Waxwings

Last year I took a quick trip home between Christmas and the New Year.  While I was home the annual flock of Bohemian Waxwings finally got around to dining on the crab apples on a tree next to Mom and Dad's house. I was able to spend some time hanging out next to the tree and watch these birds descend in scattered groups into the branches of the tree and work their way up and down the branches until all of the apples were stripped from their stems.
Bohemian Waxwings are common winter visitors to much of Montana, particularly where there is any sort of fruit remaining on the trees.  Most often their fruit of choice is something like crab apples or Mountain Ash berries, but I have also watched them down the little olives from Russian Olive trees. They often form very large skittish flocks of 800 or more individuals that swirl around from tree to tree.

They often perform some interesting gyrations to get just the right fruit.

Last week a few showed up at the local city park to work over the last of the apples there. 

More Mallards

Winter is not the most exciting time to be in Billings. I struggle finding places to wander around and take photos and look for wildlife without heading too far out of town.  A couple of weeks ago while looking out my office window late  in the afternoon I noticed that the resident Mallards were flying in to the small drainage ditch behind our office building. So for the last couple of weeks I have spent a few hours here and there trying to take photos of the Mallards flying into the ditch. It has been fun working on finding the right spot and angle to capture the birds descending to the water. It has also been a learning experience with my camera to get the autofocus setting right to best get in-focus shots of the birds. Yes, the are "just" Mallards, but sometimes you take what you can get and make it a learning experience. Here are some of the results.

I also found one male Wood Duck slumming around with the Mallards. He is a bit more photogenic.

Incoming!

This afternoon I took advantage of the light and the weather to try for some photos of the Mallards that have been spending time in the drainage ditch behind my office. I have been watching them out my office window for the last few weeks as they descend into the ditch so I figured I would see how well I could do with my camera this afternoon. Turned out ok.

River Walk

My new pup Quill and I have been spending our lunch time walking along the Yellowstone River for the past couple of weeks. Quill gets his mid-day meal and a good walk, and I get a few minutes of away-from-the-desk therapy. We wander along the bank of the river, or through the Cottonwoods along the trails of a park near my office looking for whatever crosses our path. Sometimes it is beautiful patterns in the ice along the river, other times it is just a few moments of new experiences for a puppy. Most of our short journeys have been relatively devoid of birds except for the usual Common Goldeneyes on the river and an occasional Bald Eagle cruising along the channel. However last week we managed to find ourselves in the middle of a small flock of Black-capped Chickadees, a Brown Creeper, and a White-breasted Nuthatch. I always enjoy watching creepers and nuthatches work their way up and down tree trunks, prying little insects out from the cracks and crevices of the bark. They are always a challenge to photograph because most of the time you see only the back of the bird as they hunt the bark for food.

 Sometimes you can catch them working the tree where you can see them better.

A couple of quick little White-breasted Nuthatch calls on my phone brought the nuthatch down to check me out.

Quill enjoys all of it.

Defiant Goose

This morning I was checking out the birds in the small open water area of Lake Elmo when this immature Bald Eagle took off from his perch on the ice at the middle of the lake and cruised over the open water area. The Mallards that were hanging out on the water scattered in front of the bird, but this lone Canada Goose had a different idea. He just turned towards the eagle, rose up in the water, spread his wings and hollered at him. It worked. The eagle just kept flying and returned to a spot on the ice of the lake. 

When the Land Belonged to God - Charles M. Russell

Late last week I was able to visit the Montana Historical Society and show my boys one of my all time favorite paintings. We only had a short while at the historical society museum in Helena, so we went straight to the Charlie Russell section to see this painting.

When the Land Belonged to God - Charles M. Russell, Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana

I think I could probably find the spot depicted in the painting relatively easily from the horizon to the right of the bison - Square Butte and the Highwood Mountains. I had always thought of this as a depiction of buffalo as sunset, but now, after looking at the geography, I realized that this is in fact a depiction of sunrise, with the animals moving north across the Missouri rather than heading south as I had believed. If my geography is correct that would put the vantage point of this painting somewhere downstream of Fort Benton just before the Missouri makes a big bend to the south just south of the town of Big Sandy. Next time I am in that area I will have to pay attention to the skyline to the south of the river to see if I an pinpoint it a bit better than that. I would appreciate any other thoughts or comments on my speculation about this location.

When the Land Belonged to God (detail) - Charles M. Russell - Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana

I could look at this painting for hours. Not only to appreciate the way he used bold colors in this painting to make me feel like I am sitting there at sunrise with the golden Missouri River water still streaming from the bull's beard, but also for making me feel like I had just been noticed by the bull - his tail up and looking straight at me. It gives me apprehension of an imminent close encounter and a feeling that I need to start looking for an escape route soon.

It also represents the West that Charlie Russell longed for and a time in Montana that I can only vaguely imagine and get glimpses of through the remnants of bison horns still found in the prairie grass and the bones and skulls that litter the banks of the river. What a place this must have been.

It is also home for me. I can easily imagine a scene very similar to this occurring not that long ago at the site of the house I grew up in on the banks of the Missouri River, near the mouth of Big Dry Creek, as well as my current resident above the banks of the Yellowstone River near the mouth of Alkali Creek.

One additional detail I hadn't really paid attention to before is the appearance of a sage-grouse in the foreground.

When the Land Belonged to God (detail) - Charles M. Russell, Montana Historical Society Helena, Montana

There, hiding in the branches of a beaver cut log, is a Greater Sage-Grouse. Just to the right is a wolf. How prescient Charlie Russell was to depict the three greatest wildlife challenges in the state of Montana right now. First it was the reintroduction of wolves into the Yellowstone region and re-colonization from populations to the north; then it was bison and recent efforts to fine a place for wild bison in Montana outside of Yellowstone National Park; and most recently it is the impending Endangered Species listing decision for Greater Sage-Grouse and the recent Governors executive order dealing with sage-grouse management in Montana.

I sometimes wonder what he would think of his Montana now, but I think I have a pretty good idea.

God made Montana for the wild man
for the Piegan, and the Sioux and Crow,
Saved His greatest gift for Charlie,
Said "Get her all down before she goes,
You gotta get her all down
'cause she's bound to go. 

Ian Tyson - The Gift

I was raised with the West around,
Enough to hum her tune,
But I never know the place like the old boys did,
Chinook to Mountain View.
Cause this was all a cathedral then,
And the cowboys they all knew,
That you can't keep a loop on paradise,
but she disappeared so soon,
She disappeared so soon.  

Corb Lund - Especially a Paint.