Freezout Lake WMA, March 2022

On March 19, 2022 I decided to take a quick trip out to the Freezout Lake WMA North of Fairfield, MT. I knew it was going to be a little bit early to hit the peak of migration, but with some upcoming commitments, I wasn’t sure if I would get out there later on or not. Most of the lake(s) was still frozen. There were some geese and ducks in the area, as well as some swans, but well below average for this time of year. There were a lot of Bald Eagles though, which was awesome to see. I was told the eagles were feeding on frozen fish in the ice. I also observed a coyote out on the ice looking for a meal as well. After driving around the WMA for a while I eventually found a Great Horned Owl sitting in a tree. I would guess if the weather remains mild, by next week the water should be opening up and I would guess the numbers of migrating waterfowl will increase significantly. Typically the last week of March is around the peak of migration, so that may turn out to be true again this year. If you want to monitor the status of the migration, Montana FWP does have a website with migration updates. You can find that site at: Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area (arcgis.com). You can also check out my page about the Freezout Lake WMA here: Freezout WMA — Josh Rutledge Photography you may also find a blog I posted last year helpful as well. Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area, March 20, 2021 — Josh Rutledge Photography. As always, please select the pictures for a larger view.

A flock of snow geese before sunrise at Freezout WMA.

Another shot of migrating snow geese against the color of the predawn sky.

Tundra Swans flying in formation against an early morning sky.

A mature Bald Eagle flying over the frozen water of Freesout Lake. You can see a glimpse of the mountains of the Rocky Mountain Front in the background.

A tree with several Bald Eagles perched in it just off Freezout Lake.

Snow Geese flying against the hills at Freezout WMA.

A flock of Snow Geese on the ice.

A flock of Snow Geese taking off from the lake, with a view of Fairfield, MT in the background.

Great Horned Owl perched in a tree at Freezout WMA.

Another photograph of the Great Horned Owl I found at the Freezout WMA.

Labor Day Weekend Elk

I am still working on trying to post a blog(s) about our trips to Glacier National Park earlier this summer, but I have not had the time to gather everything for that. But I did want to put out something updated, so I thought I would create a post about my quick trip to check out the forthcoming elk rut in the Missouri Breaks in North Central Montana over Labor Day Weekend.

A large herd of elk with a large bull in the center.

Typically I don’t visit the site on the C. M. Russel National Wildlife Refuge until later in September, but I thought I would try going early this year to avoid the crowds. While the crowds were less than they are typically later in the month, it was already pretty busy for my liking. I was hoping if I could avoid the crowds maybe I could get some video with clean audio for once. To me half of the fun of watching the elk is listening to all of the various sounds they make. When the crowds are large and there is so much traffic on the roads, trying to hear the elk clearly is almost impossible. Even with the lesser crowds, it was still impossible to get any clean audio without crowd noise or vehicles driving in the background. I will post a video with unedited audio at the end of this blog. It was still worth the visit however. I would guess there were probably about 100 elk or so. There were two mature bulls and a lot of smaller bulls, spikes, cows and calves. There was a third large bull elk that came out right at dark and he was probably the biggest of the bunch. There was also a large flock of wild turkey’s this year which were a nice bonus. All of these pictures were produced with my Canon R5 and my adapted Canon 600mm F4 II. If you click on an image you will get a full screen version of the images.

The mature bull we saw with the large herd of elk.

The 2nd mature bull elk we saw late in the evening.

With smoke and clouds in the sky, we were treated to a very colorful sunset. The downside is that it did get darker a little sooner than normal with so much of the sunlight being blocked. I may get back to the viewing area again later this fall, but at least if I don’t get the chance, I was able to get this trip in. For more information about the elk on the C.M. Russell NWR please check out my page here: https://www.joshrutledgephotography.com/c-m-russell

The smoke and clouds made for a colorful sunset.

I put together this little video digest from the evening. I decided to leave the audio as is, as there was just not much I could do to save it. You can hear a few bugles and some other vocalization, but there is also a lot of wind, crowd and vehicle noise as well. You will also see the wild turkeys we were enjoying watching along side the elk.