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.
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!). A Red Squirrel, also at Baldwin Spring.
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.
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. A Reakirt’s Blue on Dalea. And another Juniper Hairstreak, also on Dalea.
I’m still here in the Black Hills. It is has been pretty cool and also quite a bit of rain, one afternoon I got hailed on, lots of hail but it was small. I’m up to 332 species of birds for the year. At my campsite, the pine cone crop is nonexistent, but I can drive about 5 miles north and there are lots of cones, and that is where I got my latest species, a Red Crossbill. The weather looks suitable for some astrophotography for the next few nights, so if that works out I will be staying up late.
I was at Mud Springs when I got this male Red Crossbill. At first it stayed high in the trees, as I was about to leave it flew down low and landed on a short pine. It actually let me walk up pretty close to it. I went to Newcastle for groceries and on the way drove up to the Elk Mountain Lookout. In past years, I’ve found nesting Lewis’s Woodpeckers up there and this year was no exception. By the 4th of July they are always feeding young. At my favorite bird photography spot, an Ovenbird posing on a lichen covered log. Western Tanagers are easy at my photo spot, this female came in very close, the male is out of focus behind her. And here is the male. While hiking out from the photo spot, I got this Juniper Hairstreak on a coneflower.
I left the Slim Buttes on Wednesday and headed for Spearfish Canyon. I got a campsite at Rod and Gun Campground. It has been a few years since I’ve in this part of the hills and it didn’t take long to remember why. There are ATV’s and people everywhere. The development of Roughlock Falls has done nothing but attract more people. Anyone who wants some quiet must be there at sunrise, then one can have a couple of hours of quiet for some birding. At any rate, I was glad to leave. I am back at my quiet spot in the southern Black Hills. It is free (Rod and Gun is $21.50 a night) and quiet. The logging is pretty much over or has moved far to the south. This morning I hiked up Hell Canyon and picked up a Lewis’s Woodpecker for my year list. At Jumpoff Spring I added a Townsend’s Solitaire. I’m up to 330 species now for my year list.
One of my target birds at Roughlock Falls was a Veery, which had been reported on eBird. It didn’t take long to find it early Thursday morning. American Dippers have nested at the falls for many years, probably centuries. I found this one roosting over the waterfall and caught it winking its white eyelid. It is thought that dippers use the white eyelid to signal each other. In their noisy environment, visual signals work better than calls. I also visited Ward Draw, hoping for some other birds I needed and got several Golden-crowned Kinglets. Ward Draw was a pleasant change from Roughlock Falls, no one else was there. In Ward Draw I saw lots of Twinflower, a common flower in spruce forest of the Black Hills. On the Rimrock Trail above Rod and Gun Campground I came across a few Wood Lily. A Bee-mimic Robber Fly. I don’t think I have ever seen one before. This was in Ward Draw.
I’ve been checking out the area, picking up a few more new birds. Yesterday there was an eBird alert on a Cassin’s Kingbird just 20 miles away, so I went to look for it this morning. I did not find it and neither did another birder who came to look for it. Cassin’s Kingbird is quite rare in South Dakota but I saw lots of them in Arizona and New Mexico this spring. I did finally find a Mountain Bluebird though, which brought me up to 324 species.
I found a pair of Long-billed Curlews on the Park Road, they must have had young ones hidden in the grass as they kept harassing me. This may be the best flight shot I’ve ever got of a Long-billed Curlew. A mother Pronghorn with her twins. There are lots of Pronghorns around, this just happened to be close to the road and in nice light!I was at the pond in Deer Draw this morning, when I heard a slurping sound. I crept up to the pond and saw this cow Elk in the water, as soon as she saw me she took off. Photo in bad light. Yellow Avens (Geum aleppicum) with a visiting Nomad Bee. Yellow Avens is a common flower that is native across temperate North America, Europe and Asia. A Badger I saw way out on the prairie, I could not get closer. Weidemeyer’s Admiral on Woodbine. Wilson’s Snipe on a post by a small wetland. The 324th species for my year list, a Mountain Bluebird.
