Montana is justly known for its scenic mountains and expansive plains, but it also harbors some splendid streams and wetlands. These marshes, prairie potholes, wet meadows, and riparian areas occupy less than five percent of Montana’s vast land base, making them ever more precious and crucial habitats for birds and other wildlife.
Considering that over half of all U.S. wetland areas have vanished over the past 200 years, Montana can consider itself fortunate to still have over 70% of its historical wetlands intact. These biotically-rich habitats are disproportionately important for birds in providing...
- Breeding and nesting areas for at least 52% of Montana’s breeding bird species
- Crucial food and resting areas for 65% of birds that routinely migrate through Montana
- Habitat for 30 of Montana’s 66 bird species of concern (46%).
A couple years ago, my husband and I bought a 40-acre wetland property in northwest Montana so we could putter around in our retirement doing wetland restoration. The property has two ponds, about 3 acres each, with the remaining ground in wet meadow and grassland. The ponds are ringed in cattails and bulrush with a few willows. We built a blind at each pond for viewing and photography, but more often than not, they’re used as glorified perches for birds and river otters.
My favorite times at the ponds are early morning and late evening, when the birds are active and the angled sunlight casts a beautiful glow on the birds, marsh, and mountains. The photos and videos that follow were taken during visits this year in late May and early June.
Wilson’s Snipe, a pudgy, long-billed shorebird, are locally abundant. Their aerial “winnowing” displays (created by air passing over modified outer tail feathers) can be heard any time of day, but are especially frequent during mornings and evenings.
This trio of Red-necked Phalaropes made a rest stop at Otter Pond en route to their Arctic breeding grounds. In phalaropes, the females are the more brightly colored sex; this is likely 2 females (center, right) and 1 male (left).
Black-necked Stilts and American Avocets are rare visitors to the ponds, so I was pretty thrilled to have this sleek, graceful stilt sashay by on its long pink legs.
The ponds are the domain of ducks, both dabblers and divers. Though classified as a “diving duck,” this beautiful drake Redhead dabbled in shallow waters of the pond for submerged pondweed and invertebrates. We’ve documented broods of Cinnamon Teal, Mallard, Ring-necked Duck, American Coot, and Canada Goose, and suspect we have a breeding pair of Redheads and Blue-winged Teal.
The number and species diversity of waterfowl using the ponds (and surrounding wetlands of the Flathead and Mission valleys) are outright impressive in early spring and fall as ducks, geese, and swans migrate along the Pacific Flyway. Always impressive is the Trumpeter Swan with its 7-ft. wingspan and unmistakable bugling call.
In late spring and summer, the marsh belongs to the Yellow-headed Blackbirds. They start trickling in starting in April and by early May they’ve formed large, noisy nesting colonies in the cattails. The male Yellow-headed Blackbird is impressive to see, but maybe not so much to hear. Their song is a hoarse, harsh scraping; a bit like fingernails on chalkboard, but that’s in the eye of the beholder. Audubon describes the vocalizations as “harsh, incessant oka-wee-wee and kruck calls, coming from many individuals in a colony, blend into a loud, wavering chorus.”
This video features the ambient sounds of the Yellow-headed Blackbird breeding colony at Otter Pond. At about 0:15, you can hear a rising chorus of alarm calls and see the male looking up. As I was filming, a saw a big shadow swoop over me, but kept recording until I got the male’s song.
When I looked up, I heard the ker-ploosh, then saw, an Osprey plunging into the pond for a fish. I managed to snap a quick photo as it flew off with a small catfish. I thought it interesting that the blackbirds were alarmed by the Osprey, which preys on fish and occasionally rodents. What do those blackbirds know that I don’t?
Red-winged Blackbirds nest on the property in loose colonies. They seem to segregate away from the Yellow-headed Blackbirds and nest in a wider array of vegetation types, including bulrush, sedge, and tall grass.
Raptors are commonly seen hunting over the grasslands for small rodents, namely voles, which are at a peak in their population cycle. The Northern Harrier is one of the more abundant raptors in the Mission Valley. This beautiful adult male just finished downing a vole.
We’ve had a family of Great Horned Owls on the property for the past 2 years. This fledgling gave me the owl version of ‘stink-eye’ for invading its territory one evening.
I arrived early one morning to the blind at Otter Pond and found it already occupied by this Great Horned Owl fledgling. I yielded and headed over to the blind at Upper Pond.
The grassland/prairie areas surrounding the wetlands are alive with Western Meadowlarks. Their melodious, bubbling song is the soundtrack of spring in the Mission Valley.
We’ve put up several ‘bluebird’ nest boxes around the property but have yet to attract an actual bluebird. We have, however, provided housing for several Tree Swallow families, which makes us perfectly happy.
One of my wetland favorites is the endearing little Marsh Wren. The attitude packed into that little bundle of fluff never ceases to amaze me! I must have spent an hour trying to photograph this little mouse of a bird as it darted around in the cattails. It finally relented and gave me a few seconds to record its bitchy little essence.
Last year, I heard the calls of a Virginia Rail at Upper Pond, but was never able to see it. Rails are notoriously difficult to spot; they are secretive and skulking by nature and they’re exceedingly well camouflaged. Luck was with me last week and I happened to first hear, then see, this Virginia Rail. It’s not the greatest shot, but reflects the fleeting few seconds they grant you before vanishing again.
That rounds out today’s birding tour of Two Ponds. Thanks for accompanying me to the marsh.
Join the Dawn Chorus! The floor is now open for your birdy observations, photos, videos, links, and musings.