Day 83, Sun. June 14, 2018, BIrding was the call. TIber Dam, and Sanford Park below the dam...NW Montana

We are in Toole County  Montana , the 2nd most NW  County in Montana.  Q. Do you know which is the most NW County". A.  That famous Glacier County with Glacier National Park as it's pride. Shelby, where we are camped,  is located in the dry side of the mountains, and also receives the "down slope " winds. Which can get nasty at 40-50 mph daily sometimes.  (Today is quite calm actually.) The Chinook winds (warm winds of 50-60 F warmer)  that work their way down the Marais River Valley come through here unexpectedly in the winter. The two rivers that come from Glacier NP and make up the Marias River are the Two Medicine and the Cut Bank. The Marias enters the Missouri near Fort Benton MT. That's the lay of the land.

Ruth was meserized by the oats growing in places.

A typical square mile of wheat alternating with fallow strips

The Marias River below the Tiber Dam )(Toole County MT)

 Our travels today took us east and south some 60 miles, to the Tiber Dam Complex. That included lunch on a picnic table, many birds including a WHITE PELICAN, but wait....there was  "getting there".

Driving to Tiber Dam is a pretty much "straight shot" with two turns on straight roads. The "kicker" was that about 14  miles out of Shelby  the road was under construction, and I mean "RE "construction. They had torn all the under layers off and were actually rebuilding the road for 9 miles, as well as new ditching and drainage pipes to speed off the water runoff. This area gets much snow and wind so travel on US 2 in this area can be very dangerous in the winter and during windy days. Hence the re-ditching for drifts and runoff. So, it was slow down to 30-35 mph and watch for potholes in the dirt road. They can sneak up on you . This did allow us however, to do some "pond watching"along the way. In the town of Chester where we made the first turn south,  (Rte. #223) we found a pond at the edge of town where there were  ducks and many Gulls.  The wires, posts, and fields were the best source along highway #223 . We had not seen a LOGGERHEAD  SHRIKE for a long while, but did see one on a wire.

This continued on the turn to the west (toward the Dam) where AMERICAN PIPITS and  HORNED LARKS  appeared in good numbers. (Remember half of the fields are fallow.)

This Common Nighthawk is elusive , but you can see its shape in flight. (They are found throughout most of the USA

The back side of a Horned Lark was the best we could do.

That brought us to the base of the dam where there is a camping park named Sanford. It abuts the Marias River below  the dam with sagebrush,  grass, lake and cliffs there is a great variety of birds and we found many...but not all.

A few birds found there were: HOUSE WREN, MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD, CASPIAN TERN, COMMON NIGHTHAWK, NORTHERN FLICKER, EASTERN KINGBIRD, BROWN CREEPER, HAMMONDS FLYCATCHER, BULLOCK'S ORIOLE, YELLOW HEADED BLACKBIRD and BLACK BILLED MAGPIE. Our total for the day was 43, a good day.

On the way home , before the road construction , Ruth thought she spotted some PINTAIL DUCKS  in a pond , but I was going too fast. to stop. In order to verify I found a place to turn around  (twice) and she was at the side of the road taking photos of this beautiful PINTAIL DUCK.

The PINTAIL that Ruth thought she saw.

IT is a very graceful bird and we do not see it much.

So it was back to Shelby over the road work section again, but the day was a beauty in many ways,. Great weather at 74 F and mostly sunny skies. In the town of Shelby , the results of yesterday's storm still linger as the viaduct  which  people have to use to get ON I-15  from town, was flooded and yesterday it was practically impassible for  most vehicles. Today it was better but still flooded. The sign by the flooding said "INCIDENT AHEAD".?? WAH!

Tomorrow we will head for Lake Benton NWR where there is hopefully open, a nine mile loop around the Reserve. We will call in the morning to check it out anyway. The rains may have altered the roads.

BONUS TONIGHT ONLY....

We believe this to be an UPLAND SANDPIPER, but the beak is very long.  Any help out there?