022, I did exactly that. Marisa Diaz-Waian invited me to take a look at a rocky hilltop near Marysville, Montana, where she hopes to boost native plant diversity and create excellent habitat for lots of insects and other critters. This is a story about the beginning phases of a restoration project - and learning from what's already there. It's a sketch of the plant community on a single hilltop, from the thrips on the woolly groundsel (Senecio canus) flowers to the mystery of the glandular hairs on the fuzzytongue penstemon (Penstemon eriantherus).

Many of our insect-eating birds love to forage in chokecherries. But what are they catching? In June of 2022, I took a close look and tried to find out. This is a story about the remarkable hunting abilities of birds, my own not-so-remarkable insect-hunting abilities, and some of the surprising diversity of insects that can be found on chokecherry bushes (Prunus virginiana). This outdoor adventure took place at Kennedy Park in East Helena, Montana, USA.