Disclaimer: I purchased all three PSAPs and am not getting anything for these reviews.
It’s frustrating birding with others who are able to hear birds that you can’t. I have had that frustration for a few years now and over the past several weeks I have been trying out a new category of hearing-aid type devices called Personal Sound Amplification Products (PSAPS). These are designed for minor hearing loss, are much less expensive than normal hearing aids and don’t require a trip to an audiologist to purchase. But there are tons of these things available and very little reliable information on how well they work. And, there is no information that I could find on how they work for birding. Until now…

So, I did a bunch of research and eventually narrowed the field down to three devices to test out: Sound World Solutions CS50+, Nuheara IQbuds Boost ($499), and the Etymotic Beans quiet sound amplifiers ($400). I bought all three knowing they have at least a 30 day trial period with 100% money back returns. I’m not getting anything from these companies. I’m just interested for my own use. I tested them out in the field and in real-life tests and really liked all three. I did end up choosing one and sending two pairs back. I’ll tell you why, below.

The form factor of the three are radically different. The Beans look more like a normal hearing aid. They are small, fit into your ear without sticking out much, and blend in with my skin tone (YMMV). The IQbuds, on the other hand are large and black and stick out of your ear like a bluetooth phone device. CS50+ are large and black and stick out of your ear as well, plus they have batteries that go behind your ear. The Beans were the most comfortable of the three. CS50+ gets in the way of your glasses and take two hands to put in, squealing painfully as they go. The IQbuds were the least comfortable in my experience, but still not bad for a few hour birding excursion.

Both the IQbuds and the CS-50+ have an app that checks your hearing by playing tones like in a normal hearing test. IQbuds app then displays a visual representation of your results. It showed that my hearing was pretty good. No loss at lower pitches. Mild loss at high pitches mostly on the left side. The IQbuds and CS50+ then use your in-app hearing test to tailor the pitches amplified. For both, I used the setting that takes your hearing test into account, although you can choose not to and go with a generic profile. The Beans don’t have an app or any of this personalized functionality.

After the hearing test, the IQbud app allows you to set the buds to favor sounds coming from the front or not. I chose to do so in hopes (in vain, I would later decide) that it would help me locate birds better. The same can be done with the CS-50+. If you set them on “restaurant” they will favor sounds coming from the front. I played with this a bit using a fountain as the source of sound. Water is really loud in all three of these PSAPs, BTW. Using the CS-50+ in the “everyday” setting I was amazed to hear the fountain just as loud behind me as in front of me. It’s actually an odd sensation. When I turned them on “restaurant,” the fountain was perceptibly louder when in front of me.

The apps also give you control of what comes into your ears, with the CS-50+ providing greater control. The CS-50+ have sliders for treble, mid, and bass, so I typically bumped up treble a bit and felt that helped my hearing. CS-50+ also can tune each ear independently and can turn up the volume, something the IQ buds don’t do. IQbuds allow you to turn the “world” up or down. This, to my ears, meant turning treble up or down. I wanted to hear birds, so I turned world up most of the time and felt I could hear bird sounds better that way.

The Beans don’t have an app. They don’t do bluetooth. They don’t even have an on-off switch. You open up the tiny battery compartment about 2/3 of the way to turn them off. They simply have one switch that adjusts the amplification from Normal (+15 db) to High (+23 db). I pretty much always leave it on Normal unless I’m really trying to hear something in an otherwise very quiet environment.

Both the IQbuds and CS-50+ allow you to listen to your phone or music over Bluetooth. For the CS-50+, I could only get one ear to play anything and it initially took some effort. The IQbuds worked effortlessly and sounded pretty good. To control them, the IQbuds let you tap once, twice or do long taps to get to certain functions. I got a call while wearing them, tapped my ear and the IQbuds answered. I was able to chat easily as I walked down the trail. I have an iPhone and was able to talk to Siri through the IQbuds and, if I asked correctly, she would tell me the answer through the IQbuds. Pretty cool. I also liked being able to play podcasts or music through them when not birding. None of this was as easy with the CS-50+, so I didn’t use them for their Bluetooth capabilities much. 

