Gus Raaum was hired by Chet Huntley as the first employee of Big Sky Resort. His family had been living in Jackson Hole, Raaum running the ski area there. “That’s how they found him,” his daughter, Lou Ann Harris, said.
The family moved to Bozeman and Raaum drove up and down the canyon seven days a week for eight years. He was responsible for building the Resort up from nothing, Harris said. “It was a huge job.”
“He got interested in birds through me,” she said.
Living in Washington in her 40s, Harris was looking to get involved with something in the area. She liked birds, not considering herself a serious birder, but went on some field trips with the local Audubon chapter. At the national level, an Audubon Society is dedicated to the conservation of birds, habitat and wildlife. Societies are broken down to state and local levels.
Her growing interest led to boards and administrative operation of the Audubon chapter in Washington, eventually serving the Washington State Audubon Society for six years. After moving back to Montana, it just felt natural to continue this work which led to Harris and her husband joining the Montana Audubon chapter, the Sacajawea Audubon Society.
This year, Montana’s Christmas Bird Count occurred between Dec. 15 and Jan. 5. “What it gives us is a snapshot of where birds are this time of year,” Harris said. Bozeman has the longest running Christmas Count in the state, beginning even before the Audubon Society was formed. Counts happened in seven different areas, Bozeman, West Yellowstone and Ennis in closest proximity to Big Sky.
60 or so people are assigned to a 15-mile radius count circle, and with that number of people searching through the same area, even experienced birders may see something new. “I really like the social aspect of it and I also like going out and finding surprises, birds that you’re not really expecting to see in December in Montana,” Harris said.
One of these birds was a Western Tanager, a neo-tropical migrant from Central and South America, found in Bozeman. It is rare to see this bird in the winter and for unknown reasons, it did not migrate with the others. “He’s surviving eating dead honeybees in a community garden in Bozeman,” Harris said.
The Sacajawea Audubon Society hosted their first field trip in Big Sky last summer and additionally aided Randy Hall in his development of a birding trail for Lone Mountain Guest Ranch. Since Harris’s dad began his career on the mountain, Big Sky has grown in just about all ways imaginable. “We are trying to reach out to the Big Sky community and do more and offer more up there,” she said.
Once spring rolls around, the Sacajawea Audubon Society will host bird identification classes and workshops and continue with weekly field trips.
Info boxes with below information:
Bozeman Christmas Bird Count Dec 14
74 participants
73 species (all-time high)
24,589 individual birds counted
Highlights: Western Tanager and Black-headed Grosbeak counted
Ennis Christmas Bird Count Dec 118
25 participants
64 species (record high is 67 species in 2015)
4, 599 individual birds counted
Highlight: 43 bald eagles
West Yellowstone Christmas Bird Count Dec 29
14 participants
29 species
704 individual birds counted
Highlight: 79 Trumpeter Swans
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