This morning I left the Slim Buttes and drove to Pierre to get my new truck, a 2023 Toyota Tacoma. It is a lot smaller than the Ford F-150 I had but I think I can fit all my stuff in it. I may have to downsize the load a little. I can’t say I can recommend a Ford F-150 to anyone, given all the problems I had with it. Maybe I just got a bad one. Anyway, I’m glad to be rid of it. I may stay here a few days before heading for my next destination, as of now that is unknown but likely somewhere in New Mexico.
A few days ago I was hiking in the Red Cross Spring area of the Slim Buttes. Suddenly, out of nowhere, this Long-eared Owl flew in and landed in a pine tree. The birds in the area got excited and started mobbing it, but they didn’t keep at it too long. I got some pretty good shots of this Black-capped Chickadee as it foraged for seeds on the seed heads of coneflowers. This is a Juba Skipper, quite a rare species in South Dakota, with only nine records, according to The Butterflies of South Dakota. It is also a county record for Harding County. Using my new filter, I worked on this a few nights ago. This is the Lion Nebula, in Cepheus. It is very faint and in a rich star field. Without the filter and my new software, I would not have had much of chance of getting anything useful. This is a very faint nebula. I want to add more exposure to it when I get a chance.
It is typical August, birding has slowed, butterflies are much less numerous but there are the late summer species showing up now. I’m seeing flocks of nighthawks moving through. There are two species of late summer butterflies that I’d like to find, Mead’s Wood-Nymph and Pine White. I’ve seen Mead’s Wood-Nymph once before, in the North Cave Hills. Pine Whites have never been reported from the pine forests of Harding County, but they are common in the Black Hills. I had a few nights that were good for astro.
I saw the first one yesterday and today I saw more. Western Branded Skippers are uncommon in South Dakota, and this is the first time I’ve seen them. They are nectaring on Curlycup Gumweed. I saw this Red-headed Woodpecker working on a caterpillar and got some good photos. I do not know what the caterpillar is. A few days ago, I opened up the back topper door and there was a bat sitting on the tailgate of the truck. I got a few photos before it woke up and flew off. Apparently, it had crawled into the gap between the door and tailgate and went to sleep for the day. This is a Little Brown Bat. NGC 6820 is a small reflection nebula near an open star cluster known as NGC 6823.The reflection nebula and cluster within a faint emission nebula called Sh2-86. The whole area is often referred to as NGC 6820. It is about 6000 light years away, in the constellation Vulpecula. Ghosts of Cassiopeia. About 600 light-years distant, the dust clouds are slowly disappearing under the influence of energetic radiation from hot, luminous star Gamma Cassiopeiae. Gamma Cassiopeiae is an eruptive variable star, whose apparent magnitude changes irregularly from 1.6 at its brightest to 3.0 at its dimmest. Gamma Cassiopeiae is physically located only 3 to 4 light-years from the nebulae. Gamma Cassiopeiae is also known as Navi. Navi (Ivan spelled backwards, Ivan was astronaut Gus Grissom’s middle name), is a seldom-used nickname for the star Gamma Cassiopeiae. Grissom used this name on his Apollo 1 mission planning star charts as a joke, and the succeeding Apollo astronauts kept using the name as a memorial after his death when the command module interior caught fire and burned on January 27, 1967.
I’m back in Pierre for a few days. It is hot. Finally, a cooling trend is arriving tomorrow. I’ve been out looking for shorebirds at a wetland northeast of Pierre. Shorebird migration is in full swing and there are lots of birds to see. I was excited to see a Black-necked Stilt. The wetland is in Hughes County and that was a new county bird for me. My Hughes County life list is now at 317.
Black-necked Stilt at Baumgartner Slough, Hughes County, SD. It was a long way out so the photo isn’t very good. There are lots of Black Terns feeding on aquatic insects. I kept trying to get a good shot of this activity and finally I got this juvenile. A young American Avocet. Here’s an adult. Another Black Tern, this one is an adult. The day before I left the Slim Buttes, I found this juvenile Racer on the road. It let me get very close. Also at the Slim Buttes, I found two Eastern Tiger Swallowtails at Red Cross Spring. These represent a new county record. This is a good example of why a photo is needed of both the upper and underside of the wing. The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is easily confused with the Two-tailed Swallowtail and the Canadian Tiger Swallowtail. The marginal band of the forewing is broken up into spots if an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, the other two species have a continuous band of yellow.