There is a downside of all these capabilities: you spend less time birding. I fiddled with the apps quite a bit when I was out in the field. I talked to Siri when I was bored. I always wondered if the settings were right or if I needed to change them. So I changed them over and over when I was supposed to be looking for birds. I’m sure this tendency would go away with time, but it was a bit counterproductive. With the Beans, I just birded. Sometimes I would flip their one switch to turn up the gain and see how that sounded, but mostly I just looked for birds. Which was why I was walking through the woods in the first place.

Here’s an interesting experience I had. With my IQbuds I went birding with a local expert-led bird walk. I hadn’t met any of the birders before and as we assembled I told them that the big black things in my ears were hearing aids. I just wanted them to know that I wasn’t listening to the radio or being rude in some other way. I was able to hear really well and pointed out several things I was hearing – as you do while on a bird walk. Typically, if you are on a bird walk and someone hears a tanager, people stop to try to find it. But, when I pointed it out, they pretty much ignored me. As they did for nearly everything else I mentioned that I was hearing. They hated me.  I hated myself. Wearing those things, at least initially, I felt cut off from the world. Like I was watching a video of my life. I don’t blame them. I wouldn’t have paid attention to myself either. Also, I could hear birds, but I really had no idea where they were. So, I started questioning myself. I could hear, but the experience was a bit strange. I did eventually lose a bit of the cut-off-from-the-world feeling, but I still felt ostracized for wearing big Bluetooth headphone devices in my ears.

I had a similar experience with the CS-50+ talking to a neighbor. She kept looking beyond me, like she was hoping the real person would come along and talk to her. You know the guy at the airport that is loudly talking to himself while wearing a bluetooth phone headset? I was a quiet version of that guy while wearing these things. It’s not fair. We don’t judge people for wearing different types of glasses. But, there is a bit of a stigma to wearing big black things that stick out of your ears. Especially while birding.

I never had this issue with the Beans. My guess is that people assumed they were hearing aids, rather than assuming I was listening to the radio. Birders are used to seeing gray-haired birders wearing hearing aids. The Beans, at least in the color I got, just look like funky-looking hearing aids. The first time I wore the beans I felt a bit odd, but not nearly as bad as while wearing the IQbuds and CS50+. And, I quickly got used to wearing them around others.​

I ran several tests with the three pairs of Personal Sound Amplification Products.  In test one I sat in the back yard while my daughter Alia played bird songs on an iPhone at progressively quieter volumes. I raised my hand whenever I heard the song. When I stopped raising my hand, she recorded the volume (number of little bars designating volume on the screen). The backyard had lots of bird song as ambient noise, so it seemed like a decent test in real-world conditions. We tried a few different songs, focusing on higher pitched species.  The results are below. Note that lower numbers are quieter and therefore better results. The Beans have a low and a high setting and so I tried both. The other two PSAPs were set on what I thought worked the best for hearing birds.

There are some interesting patterns here. One is that overall, there isn’t a big difference among the three. They all help a lot with most species. The bean did slightly better overall, but I doubt that is a real difference considering the sources of potential error. More interesting is the difference among them in which species they are best at. The beans don’t do very well with Creepers, but do great with the higher pitched blackpolls.  They also don’t do as well with Clay colored sparrows. Lastly, none of them do well with the trill in a savannah sparrow song. I could hear the chips that precede the trill, but not the trill itself. I first noticed this in the field wearing beans. My young friend with amazing ears could hear the savannah easily, but I couldn’t even with the beans until I got closer. It seemed as though most other species I could hear as well as him. ​

So, in conclusion, they all appear to help a lot with most species. The Bean wins overall, but there is variation among them in what species they do best at hearing. I would base your choice on other factors.

Disclaimer: I purchased all three PSAPs and am not getting anything for these reviews.

