Author: Pat Jaquith

Some Spiders in West Valley

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by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

Click on photos to enlarge them.

Banded garden Spider ventral side 8.21

Spiders can be called creatures of one summer that hatch or emerge from diapause as the weather warms and reach maturity in late summer. These predatory insects employ various means to capture their prey.

Read more: Some Spiders in West Valley
Banded garden Spider dorsal view 8.31

The large Banded garden Spider lays in wait at the edge of the web; when it senses an insect in their web, it attacks with a bite that stuns the prey and liquifies their inner parts. It encases the stunned insect cocoon-like before devouring the liquid nutrients.

Bordered Orb weaver Spider with dragonfly
Orb Weaver in grass

All of the above Orb weavers catch their prey in a trap they spin.

Funnel-web Spider Clear-wing Grasshopper in funnel web

The Funnel-web spider spins a sheet-like web shaped like a funnel on the ground. The spider usually lies in wait at the end of the tube; when an insect becomes entangled, it pulls the prey down into the ground where it devours it.

White-banded Crab Spider

Crab spiders, sometimes called ambush bugs, lie on a flower in wait for an insect to visit the plant. When the visitor becomes engrossed in its work, the Crab spider dashes in and paralyzes the insect with venom in its bite.

Goldenrod Crab Spider with moth
Goldenrod Crab Spider with Bordered plant bug
Mountain Lady’s Slipper with Goldenrod Crab Spider

Goldenrod Crab spiders are able to change color to match the flower it chooses. It takes a few hours after it arrives at the flower where it will spend time in wait. Most of the Goldenrod Crab spiders I have seen were colored like the one on the Spotted Knapweed, regardless the color of the flower.

Cat-faced Spider
Cat-faced Spider in web

The Cat-faced spider at right was gone the next time we checked this web site under a window sill. In its place was an egg sac. These spiders die after laying their eggs, just before a hard frost. The eggs will hatch in spring and live to predate on other insects around the house.

Fierce Orbweaver 9.2025
Fierce orbweaver
Fierce Orbweaver dorsal side

This Fierce Orbweaver (identified with help of iNaturalist), was climbing up the door to my house. Not recognizing it, nor wanting to invite it inside, I very cautiously lured it away with a stiff plant stem. If I got too close, it reared back and waved its front legs as if boxing. While it moved across the driveway, it left a string of silk from the hole visible in the right photo; it seemed to use it as an anchor to help flip onto its back. The Fierce Orbweaver is listed as a native species in Montana.

Wolf Spider with spiderlings on her back

Female Wolf Spiders carry their egg sac on their back; when they hatch, the babies ride there. They will fall off in leaf litter where they go into diapause until spring. This spider was crossing a sun-warmed driveway in early evening in September.

Nest of spiderlings on May 23. While I watched, the babies would crawl up a blade of grass and float off on a spinneret in the wind. I did not wait long; only a few had dispersed over the nearby wetland.

Common Buckthorn, a Noxious Plant

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by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

Pileated Woodpecker picking Common Buckthorn drupes 1.27.23

Common Buckthorn aka Rhamnus cathartica hides in plain sight.  If you have walked in     Lawrence Park or Owen Sowerwine in Kalispell or in many other areas along the local wetlands, you may have noticed the overwhelming prevalence of some shrub/trees that have thorns and lots of black fruits a little smaller than Chokecherries. The State of Montana recognizes this tree, native to Eurasia, as a Noxious Weed.  It was introduced many years ago as an ornamental at a time when few people realized that many plants can be well-behaved in their native land because there are natural controls – insects or  mammals that eat them and keep them in check or weather that checks their growth. However, in our country, none of those natural predators exist, and given time, the plant flourished to the extent that native plants are choked out.  Cathartica refers to the fact that the plant (fruit) causes diarrhea. Birds are attracted to the fruits that ripen in late fall and persist throughout the winter. However, the birds gain no nutrition because of the catharsis it causes. 

Bark of Common Buckthorn
4.23 Drupes persist
Cedar Waxing feeding on dried drupes 4.26.22
Common Buckthorn in bud 5.20.25
Flowers May-June

Branch with green drupes 8.23.19
9.07.23 Most Rhamnus cathartica drupes have 4 seeds

Early November, 2024

Bright yellow-green leaves haven’t dropped. When all the other deciduous trees have lost their leaves, this characteristic makes Common Buckthorn easy to identify.

Saplings no taller than 4′ and .5″ in diameter may have drupes. The tree above must be quite old.

If you have questions about identifying or controlling Noxious weeds, contact
Your local Extension Service
Your local weed control district
Montana Department of Agriculture

Nesting in the West Valley Part Two

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by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

Editor’s Note: The smaller images on this page my be enlarged by clicking on them.

