Blue Bird Trail Hike- May 9, 2026

Wild Flower Hike, Blue Bird Trail

Participants: Steve Schombel, David & Julie Kahl

A light wind made this hike in open, south exposure, dry hills tolerable even as the day got warmer. This recently acquired tract is still badly over grown with leafy spurge, Dalmatian toad flax -Butter & Eggs, knapweed, thistles and a few other weeds I recognized but don’t know the names of. But some natives were beginning to creep in; Lupine and gromwell, little yellow parsley. As we walked up to the highpoint there was meadowlarks everywhere, you hear them, but don’t see them, except one that was perched on the top of a pine tree. We saw tree swallows staked out on a bluebird box. On the other side of the fence from the landfill, where the fence is close to the trail, the ground had recently been harrowed up, and a small brown bird was working over the farrows, but it blended in too well to tell what it was. After a brief visit to the overlook we took the longer trail, added last year, onto the landfill owned, back side of the landfill, that traverses the ridge top and a few hills to drop down into two draws. On top of the ridge we saw scattered phlox plants, in one spot obviously deliberately planted. Don’t know if they are Missoula Phlox or not. It’s my understanding that, though Water Works Hill was where Missoula Phlox made its last stand, before non-native disturbance of our area, the phlox grew in other sites around the valley as well. This ridge was prime habitat. There were bee hives on the ridge, as well as down in one of the draws, where hawthorns were in bloom. Down there, there were magpies nesting, and two “brown grouse like birds” flew away from us, couldn’t tell if they were grouse, pheasants or partridges. When we stopped for lunch bird apps said we could hear vesper sparrows and possibly a white crowned sparrow. And of course there was near constant calls of the crows that visit the land fill. As we climbed back up to meet with the Red Tail Trail, pink flowers caught our attention, Dagger Pod -wallflower. Only grows in a small area of this part of MT down into ID. I also saw what I think was a Deptford Pink. On the uphill climb big rocks had white smears, like raptors used them as lookout for prey in the meadows. And in this part of the trail two brownish damsel flies -like they do- flew just ahead of my feet for a few yards before finally flying off to the side of the trail.  Back to the parking lot it was a little over 4 miles/6.5k. It’s always interesting to go back to recovering tracts like this and see how things have changed year to year.  And it’s interesting how, after a while, what infrastructure that is left, has an air of nostalgia to it. Leader: Julie Kahl