Recently when hiking with my wife she asked me to identify a bird she was hearing. Fun, right? But, I couldn’t hear the bird. Less fun.  I’ve noticed that I’ve lost a bit of the upper range of my hearing. It’s not terrible, but it’s noticeable when hanging out with people with normal hearing. So, I’ve been testing some solutions to the problem. I’m not to the point where I need hearing aids costing several thousand dollars, but there is a new line of Personal Sound Amplification Products (PSAPs) that are cheaper and made for people with minor hearing loss. However, most have not been tested by birders.  Until now…​

The Bean quiet sound amplifier by Etymotic is much smaller than the two PSAPs I’ve already reviewed. It fits in your ear, doesn’t stick out much, blends in better with my ears, and looks more like a normal hearing aid. Its weight isn’t noticeable and doesn’t get as uncomfortable as the others or conflict with my glasses. I wore them for 5 hours birding yesterday and didn’t feel any real discomfort.

It also doesn’t come with an app for my phone or any bluetooth capabilities. You can’t listen to podcasts while pretending to listen to your family. You don’t have to putz around on your phone trying to find the perfect settings. they have one switch on them that takes them from normal amplification to high. It also takes normal tiny hearing aid batteries (size 10) that last for a few weeks in my experience. There is no on-off switch. To turn off the device, you open the battery door about 2/3 of the way. The battery will stay in and the Bean will turn off. The tiny batteries are tough to use. I’ve only changed them twice and both times I have dropped one that I then had to crawl around searching for.

Do they work for bird songs even without a special hearing test and app?  Yes they certainly do. The tests I ran put this device ahead of both the Nuheara IQBuds Boost and the Sound World Solutions CS50+. (But only slightly and there was a lot of variation as I’ll detail in the next post.) I have used them in the field for many hours and have felt that they were very helpful. Just yesterday I was sitting in a field without wearing the Beans and saw a Savannah Sparrow fly into a bush and periodically throw its head back. I put the Beans in my ears and magically, the bird was singing and easy to hear. And, I was able to hear another Savannah that I didn’t see.

They have a hard time in the wind. But, even so, they do better than both the IQbuds and CS50+, both of which will cut out in the wind, but not before amplifying some really loud wind sound. The Beans do great with Blackpoll Warblers. I heard them like never before. I could hear Woodcocks from a distance. I could hear Black-throated Green Warblers like a 12 year old (but still not as well as Wes Homoya). I like the beans a lot.

For all of the PSAPs I tried, I felt a bit cut off from the world. Your voice sounds weird. You sometimes hear your footsteps. People treat you weird. The Beans were not nearly as bad in all these respects. I found that if you ease them out of your ears as much as possible without getting feedback squealing, they don’t give you the hollow voice and footsteps. I even cut the ear plug in half, which kept the beans from sticking out of my ears so much. Also, my experience birding and interacting with other people while wearing these was better. They apparently didn’t think I was an alien while wearing the Beans because they just look like hearing aids. It’s weird to have birders wear bluetooth-looking devices like the IQbuds and CS50+ while birding. It’s normal to have birders my age and older wearing hearing aid-looking products.

Now for the real clincher. Yes, they do a really good job of allowing me to hear the birds. All three of these PSAPs do, honestly. I got a bit of weird sound reproduction in these. But, not quite as bad as in the other two. I felt pretty confident in my ID calls wearing these. And, I think that will get better as I get used to hearing bird songs through them. The biggest difference was that I could locate the birds that I was hearing. I heard the three part call of a Tennessee Warbler in the trees and knew that it was in the top right side of the oak tree. With the IQbuds and the CS50+ I would search all over, not having a clue where the bird was. Perhaps it’s because the Beans are a bit more like part of my natural ear. But, for whatever reason, I was able to locate the birds much more readily with the Beans than with the other two PSAPs.

