Helena Veterans Cemetery
We arrived in Helena by noon and found the cemetery where the Pinyon Jays had been seen. Fortunately the cemetery was not busy allowing us to drive around without bothering anyone. It didn't take too long to find the Pinyon Jays we came to see.
The were quite docile, spending most of their time walking in the grass looking for earthworms. For Jays, they were very quiet.
Pinyon Jay - Veterans Cemetery, Helena MT - Life Bird #434 - 2019 Bird #138
There weren't any other birds around so I kept snapping shots of the Jays. There were four of them in our vicinity.
They were finding pulling earthworms out of the ground. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of doing it.
There was also an Eurasian Collared dove present. It was my first of the year, at least the first I made a record of. They're very common on the West Coast.
Eurasian Collared Dove - Veterans Cemetery, Helena MT - 2019 Bird #139
I took a movie of one of the Jays. That's Chris snapping away in the background. Even though he has a very good camera capable of 20+ shots per second, he always takes one at a time.
We still had an hour plus drive to Great Falls, so we moved on.
Great Falls MT
Great Falls was about 90 minutes farther north. This is where we'd be staying overnight.
The local airport was on the southern edge of town and it looked like it had some natural grassy areas. We made a circuit and found a few birds on and inside the fences.
Horned Lark - Great Falls International Airport, Great Falls MT
On the fence was another colourful Vesper Sparrow.
Vesper Sparrow - Great Falls International Airport, Great Falls MT
The last bird seen here was a Meadowlark
Western Meadowlark - Great Falls International Airport, Great Falls MT
We drove into town to find our hotel. As we neared the downtown area, I caught an Osprey in flight over the Missouri River.
Osprey - Great Falls MT - 2019 Bird #140
It was the last bird of the day. We had dinner and made plans for the next day. We definitely wanted to head west and the I-90 was the best way to go. I suggested that if we got to Spokane WA early enough, we could head north to Grand Forks BC and stay at my sister Patty's place.
That would leave us with a six to seven hour drive home the day after. Chris agreed and I called Patty to make sure it was okay with her. She said "No Problem" and we had a plan.
In the morning we had time to tour Benton Lake NWR, about 20 miles to the west of Great Falls. That's the subject of the next post...
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