Setting and surpassing goals plays a big role for many of us birders. Big Years, Big Months, Big Days, State Big Years, Bicycle Big Days, Global Big Days—the list of ways we challenge ourselves are endless. And while I’m no longer a big fan of Big Years that require burning up a ton of fossil fuels, Braden and I still partake in local challenges, or those that unfold seemingly on their own. Such was the situation I found myself in late January.

Thanks mainly to a vigorous day of birding with Braden on January 2^nd, in which I found 47 species here in western Montana, and the surprise trip to Victoria that Amy planned for my 65^th birthday (38 more species), by January 20th I found that I had seen 88 bird species for the month. They were awesome birds, too, ranging from Short-eared Owls and Golden Eagles here in Montana to Pacific Loons, Harlequin Ducks, and a Marbled Murrelet in Canada (click here). Interestingly, I realized that with ten days to go, I needed to see only four more species to make this my best January of birding ever! Even so, I had a lot of writing to catch up on and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to intentionally make the effort. A couple of things convinced me to go for it.

The first was that while walking our dog Lola in the neighborhood, I found my first Northern Pygmy-Owl of the year—a delightful little guy soaking up the last rays of sun high in a Ponderosa Pine. The next day—also while walking Lola, through Greenough Park—I espied my first American Dippers of the year. Three days after that, the year’s first White-breasted Nuthatch visited our backyard feeder, the first I’d seen there in a couple of years. Suddenly, just like that, I was one bird away from breaking my record. What, oh what, to do? Too much sittin’ on my butt and a forecast for a beautiful winter day answered the question. I called our friend Susan, who has been getting into birding more and more the past couple of years. I told her, “You know, there’s a Rusty Blackbird over near Deer Lodge, and we may be able to find some Snow Buntings. Do you want to go see if we can find them?” She also needed a birding break, so the next morning, we headed east.

We spent a delightful morning driving the roads between Deer Lodge and Anaconda. We may have seen a Snow Bunting, but it flew away before we could make a definite ID. We also saw the Rusty Blackbird—right as a couple of other birders scared it away. Since we couldn’t ID it ourselves, we didn’t put it on the list, either. Fortunately, in the parking lot that led to the Rusty Blackbird, we found four Horned Larks! Yay! I had it! A new January record!

But here’s the problem. Once you break one record, and realize that you are perilously close to another landmark—in this case, 100 birds for the month—it’s virtually impossible not to go for it. By now, I had revealed my January ambitions to Susan, and not only did she get as excited as I did about them, she was all in on getting me to 100 species for the month. As we pulled away from the Horned Larks, I said, “Are you up for driving by Discovery Ski Area on the way home?” “Let’s do it.”

Loyal readers of FatherSonBirding will recognize that in years past, Discovery Ski Area has been a go-to place for Braden and me to pick up several challenging species, and as Susan and I approached the parking area, we saw our first of these: Canada Jay. After parking, we visited the bird feeders and had a fun time picking up two others: Mountain Chickadee and Pine Grosbeak. Clark’s Nutcracker was the only bird that didn’t cooperate with my 100-species plans, but still, I left the ski area with 96 species. Could I really get four more species before the month ran out? Did I want to? No, I decided. I didn’t need to drive around burning up gas just trying to break a silly record. However, the Universe seemed to have other plans.

The afternoon of January 29^th, I was again walking Lola in the neighborhood when I saw two more birds I needed for the month and year: Hairy Woodpecker and Cedar Waxwing, both of which I thought I’d already seen! Then, a Greater White-fronted Goose was sighted out beyond the Missoula Airport. I had never seen one of these birds in Montana, and it was a rare opportunity to do so, so on January 31^st, I loaded my spotting scope and camera into the car and headed out to the site. My January and Year lists now stood at 98 species.

Long-story short: I did not find the Greater White-fronted Goose among the Canada Geese that were out there. As I was watching other CAGOs fly in, however, I was stunned to see a white goose flying with them! Stupidly, I did not try to gauge the size of this surprising arrival. If it were a bit larger it would be a Snow Goose; a bit smaller, Ross’s Goose. Either one would get me to 99 species—but not if I couldn’t identify it! Sighing and simply putting down “white goose” on my list, I resigned myself to not breaking that magical 100 number.

Since I was out there, however, I decided to swing by Council Grove State Park for a look around. The number of birds out there in the dead of winter surprised me. I was delighted to hear a Belted Kingfisher and spot Green-winged Teals and a Great Blue Heron. Then, two Killdeer flew by. As I was following a trail back around to the parking lot, however, I espied a small, soft lump on a branch out of the corner of my eye. “No way,” I muttered, and trained my new binoculars on it. It was another Northern Pygmy-Owl—the first I’d ever found all on my own. Even though it wouldn’t help with my goal of 100 birds, I was totally psyched by this find and spent ten minutes watching it before it winged away at hyper-speed.

So, no 100 birds. No century mark.

Or so I thought.

That evening, when I happened to glance at my bird list for the month, I was surprised to see that it stood not at 98 species as I expected, but at 99! The Killdeer I saw at Council Grove, it turned out, were also a new species for me for 2025! And then, several other birders confirmed that the white goose that I saw was indeed a Snow Goose! Ka-ching!

I’ll admit that getting to 100 wasn’t pretty, but like I said, the Universe seemed to want me to get there and, well, I’ll take it. It just shows you that a lot of great things can happen in birding—even setting silly records!

Partial FSB Reveal: We won’t be posting near the end of February and early March, but if all goes as planned, we should have some truly stunning posts for you then. Stay tuned!