For me, the fact that I was able to find the birds visually that I was hearing was important enough that it overcame the lack of cool Bluetooth features. Sure, I would love to be able to listen to podcasts when I should be listening to my brother. Who wouldn’t? But, I really loved being able to find the birds I was hearing. How are other birders going to learn to believe you if you call out birds they can’t hear, then consistently can’t find those birds? All three PSAPs do a great job amplifying bird sounds. The Beans allow me to find those birds. To me, that was important enough that I sent back the IQbuds and CS50+ and kept the (relatively boring) Etymotic Beans. It didn’t matter in my decision, but they were also the cheapest at $400 for the pair.​

In the next post I’ll give you the details of the bird hearing tests I ran on the three personal sound amplifiers…

Disclaimer: I bought the PSAPs that I am reviewing. They each have at least a 30 day trial period, so I did end up sending back all but my favorites.

So, I’ve lost a bit of my hearing in the upper register. It’s not very bad, but it is a bit of a bummer because I have spent years of my life learning to ID birds by song and now I don’t hear them as well as I used to. The CS50+ does a pretty good job of amplifying bird songs. I found it amazing to hear a bird, then take off the CS50+s and have the bird song disappear! Let me tell you more about them.

They are big and black with a large battery that goes behind your ear. This was a bit uncomfortable with my glasses, but not a big deal. They say the batteries last long enough for 18 hours of use. And, two batteries come with the PSAP, so you can recharge one while wearing the other. The in-ear portion is black and looks like a Bluetooth phone device. Kinda ugly and weird for a birder. Are you birding or talking on the phone?  I had a hard time putting them on. I had to take off my glasses and free both hands to don the device, which would squeal loudly in my ear as it was being inserted. 

They come with an app that I put on my iPhone. The app runs you through a hearing test. You put on the CS50+s and the app plays sounds at differing pitches and amplitudes and you tell it when you hear something. Once completed the devices amplify sounds based on your personal hearing loss. This seemed to work well enough. You can also control the amount of amplification and what pitches are amplified (treble, bass, or mid) using the app. I liked this a lot and tended to jack up the treble and overall amplification to better hear birds.

You can also listen to podcasts or music with them using Bluetooth and your phone. I was only able to get one of them at a time to do this, so I didn’t use the feature. Plus, I was birdwatching… 

And, they really do help you hear birds. I did a decent amount of birding in these things and was really impressed with what I could hear. I felt like I could hear really well. Super human in fact. And, the tests I did proved that I was hearing much better when wearing these (more on the testing in a later post). At one point on a birdwalk I put these on and immediately was able to hear a Yellow Warbler that I couldn’t hear at all without them. This is a fun feeling! However, birds sounded a bit weird to me, so I tended to question myself. Perhaps that’s something that would just take getting used to. The other flaw (that ended up being a fatal flaw for me) was that, while I could hear that yellow warbler for example, I couldn’t for the life of me find it. Over and over I would hear a bird, but not be able to find it. The CS50+s have a directionality setting (Restaurant) which makes sounds from the front louder than from the back. This helps. At least you can tell if the bird is in front or behind, but I still couldn’t find the birds. I spent a lot of time trying to get used to this and didn’t.​

I found it frustrating to be able to hear birds, but (1) feel a bit questionable regarding my identification and (2) not be able to verify my ID because I couldn’t find the bird. So, you may be better at finding birds without the aural clue or perhaps are happy to just hear the birds better. If so, the $350 per ear CS50+ might work well for you.  I decided in the end, that although they are pretty cool and definitely help me to hear birds they weren’t the best for me.

In the next post I'll review Nuheara's IQbuds Boost

​Like many men in their upper 40s, I’ve lost a bit of my hearing, mostly in the upper register. I can still function in my daily life just fine. I don’t need hearing aids to get by. I’ve actually honed the skill of being oblivious to much of what is going on around me.  Just ask my wife. 
 
