Montana Best Times: Bird Migration: Invigorating Signs of Spring (March 2004)

Have you ever wondered what constitutes spring in Montana?

Official spring by the calendar is March 21, the date when the days and nights are of equal length (equinox), but is that really spring in Montana? I have lived in more than a dozen towns in the state, and it really depends on where you live.

In lower-elevation mountain valleys in western Montana (west of the Continental Divide) and parts of the plains (east of the Continental Divide), spring comes early. In high-elevation mountain valleys such as the Centennial Valley and the Big Hole Valley, spring is slow in coming. Meanwhile, the high mountains and passes such as Logan Pass in western Montana and the Beartooth Pass in south central Montana are among the last places to thaw out.

Spring 'birdometers'
So how do you gauge spring? There are many ways - snowpack, temperature, flowering plants, buds on deciduous trees, ice-free rivers, thawed-out lakes, sunny skies, tree sap flowing, insects emerging, ground squirrel and/or marmot emergence, chinooks, etc.

But my favorite is the sights and sounds of birds. Everyone has his or her own personal "birdometer," or harbinger of spring: American Robins, Mountain Bluebirds, Western Bluebirds, Eastern Bluebirds, Western Meadowlarks, Wilson's Snipe, Killdeer, Cassin's Finches, Dark-eyed Juncos, Sandhill Cranes, Red-tailed Hawks. But which is the true harbinger in Montana?

The answer lies in where you actually live and how knowledgeable you are about birds in your area. When I lived in the Centennial Valley as the biologist at Red Rock Lakes, it was, for me, the first appearance of Sandhill Cranes or Trumpeter Swans arriving at their territories. When I was caretaker of the Garnet ghost town, it was the appearance of the Blue Grouse. At Decker, when the Golden Eagles began nesting - that was spring. At Winnet, it was spring when the Greater Sage Grouse were finally strutting. In Missoula, spring began when the Black-billed Magpies were starting to build nests. The arrival of large numbers of waterfowl near my then-home on the shores of Flathead Lake near Somers signaled for me the true sign of spring. At Freezout Lake on the east front of the Rockies, Snow Geese and Tundra Swans always meant spring. And in Gardiner, where I live now, true spring for me is when the Mountain Bluebirds begin nesting next to my house.

Get ready for bird migration and identification
With the coming of spring, we shrug the cobwebs from our brains, our senses are alive again and our vitality renewed. And as spring transforms the landscape with more and more birds, before you know it we'll be smack in the middle of bird migration. Its arrival is an invigorating sign that great quantities of outdoor fun in Montana are beginning.

Seeing birds is one thing, but hearing the songs and calls of newly arrived migrating birds is to me what enjoying life is all about.

In previous columns, I covered choosing bird field identification books and setting up winter bird feeders. Now, with bird migration on the way, it's time to identify birds. Waterfowl identification will be the feature topic of the April issue of Big Sky Birding.

Enjoy! And the Best of Big Sky Birding to you!