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Montana Spring Bird Migration

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Photographer Lens Tripod Wildlife
Photographer Chris McGowan, Helena, Montana. Canon 5dmkIII 24-70mm 2.8L ISO200 F11 1/180

Things here a starting to pick up with the spring bird migration in Montana. This week as of today there are 10,000 snow geese at Freezeout Lake and about 150 Swans. Around central Montana, ice is melting off quickly and much warmer temperatures this week. Mid 50’s, woo hoo!

Made it out a couple days ago around Helena to see what was happening and found a fair number of Pintails out and a few Swans. This next week should be really picking up and I suspect in the next couple weeks, hopefully Freezeout Lake should be prime for Snow Geese and Swans.

Montana Birds

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Montana Migration – Images by Jason Savage
Yikes! I Hadn’t realized how long it’s been since my last post. I better get on the ball here! This last month I have been running around trying to get whatever bit of winter photography I could in. It’s been a somewhat challenging year here in Montana as snowfall has been very sporadic, with some areas really not getting much of anything. While other isolated areas did OK. For landscape photography it’s certainly been a challenge.

Right now we are switching gears and this time of year can be a very frustrating one if you’re a landscape photographer. Winter has lost it’s chill but spring really hasn’t arrived so we’re kind of just hanging in this limbo until about the end of April. Fortunately for us photographers in Montana there is a bit of a reprieve and that is the annual spring bird migration that is currently underway in the state.

Over the last few year’s I have really delevoped a love for bird photography and the challenges it presents. And  I certainly enjoy being out there, especially during this time of year.

These last couple of weeks I have had the pleasure of photographing Tundra and Trumpeter swans not too far from my home here in Helena. They are truly some beautiful birds and a very awesome one to photograph. In the next couple of weeks I will be traveling up to Freezeout Lake Wildlife Management area to photograph more of the migratory birds including the Snow Geese.

If you haven’t been to Freezout yet it’s definitely one of the best trips in early spring to take around the state. There is a hotline number 406-467-2626 that provides updates on the bird numbers, making planning your trip easier.

Hopefully I should have some more stuff to share in the next week or so. Enjoy!

Freezeout Lake update

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Freezeout Lake 2011. Canon 7d, 500mm f4, 1.4tc

I drove up to Freezeout Lake yesterday morning to check the status of birds and weather and also to test out a new lens. Lots of snow on the ground and at least in the morning the roads were a little treacherous. Birds have been off to a slow start and on Sunday there were around 5,000 swans and a few thousand snow geese. Duck numbers were looking pretty good and quite a few Pintails flying around.

I checked the Freezeout Hotline this afternoon and they said snow geese numbers are now around 10,000. The spring migration is definitely behind this year and there is still a fair amount of ice on the water. Forecast for today and tomorrow doesn’t look the greatest with another winter storm dumping up to a foot in the valleys in places and a couple of feet in the mountains. They estimate bird numbers should be increasing by this next weekend and viewing opportunities will be better.

If you are planning on traveling to central Montana for the migration, Freezeout Lake has a hotline that updates the bird counts daily. 406-467-2646