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Wednesday 13 June to Tuesday 26 June 2012 with Radd Icenoggle and Jon Dunn as leaders
Cost: £2010 plus about £700 for flights (2012) Single room supplement: £360 Please click here for details and an explanation of the price breakdown Maximum group size: 14 with 2 leaders. 2 leaders join this tour regardless of group size. |
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From the Pacific-influenced redcedar forests of Glacier National Park to the wide-open prairies of eastern Montana’s plains, the Big Sky State is home to an astonishing variety of habitats - and to an impressively diverse selection of otherwise hard-to-find birds. One day will find us scanning mountain snow fields for White-tailed Ptarmigan, and the next we’ll be watching displaying McCown’s Longspurs in elaborate song flights on the Great Plains. In Glacier National Park, Varied Thrushes sing and buzz as Harlequin Ducks cruise along McDonald Creek, while White-faced Ibis and Clark’s Grebes haunt the marshes and lakes of the Front Range. Out on the grasslands, Ferruginous Hawks soar over the prairies as Baird’s Sparrows sing from the grass. We’ll cover some 2,100 magnificent miles, hoping to record more than 200 species of birds and mammals, possibly including Grizzly Bear. Day 1: The tour begins with a flight from London to Bozeman, via another US city. Night in Bozeman. Day 2: There will be the chance to rest during the day before the group gathers at 6:00 pm for an introductory meeting followed by dinner, where we’ll get our first taste of some great Montana fare. Afterwards we’ll make an optional excursion into the Gallatin Valley for riparian birds. Day 3: We’ll make a pre-dawn start for the Beartooth Highway, where we’ll ascend above 10,000 feet in search of Black Rosy-Finch. The afternoon will bring us one of those classic Montana combinations when we enjoy Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Canyon Wren south of Billings, and if time permits, we’ll make our first attempt at the scarce Mountain Plover. Night in Billings. Day 4: We’ll begin with Cassin’s Kingbirds and Say’s Phoebes along Old Divide Road, then move on to Fort Peck in search of Red-headed Woodpecker, “eastern” Warbling Vireo, and Bullock’s, Baltimore, and Orchard Orioles. Night in Glasgow. Day 5: The shores of Fort Peck Reservoir are home to an impressive variety of nesting shorebirds, including the threatened Piping Plover. After a morning here, we’ll travel through badlands and grasslands towards Malta watching carefully for Upland Sandpipers on fence posts. An evening stroll through town should produce Chimney Swift, with the possibility of hearing or even seeing Eastern Screech-Owl. Night in Malta. Day 6: This morning we’ll experience some of the finest shortgrass prairie on the continent at Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge, home to Caspian Tern, Sprague’s Pipit, and Baird’s and Grasshopper Sparrows. A stop in the nearby Little Rockies at Zortman will offer another chance at forest birds such as Red Crossbill and Clark’s Nutcracker before we head out across the prairie again with its Lark Buntings and Loggerhead Shrikes. Finally, we’ll seek Mountain Plover, Greater Sage-Grouse, Ovenbird, and Sprague’s Pipit in the scenic Missouri Breaks of the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. Night in Great Falls. Day 7: As dawn spreads across the prairie, we’ll stroll the boardwalk through the cattail and bulrush wetlands of Benton Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Burrowing Owl, Chestnut-collared Longspur, and Baird’s Sparrow are all predictable here. Our after-lunch visit to Freezeout Lake might produce American Bittern, White-faced Ibis, and Western and Clark’s Grebes. Common Terns also breed here. Later in the day, beneath the towering Front Range of the Rockies, we’ll look for the very localised Alder Flycatcher. We should also find both Chestnut-collared Longspur, and McCown’s Longspurs near Pine Butte - the only remaining grassland site in North America where Grizzly Bears can still be found. Night in St. Mary. Day 8: We’ll spend the day on the east side of Glacier, in the Hudson Bay drainage. Among our targets today are Boreal Chickadee, Pine Grosbeak, Tennessee Warbler and the “Timberline” subspecies (taverneri) of the Brewer’s Sparrow. The scenery here is some the grandest in North America, and along with its birds, the area is great for sighting bears (both Black and sometimes Grizzly), bighorn sheep and mountain goats. The afternoon will find us birding the Two Medicine area. Night in St. Mary. Day 9: The alpine reaches of Glacier National Park will provide some of the tour’s most spectacular views - and some of its most exciting birding. We’ll take world-famous Going to the Sun Road up past sweeping mountain vistas to search for White-tailed Ptarmigan, American Pipit, and Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch. In the afternoon we’ll bird along MacDonald Creek, where we’ll search for Harlequin Duck, Black Swift, Cordilleran Flycatcher, and American Dipper. Night in West Glacier. Day 10: With an early morning start, we’ll travel along the North Fork of the Flathead River, pausing along the way to look for the “western” Warbling Vireo and various warbler species that often breed along our route. These include Townsend’s, MacGillivray’s, American Redstart, and Northern Waterthrush. We’ll stop at Polebridge Mercantile for a breakfast snack before continuing along the west bank of the North Fork, with stops to look for Olive-sided Flycatcher and “Slate-colored” Fox Sparrows. Le Conte’s Sparrow also breeds very locally here and we’ll search carefully for it if we hear one. Over lunch we’ll look for Black-chinned Hummingbird, then spend the afternoon in a western redcedar forest, where we’ll hope for Pacific Wren, Varied Thrush, Pileated Woodpecker, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, and Townsend’s Warbler. Night in West Glacier. Day 11: We’ll start with some exciting birding in the Flathead Valley along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River, followed by a midday drive along the shores of Flathead Lake as we make our way south from Glacier National Park. The afternoon’s birding will be highlighted by watching several grebe species in their fascinating courtship rituals. Later in the day we’ll visit a working ranch in search of raptors and a good variety of sparrows possibly including Grasshopper. We’ll finish the day with an optional soak in a local natural hot springs. Night at Quinn’s Hot Springs. Day 12: An early morning drive will take us along the Clark Fork River, where we’ll search for Lewis’s Woodpecker and Clark’s Nutcracker. At Lee Metcalf, we’ll find a variety of wetland species and keep our eyes peeled for Black Swift and Pileated Woodpecker. Entering the Bighole Valley, we stop at Bighole Battlefield National Monument for chances of Lincoln’s Sparrow and Short-eared Owl. Near Dillon, we’ll visit an area that has produced Burrowing Owl, Ferruginous Hawk, and Golden Eagle. At Missouri Headwaters State Park we will look for White-throated Swift, Canyon Wren, and Peregrine Falcon. Night in Bozeman. Day 13: The tour concludes this morning in Bozeman. We will transfer to the airport for our flight back to London, arriving on Day 14.
The ground arrangements for this tour are organised by our American associates WINGS.
E-mail or phone +44 (0)1767 262522 for availability.
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