Black-billed Magpies are Bitterroot Valley's cleanup specialists
As I drove by the hawthorn tree on Teller, I could not miss the tangle of branches, appearing to be over one meter in height and width, settled in amongst the thorny branches. Upon close inspection, you could see what looked like a roof of haphazardly woven sticks covering the top of the twig cluster.
Visitors to Teller Refuge often ask about the entanglements, but most of us living in the Bitterroot know that this structure is a nest of one of our more common bird species in the valley, the Black-billed Magpie.