126 Statebirds and Reportable in North Dakota, May 2014, Part 2 of 2

This is the second of two posts summarizing the ND portion of my spring birding trip to the Great Plains.  See my earlier blog post for Days 1, 2 and 3 in ND, and my Montana post for Days 4, 5, and 6.

Day 6 Late PM – Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Medora

After a nearly full day of birding in MT, I rolled into Medora about dinner time, and decided to make a quick stop into Theodore Roosevelt National Park to check things out in preparation for my visit there tomorrow.  I ran into a park employee at the park headquarters who was a novice birder, and he told me about a spot for Violet-green Swallows right next to the headquarters.  I spent a few minutes there but dipped on the swallows, though added 4 new birds - singing Field Sparrows, a singing Rock Wren (surprisingly my only one for the park), a Lazuli Bunting and a Spotted Towhee.  I was now at 100 new ND species!  That pretty well fills in my map for Spotted Towhee in the western states (and as rarities in 3 eastern states).

After a quick dinner I headed over to the Medora sewage ponds where Violet-green Swallows had been reported in e-bird.  En route I heard an oriole which turned out to be a Baltimore, but it was accompanied by a Black-headed Grosbeak which would turn out to be my only one for ND.  When I got to the ponds I flushed 2 Wood Ducks – an odd location for them but a target nonetheless.  And a little later here came a Violet-green Swallow flying low over the water.  This was almost getting easy!

I then went into the park to check out the campgrounds which would be my starting point the next morning.  En route I had a couple calling Chats which were new.  I was shocked when I got to the campground – virtually every campsite was occupied and there were people everywhere.  I was planning to try for Eastern Screech Owl after dark that evening, but there were just too many campers.  And if I was going to bird this spot in the morning I would need to get there very early before many campers were awake.  All things considered it was good that I checked out this area to prepare for tomorrow morning. 

I decided to head over to the nearby stables area which also had a good riparian woodland, to see if I could get away from all campers.  There weren’t many birds there but I did find a colony of Red-headed Woodpeckers which was new.  Although adding ND to my statebird map fills in a gap in its range, I unfortunately missed it in MT earlier on this trip, and in NM last year.   

The last stop for the day was a try for Poor-will at dusk.  While waiting for it to get dark I got to see an amazing lightning show in a storm to the east.  And about 20 minutes after sunset I heard a Poorwill calling nearby.  Great to have the last bird of the day be a statebird – my 10^th of the day in ND.  I’ve now seen/heard Poorwill in a number of western states but I still need it in a number of states in its normal range.

 

Day 7 – Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Ponderosa Pines

After a short night sleep I was up before dawn and was at the national park campground at first light.  The campground and adjacent stable area was the only riparian area I had on my western ND itinerary, so these were my only possible spots for several local nesters.  Migration was virtually over by now, so the chances of finding interesting migrants were pretty slim.  I parked the car and made two complete loops walking through the campground.  In 2 hours I picked up all 4 of my targets – several Turkeys calling at dawn, 5 Bullock’s Orioles, numerous Red-eyed Vireos, and 2 singing Western Pewees.  I also had only 1 Baltimore Oriole and it was paired with a female Bullock’s.  A quick stop at the stables didn’t yield anything new.

I next took a slow ride around the park by driving the loop road.  The park was full of birds, and interestingly Black-and-white Warbler was a common singing bird in most every wooded draw.  Lark Sparrows, Spotted Towhees, and Western Meadowlarks were everywhere.  At one point on my drive a medium-sized dark bird with a long tail flew over the road right in front of me showing a reddish wing-stripe - Townsend’s Solitaire.  They are regular wintering birds in the area but not in May and not one I was expecting.  I still have a few more gaps in my statebird map for this species, though have seen it as a vagrant in 4 eastern states

A bit later I noticed some bird activity in some cedars which included 2 Mountain Bluebirds.  Another target could be checked off.  I left the park in late morning, and headed to an area to the southeast where Brewer’s Sparrows had been reported on e-bird.  I made numerous stops in these sage areas but with no luck for the sparrows.  Though I did find the first of several Loggerhead Shrikes in the area.  I’ve now seen this species throughout its present range, though alas in only 1 state in the northeast where it was formerly a nesting bird.

 
And on my last stop before getting onto the highway I had my only Sprague’s Pipit for ND – of course singing from overhead. 

My next big stop was to be the ponderosa pine area to the south, but I decided to make a short side trip to an area where Burrowing Owls, Brewer’s Sparrows, and Baird’s Sparrows had been reported last summer.  As I turned onto the dirt road I flushed 2 Gray Partridges – unlike most others I’ve seen these flew to the edge of a field and sat in the open affording good looks.  I checked several prairie dog towns but could not find any owls, though I did have several Baird’s Sparrows.  And I never found suitable sage habitat for Brewer’s.