But, I’m a birder. I’ve been working for most of my life to learn to identify birds by sound. I use this skill in my job as professor of Biology at Marian University. I also use this skill in my summer job as a Park Ranger in Glacier National Park. So, it really has pained me to hang out with people over the past few years who can hear better than I can. I noticed especially last year as I was leading my weekly bird walk around swiftcurrent lake in Glacier. For two weeks I had a crack 17 year old birder with me who’s hearing was magical. He could hear things singing a quarter mile before I would end up hearing them. I could eventually hear them, but only when we got close. I want to hear like a 17 year old!
 
So, I started researching hearing devices for birders. Seems like someone has solved this problem, right? Or, better yet, has figured out a way to make my hearing even better than a 17 year old’s! Why not? With my Swarovskis I can see better than any 17 yo with their bare eyes. They augment my natural sight hugely. Why not wear a hearing device that augments my natural hearing?
 
I knew that actual hearing aids prescribed by a doctor were out of my price range. So, I looked into a category of hearing augmentation devices called personal Sound Amplification Products (PSAPS). These are not quite hearing aids, are marketed to those with mild hearing loss like me, and tend to be much less expensive. Unfortunately, in the boilerplate language that EVERY PSAP company uses, “bird watching” is mentioned. So, when searching for people who have used these things for birding you come across that same phrase in every write-up, but almost no actual reports from birders. There is also an enormous range of PSAP options from $30 each to $1200 each with little useful data for distinguishing among them.
 
I really only found one device that was marketed specifically to birders. This device, Songfinder, lowers high pitches so that they can be heard. I don’t think my hearing is that bad in the upper register yet to necessitate these. And, they are being discontinued.
 
I did find a few articles in the medical audiology literature where researchers have tested several PSAPs. They are mostly being tested for their ability to help individuals with mild hearing loss distinguish speech. And, that often involves cutting out background noise – like bird sounds? A few PSAPs were tested across multiple articles and came out as being “not crap.” I also tried to find literature on what pitches these PSAPS could reproduce, thinking that the higher they could deal with, the better for birding.
 
I ended up with a list of five that I thought might be worth trying. That list got shortened to three because Soundhawk appears to be out of business. And, the Bose Hearphones involve something you wear around your neck. As I got to thinking about it, I wondered if that would be a problem with binocular straps, backpacks, and weird NPS collars. So, in the end I decided to try 1. Nuheara IQbuds Boost, 2. Sound World Solutions CS50+, and 3. The Etymotic Bean quiet sound amplifier.
 
My plan is to review each, do some tests, then put it all together and do a Big Day with the one I like the best. 

The Beaver Pond Loop is probably the best, easy bird hike on the east side of the park. Hey, you don't even have to pay admission to the park because the trail head is before you reach the entrance. I cover this trail in "Glacier is for the birds" and on page 72 I mention that continuing on toward Red Eagle lake is one of the best locations to see Northern Hawk Owl. This was true again during the summer of 2018. Within a mile of the beaver pond loop junction on your way to Red Eagle Lake might be worth a look...There's lots of good birding as you continue toward the lake as well.

Each year during early June I lead a bird hike along the Beaver Pond loop trail with fellow Glacier National Park naturalists as a bit of a refresher. It's a good chance for me to knock the rust off my ears as well and enjoy this spectacular park in early season. This year we ended up finding 37 species including a couple drumming Ruffed Grouse, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Mountain Bluebird, Gray Catbird, lots of Macgillivray's Warblers, and a couple Western Tanagers. A Cassin's Vireo confused me momentarily because I was trying to make the call into that of a Dusky Flycatcher.  I don't hear Cassin's Vireos on the east side of the park very often so I wasn't expecting it. The most interesting find, however was a Black-backed Woodpecker nest hole. It isn't easy to find unless you happen to see the birds using it. But, the adults should be in the area. From the trailhead head along the low portion of the trail so you are taking the loop counter clockwise. Pass the small wetland and start heading uphill through the Douglas Fir. You will eventually enter a taller spruce-fir forest that is live and grading into a forest that was part of the 2006? Red Eagle fire.  It is on the left side of the trail somewhere before you get into the burn and five minutes walk before you hit the big clearing. Good Birding!

