A dream fulfilled: Pursuit of the northern pygmy-owl successful

I’ve been searching for a northern pygmy-owl for the past few winters now, and honestly, I was starting to lose hope.  

Permanent residents here in this corner of Northwest Montana, they move to lower elevations in the colder months to hunt for more plentiful small birds and mammals. People post sightings on the Montana Birding Facebook group and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird website. Both are great resources, but if you’re struggling to find one like I was, it can start to give the impression that they’re as common as crows this time of year. 

A good way to spot one, some say, is to search for a noisy group of songbirds creating a commotion, mobbing the owl in an effort to chase it off. I’ve certainly never witnessed it, but nonetheless, it’s pretty brave behavior given that the pygmy’s diet consists largely of those same songbirds. I once read online that the best way to find a northern pygmy-owl is to look for a group of people holding binoculars, spotting scopes and cameras who have already spotted one. 

So a few weeks ago, a Friday in mid-January, I was in between morning and evening assignments and giving the Montana Birding page a quick doom-scroll for recent sightings. A photographer had written an inspirational post about never giving up, specifically not giving up the search. She had spotted a northern pygmy-owl on her drive home after a long day of hiking in search of one.  

Early Saturday morning I had a dream. I was at the top of an indistinct hiking trail and there in front of me in the lower boughs of a tree was a northern pygmy-owl. I didn’t have any camera gear with me, a sure sign that this was in fact not reality. I hustled back down the trail to my vehicle, grabbed my camera and lens and started back up. There was now a steady stream of water cascading down the trail causing me to lose my footing several times. I struggled my way back up to the pinnacle and shot several photos of the owl. Later on, when I went to look at the photos, I realized I had not adjusted any camera settings and all the resulting photos were not sharp. And then I woke up. 

I had some time that day before a pair of Flathead boys’ and girls’ basketball games so I headed out to search. First location, no luck. I backtracked, turned down a road off Montana 206 and started to scan the treetops. I felt a sudden tinge of optimism. I didn’t see anything but ... hmm, this feels ... right? I made another turn and the trees crowded in along the shoulder of the road. I drove a bit more and just as a wooded property transitioned to a large snow-covered field, I saw it. Just a tiny lump perched on the tippy top of a distant tree backdropped by the Swan Range.  

I grabbed my camera, settings already pre-adjusted, and took a few photos along the shoulder of the road but I was too far away. I could hear the sounds of someone working a firewood processor on the wooded property, so I started walking toward the driveway when I saw a young man checking their mailbox.  

I explained the situation, showing him a zoomed-in photo on the back of my camera and asking if it would be at all possible for me to walk along the border of their land to get closer to the owl. He ran to ask his father and his father thankfully obliged. I headed over to a little cattail-lined frozen marsh along the edge of the field and scanned the trees. I didn’t see it. Where was it again, exactly? My perspective had changed. And then, there it was, in flight and landing on the top of a tree about 10 yards in front of me. I spent the next 30 minutes happily snapping away under a nearby tree as it occasionally offered me a stare while scanning the surroundings looking for prey.  

As I was making photos and observing and smiling in the 10-degree weather, I felt this wave of gratitude hit me for the way it all unfolded. For this place. For this job. For people like the father who allowed me onto his property to photograph a bird, sight unseen. For my wife and family who forever encourage me.  

And for never giving up. 

And since that first sighting, I’ve seen three more. 

    A northern pygmy-owl takes flight along a wooded property near Columbia Falls on Saturday, Jan. 18. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    My second northern pygmy-owl sighting, along Highway 93 North near Olney on Wednesday, Jan. 22. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider  

   A third northern pygmy-owl sighting along Blackmer Lane near Columbia Falls on Tuesday, Jan. 28. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider  

    A third northern pygmy-owl sighting along Blackmer Lane near Columbia Falls on Tuesday, Jan. 28. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    My first northern pygmy-owl sighting, on the border of a wooded property near Columbia Falls on Saturday, Jan. 18. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider