I left Pierre last Sunday morning and headed south. First night was at McCook, NE and the second at the roadside park at Timpas, CO. Now I’m at the Bosque Birders RV Park near Socorro, NM. I paid for two nights here since I was really tired of driving and needed a break. Birding at Bosque del Apache NWR is pretty slow but I’m seeing lots of birds I haven’t seen for many months now. Tomorrow, I plan to drive to Ajo but may make a stop at the Sonoran Desert Museum outside of Tucson. There has been a White-eared Hummingbird there for several days. It would be a life bird for me if it stays. I will need to get an early start for that, it is over 500 miles to Ajo and I won’t be able to make it if I spend too much time looking for this hummingbird.
While in Pierre, I saw this mantis laying eggs on the corner of my parents’ house. I’ve never seen this before. This is the European Mantis, not native. They are introduced into gardens as a means of pest control, but this is a misguided action. Mantids eat any insect, beneficial or harmful. They are not particular. This fall migration produced more Nashville Warblers than I’ve ever seen before, here is one of them on a red-osier dogwood. Here’s a somewhat rare bird for the Pierre area, a Yellow-throated Vireo. I keep a few county life lists, and this was a new species for my Stanley County life list (now at 292 species).Orange-crowned Warbler, also on red-osier dogwood. Notice all the dark spots on the leaves, those are aphids that the warblers feed on, heavily, in the fall. Yellow-rumped Warblers are known to feed on fruits, usually in the winter, but this one is already eating cedar berries in September. The ability to eat and digest fruits allows this species to winter further north than most warbler species.The only photo I’ve taken since I left Pierre, a Roadrunner at Bosque del Apache NWR.
