The local Vaux’s Swifts are tiny, soot-colored birds that live mostly in the air. They nest in trees and chimneys, sticking three-inch nests of twigs together with saliva. They don’t bother with territories and may build multiple nests in the same tree.

I just saw a Stellar’s Jay — a lovely rascal, ocean blue and iridescent with a sweeping black crest — carefully inspecting my paper birch tree…

It’s almost winter, and telephone poles in Big Sky country are dotted with hawks, kestrels, and Northern Shrikes.