Central Montana 2020 Bird Season
 

Just got home yesterday after 3 weeks in the Lewistown, Montana area. It was a late spring with moderate to heavy summer rain and little to no hail to date. They are having a bumper crop of grasshoppers, great chick food! Based on the number of chicks I've observed we should have an above average season for Sharptail and Pheasants however the Hun population is still down. But the bad news is you BETTER be prepared for rattlesnakes. Every rancher I talked to all said it's the worst rattlesnake year they have seen in at least the last 20 years. I averaged killing 2 a day for three straight weeks!!!

Scott:

Was this the one, the Prairie Rattlesnake, reportedly the only one native to Montana?

“….the Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus mitchellii) ranges across the state. Tourists need to be aware that they often live in and around the state’s best fishing holes. Residents also need to stay aware that in some instances they are found in the neighborhood.”

I was told Big Timber, MT has had such a issue this year they've hired a company to capture and relocate these rattlesnakes.
The ones I killed on average were 24-30 inches and were in a ugly mood for being disrupted.

I do believe these are prairie rattlers. However in my lifetime here in Arizona we having been on the receiving end of a undesirable immigrant from California called the Mojave Green Rattlesnake. It is my understanding their venom is both ototoxic and neurotoxic and quite harmful so the buzzing of a rattlesnake makes me extremely nervous.