Destination Circle: Day 6

May 19, 2016

It was brilliantly sunny this morning, warm, no wind, and after breakfast at the motel and more chatting with Duane, I went to a city park in Malta and birded for an hour, hoping to see a western warbler (Macgillivray's). I didn't see the bird but did have a tree experience.

(Duane made me laugh as he told the joke: "Ya know you're a redneck if you mow your lawn and find a car you forgot about..." He actually had been looking to buy a shower/tub combination for some house he was building or remodeling, couldn't find exactly what he wanted at the stores, happened to go to his "barn" for something else and guess what? he found a new shower/tub unit he had forgotten about. This made me think about Jake's B's five barns and what is hidden away.)

So, the tree: There were gigantic shade trees in the park, and the undersides of the leaves were woolly white. I have field guides in the car and figured it must be a White Poplar, except this tree didn't really look like the illustrations until I looked up INTO the tree and saw the characteristic white bark on the branches. The tree was just very old I guess and the base was dark, gnarled and thickened but supported all this beauty above. 

White Poplar

I drove on to Havre where I found a Verizon store as I wanted to get information about the Internet and cell phone usage in Canada. I talked to a handsome, slightly harried, young guy named Andy who looked like someone who should be at a prep school in England. I planned to stay in Shelby (100 miles west) that night and, after explaining my options, he said he would be helping out at the store in Shelby the next day. If I had any problems adding the $2/day Travel Pass or the $10/month option, he would be available.  I also went to a McDonald's to use their WiFi and sat in the play area through three successive tables of young attractive mothers out with their adorable 2- to 4-year olds, gossiping, chatting, minding their sweet kids. One little boy was so happy that I had a computer just like his mom has.

There are several small towns along what is called the Hi-Line in Montana (US Hwy 2) with names like Havre, Malta, Inverness, Zurich, Harlem, Dresden, Glasgow...some tiny with basically a bar and a few houses / trailers. Most of the smaller ones are fading away.

Along the Hi Line in Montana

Slate grey mountains were now visible on the horizons, both to the north and south, rising from the prairies.

Years ago I had seen a Ferruginous Hawk nest close to the highway, next to a tiny waterhole. It was on my mind, but I couldn't remember the exact location. And then, suddenly I whizzed past it. There are so few trees out here that this one must have caught my eye and nudged my subconscious. I did a U-turn and a Ferruginous was ON (on nest) as they say. So darn cool to see this as these are western hawks and not all that easy to find.

It began drizzling and then raining by the time I got to Shelby, and the temperature had dropped significantly. I settled into a motel and eventually had a microwaved chimichanga and some smoky almonds from the hotel's vending machine for dinner, again not wanting to venture out.

Ferruginous Hawk