Rob Chaney wrote a nice article in the Missoulian newspaper that highlighed "Glacier is for the Birds" as a good holiday gift idea. My mother would second that notion...

I decided over the summer that my family has received so much from Glacier National Park over the last 22 years that we really needed to give more back. So, we decided to donate all the profits from this book to the Glacier Conservancy. The Conservancy does great things for the park each year including funding the rebuilding of trails, Bull Trout conservation, Black Swift and Harlequin Duck research, the Native America Speaks program, and a huge number of other things.  

A bit of news about the book. It is currently for sale on Amazon and is in several book stores around the park and in Kalispell and Whitefish. And, as of a few days ago it finally received clearance to be sold within the park. Of course that will have to wait until next summer... There were also several articles written about the Book and my family:
A nice article in the Flathead Beacon.
A book review in Washington State Magazine.
And, a really nice front page article that isn't online in my local paper, the Zionsville Sentinel.
Thanks to all for the support!
​

    I really like this hike, but only early in the morning. It’s important to get there early because it is packed after 11 a.m. during the height of the summer season. You will walk primarily through the 2015 Reynolds Creek burn, which is interesting in itself. But, there are also amazing waterfalls, slot canyons, beautiful rock gardens, mossy cliffs, old spruce and fir and towering vantage points from which to view St. Mary Lake. Along with the great views of the mountains that the burnt trees allow, you also have excellent views of birds. Often in the forest, if you hear a bird it can be very difficult to find it. Here in the burn, it is much easier. Watch also for nest holes of woodpeckers and Tree Swallows.
    Park at Sunrift Gorge and walk up the short trail to see the long slot canyon. The rushing water tends to be rather loud, so finding birds here is difficult. Dusky Flycatcher and others are possible here. American Dippers are probable along much of this hike that parallels river courses or where there are waterfalls. Dippers love these fast rushing rivers that provide good habitat for the insect nymphs and larvae they feed on. Listen for their almost cricket-like flight call and watch for a slate-gray fat little bird cruising up or down the river.
    Head down and under the bridge toward the first of the three falls, Baring Falls. As you go under the bridge, look up and notice the soda straw structures. These are geologic features often found in caves that form when water picks up, then deposits minerals as it drips from the ceiling. The soda straw gets longer as water flows through the middle of the straw and hangs in an evaporating droplet on the tip. That droplet slowly evaporates, leaving minerals and thus a longer soda straw behind. When the middle of the straw gets plugged for any reason, the water will flow along the outside of the soda straw, depositing minerals along the way and creating a stalactite.
    For most of this hike you will walk through the 2015 burn, however, you will find some living spruce-fir forest containing Douglas fir and lodgepole pine. Young lodgepole pine, spruce and fir trees will begin growing over the next few years. The understory is loaded with dogbane, thimbleberry, huckleberry, red twinberry, Rocky Mountain maple and a great diversity of wildflowers such as yarrow, arnica, twisted stalk, false Solomon’s seal, birch-leaf spirea and others. All the dead trees mean good insect habitat, which means a buffet for insect eating birds. As you are heading down (and I mean down; it’s steep!) the winding trail toward Baring Falls, enjoy the beautiful views while watching for Dusky Flycatcher, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Swainson’s Thrush, Warbling Vireo, Macgillivray’s Warbler, and Wilson’s Warbler. Check out the hummingbirds going after the nectar in the twisted stalk flowers. They are pollinators of the bell-shaped, single flowers hanging from each axil of this plant.
    Take a right at the junction and you will quickly reach Baring Falls where you should spend some time at the shore watching for American Dippers. Scan the rocks by the water at the base of the falls, then downstream. There is often a dipper nest near where the water actually falls. Sometimes it is right behind the veil of water, so you may see an American Dipper fly through the water of the falls as it exits its nest. Scan especially the rocks near the falls for nests. Dipper nests are typically made of moss and lichens and will usually look like a light- or mustard-brown dome. If you do get lucky and see the American Dipper family, spend some time watching. It’s not often you get to see birds flying under water unless you are in the Antarctic watching penguins. And besides, the red, green and tan rock make this a really beautiful waterfall.
