Author: Doug Backlund

Northern Lights Surprise

The sun is quite active now. Another powerful X-class flare was reported today and could give us another round of northern lights on the night of the 9th and 10th. Last week, two X flares sent CME’s (coronal mass ejections) toward Earth. Solar storms were predicted on October 5 and 6, but that turned out to be a dud. However, the last two nights, especially last night (Oct. 7), there were unexpected displays of auroras. Last night, I happened to be out there at just the right time.

It was about 9:30 when I saw pillars showing up in the northeast sky. For the next 10-15 minutes, there was a brilliant display that worked its way across the northern sky. The Pleiades are in the lower right, where the red turns green. At the top center, one can see the Double Cluster.

I stitched two frames together for this pano. I really need to get wider angle lens, something in the 14mm class. At 35mm, I can’t get an entire display in the frame. The bright star Capella can be seen a bit right and lower of the center.

Looking toward the Big Dipper. I enhanced the seven stars of the Big Dipper.

Brilliant reds that the camera captured could be seen with the unaided eye, just not this bright.

Later I noticed a patch of nebulosity in the sky almost directly overhead, so I point the camera at it. I believe this is a SAR (stable red arc). SARs are red arcs in the night sky, with a monochromatic glow at 6300 Å that comes from atomic oxygen in the upper atmosphere. The human eye is relatively insensitive to light at this wavelength. SARs are usually so faint that no one notices when they pass overhead. Cameras catch them easily, though. I think what I could see was the green patch and I’m not sure how that came to be there. I’m going to post this on Spaceweather.com and see if I can get an expert opinion.

Another pano, looking due north. As always, one can can open these images in another window for a larger view, assuming use of a computer and monitor.

Birding

350 +1

Today I crossed 350 species for the year. Folks who do ABA area big years consider getting over 700 species to be a good year. To do that one needs to go Texas, Florida, Alaska, California, and other places, and do some pelagic trips. I’m not doing that, I’m happy just birding South Dakota and Arizona and places in between. Anyway, I finally got the two sparrows that the Sparrow Patch is famous for.

The Sparrow Patch is an eBird hotspot, primarily because it is a good place to get Nelson’s Sparrow and LeConte’s Sparrow in the fall migration. They finally showed up! This is a Nelson’s Sparrow. The gray median crown stripe separates it from the LeConte’s Sparrow, which has a white to orange median crown stripe. There are other differences too, but in the field these are usually the easiest to see.

And here is a LeConte’s Sparrow, this image is a large crop so not the best quality. Both of these sparrows are difficult to photograph, they don’t like to stay out in the open very long. LeConte’s Sparrow was #350 for the year.

Later in the morning I went to Farm Island to check my sunflower seed stashes. I was hoping for a Fox Sparrow, but while watching for sparrows I got this Northern Parula! This may be one of the best photos I’ve taken of the species. Like all the other warblers, it was foraging in the Red-osier Dogwoods.

Another Sedge Wren in the Sparrow Patch.

Birding

More Birds

The weather has been very nice for people but it has not helped with birding. This has been the most dismal warbler migration I can remember. Last spring was bad too and I was hoping to make it up this fall, but it did not work out. I’m missing many species that I should have got, like Northern Waterthrush, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Palm Warbler, to name a few. I guess there is still a chance of seeing some warblers I need but time is running out. Sparrows are starting to pick up though. I’ve added a few more species to my year list, I’m up to 346 species now.

Swamp Sparrows have arrived in numbers. Always difficult to photograph well, I was very happy with this shot.

I finally added Sedge Wren to my year list!

Not a new species for the year, but I like how this Marsh Wren posed for me!

A Spotted Towhee coming in for the sunflower seeds I placed on the ground.

White-throated Sparrows are moving through, this one was at my sunflower seed dump.

An Orange-crowned Warbler with a crab spider. The bird was in the shade against a bright background, difficult processing but I guess it came out OK.

