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What the Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

How much do you know about owls? I’ve been fortunate to encounter many owls in my birding life, sometimes because I’m looking for them, sometimes happily by happenstance. What the Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds is a joyous, fascinating read. I don’t think so.

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Montana is Owl Country

10,000 Birds

There is an International Festival of Owls. They give out a “Champion of Owls” award. This year, that award was presented to Denver Holt , a Montana scientist and bird guide and thus, if I may be presumptuious, my homeboy. but a particularly outstanding one here in western Montana. Why Ninepipes?

Montana 159
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Great Gray Owl: Seeing the Ghost

10,000 Birds

There are birds more prized by North American birders than the Great Gray Owl , but not many*. Like many cold-weather creatures, the Great Gray Owl can to some extent trade altitude for latitude. We made our way to the spot that the owl had, according to our guides, last been seen. The owl wasn’t there.

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The Amazing Exploding Dove Meets Montana

10,000 Birds

And reports of birds nesting – not owls, of course, those weirdo snow fetishists, but other birds nesting – light up my life. With a hardiness that belies their delicate looks (but helps explain their phenomenal success), these pioneering pigeons are already sitting on eggs at at least one location in Montana. In 1998 W.

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Year of the Shrike

10,000 Birds

For some reason, this is the year that the masked butcherbirds have been around in my corners of Montana, with as many sightings for me in 2014 as in the rest of my life (including the other three years I lived in Montana) combined. Birding Montana New York Northern Shrike'

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Car Birding with the Literary Set: Or, How to Succeed, though Failing

10,000 Birds

I cajoled my friends into a trip up to Polson to see the Snowy Owls. Besides the owls themselves, I promised them the best pie in Montana, which is to be found in the Ronan Cafe. None of these people were birdwatchers, as such, before coming to Montana, although one of the poets was outdoorsy in a hiking and skiing way.

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A Birder’s Guide to U.S. Federal Public Lands

10,000 Birds

In fact, the overwhelming majority of federal land is in just 11 western states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming). Spotted Owls depend on old growth forests, largely in national forests and parks in the Pacific Northwest.