    Grizzly and Black Bears began using the burned area immediately after the fire. In spring 2016, a couple female grizzlies were trapped and given collars as part of an ongoing study of breeding success and mortality. One was well over twenty years old with teeth worn down to the gums. She was bony, scrawny with bad hear and hip bones protruding due to muscle loss from advanced age. Amazingly, the old girl had a cub of the year with her. Our bears tend to have pretty bad teeth thanks to the fact that 15% of their total diet is candy: Huckleberries!
    After leaving Baring Falls you’ll take a short walk down to the boat dock. Scan the lake then continue around the cliffs and up the trail. Here comes the prettiest stretch of trail. As you climb, there will be gorgeous, mossy cliffs on the upslope side of the trail covered with wildflowers such as yarrow, mariposa lily, ragwort, paintbrush, columbine, and shooting stars. Listen for the raspy Robin-like song of the Western Tanager and find the singer. The sight of the gorgeous yellow, red and black bird will be worth the effort. As you get higher and higher above St. Mary Lake, the trail has several high cliffy viewing points where you are hundreds of feet up, looking almost straight down at the lake. In some spots you could take a big swan-dive down into the lake, but I don’t recommend it. These are fantastic wildflower rock-gardens loaded with buckwheat, blue penstemon, ragwort, desert parsley, chokecherry, paintbrush, stonecrop, mariposa lily, common yarrow, spotted saxifrage and blue-pod lupine. These are also great birding spots for scanning the lake for waterfowl, scanning the trees around the lake (especially at the inlet) for Bald Eagle, and looking into the tops of trees below you for songbirds. At these gaps look in the tops of trees for Hairy Woodpecker, Dusky Flycatcher, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Mountain Bluebird, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Warbling Vireo, Yellow-rumped Warbler and Chipping Sparrow. Then, watch for Calliope and Rufous Hummingbirds going after nectar in paintbrush and other flowers.
    There are two Saint Mary cutoff trails that bring you back up to the road, but take the left fork to keep going toward St. Mary Falls. Between those two junctions is the best of the high spots overlooking St. Mary Lake. Definitely take out your trail mix and sit down with your wildflower guide and hang out for a while as you watch birds in the treetops at eye-level.
    As you continue walking, enjoy the view of massive Virginia Falls across the valley through the burned trees. Back in the burn, watch and listen for Black-backed Woodpecker, American Three-toed Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Hairy Woodpecker, Rufous Hummingbird, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Red-breasted Nuthatch, House Wren, Swainson’s Thrush, Warbling Vireo, Northern Waterthrush, Yellow Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, MacGillivray’s Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Black-headed Grosbeak, Western Tanager, and Dark-eyed Junco. Also watch for Hawk Owls.
    Then you are at St. Mary Falls—a spectacular, powerful two-tier falls with a massive amount of water flowing over it. The swirling, churning water below the bridge makes you instinctively hang on to your kids and pull out your camera. Oh, and watch for American Dippers. In 2016, the nest was just to the right of the second level of the falls. It was a rusty clump of vegetation just above green moss no more than a foot or two from the raging water.
    Walking around the corner you’ll start going uphill toward Virginia Falls. After about 200 yards you leave the burn and enter a tall spruce and fir forest with thimbleberry, purple virgin’s bower and beargrass understory. It’s a good idea to listen for Pacific Wren, Varied Thrush, Wilson’s Warbler, and Townsend’s Warbler along the stretch between Virginia and St. Mary Falls. Golden-crowned Kinglet, Swainson’s Thrush and, if you are lucky, White-winged Crossbill are all possible here. Also, take advantage of the few great places to view the cascading river along the way to the big falls, always looking for American Dippers and staying away from any wet rock. This would be a great spot to have lunch or a snack. And, while you are resting, notice the Grinnell argillite (rusty red rock) and look for ripples preserved in the rock that were formed in the ancient, one-billion-year-old sea bed.
    When you get to the first sign for Virginia Falls, go ahead and cross the bridge and enjoy the view from the rocks on the far side. While you are there, notice the “fossilized” mud cracks in the billion year-old rock at your feet.
    Definitely take the last short walk up to the viewing area for Virginia Falls. It is worth it just to get a feel deep in your gut for the power of the water crashing over the falls. You will be impressed. And you will likely get a bit wet from the spray, so hide your optics under your arm.