Orange-crowned Warbler in nice light! At this time of year, the warblers love to feed in red-osier dogwood, the leaves harbor lots of aphids and other insects.

Here’s one picking the aphids off the underside of the leaves of red-osier dogwood.

Birding Photography

More Birding News

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date September 18, 2024

The migration continues, but here in the Pierre area warblers have been few and far between. I think most of them have passed through already and the next wave of warblers will be mostly Orange-crowned and Yellow-rumps. I missed many migrant warblers last spring that I was hoping to find this fall. This will hurt my year list but there is not much I can do about it. The good news is the Corp of Engineers opened two stilling basin tubes for two days and that attracted a lot of gulls, including at least two Sabine’s Gulls.

Here’s one of the Sabine’s Gulls. It happened to fly by very close to me! There were thousands of gulls feeding on the dead fish coming through the stilling basin tubes. Go to this LINK to see what the stilling basin looked like in 2011 during the big flood. For my 2024 year list this is species #342.

This morning I was watching a large group of gulls on a causeway when they all took off in panic. This Peregrine Falcon was the cause of the panic. It landed on the road then took off, circled around and flew right over me.

This Merlin was also a new bird for the year. It has an unidentified prey in its talons. It seems like Merlin are getting harder to find every year.

Lesser Black-backed Gulls are arriving in small numbers, the first ones I saw were two adults that were too far away for good photos, and this 2nd cycle bird I found on the Legion Beach, easy to get close to! This morning, I saw five in the Oahe Downstream area.

Not the best photo but a good bird, a dark morph Broad-winged Hawk. I haven’t seen one of these since 2017. See the LINK for the last one I saw, I got better photos of that one.

While hiking on LaFramboise Island a week or so ago, I found some fresh Moose tracks. This isn’t the first time a Moose has shown up here. The local Game, Fish and Park game manager said there was a Moose photographed in western Sully County just a few days before. Perhaps it is the same Moose.

Another gull with fishing lure attached. It is probably doomed to a long, slow death.

Birding

Fall Birding Report

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.

Birding Photography

Lightning and Fire

Yesterday afternoon, there were several thunderstorms that went through the area, with lots of lightning but little rain. The National Weather Service had issued a red flag warning and it was a good warning. It was almost sundown when I saw smoke to my south and more smoke to my west. The smoke to the south was more worrisome, there was lots of it and it was hard to tell how far away it was.

This is what it looked like from my camp. I decided I needed to investigate before getting too worried about it. Could be 5 miles away or 20 miles or more.

I drove up Mann Road to the highway, where there is a good view to the south. At 400mm focal length this is what it looked like. I still wasn’t sure how far away it was but I felt like I was in no danger unless the wind started blowing hard from the south. As it turned it, on the news this morning I learned this is the Red Canyon Fire and it is about 20 miles south of my camp.

This is the smoke from the other fire, rising up over the Elk Mountains to my west and no threat to me.

A Blue-gray Gnatcatcher has just caught a stink bug. Lost Spring. There seems to be a bumper crop of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers in this area.

I finally got the Pinyon Jays in Ferguson Canyon. I’ve been checking for them every time I go to Newcastle for groceries, this time it paid off. Species number 334 for the year.

Not a very good photo, but a very good bird for South Dakota. An Ash-throated Flycatcher, only the second record for South Dakota. This was at Lost Spring. I thought maybe some other birders would come to look for it but no one else ever showed up.

I have so many photos of Townsend’s Solitaire that I wonder why bother to take more. I guess this is why, I really like this one!

Same for the Western Wood-Pewee. As you will notice, it is on the same perch. This is at Baldwin Spring, my favorite bird photography spot in the Black Hills (don’t tell anyone!).

