Travelling ~ Glasgow, MT to Lincoln, MT

June 6, 2013

Up and on the road early. Another prairie morning and almost no other traffic. I hadn't decided for certain on which route I would take....either through Kalispell or heading southwest towards Missoula. Those are the two choices through the Rockies for 200 miles. But before making that decision, I went through Bowdoin NWR. Maria and I had driven the 15-mile auto route many years ago, and it was here I saw black-necked stilts for the first time. She had seen them before but pointed a couple of them out to me almost immediately. I have been back at least five times and, so far, it is my favorite refuge. On the trip with Maria, we also saw white-faced ibises very near the Visitor Center, along with a million other birds. It is one more lovely wide-open place, much like Lostwood, but with more water and water that is often right next to the auto route in drainage canals and marshes and lakes.

I came upon only one other person, a gentleman taking photos with his long lens. I surmised he was trying for the secretive grassland sparrows as his scope was pointed in that direction.

What I learned at Bowdoin this time was how to look for sparrows. They are very small brown clumps on grasses; that is, when they perch which isn't as often as they are usually invisible in the grasses. How many times do birders watch a sparrow fly, drop down, mark the spot and watch it disappear never to pop up. Or at least never within the limits of my patience. Still, I realized this is just another dimension to seeing birds...not easy, but not impossible either. I would stop and immediately HEAR bird songs from the grasses and am learning songs. I don't count a bird I hear, but many peoople do which is considered acceptable. It's just not my thing. I started to be able to see small brown clumps though, even if often they were too far off or silhouetted. To use a scope here would have required a time committment. So, next time.... 

What I did see were perfect views of lark sparrows. Most of the time, they were in the two-track just ahead of my car and they would fly out of the way but only down the road, and this was repeated a dozen times. But the best view I will ever have of a lark sparrow was as I left, and perched on the sign at the entrance and not flying away was a lark sparrow with all the markings on its striking head highlighted by the sun, a thrill to see one so well.

I saw hundreds of birds and thought off and on of Maria. Avocets, stilts, yellow-headed blackbirds, spotted sandpiper, northern harrier, Wilson's phalaopes, common yellowthroats (one time, through the binocs but fairly close, one of these birds was perched on the end of a just greening willow, in the eastern sun with a blue blue sky as background. A situation like this just might make a birder out of anyone...

Also saw lots of ducks, coots,  marbled godwist (googleable), willets, white pelicans...

Three hours later, I got back on 2 and, at Havre, turned southwest on a road I hadn't been on before. It skirted the west end of the Bear Paw mountains, went through Rocky Boy Indian rez, went through Big Sandy, Jon Tester's home town, all the time moving closer and closer to the Missouri River. There was a sign for a "Free Ferry" on the map and I was briefly tempted, but not really as this would have been a long detour and on a lot of dry gravel roads into the isolated Missouri Breaks country. Maybe another trip..There is something about a "free ferry" across a historic river isn't there?

I INTENDED to stay in Great Falls but wound through the city, route-finding as I went, and happened upon not one motel. I was only concerned because I was going to work some and hoped to stop early. The thing is: there are only "decent" motels with stable Internet access in the bigger towns. I had no idea if I would find anything between Great Falls and Missoula which was 150 miles away.

The route between these two towns (200) was one of the most spectacular roads I've driven. It was late afternoon so the light was perfect. There has been so much rain (with major flooding in many counties in ND and Montana and, at one point, even water flowing across  US2) that the fields were green, green, green. I overhead a farmer telling his fellow farmers that someone who wasn't all that familiar with Montana said he thought it looked like Ireland. And it probably does, albeit temporarily and not every year, even in the spring.

So there were the occasional ranches and mountains in the near distance with deep green pines and the lovely big sky. I drove contentedly up and down five-mile grades, but on straight roads, with a 70 mph speed limit. Occasionallly, there were large herds of chocolate brown cows and calves munching the green grasses.

In Lincoln, I found The Three Bears Motel, one of the old motels I remember from my youth and becoming more and more rare. This one was clean, with up-to-date amenities, re-done bathroom, etc. It had a log bed, a good Internet connection and I could park right outside the door. Lots of handing petunias baskets all around.

I wish I had been less tired or didn't have to work because I would have eaten at The Montanan Steak House, recommeded by the desk clerk. The menu in the room was intriguing (for Montana) with a "signature" lobster chowder in a bread bowl, quesadilla choices, good salads and steaks, chicken dishes, etc., all printed on nice grey parchment paper. Maybe on the way back....

A couple of hours into typing next to an open window with Ponderosas all around, my foot pedal quit working. I need this to transcribe so fretted a bit but then just quit and went to bed.

The next morning, I woke up, took it apart with tools from my car and blew on it and now it works again.