Sunday night Charlie Miller and I went for a night drive, mostly to see if we could get more Northern Saw-whets to responds to calls. We had no success with that. However, on the roads there were Common Poorwills. I think these must have been family groups, as there would be several close to together, then none for a distance. Also, some of the birds were incredibly tame, I think I could have picked up several of them, but I didn’t try that. I suspect that these were the young ones, probably just out of the nest. One just sat on the road as we drove slowly by. I took a photo out of the truck window, looking down.
One of maybe eight that were sitting on the road. We could hear more. It was hard to accurately count them as most would flush then land again up ahead with other poorwills. This is nearly a full frame image.This one was in the vegetation just off the road. This is a slightly cropped image. I was so close that I couldn’t fit the entire bird in the frame. I photographed this one from the truck window, shooting almost straight down. It never flushed, even as we drove by.
Last night, Charlie Miller came out to join me for some black lighting for insects. He got here about dark and almost immediately heard a Northern Saw-whet Owl calling. Of course, I couldn’t hear it, but he guided us to where it was and soon we were standing under it. I could hear it quite well then. It stayed high in a pine, I was able to get some photos. That is the first saw-whet I’ve seen in a long time. The black lighting was kind of slow but we got some interesting things. As always, a larger image can be seen by right clicking and opening in a new tab.
The Northern Saw-whet Owl. Charlie was sure he could hear two but we only saw one. A few days ago, I went up by Government Hill for a hike. Two Prairie Falcons started harassing me, I got a pretty good shot of one flying straight at me. In a muddy stock pond, I saw this clump of Broadleaf Arrowhead, I thought it made a nice photo. Hypoprepia miniata, Scarlet-winged Lichen Moth. As the name suggests, larvae feed on lichens. Parthenice Tiger Moth, Apantesis parthenice. Will be a new South Dakota record for BugGuide. A Western Wood-Pewee posing on a lichen covered branch.
July 15 and I’m still in the same place, Slim Buttes, Custer National Forest, Harding County, South Dakota, USA, Earth. I still haven’t had a good night for astrophotography. Today smoke from the Canadian forest fires rolled in, it is not helping. There isn’t much new here. I went into Buffalo this morning for groceries, water, gas and ice. On the highway I saw lots of Chestnut-collared Longspurs that I haven’t seen before. A few nights back, a series of thunderstorms came through, the second storm started dropping hail, some were up to 2 inches diameter. No damage here though, but a lot of rain.
A Rock Wren that has just captured a grasshopper. I watched it dismantle the insect and eat it. Wildflowers are still abundant. The Purple Coneflower is about done but the Wild Bergamot (Horsemint) is coming on strong now. This photo is of Upright Prairie Coneflower, Ratibida columnifera. I put in another night with the blacklight. This is Harris’ Three-Spot, Harrisimemna trisignata. It is a very distinctive moth, nothing to be confused with it. The larvae feed on various woody plants, including wild raisin, winterberry, bush honeysuckle, black willow, white ash and apple, none of which I have seen in the Slim Buttes. This is a more eastern species and will be a first SD record for BugGuide when I get it entered. Also a first SD record for iNaturalist. American Bird’s-Wing Moth, Dypterygia rozmani. Larval food is various docks and smartweed. Another nocturnal species of burying beetle, Nicrophorus pustulatus. It is the only species in the genus Nicrophorus that is known to raise its young on food sources other than carrion. The beetle is known to utilize snake eggs to raise the young. Also reported to be a brood parasite of other Nicrophorus species. Like most burying beetles, this one is carrying a load of phoretic mites. Phoresis by mites serves only as a means of transportation, in this case to a food source, carrion.
I left Pierre yesterday and drove to the Slim Buttes. There has been some good rain out here and the flowers are abundant as are the butterflies. After being in Pierre for almost 2 months, the quiet out here is welcome. There are no trains, barking dogs, loud vehicles, airplanes, or other noisy things. Just birds and the wind. This morning, I went for a walk and got 26 species of birds. My eBird checklist is here. I hope for a few clear nights so I can do some astrophotography in the dark skies of Harding County.