After 21 years of birding in Glacier and about three years of blood, sweat, and swearing. Glacier is for the Birds; a Trail Guide to the Birds of Glacier National Park is finally here. It is a trail guide covering 48 trails, roads, or other locations with details on what you will find along the way. It focuses on birds first and foremost with descriptions of where to find over 170 species. It also covers plants, geology, mammals, basic ecology, and recommendations for what to do, where to do it, and when. It's written conversationally because it's meant to be a substitute for when you can't just have me walk along the trails with you. It's meant for people who like (or think they might like) birds, but it can also take the place of a more universal trail guide because of all the other good, non-avian information, not to mention the 55 maps, it contains.

​Within the trail descriptions are 42 informational boxes giving facts and ideas about such topics as the importance of a fungus to cavity nesting birds, historic fire regimes and how GNP deals with fire, Darwin's ideas on species, beaver as restoration ecologists, giardia, moose, and several covering geology. An appendix gives suggestions for what to do if you only have one day, if you need to stay near your car, or if you love to hike. In the intro I talk about how humans are actually more similar to birds than to other mammals in some important ways and I give tips for birdwatching in Glacier, especially given there are big, furry mammals with sharp teeth traipsing about. 
It's already on Amazon, but if you are going to buy it, I'd prefer you purchase it here: https://www.createspace.com/6249233.

     Picture in your mind a farmer’s field that was left fallow for a year.  What would you expect to see growing?  Weeds, mostly.  Right?  How about after 5 years?  Maybe some shrubs and small trees?  50 years?  A young forest, perhaps?  In one hundred years you’ll likely see a mature forest and in 500 years, probably a different forest type altogether – the “climax” forest.  This process is called succession and all landscapes go through it.  The pattern and speed of the succession may differ among locations, and there may not truly be any set endpoint or “climax” for any particular area.  But, you get the idea.
     What natural disturbances like fire, flood, avalanche, and tornadoes do is knock succession back a few “seral stages,” a few years, tens of years, or even hundreds of years.  Take fire, for instance.  Some fires are hot enough that they can take a mature forest and bring it back to, basically, bare dirt.  Here in Glacier, avalanches tend to take mature forest and convert it to shrubs.  Even bear digs are a natural disturbance.  These are areas that look like a rototiller has gone through.  It’s just bears digging up roots and bulbs.  They take a meadow and return it to dirt.  Dirt that has been nicely seeded with the plants they turned over.
     You call them “natural disasters” back home, but these natural disturbances are the reason you go to a place like Glacier National Park! You could have just gone to the zoo in your home town or an arboretum or botanical garden.  That would have been much easier than coming all the way out here!  But you didn’t.  Why?  Because something is happening here.  There are processes.  It is a system.  There are interactions.  Ecology.
     Natural disturbances are part of that process and a part that creates the diversity of habitats that we birders love.  The reason why Glacier has an amazingly high number of breeding bird species is, in part, those disturbances.  We have been taught by Disney to cherish the “balance of nature.”  There is no true balance, there is constant change and chaos.  And life has evolved to deal with and take advantage of this lack of balance.

Below are drafts of two of the over 50 maps contained in Glacier is for the Birds. They were designed following the KISS principle in an attempt to make them useful, but uncluttered.