On Saturday as part of my internship, I was asked to lead a bird walk for some homeowners of the East Rosebud Homeowner's Association as part of their event "Celebrate East Rosebud." It was kind of a rough start because I had to work until midnight the night before and get up at 6 am to drive out there. I found the lodge where I was supposed to meet and decided to head up to the trailhead for just a little bit and see what kind of birds might be in the area. There was no shortage of Western Wood Pewees or Warbling Vireos that morning. I eventually made my way back down to the lodge where people were beginning to gather. I really only figure between 5 and 10 people might actually show up so I thought that was it. But it was still not quite 10:00 am when it was supposed to start so I figured I would wait a little bit. They just kept coming and coming and coming! In the next 15 minutes there approximately 40 people standing in front of me! Now, I feel that I have a decent grip on my bird identification skills, but I was starting to become slightly nervous at this point. Reasonably, I didn't want to make a fool of myself so I was a little tense. I was given a chance to introduce myself so I put in a good word for the Yellowstone Valley Audubon Society and their field trips. After spending the previous weekend trip to the Pryors with YVAS I was more than happy to suggest they all look into it.
So we started off. I was preparing myself to walk up the trailhead, but they decided to walk along their lake since most of them own that property. It actually ended up adding a few more to the group because we were birding in the front yard of several homeowners (they must really suffer out there...birding off their porches). There were a few things that were frustrating. For one, we didn't start until 10:00 in the morning so by that point only the really chatty birds could be heard or seen. The rest were trying to save some energy from the warm sun. The size of the group made some aspects difficult. Not everyone was able to see the bird and also speaking loud enough for everyone to hear sometimes scared away the birds. But I think it didn't deter anyone so I am glad for that. The Ruby-crowned Kinglets and House Wrens were quite easy to hear, but not always to see. We had the opportunity to watch a Mountain Bluebird actually hunt as well. They have this interesting behavior where they seem to hover and then drop once or twice before they go after their insects. We were lucky enough to see both the males and the females. Of the few power lines around, they were littered with Tree Swallows and a Violet-green Swallow every so often. We walked for about 45 minutes and then we seemed to wander into the yellow colored bird territory. We happened upon a Yellow Warbler nest and soon after found several Common Yellowthroats. Probably the most interesting sighting for me was a Spotted Sandpiper. They are a relatively solitary bird, but they have a distinct behavior and call they make when they are defending their nest so I started looking around and sure enough this little fuzzball of a bird comes waddling out of some Bulrush! That was pretty exciting for a lot of people. Not soon after that we found a pair of Gray Catbirds playing with each other which was fun for everyone to watch. I was very thankful for the opportunity to get out of Billings for a little bit and spend some time in one my absolute favorite places in the world-the Beartooth Mountain Range.
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