August 16 – 21, 2020.
After our trip to Glacier National Park, we were once again looking for a place where we could just relax and pursue our newest hobby, stalking birds. Along our path to our next provisioning stop in Great Falls, I found Freezout Lake.
Freezout Lake is a Montana Wildlife Management area (WMA). Most states have WMAs or something equivalent. Usually, they are intended for the conservation of wildlife habitats and recreational activities such as birding, hiking, and hunting. Each state has different rules for their WMAs. Some you can camp at, some require an entrance fee, some encourage hiking and birding, and some seem to be strictly for hunting. Here in Colorado where we are right now, entering the equivalent of a WMA (called SWAs – State Wildlife Areas) one has to have a valid hunting or fishing license. Guess birds will be safe from the click of my camera in SWAs in Colorado.
We have visited a few WMAs before but Freezout Lake has topped them all. Over two hundred and thirty different species of birds have been documented on the WMA 12,000 acres. Of course, we didn’t get close to that number with our sightings but saw lots of birds we have never seen in the wild before along with a few critters, bugs, and reptiles. There was a nice free designated camping area plus you were allowed to camp at any of the designated parking areas throughout the WMA. Although there were no large towns nearby we had a great internet connection for our phone and tablet. The WMA has a couple of named lakes and many smaller ponds. One of the lakes has a boat ramp so we took the opportunity to blow up our kayak, Pirogue Bleue, and paddle her around a couple of times. And the sunrises and sunsets were spectacular!
It’s just too bad we visited in the summer and not the spring when Swans and White Geese stop by Freezout Lake during their migration. According to the Freezout Lake website as many as 300,000 white geese and 10,000 swans have been observed at the WMA at one time – although they point out this isn’t the norm.
The website also has some great resources for download on birds found at the WMA and White Geese. Check out those resources here on the WMA Map & Information tab.
* All pics are click to enlarge.
** We use iNaturalist for all of our wildlife ids. Sometimes we make mistakes. To see all of our iNaturalist observations, click here.
I will be sharing this post on Wild Bird Wednesday, Through My Lens, and My Corner of the World this week. Click the links to see what birds and people all over the world are up to.
The hawks are my favorites. Maybe it was good that you didn’t visit in spring. It would have been much busier – with visitors; hikers and hunters – probably. This is another amazing find! Especially with the availability of internet. To me, these are the best places to camp – privacy and space, trails to hike, wildlife to observe, cell service to work, and a free place to stay! I swear, when we come across sites like these in the future, we will stay longer than one night for a change! 🙂
We are staying longer and longer at places we visit. I think the birding has helped with that. Walking around a lake is good for a couple of days but if you are looking for birds or other wildlife it’s an adventure every day.
I love the Hawks too – especially since they weren’t Red-tailed Hawks which is what we usually see.
Looks like a successful time of birding. I always had a fabulous time photographing birds when we would visit the Texas Gulf Coast. I almost convinced my husband to stop at Bosque del Apache in NM on our return to Phoenix, but realized we might’ve been a tad early in the migration. One of my favorite experiences was boondocking at Whitewater Draw near Tomb Stone AZ. Sleeping amongst 20,000 sandhill cranes was pretty awesome.
Now that I have my new camera and we are so into birding I want to revisit everywhere we’ve been for the last year. We pretty much starred birding when we were on the Gulf Coast of Texas at the beginning of this year. We were at Whitewater Draw years ago but we may have to go back this winter. We’ve never been to Bosque del Apache but I have it on my map to visit now. Thanks!
Duwan and Greg, I love your bird photos. Kayaking seems to get you some interesting places. Love the photo going through the reeds. Thanks for sharing and have a great week. Sylvia D.
Thanks Sylvia. I love kayaking through reeds and other things growing in the water. We weren’t birders when we got the kayak but now that we are it has definitely given us access to some pretty interesting places.
What a lovely post full of wonderful creatures! It’s exciting to find so many different things to see and, of course, photograph 🙂
Many thanks for your link at ‘My Corner of the World’ this week !!
Yes! It was a great find. I love searching for different kinds of wildlife. Thanks for hosting ‘My Corner of the World!’
Your photos are STUNNING!
Freezout Lake sounds like a birder’s paradise!
Thank you Veronica! It was one of the best birding sites we’ve been to since we started birding.