Aurora Borealis

Spectacular Aurora Borealis

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date August 12, 2024
4 Comments on Spectacular Aurora Borealis

Last night, I checked Spaceweather.com and as was predicted, a solar storm was brewing. I drove up to the top of the Antelope Ridge Road where I have an expansive view to the north and east. It was perfectly clear and the moon was setting in the west, excellent conditions. It just so happened that it was also the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, and I did see some bright meteors too.

It wasn’t even dark yet when I saw the first sign of aurora. I could see these pillars with the unaided eye. Thinking this was a good sign I texted other potential aurora watchers to let them know.

For about 3 hours, this is as good as it got. It was a bright aurora, easily visible but not many pillars and not much color.

At 12:30 AM MDT, the whole sky suddenly erupted. For an aurora like this, a 35mm lens is not a wide enough view! This is the eastern side of the display. I quickly realized that I was now overexposing, it was so bright. I ended up using 15 second exposures at f4 and ISO 800. This was by far the most colorful display I have ever seen, I could see the red and green with the unaided eye. The camera just did it better.

Due north after it started to recede a bit.

Here’s the western edge, I enhanced the stars of the Big Dipper.

I took over 70 images, but most of the time I just watched the awesome display. One really has to be there and see it to fully appreciate it.

I kept watching for something else to develop, like STEVE, but it never did show up. According to Spaceweather.com, the brightest part of the storm was a G4 severe magnetic storm.

Birding Herps Insects Photography

Back at Camp

I left Pierre last week and headed for my quiet spot, near Jewel Cave. It is much cooler here and I have shade now, a big plus! It has been a very hot summer so far. I’ve just been up to my usual activities, birding, hiking, photography.

While still in Pierre, I spent a morning watching Caspian Terns fishing on the river. I’ve tried to get a good shot of one in a dive but so far, I’ve had no luck with that.

It is easy enough to catch them after the dive though!

Also while still at Pierre, I got into a few Buff-breasted Sandpipers. I never got very close to them, this is about as good as the photography gets. It is nice to have a Killdeer in the frame for a size comparison. Species number 333 for the year, it is getting harder to find new ones!

While photographing birds at Baldwin Spring, I saw this Common Gartersnake at the water. Some still call this the Red-sided Gartersnake. It appeared to be waiting for some prey to show up but I never saw any action like that.

A Red-shafted (Northern) Flicker at Baldwin Spring. This is my favorite spring to sit at for bird photography!

A female Spotted Towhee in for a drink, right where the gartersnake was. It was a big gartersnake but I don’t know if it could have taken a bird of this size.

A Black-capped Chickadee tossing down some kind of insect.

It’s that time of year, when the Common Wood-Nymphs come out and fly around.

And the Robber Flies too. This is a species known as the Hanging Thieves, known for hanging from a perch instead of landing on it.

Birding Flowers and Plants Herps Insects

Snakes and Birds

I was looking around the area by the camper when I found two Vesper Sparrows obviously agitated about something other than me. I searched the ground near where they seemed to be focusing their attention.

And this is what I found. An Eastern Racer had captured one of their nestlings and was in the process of swallowing it. Although the Latin name for this species is *Coluber constrictor*, Eastern Racers are not a true constrictor, usually swallowing their prey alive. In this case, I think the bird was suffocated first. I watched it for a long time but it finally took the bird into some tall grass where I couldn’t get photos.

One afternoon I found this Rufous Hummingbird at the feeder, two days later it is still here and another one has joined it. I took a hike in Hell Canyon this morning and saw two more! This one is an immature female.

Here’s one of the Rufous Hummingbirds in Hell Canyon, an immature male.

And now a few flowers and butterflies: Richardson’s Geranium, in Hell Canyon.

And another Juniper Hairstreak, also on Dalea.

Astrophotography

Summer Astro

I had a few pretty good nights, I put in some hours, staying up to around 2 AM. That gave me about 3-4 hours of shooting time each night, assuming everything went smoothly. I lost some time the first night because the guide scope had lost focus and it was difficult getting it back in focus.