For those of you interested in birds, whether it’s just for watching or photography, the Bitterroot Audubon has a neat tool that tracks bird sightings in the Bitterroot valley through the Big Hole. Currently, from June 22-27, there have been 107 species of birds spotted in the valley. That’s a lot of birds. The cool thing about this bird tracker is that it also includes the location the bird was spotted in, too. You can scroll through the birds and locations at BitterrootAudubon.org and check out the Bird Sightings section that looks like this:
Here are a few facts for you about Montana’s state bird–the Western Meadowlark:
- The Montana state bird is the Western Meadowlark
- The Western Meadowlark became Montana’s state bird during the Legislation of 1931
- The western meadowlark has also been introduced to the Hawaiian Island of Kauai
- The western meadowlark is the state bird of five states,in addition to Montana, being Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon and Wyoming.
- Male and female Meadowlarks are identical.
- The most reliable means of distinguishing the two species is by their song, which is a more complex mix of whistles, warbles and gurgles in the western meadowlark.
(Info via arkive.org and mrnussbaum.com)
