Page 2 – Doug Backlund Travel and 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.

I spent most of my time on this, the Crescent Nebula. This is the first time I’ve tried it with the IDAS Nebula Booster filter and it sure made a difference. For the first time I can see the bluish light emitted from oxygen around the nebula. Even better, at the bottom, slightly right of center, is the rarely imaged Soap Bubble Nebula. It wasn’t even discovered until 2007, by an amateur astrophotographer. It is a very faint planetary nebula.

Here’s some info on the Crescent Nebula from Wikipedia:

The Crescent Nebula (also known as NGC 6888, Caldwell 27, Sharpless 105) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, about 5000 light-years away from Earth. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1792. It is formed by the fast stellar wind from the Wolf-Rayet star WR 136 (HD 192163) colliding with and energizing the slower moving wind ejected by the star when it became a red giant around 250,000 to 400,000 years ago. The result of the collision is a shell and two shock waves, one moving outward and one moving inward. The inward moving shock wave heats the stellar wind to X-ray-emitting temperatures.

This is M16, also known as the Eagle Nebula, which harbors the structures known as the ‘Pillars of Creation”, made famous by photos taken from the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995. I’ve done this before but a long time ago, before I had guiding tools and the new filter.

A cropped view with a larger view of the Pillars of Creation. The nebula contains several active star-forming gas and dust regions. The Eagle Nebula lies in the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way.

Birding Insects

More Birds

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.

While hiking out from the photo spot, I got this Juniper Hairstreak on a coneflower.

Birding Flowers and Plants

Back in the Black Hills

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.

Birding Flowers and Plants Insects Mammals

Slim Buttes

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.

Wilson’s Snipe on a post by a small wetland.

The 324th species for my year list, a Mountain Bluebird.

Birding Flowers and Plants Insects

Out West Again

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 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.

Birding Flowers and Plants Herps

More Birds and Few Other Things

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date June 6, 2024
2 Comments on More Birds and Few Other Things

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.