In early January, a holiday tradition commenced as 41 people gathered in Kalispell and explored the city with binoculars and field guides. Through single-digit temperatures, this group spent the entire day tallying the various bird species that call this city home.

The results were bountiful: 19,380 birds were counted and 78 different species. The 17th annual Kalispell Christmas Bird Count, organized through the Flathead Audubon, ventured within a 15-mile diameter circle around Kalispell, including Evergreen, parts of the Flathead River corridor, the Owen Sowerwine Natural Area Happy Valley, Herron Park and Kuhn’s Wildlife Area.

“It’s mostly for fun but it also gains interesting data about bird trends and the distribution,” said Pete Fisher, who compiled the data for Flathead Audubon.

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Stan Lynde took the heart of Montana and shared it on the funny pages of newspapers across the country and abroad.

A new exhibit at the Montana Historical Society – “From the Heart: Stan Lynde’s Comic Creations” – showcases Lynde artwork and artifacts.

Lynde was best known for the Rick O’Shay comic strip, which began in 1958 and had a daily readership of 15 million in 100 newspapers during its 20-year span. In 1979, he started the strip Latigo, which ran through 1983. He even found a international audience, particularly in Sweden.

That probably makes Lynde Montana’s most-read author, MHS information officer Tom Cook said. Cook grew up reading the strip in Nebraska and following the adventures of Lynde’s most famous characters, Deputy Sheriff Rick O’Shay and gunslinger Hipshot Percussion.

“Rick O’Shay was cool, but Hipshot was something else. He could go either way, good or bad,” Cook said.

Not long before Lynde died in 2013 at age 81, he donated much of his remaining collection to the historical society. Some is still singed – or even completely blackened – from a 1990 house fire that destroyed many of his things.

Lynde had a “rancher’s perspective” on the fire, taking a long view.

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