It has been almost three weeks since I’ve made a report, I will have do better than that! I’m back in Pierre for the foreseeable future. It is not truly fall yet but the birds don’t know that. Migration seems to be in full swing but the weather has been so nice that it is hard to find them. Most of the warblers seem to be just passing through. We need a period of bad weather to ground them. The only new warbler for my year list has been Black-and-White Warbler. Other new species for my list are Blue-headed Vireo, Ruddy Turnstone, and Sprague’s Pipit. I got two Sprague’s Pipits this morning, number 339 for the year.
At my usual spot for fall Sprague’s Pipits, a prairie dog colony in the Fort Pierre National Grassland. These birds respond well to playback during fall migration. They will fly right in and land. Another Sprague’s Pipit, in the same area. While I was looking for the pipits, a Ferruginous Hawk flew overhead. It was almost two weeks ago when I got into a nice flock of migrants, there were two Blue-headed Vireos in it. All I could get were photos of this bird straight overhead. This Black-and-White Warbler was almost overhead too. I have seen quite a few of these but they are always difficult to photograph. Another new one for the year, a Ruddy Turnstone. It was on a Missouri River sand bar maybe 400 yards from the road. I had good views through the spotting scope but it was too far away for a good photo. I tried anyway and got lucky with this take-off shot, clearly showing the black and white wing and tail pattern of a Ruddy Turnstone. This is the first Ruddy Turnstone I’ve seen in many years. A juvenile Caspian Tern. I rarely see the species in this plumage. Here’s an unusual sight, for two reasons. One, this Great Blue Heron is swimming in deep water, at least 8 ft. deep. I don’t recall ever seeing that before. The second reason is it has caught a paddlefish! I wish I had seen this entire event, but this is all I got and I can verify that it was able to fly away with the paddlefish. I see this too often. Gulls (and other birds) with fishing lures caught in their beaks, or wrapped up in fishing line. I have a collection of photos like this.
One reply on “Fall Birding Report”
Those warblers would certainly get me excited!!!!