After a short ride I was heading up to the ponderosa pines area.  Unfortunately it was mid-afternoon and pretty hot, so the birds wouldn’t likely be too active.  But I did get two key targets there – Red-breasted Nuthatch and “Audubon’s” Warbler (it will be split from “Myrtle” someday, right?)  I had 4 Yellow-rumps singing in this area, and I tracked down 2 of them - 1 Audubon’s and 1 Myrtle.  Audubon’s is the expected nester here – Myrtle is actually a rarity even though Myrtles are the common migrant north of here and throughout the state.  That gave me 10 new statebirds plus the Audubon’s for the day. 

Day 8 – Rhame Prairie

My key birding spot for the ND part of this day was the Rhame Prairie – the sole spot in ND for McCown’s Longspur.  It was about a 45-minute drive through some nice prairie to get to the spot for this small colony of McCown’s.  En route I had 4 Short-eared Owls right along the road.  And I finally got Lark Buntings – I guess this late migrant had just come into the area because they were truly everywhere although I had not yet seen them in similar habitat previously in ND.  I’ve now seen Lark Bunting throughout a big swath of the center of the country and in 2 northeast states as a vagrant.

Also en route I made a quick stop at a location called the “raptor spot” on e-bird.  When I got there I realized how it got its name – a short distance away was a set of cliffs and within just a couple minutes I had several Harriers and a Red-tail.  And then a Prairie Falcon flew from a perch on the cliff and dropped down to the prairie below.  Another target checked off. 

I arrived at the McCown’s spot and started a short walk down a two-track into a prairie dog town.  Along the way I heard 2 Baird’s Sparrows calling from the grasses to the south.  I got down into the dog town and found numerous Chestnut-collared Longspurs and Horned Larks, but no McCown’s.  But a little later I started to look a bit to the north and watched a longspur fly-by that I thought had the right tail pattern.  I headed to the area and quickly found one, and then a second, male McCown’s.  Later I found 4 males together, giving me at least 6 birds.  I never saw females but they were likely present too.  Along with the birds in MT, I’m filling in my McCowns statebird map, though need them on their wintering grounds yet.

 

I then spent quite a bit of looking for the Burrowing Owls that had been reported from the dog town in past years, but with no luck.  That gave me 3 new statebirds for the day, and a statelist of 198 – just 1 short of reportable.

The next stops were two spots where Brewer’s Sparrow had been reported.  But again I came up empty for this species.  And as I drove out of ND to start the SD part of my trip, I kept watching to no avail for Ferruginous Hawk which was one of my few remaining targets.  Less than 5 minutes after leaving ND, and no more than 2 miles from the stateline, I had a Ferruginous flying right along the road.

(see my other blog post for the SD part of my trip)

Day 9 – Afternoon and Evening in Bismarck

After leaving the Grand River National Grasslands in northwestern SD, I headed up to Bismarck to team up with local birder Clark Talkington.  As was the case with the other birders I teamed up with on this trip, Clark was an expert on the birds of his area.  I had sent him my short-list of remaining targets, and he had developed an itinerary to search for as many as time allowed.

Our first stop was at a spot where he had recently had Burrowing Owl, and we spotted one perched on a pole as soon as we arrived.  Just think of all the other spots I looked for this little owl earlier in ND with no luck.  And that was number 199 for my statelist – the old ABA reportable threshold.  Slowly filling in my statebird map for this declining species.

 

As we were pulling away a Bald Eagle flew overhead - #200.  After a brief stop overlooking the river unsuccessfully for Least Tern (my 5th failed attempt for them over my entire trip), we headed into Bismarck and a person’s backyard with a remarkable feeding station and bird houses.  With just a few tapes calls we got a White-breasted Nuthatch to come in, though we couldn’t get the local Red-bellied Woodpecker to cooperate.  The last stop in town was to the Bismarck landfill to try for Herring Gull.  There were about 75 gulls at the landfill, but no Herring.  Though the birds were in almost constant motion or frequently out of view behind piles of trash, I kept getting glimpses of a bird with a darker mantle and strong tail band.  I mentioned it to Clark saying I thought I was seeing a Lesser Black-backed Gull.  He said he was seeing this bird too.  That certainly wasn’t on my target list – ND is my 26th state for Lesser.

We then headed out to the extensive wetlands east of Bismarck with lots of potential targets.  We found a large number (thousands?) of migrant shorebirds, but nothing new.  We also found a large flock of Cattle Egrets and distant dark ibises (can’t say there wasn’t a Glossy in the flock), all part of a breeding colony.  But we couldn’t tease out a Snowy.  Though I did spot a Black-necked Stilt which is a good bird for the area.  As we headed back to town I noticed a Great-crested Flycatcher perched along the road.  My last statebird of the trip, and the sixth of the day.

I ended up with a 202 species in ND, including 126 statebirds (and 1 possible lifebird).  That gives me 204 for my ND list; and ND is my 44th state over threshold.  I never would have thought that I’d be that successful in ND.  And although I’m 5 over the reportable threshold, my somewhat arbitrary goal is to be get to 15 over the old ABA threshold to stay over that threshold for a long time to come.  So I would likely need to make a short trip to the eastern part of the state either for eastern migrants or eastern nesters to reach that higher goal.