Sage Birds

Monday was the first nice, summer-like day we have had in a while, so I took advantage and headed south to the Bannack area - Montana's First Territorial Capitol. The "Ghost Town" preserved here by a Montana State Park is one of the more photogenic cultural sites in our state, and probably my favorite site of its type for photography. But my target for the day was the bird communities in the nearby extensive sagebrush habitats. This is about the only area in MT where gray flycatchers and sage sparrows are found. But other sparrow species such as Brewer's Sparrows and Vesper Sparrows plus sage thrashers are found here in abundance, and there are usually a few bonus birds found in the mixture. This years bonus birds were a Willet sitting on a sage brush plant. They are more commonly found along shorelines. And then, a little farther down the road, there were a number of Common Nighthawks resting on a jack-leg fence apparently digesting their morning catch of insects. There are not a lot of vibrant colors on these birds of the day, but they all have special traits that attract me back to this special location every year.