Subject: Second try: Bridger Raptor Festival
Date: Oct 24 08:59:02 1997
From: Hans A. Krauss - two.wing-nuts at juno.com


Sorry folks, this time I'll remember to paste it into my email!!!!
On Oct.10th we drove to Bozeman, Montana to attend the second annual
Bridger Raptor Festival.
Friday night there was a presentation by Denver Holt of the Owl Research
Institute about "Owls of Montana." This was an absolutely phenomenal
presentation of owl slides made to come alive for the audience by
Denver's uncanny ability to mimic or reproduce all the owl vocalizations.
He would be an outstanding speaker at some future Spokane Audubon
Society public meeting.

Saturday was to be the big day for us: to get up on top of Bridger Ridge
to see the Golden Eagles migrating! This location has the largest known
concentration of migrating Golden Eagles in North America, plus 16 other
species of raptors. Well guess what? Saturday was also the first snow
storm in the Rockies with zero visibility. The weather also meant that
the ski lift would not be operating.

We took advantage of the workshops which were held on Saturday and
Sunday. Our plan was to take the Raptor I.D. Techniques workshop and
then head up the ridge on the ski lift. We would then take in the rest
of the repeat workshops on Sunday after watching raptors all day
Saturday.

Instead, we attended all the excellent presentations in addition to I.D.
Many of these were based on field research done by doctoral candidates
from UM or MSU and included: "Status of Golden Eagles in Montana,"
"Raptors of Montana" with a research report on the "Status of Nesting
Ferruginous Hawks of Montana." This was followed by a talk and display
of live raptors by representatives of the Big Sky Raptor Rehabilitation
Center. They had a Kestrel, Great Horned Owl, Golden Eagle, Turkey
Vulture, and Red-tailed Hawk that could not be released.

There were many exhibits by various groups and agencies, new binocs and
scopes on display, many great books, a raffle of 10 x 40 Nikon binocs and
other prizes.

Sunday morning we left even though the weather looked like it would turn
out favorably in late afternoon or on Monday.
We saw lots of wildlife on the way to Bozeman and on the return trip:
many Bald Eagles, Rough-legged Hawk, Red-tailed hawks, a Golden Eagle, 3
coyotes, and deer.

We decided to make a side trip to the National Bison Range and for the
first time drove the long loop instead of the short one. We saw a Golden
Eagle at eye level, many mule deer with big racks, 30 American Bison,
seven Elk, 15 White-tailed deer, and three antelope which brought our
weekend to an exciting climax.

We highly recommend the Bridger Raptor Festival for it's great speakers,
friendly hosts, and perhaps next year the weather will cooperate so we
can get up on the ridge.

Submitted by Hans & Kathryn Krauss
IT'S BETTER TO BE A WING-NUT THAN A DEAD-BOLT
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