I found this Plains Garter Snake in a puddle on the road, I’m not sure what it was doing but it refused to leave the water. Butterflies are really abundant. Here’s a Milbert’s Tortoiseshell. A Two-tailed Swallowtail nectaring on a thistle. Aphrodite Fritillary.Great Spangled Fritillary.While in Pierre, I took one trip out to the Fort Pierre National Grasslands. Here’s a Burrowing Owl that was harassing me about being too close to its nest hole. This is Wedgeleaf Frogfruit, Phyla cuneifolia. It was growing in a prairie dog colony near Richland Dam. This location is the farthest north this species has been reported, according the iNaturalist. Typically a species of the southwest, the Navajo reportedly used it to treat spider bites. A Marbled Godwit. I’m experimenting with some new software for astrophotography. StarXterminator lets me remove the stars for processing then add them back. NoiseXterminator is a much better method of reducing noise. I think the results are impressive on the North America Nebula, which I took several years ago. Now if I can just get some astrophotography done! The weather has not been cooperative.
I’ve been back in South Dakota for two weeks now. Amazingly, I’ve added two new birds to my state life list. It is hard just to add one species to that list, after birding in this state for over 50 years. I’m now up to 372 species seen in South Dakota. I also keep three county life lists, and both of those species were added to my Hughes County list, which is at 316.
The first one I added was White-winged Dove. This species is showing up more often in South Dakota in recent years. I could probably have added it a long time ago if I wanted to drive a long way chasing reports. But I just waited and eventually got it right here in Pierre. There were actually two of them. Thanks to Charlie Bessken for this bird! This one was a complete surprise. A Mississippi Kite at Farm Island, a very rare bird in South Dakota. My sister Susan Leach and her husband Rick also saw it. I’m not sure if Charlie Bessken saw it but she was there too. A take-off shot, showing plumage typical of a subadult Mississippi Kite. This is the best photo I’ve taken since I got back, a Red-headed Woodpecker that posed nicely.
I left Valley of Fires on Saturday and drove north into Colorado, stopping for the night at the Timpas picnic area. Timpas picnic area is actually a Forest Service (Comanche National Grassland) picnic area/campground of sorts, there are some picnic tables, shelters, a restroom, interpretive signs, and best of all, some pretty good birding. It was here, many years ago, that I got my lifer Cassin’s Sparrow. I saw some again on this stop, along with abundant Lark Buntings, some Curve-billed and Sage Thrashers, meadowlarks, and others. For me, the Cassin’s Sparrow was the most interesting.
Timpas is open for camping and is free and quiet. There is no water and no phone/internet service. There is a railroad that runs close by, but every time I’ve stayed there the only train is an Amtrak that comes by around 8 PM. I left Timpas early this morning and drove to Red Willow State Park near McCook. I like this park but it sure is expensive, $42.00 a night. At least it is quiet. After free camping in the Sonoran Desert all winter, I shouldn’t complain.
I got some pretty good photos of Cassin’s Sparrows. They aren’t much to look at, but their song makes up for that. They fly high in the sky, like Lark Buntings, while singing. I saw more Eastern Collared Lizards at Valley of Fires. This one is a large male but lacking any color. I’ve read about melanistic individuals living in areas of dark rocks, maybe this is one of them. This is a blister beetle, Epicauta atrivittata. I saw a couple of them on the walls of the restroom at Valley of Fires. There isn’t much information on this beetle, it is known to feed on mesquites and some species of nightshade. Also, at Valley of Fires, Red Barberry. The Apache ate the fruits and made a yellow dye from the roots. I came across two different plants named after the same botanist, Augustus Fendler. I got curious about him and found out that he led quite an adventurous life. Here’s a LINK to a Wikipedia article about him. This flower is Fendler’s Desert Dandelion, Malacothrix fendleri. And here is Fendler’s Penstemon, Penstemon fendleri.
I left Granite Gap this morning. I’m currently at the Bosque Birder’s RV Park, near San Antonio, New Mexico. I took a short drive through the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge this afternoon. I was quite surprised that nearly all of the ponds are dry. There is a lot of water running through the ditches in the refuge, but I guess the management plan is for dry ponds for now. There is water in the Boardwalk Marsh and that’s about it.
A few days ago, I checked on the Great Horned Owl nest. The lone young owl was out of the nest, but it hasn’t moved very far. A Greater Earless Lizard. This one is starting to develop some color, but it is not even close to the ones I saw at Big Bend National Park a few years back. Photos of those can be seen at the LINK. I got some more shots of the Lesser Nighthawk, this time I got closer and in a nicer setting. A couple of days after finding my first Round-tailed Horned Lizard, I found another. This one is so different in coloration and pattern, that one would almost think it was a different species, but it is not. The size and placement of the four cranial horns and the short, round tail with black bars is diagnostic. A different angle. There are some Desert Marigolds, Baileya multiradiata, in flower now. These are quite large and showy flowers.
