Finding nature near Missoula: walking through fall at Kelly Island
Description
I wrote this portrait of one of my favorite natural areas near Missoula, Montana in the fall of 2022—and just finished translating it to Spanish, with the support of Lynda Saul, and also revamping the English podcast with lots of sound recordings (because why not?). I like this story a lot, and I wanted to revisit it now because it connects with so many other stories I’ve done recently about rivers, the connections of water and migratory songbirds, and noticing the sounds of nature.
The podcast features field recordings I made of the Clark Fork River burbling, wind in the cottonwoods, and a black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) from the Kelly Island area near Missoula. It also includes a brief cut of a coyote (Canis latrans) and an eastern screech-owl (Megascops asio) along Nebraska’s Niobrara River and of happy wren (Pheugopedius felix), orange-fronted parakeet (Eupsittula canicularis), social flycatcher (Myiozetetes similis), and cinnamon-bellied saltator (Saltator grandis) from Oaxaca’s Huatulco River.
Find the written story, with photos, here: https://wildwithnature.com/2022/11/03/kelly-island/.
United States