Part I focuses on some of the local birds that raise their offspring in cavities, that is, holes in trees, man-made house-like structures, and holes in earthen areas. Part II will cover some of the birds I have discovered raising their young in more exposed locations. I marvel at their ability to overcome the challenges that weather, predators, and life with dependents without physical barriers must present.

A Western Wood-Pewee fashioned a nest of grass, rootlets and bits of other natural material on a lichen-covered limb of a Douglas fir tree. There are many needle-laden branches overhead that provide shade and divert rain drops. When she returns to the nest, she always lands on a different branch and little by little approaches the nest site as if she doesn’t want to reveal the location to others. I had the unique opportunity to observe all of this in reverse. I was in the area to visit a plant I was studying. As I cast my gaze around the location so I could note landmarks to help me return, I noted “something looks different about this branch.” Indeed, the lump overhead looked like a little nest! At first, I wondered if the nest had overwintered. It was a few feet higher than I could reach, so I only could observe, not touch. As I continued to look up, movement caught my attention: it was the owner of the nest, intent on getting to the empty nest. I froze in place and before I could blink, the bird arrived. I paused just close enough to get a couple of pictures before abandoning the area. I returned several times that summer to monitor the plant;
I’d look to see if the bird was on the nest before getting close, but finding the well-camouflaged nest was never easy.

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Nesting in The West Valley Part One

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by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

Editor’s Note: The smaller images on this page may be enlarged by clicking on them.

Beautiful West Valley is the chosen home of many species of birds thanks to the varied agricultural uses, ponds and wetlands, and forested areas. Locating an appropriate homesite and constructing a new nest every year must be a daunting task for animals with a beak and two wings as principal tools! Observing birds making nests and raising their families every spring is a delightful time of discovery for me. In the following pages, I will share some of the avian nesting activities I have been fortunate to observe in our area.

CAVITY NESTERS

Mountain Chickadee nest work in Birch tree Old Tally Lake Rd 4.10.24
5.10.19

4.24.24

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West Valley April Ephemerals

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by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

Click on a small image to enlarge it.

Like a bird incubating eggs, Bunchgrass growing on sunny hilltops protects and warms the ground for many ephemerals like Ranunculus glaberrimus.

Lithophragma parviflora (Little Woodland Star) and Antennaria dimorpha (Cushion Pussytoes) often appear very early in sheltered areas warmed by west-facing stony outcrops. Tachinid flies are early-appearing pollinators of these flowers.

Dodecatheon conjugens (Shooting Star) and Lomatium triternatum (Nine-leaf Desert Parsley grow in an old pasture where grass will be two feet tall in another month.

Balsamorhiza sagittata (Arrowleaf Balsamroot) Ranunculus glaberrimus (Early Buttercup) and Erythronium grandiflorum (Glacier Lily) are so precocious that sometimes they get covered with snow while in full flower and recover as if they had welcomed the extra gift of water.

Oops! One of those surprises you can get while looking at the ground in search of early flowers! Recently emerged from hibernation, this garter snake was coiled around the stems of a young Serviceberry shrub in a sunny patch of soon-to-open Early Buttercups!

Cladonia pleurota (Red fruit Pixie cup lichen) Claytonia lanceolata (Spring Beauty)

Carex concinnoides (Northwestern Sedge) and a wonderful discovery of the first appearance of a Calypso bulbosa(Fairy slipper orchid) plant, a little plant that will blossom in May!

Tour the West Valley in March

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by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

There’s a bite of cold in that wind and snow on the mountains. Back roads slip from ice to mud in a single step. Winter visitors wing over snow-bent grasses as if to say “Farewell!” and Pintails fill the open water still enclosed by ice. FOY (First-of-the-Year) birds, flowers, songs meet with excitement. In sheltered places, the sun warms the ground and our faces. Let’s check it out!

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Smallest Owl in Montana

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by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

The Northern Pygmy-owl takes the prize for being the smallest owl in Montana. Tiny, but fierce, this little bird that stands 6-7 inches in height and weighs 2 to 3 ounces predates small to medium-sized birds (chickadee to blue jay sizes), small rodents and squirrels, insects, and has been known to successfully kill a domestic chicken with its sharp talons, strong down-curved beak, and amazing determination.

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Finch Concerns

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by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

How does one describe House Finches? Striped bodies, head and chest of various shades varying from yellow to orange to pink to red. Flocking, chattering, perching at the top of of trees, stout-billed seed-eaters. Perched among the cones of a Blue Spruce in bright sun one morning, this perky House Finch looked like a Christmas decoration! Members of the Fringillidae family, there are 17 species, including many of our familiar visitors: crossbills, Evening and Pine Grosbeaks, redpolls, goldfinches, house finches, Cassin’s finches, and siskins. Many of these species are reported in decline and we can’t take them for granted.

