Bowdoin NWR

Yellowstone in May is not exactly a birders paradise so we typically arrange another stop or two, while on vacation, to do a little bit of birding. This year we left Yellowstone a day early so that we could visit a couple of other parks on our way home. Unfortunately due to bad weather and a flat tire we only had the opportunity to make one stop.
Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge is located in the short and mixed grass prairie region of North-central Montana. It is home to many western prairie species of birds such as the western kingbird and western meadowlark, pictured above.
Bowdoin was established back in 1936 to help protect vital resting, feeding and breeding habitat for migrating birds, particularly waterfowl and shorebirds. The refuge encompasses 15,551 acres, 8,675 of which is wetlands. The wetlands provide homes to a variety of birds such as the yellow-headed blackbird pictured above.
The refuge is centered around Lake Bowdoin. In preglacial times it is believed that the lake was actually an Oxbow in the Missouri River but over time the river has moved 70 miles south of the lake. What was left behind is a variety of habitats including saline and freshwater wetlands and native prairie. These are perfect habitat for the marbled godwit pictured above.
Before 1936 Lake Bowdoin was used by the Montana Bureau of Reclamation as a catch basin to help manage the waters of spring floods, irrigation return flows and seepage. Each spring snow melt would pour down into the lake from Beaver Creek and the Black Coulee drainage flooding the land around the lake. This provided good habitat for shorebirds and waterfowl that were migrating north at about the same time, like the white-faced ibis flying above.
Once the refuge was established the Works Progress Administration began the construction of the refuge headquarters as well as a system of water control structures designed to help manage the wetlands to provide the proper habitat for waterfowl and shorebirds like the Wilson's phalarope pictured above.
Lake Bowdoin sits on 5,459 acres of the refuge. Islands in the lake hold breeding colonies of white pelicans, double-crested cormorants, California and ring-billed gulls. Wetland areas around the lake provide habitat for American avocet, black-necked stilts, ducks and grebes. Eared grebes in breeding plumage are a common site at this time of year.
In the upland prairie areas you can find pronghorn antelope, deer, sharp-tailed grouse and raptors. We found a pair of northern harriers hunting in the fields just outside the refuge. I was happy to get a shot of the mail in flight. I see females pretty frequently around home, mostly during the fall, but I hardly ever see the males. Female harriers are mostly brown compared to the light gray color of the males from which they have received the nickname, "the gray ghost".

Bowdoin NWR Disply Pond

At Bowdin they also had a short walking trail that went around a small pond called the display pond. Although there were many birds on the pond I was more interested in the passerines that flitted between the trees that lined the pond.
The first birds that caught my eye were the red breasted nuthatch. I spotted 4 or 5 climbing up and down the trees.
There were also quite a few warblers around including Tennessee and yellow warblers.
The most interesting bird that I spotted was a tree swallow. Tree swallows are not really rare, we have plenty of tree sparrows around home, what made it interesting was that it was very active around a hole in the tree which I am guessing was its nest.

Tree swallows are cavity nesters. They often build their nests in holes in trees near water, as in this example, or sometimes in nesting boxes, including bluebird houses.
The nest itself is cup shaped and constructed of grasses with large feathers, from other birds usually lining the nest.
The feathers are often turned upward so that they curl around the pure white eggs.
The nest is constructed mostly by the female and typically takes 2 to 4 weeks to build. The male assists by bringing the large feathers for the top lining.
The clutch usually consists of 4 to 7 eggs which the female incubates for 13 to 16 days. Both adults help to feed the young birds which take 16-22 days to fledge.

I am not sure whether or not this pair already had a brood, were incubating eggs, or where in the process of building a nest. I did not see them bringing any material to the hole so I do not think that they were building a nest. Most likely they had eggs or young, hopefully they will survive and prosper and help increase the population of these colorful birds.

Home, home in Bowdoin where the birds and the antelope play

Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge has lakes, ponds and potholes but it also has prairie. We saw quite a few creatures living out in the fields surrounding the water.
The western kingbird is named such because its range extends through the western portion of North America. Over the past 100 years the range of the western kingbird has been slowly encroaching on that of its cousin the eastern kingbird, including a wintering population is south Florida.
There were plenty of western meadowlarks everywhere that we went it was nice to hear there song as we were driving along.Western meadowlarks can be found in open country such as fields, pastures and grasslands. They are a ground forager. They can often be seen searching the ground and the dirt for bugs, plants and seeds. This bird found itself what looked to be a plump cricket for lunch.
There were also plenty of insects in the fields including bees of several types, moths, grasshopper, and butterflies, like this sulfur. We were lucky that we did not really have any problems with mosquitoes. Maybe it was still too early in the year or maybe it was the low water level, either way we were grateful for not having to deal with the little pests.
One of the big surprises at Bowdoin was when we came across this pronghorn buck. We had seen a few rodents and other small mammals but we were not expecting to see anything like this while we were out birding. He was resting in the grass but decided to move further away from the road when we stopped the car to take a couple of pics.

Bowdoin Shorebirds

At Bowdoin NWR we did find a few shorebirds to photograph.

long-billed dowitcher
marbled godwit
American avocet
black necked stilt

It was interesting to be able to photograph the avocets again. The last time that I photographed avocets was at the Elk Horn Slough near Monterey, CA back in February of 2007. At that time they where just starting to change into their breeding plumage.
Notice that this avocet, from California, has very little color on its neck and head at the end of February, but as the breeding season progresses, March - August, the head and neck turn a rusty red, as shown below on this bird from Bowdoin.

I had contemplated registering for the Pothole and Prairie Birding Festival that is being held out in North Dakota this weekend. I decided to add a couple of days to my Yellowstone trip so that we could stop at the parks in Montana instead, because it would be cheaper since we were already going that way. I think that it was a good decision. I ended up seeing many of the birds that are on the festival birdlist and a few birds that I would not have been likely to see in North Dakota like the black-necked stilt, red-necked phalarope, prairie falcon, and golden eagle. The birds that I did not see I may get a chance in August when I participate in a shorebird workshop in South Dakota. Besides it looks as if the whole upper Midwest region is going to be stormy this weekend. Clouds, rain and storms may be all right for birding but it makes it hard to get the good pics.

Bowdoin NWR Waterfowl

We arrived at Bowdoin NWR at around 10:30 am. Even though this was our first visit to the refuge we could tell that, like Medicine Lake, it was suffering from a shortage of water. At one point when I was trying to get a bit closer to get a better shot I found myself standing on a bed of silt that should have been part of the lake bottom.

Even with the lower water levels we still found a few waterfowl and shorebirds around.

Lesser scaup
northern shoveler
eared grebe

We were quite happy to see some eared grebe in breeding plumage in pools that were close to the road. The eared grebes where one of the main reasons that we planned our visit to Medicine Lake. When we did not get great looks at Medicine Lake we were kind of disappointed but photographing them at Bowdoin made up for it. I saw quite a few horned grebes, in breeding plumage, as they passed through this year but the eared grebe are usually pretty scarce in Minnesota.