Chasing rumors of spring in the Mission Valley

The prairie falcon perches on a power pole in the light rain drizzle, tearing apart a vole. Its talons glow faintly, a rich yellow against the gray sky. The electrical lines hiss faintly in the rain. Today I’m with avid birder and acclaimed children’s book author Sneed Collard. We’re driving slowly through western Montana’s Mission Valley, looking for birds in the snow-covered fields. Nineteen thousand years ago, a glacier crept down from the north where Flathead Lake exists now, a slow but powerful conveyor belt of ice, reshaping the landscape. Where we are today, the glacier spilled into the watery vastness of Glacial Lake Missoula. As the ice transformed to frigid water, the glacier dropped its load of sediment into the lake. These are the rocks, silts, and clays that make up the modern landscape around us. The gently undulating terrain is packed with pothole wetlands. After Glacial Lake Missoula emptied, permafrost heaved the ground. Chunks of ice mounded the earth with the power of their freezing. And when they melted, they left behind thousands of wetlands.