I’m currently in the Slim Buttes of Harding County. I spent a few days at a Shadehill Reservoir campground, near Lemmon, South Dakota. The Grand River National Grassland is in this area and is a good place to get Baird’s Sparrow. I left there this morning and its a good thing as that campground just got hit by a severe thunderstorm, with large hail and strong wind. It is nice here. So far no mosquitoes. I’m up to 322 species of birds for the year now. It is getting harder to find new ones, but I seem to get one or two every day since I left Pierre.
Finding a Caspian Tern was surprisingly difficult but I finally got one on Discovery Island while I was still in Pierre. A wet Baird’s Sparrow. I only saw three and heard several, the Merlin app picked up more but I couldn’t hear them. A very secretive bird that usually hides in the grass, on this morning I found this one on the road, I assume it was avoiding the wet grass. My 322nd species for the year, Trumpeter Swans at the JB Pond. They have nested there for several years now. A fledgling Chestnut-collared Longspur in the rain. I suspect these young birds were having a hard time staying warm. Some seemed quite lethargic. There were lots of them on the road and I saw some dead ones. A distant shot of a Short-eared Owl. This is another species that I haven’t seen for a long time. I’m hoping for some better opportunities!A Wolf Spider carrying her young. A Silvery Blue butterfly, one of the few butterflies I’ve been able to photograph recently. The Grand River National Grassland has an abundance of wild flowers, I selected this one to show, Yellow Sundrops, Oenothera serrulata.A female Lazuli Bunting that posed nicely for me.
My 2024 year bird list keeps growing, but more slowly. I’m up to 310 species now. Perhaps the most exciting was a Scarlet Tanager on LaFramboise Island. Scarlet Tanagers are not very common in this part of the world. A Dunlin was another good find but I had already seen one in Arizona this year so it didn’t add to my species list.
I got this male Scarlet Tanager yesterday. This morning, Rick and Susan went back with me and we found the male and this time a female. I didn’t get any photos better than this one though. Susan spotted a patch of Meadow Anemones, I haven’t seen this plant in flower for a long time so I had to take a photo. A Blue Grosbeak in the shelterbelt behind the house. I had spotted this bird a few days before but this is the first chance I’ve had to photograph it. I made another trip to the Fort Pierre National Grasslands to pick up a few new species. I got some Greater Prairie Chickens and some Chestnut-collared Longspurs. I found a pair of longspurs that were on a prairie dog mound, this female was preening and fluffing out enough to reveal a brood patch. Here’s the male in flight, not the best photo but not too bad either. In the same area, I got 5 Greater Prairie Chickens but they all flushed at a distance so no photos. An Upland Sandpiper walking through the grass, the yellow flowers are buttercups. Another nice find, a Dunlin at the same wetland the Red Knot was found at a couple of weeks ago. There are only two other records in eBird of a Dunlin on the FPNG. Another first for the year, a Field Sparrow. Here’s a Prairie Rattlesnake I came across in the prairie dog colony. I wanted to get it in better light but it went down a hole before I could get it to move. Nothing special, a Common Yellowthroat, but I really like this sharp image as it clings sideways on a cattail stalk.
I’m back in Pierre, South Dakota again. I picked up a few more birds in Nebraska but since I’ve been back in South Dakota, I have picked up 47 more species. Today, I got the 300th, a pair of Common Terns. Just a few minutes ago, 301 with a Common Nighthawk fly over. I missed a lot of migrants though, I found hardly any migrant warblers, vireos, and sparrows. I missed out on Harris’s Sparrows and others that I expected to get. I will have to try for some of those in the fall. But, I’m still doing pretty good, I have almost double the number of species I had this time last year.
By far the best bird I’ve seen since getting back to SD is this Red Knot. Dan Svingen found it on the Fort Pierre National Grassland and it stayed long enough for several local birders to see it. I have seen eight Red Knots in South Dakota in my lifetime. Also present were a good number of Short-billed Dowitchers. There were a lot of shorebirds present. Of the few migrant warblers I saw, I did manage a couple of Magnolia Warblers. I also got Blackpoll and Tennessee warblers. Then there are the local breeding warblers, like this American Redstart. On my way through Nebraska, I stopped at Valentine National Wildlife Refuge for a short walk. I saw these flowers along a trail, different than anything I’ve seen in the northern plains. This is Manystem Pea, Lathyrus polymorphus. It is a legume that is found in sandy soils of Nebraska, northeast Colorado and southwest South Dakota.
