Happy Halloween! Hope this photo doesn’t make anyone too batty!

I was having a good morning backyard birding yesterda. A small flock of American goldfinches have been hanging around since before the most recent storm and the resident mountain chickadees and red-breasted nuthatches were doing their thing. The blue jays and Canada jays were squabbling as usual. A flock of pine siskins showed up for the first time in a month while the first Clark’s nutcracker of the winter came in as well. Meanwhile, the pine grosbeaks were feasting calmly. All of this was disrupted when a Northern shrike swept in. Failing to catch anything, it landed on the aspen tree right next to me, allowing me to capture a couple of images before two pine grosbeaks escorted him away. Not only was this the first Northern shrike I’ve had in my backyard, but it’s the first one I’ve seen period. They spend most of the year in the far north near the Artic and only come down into the northern US during the winter. I posted a photo of the similar but smaller Loggerhead shrike below for comparison.

I photographed this red fox last month. The coloration displayed in his/her coat is a melanistic variant of the red fox and is referred to as a cross fox. This is not a sub-species but simply a melanistic coloration. As it was not photographed in a national park, I don’t share locations in order to protect the wildlife.

Moose, like many ungulates, will sniff a female’s urine to see if she’s close to being receptive. They will then push the odor back into the nostril’s in what’s called a flehmen response. Many animals do this but male ungulates can often be seen doing it during the breeding season. The female moose was to my left and while she allowed the bull to stay close, she wasn’t quite ready to breed. He will stay close by until she is ready and chase off any challengers.

For the first time in over twelve years, I’m happy to announce that I am making two wall calendars for 2021. Both are available now here. Each one features 12 full color images and both calendars are available in two sizes.

Finding pleasing compositions within an aspen grove isn’t as easy as it might seem. There’s often a lot of visual clutter which makes framing a scene difficult. But on the occasions where it comes together, it can be amazing. I saw these mature aspens and decided to hike into them hoping for a pleasing composition. It took a little back and forth until I stumbled into just the right part of the grove and then it all came together.

At first, I wasn’t going to stop and try to photograph this fox. It was a cloudy morning and the light was very low. Plus the fox was shy and moving away from my location. Just as I was about to move on, the fox changed direction, as they often do, and started moving towards me. I pushed my ISO up and set up just in time to capture this look. Ideally the grass wouldn’t be near the eyes but when seen large, the eyes are still quite visible.

I’ve been eagerly waiting to see if the blue jays would return again this autumn after the pair that wintered here left some time in early March. In 2019, they showed up on October 12th. This year, they showed up on October 10th. And not only did they show up but they brought a juvenile with them to make at least three blue jays. In the winter, I take part in Project Feederwatch, which records weekly bird sightings. I noticed that they’ve updated their range map this year to indicate blue jays now winter in this area, no doubt in part due to others who also report blue jays in their yards through the winter.

Autumn color in the Montana mountains is starting to wind down, just in time for some winter weather to arrive. In the lower elevations of the state color is reaching peak. This image was taken last week when this stand of aspens were displaying their brilliant golden color at sunrise.

I haven’t had much time lately for backyard birding as I’ve been trying to take advantage of the short autumn color display of the aspens. But yesterday morning I spent an hour or so watching the variety of birds coming to the bird bath. It’s been pretty dry lately so the bird bath has been pretty popular. While most summer migrants have moved on, I still have plenty of year-round residents coming in, including these two Cassin’s finches. As the photo shows, they don’t really like to share the water.