Annual Christmas bird counts slated
Dan Casey will set the stage for the 113th Christmas Bird Count season when Flathead Audubon meets at its new location in the United Way Conference Room at the Gateway Community Center on U.S. 2 West in Kalispell on Monday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m.
Casey is the statewide editor of Christmas Bird Count data and will talk about what has been learned from annual counts across Montana. He’ll summarize the history of the Bigfork and Kalispell counts, using his extensive bird photo collection and stories from the field, to illustrate and prepare participants for the 2012 counts.
People can sign up for the Bigfork and Kalispell counts at the meeting or by e-mailing danielcasey55@gmail.com or dcasey@abcbirds.org or calling 857-3143 or 756-2681 or 270-5941.
• Covering more than 30 miles along the Swan and Flathead rivers, the north end of Flathead Lake and diverse habitats, the Bigfork Christmas Bird Count is 39 years old. Centered at the Little Brown Church north of Bigfork, the count will be held Saturday, Dec. 15.
In 2011, Bigfork became the first Montana count to report 90 species, including record numbers of horned grebes, tundra swans, American coots, herring gulls, Eurasian collared-doves, black-billed magpies, two trumpeter swans, three snowy owls and two white-throated sparrows.
• In its 14th year, the Kalispell Christmas Bird Count is centered at Reserve Drive and U.S. 93 and includes Evergreen, much of the Flathead River corridor, the Owen Sowerwine Natural Area, Happy Valley, Herron Park and the Kuhn’s Wildlife Area.
A new high of 76 bird species was found on the 2011 Kalispell count, including the first-ever turkey vultures, a ferruginous hawk, a glaucous-winged gull and 409 Eurasian collared-doves. The 2012 count on Sunday, Dec. 30, will starts with a group breakfast at the Montana Club in Kalispell at 7 a.m.
• The Glacier National Park count will take place on Sunday, Dec. 16. Birdwatchers will meet at the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center at Park Headquarters. For more information, contact Susan Sindt at sjsindt@hotmail.com or 892-7406 or 249-7355,
• Other Northwest Montana counts include Eureka on Saturday, Dec. 15, contact Lewis and Linda Young at llyoung@interbel.net or 889-3492; Libby on Saturday, Dec. 15, contact Sandra Gerber at skariver@frontiernet.net or 293-4948; Ninepipe National Wildlife Refuge on Sunday, Dec. 16, contact Brian Williams at bwilliams@montananaturalist.org or 721-1467 or 327-0405; Upper Swan on Sunday, Dec. 16, contact Jody Wolff at jmw4002@blackfoot.net or 754-4002; and Troy on Saturday, Dec. 22, contact Donald Jones at gr8gray@frontiernet.net or phone 295-4291.