Birding at the Dump!

Birding outings are generally thought of as occurring at locations with some serenity and beauty! And, of course, this is normally the case. But at this time of year - at least in the Helena Valley - many or most of our migrants are already far to the south and the migrant species from the north that winter here are just beginning to arrive. So from mid-October into mid-December, one of the locations I frequent on my jaunts into the valley usually includes the Helena Valley Landfill - or "dump" if you will! Not the neatest place to visit but sometimes quite rewarding.

As long as there are some appropriate open water bodies in our area, like Lake Helena, and Hauser Reservoir, large numbers of gulls gather in our valley and use the landfill as their "refueling" station. Often, they number in the thousands. And very often, one can find some uncommon and even rare gulls species among them - at least for Montana. Some gull species can be among our more difficult birds to ID, especially because of differences in plumage among age classes and the relative frequency of hybridization. Recent advances in genetic analysis are sorting out some problems with species separation but may be adding confusion to other situations.

With so many gulls to sort through at the landfill, it can be difficult to separate out the rarer ones, especially with the adults. But with juvenile birds, which are very much in the minority, at least they stick out from the crowd. The largest percentage of the makeup is usually ring-billed gulls with Californias coming in next. Then there are the herring gulls whose larger size, pinkish legs and lighter eye color usually make ID fairly straight forward. But because their numbers are always in the lower single digits, mostly only one or two, the rarest are difficult to separate out. These include glaucous, glaucous-winged, Thayer's and maybe a Bonaparte's or Franklin's gull. And there is always the anticipation that one of the truly rare species like Slatey-backed or lesser black-backed gull might show up. One of my favorites is the glaucous gull whose great size and ghost-like coloration make the them pretty easy to pick out.

In Montana, there are several other locations where gulls, -with the possibility of rare ones - congregate. These places include the Kalispell landfill, and the open water areas of the Missouri River at Great Falls and below Ft. Peck dam. Most of the rare gulls found in Montana are found at these locations, especially below the dam at Ft. Peck. Veteran and expert birder Chuck Carlson who lives at Ft. Peck has documented a number of "first-of-state" gulls at this latter site, including Montana's first lesser black-backed gull in 2008.