Hi Blair and Tweeters,

I don't have any specific places, not having been to that part of Montana, but here are a couple of suggestions that have served me well whenever I decide to visit a new place for me in the US.

Read their local listserv, you can see where people are posting birds of interest from, and also get their e-mails and contact them. This is the link for MT, but if you delete MONT.html, you'll be presented with a list of many of the listservs across the US.

http://www.birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/MONT.html

Check out ebird and look for where birds that "catch your interest" have been seen recently, this link is for Montana as a whole for 2010, but for a more concentrated search, you can restrict the location to the counties you'll be in. You don't need an eBird account to view this information.

http://tinyurl.com/24ptzs2


Find the local Audubon chapter and look for field trips and see if they have a birding hotspots map. Here is the national audubon link, from here go to Montana, and then it will list all of the local chapters.

http://www.audubon.org/states/index.php

And you can check out www.birdingpal.org to see if you can hook up with a local birder.

Good birding,
Evan Houston
Seattle, WA