House Finch at the feeder with normal-appearing right eye

Same bird as above with head rotated to reveal abnormal left eye

Although I can’t diagnose the cause of the unusual-appearing eye, knowing that there are diseases among Finches that can be transmissible and deadly, this was message enough to send me out to take down the feeders, clean them and the area and not hang them out for a week.

https://feederwatch.org/blog/eye-disease-american-goldfinches/ A link sponsored by TheCornellLab, this is one of many sources of information about possible causes and steps we can take to help protect the birds we care about.

The following are images of birds that I have observed with eye problems. These appeared at my feeder in four different years and were the only ones observed in those years.

Evening Grosbeak with unusual-looking eye
American Goldfinch with swollen eye with discharge
Female House Finch with eye problem

Two Tiny Birds called Kinglets

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by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET (Regulus satrapa)

The Golden-crowned Kinglet is a permanent resident of conifer forests in our area. Regulus comes from Latin, meaning “little king”; satrapa is of Greek origin, meaning “ruler who wears a golden crown”. Males have a patch of orange feathers between the yellow, but they rarely display them. I’m assuming this one is a female, but it’s possible it’s a male in a peaceful mood!

At only a half-inch longer than our smallest bird, the Calliope Hummingbird, and weighing a mere .2 of an ounce, it’s no wonder we don’t see this little one very often. This high-energy little insectivore usually travels with others of its kind seeking food. They hover at the ends of twigs to gather microscopic mites, aphids, and aphid eggs; in summer their choice of insects is greater, and they occasionally find fruit to add to the protein sources. In winter, their most nourishing food is inchworms, the caterpillar of the geometrid moth, that they find frozen to twigs – mostly of conifers, but occasionally on maples, too.

The female Golden-crowned Kinglet constructs a hammock-like nest of moss, lichen, spider silk, rabbit hair, twigs, feathers, and other plant materials. Then she lays 8 to 11 bee-sized eggs in two layers, using her warm legs to incubate the lower layer! Usually, birds with a low success rate in raising young or migrating have big broods; Golden-crowned Kinglets’ survival challenge is overwintering in our cold climate on a low carbohydrate diet.

Golden-crowned Kinglet
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Crossbills: One of a Kind in the World

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by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

A few of the flock of Red Crossbills at their daily visit for water 10.02.2020

The only species in the world with crossed bills and many other unique traits that are under scientific scrutiny, Crossbills visit our valley sometimes during periods of heavy cone crops on our Douglas fir and Ponderosa pine trees. Though I rarely saw them feeding on cones during the summer of 2020, a flock of Red Crossbills and Pine siskins made daily visits to our yard for water. The rustle of taffeta petticoats alerted me to their arrival as they landed in the larch trees behind the water pans by the garden. The brown-striped attire of juvenile Crossbills gave me some difficulty distinguishing them from the ever-present Pine Siskins when many of them landed in the water pan at once! Read on for more about these colorful, entertaining, unique birds!

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Snakes in the West Valley

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by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

Note: Click on images to enlarge them.

Snakes usually take us by surprise when we are walking along a path or across the lawn. They may register at first as a stick in the path, but our brain suddenly alters the message and I jump as the “stick” slithers away. Here are some different snakes I have encountered in the West Valley.

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Fighting Wildfires in Northern Montana 1911-1960s

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by Pat Jaquith and Barbara Boorman
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

Editor’s note: Captions on these images are transcribed from the reverse side of the photo. For more images from Barbara’s collection, click here.

In 1910, there were disastrous fires in northern Idaho and northwestern Montana when
hundreds of thousands of acres of timberlands were destroyed; many lives were lost, and much
property outside of the forests was destroyed.

In May, 1911, many timberland owners and other owners of other property in northwestern
Montana met and organized the Northern Montana Fire Association (NMFA), a non-profit organization for protecting life and property in the region. A.E. (Albert) Boorman became the Chief Fire Warden and secretary/treasurer of the organization.

The boundaries of the area covered by the NMFA were from Whitefish south to Nirada (north of Hot Springs) and from Kalispell west to Lost Prairie, McGregor Lake, and Flathead Mine. In 1921, the NMFA charged $0.015 per acre to anyone – forest owner, rancher, homesteader – who appreciated the availability of a firefighting crew in the area should the need arise. As A.E. Boorman said in a Daily Interlake interview in 1921, the organization charged just enough to cover costs “and no more.”

A. E. Boorman, Blacktail Lookout. Probably July 10, 1934.
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