Each year I take an extended birding
vacation somewhere to work on my various statelists, and hopefully move a step
closer to my lifelong goal of reaching the old ABA reportable goals in each of
the lower 48 states and DC. Way back in
February when I started to think about where to go this year, my thoughts kept
coming back to MT and ND because those were my last 2 states where I had very
small lists. And then when I realized
that several possible birding locations would put me only a short drive from
SD, I considered a short extension to work on that list as well. I had a respectable 181 in SD, though had
never birded the northwest corner of the state where many of the grassland
species breed, so I had a fair potential there as well.
There was no SD birdfinding guide to
consult, so I reached out to the SD listserve for advice. I got several very helpful replies, including
one from Dave Swanson who was in the process of writing a guide for SD. He sent me drafts of siteguides for two sites
in the area which were most helpful. I
also was able to connect with Charlie Miller who was the local expert for birds
in the area. In addition to his
excellent local knowledge, he was also known for the Saw-whet Owl nesting boxes
he had constructed and mounted to trees in the Custer National Forest. He offered to bird with me in the area, and
take me to see the owls. So I set up a
plan for a short trek into SD consisting of two half days, with a goal of adding
at least 15 birds to my statelist.
Day 8 – PM – Custer National Forest and
Locations en Route to Lemmon
I entered SD after a successful morning in
Rhame Prairie in ND, and soon met up with Charlie. Our first stop was in the Picnic Spring and
Cave Hills portion of the Custer National Forest. This area is an elevated island of ponderosas
and deciduous trees that rises out of the prairie. Soon after we arrived we had a Say’s Phoebe
perched on a cliff edge (statebird #1), and a singing Lazuli Bunting (#2). We then hiked around in the area a bit and I
was lucky enough to spot a soaring Golden Eagle (#3 – and the only one on my
trip), and then a cooperative Mountain Bluebird (#4). I added Mountain Bluebird to all 3 states on
my trip, so I have now seen this species throughout most all of its regular
range (see my statebird map below).
Birding was a bit slow – it was a hot
afternoon – so we got in the cars and headed a bit south and were surprised to
spot a lone Avocet (#5) in a small pond.
Charlie then took me to a cliff where Prairie Falcons had nested last
year. And sure enough, they were back
again this year (#6). Couldn’t have
gotten these without Charlie’s local knowledge.
We were then headed to Gardner Lake,
principally to try for Brewer’s Sparrow in the sage along the lake entrance
road. But I mentioned to Charlie that I
needed some shorebirds for my SD list, so along the way he took me to a small
pond where he had seen some recent shorebirds including Avocets that
morning. The Avocets were gone (good
thing we saw that one earlier), but we had a few distant shorebirds that had
not been there that morning. In with the
Stilt Sandpipers was a Semi Sand (#7) and a Pectoral (#8). We then headed to Gardner Lake and started to
play some tape in the sage area. It took
a while, but eventually we noticed a small sparrow fly in just a short distance
away. And then the Brewer’s Sparrow
popped up for a quick view (#9). Charlie
suggested a quick stop at the lake just to see what might be around. In addition to the regular dabblers, there
were 8 Aechmophorus grebes. The first
seven were Westerns, and the 8th kept diving and didn’t give me good
views. I told Charlie that it was most
unlikely that this would be a Clark’s but I wanted to be sure. And just then it surfaced and stayed up long
enough to give me a good scope view – it was indeed a Clark’s Grebe (#10). That was a surprise. Along with my sighting in MT, I now have
pretty good coverage for this species.
We then headed to the Slim Buttes portion
of the Custer NF, which is where Charlie had his Saw-whet boxes. By far the highlight of the SD part of the
trip was when Charlie took me to 2 boxes with active Saw-whet nests. In each case the female was poking her head
from the box when we arrived (#11).
Charlie needed to monitor the status of the
young, and when he opened the box the female would fly out and sit just a short
distance away while the box was opened as in this photo taken with my iPhone.
The last new statebird was a not so
cooperative Rock Wren that only called once (#12) from some seemingly nice
cliff habitat. Other notable birds were
the only 2 Western Tanagers of the trip and a colony of White-throated Swifts
(also the only ones for the trip).
I thanked Charlie for all his help and started
the drive northeast to my motel in Lemmon.
Along the way I was driving through some nice cropland and flushed a
pair of Gray Partridges and then another one (#13). That was only my 5th state for
this species that has been elusive for me in the past, though I saw it several
times on this trip.
And later I passed by a flooded field with
several Marbled Godwits acting like shorebirds instead of prairie nesters
(#14). It was another excellent end of
the day.
Day 9 – Morning in the Grand River National
Grasslands
When I came out to the car at dawn the
ground was wet from a little rain overnight.
Plus the sky to the west and north was extremely dark and I could see
numerous lightning strikes. I didn’t
know it at the time but just 8 hours earlier a rare tornado had hit the town of
Watford City just about 150 miles northwest of Lemmon. The clouds I was seeing were undoubtedly part
of the same storm system that caused the tornado.
My first quick stop was to check Flat Creek
Lake along SR73 for waterfowl and I found a pair of Buffleheads (#15) along with
the normal dabblers. I then headed east into
the grasslands at Pasture 7, and as soon as I crossed into the National Grasslands
there were numerous Chestnut-collared Longspurs right in the road as if to
greet me (#16). And a short distance
farther I stopped and heard the first of many Baird’s Sparrows I had that
morning (#17). Baird’s was a key target
of mine on this trip and I heard and/or saw it numerous times in all 3
states. Although SD was only my 4th state for this species, I’ve now seen it in virtually all of its regular
breeding and wintering range in the US.
It was also amazing how many Upland
Sandpipers there were – 5 or more per mile.
With two key grassland targets out of the way I headed to a spot where a
Sharp-tailed Grouse lek was supposed to be located. Along the way I stopped briefly at a wet
grassy area where a Sedge Wren was singing (#18). And on the other side of the road was a
singing Dickcissel which was a good bird for this location, though not a
statebird. I eventually got to the lek
spot and sure enough there was 1 Sharp-tailed Grouse sitting on the crest of
the hill (#19).
Next stop was Lemmon Lake on the east side
of the Grassland to try for my last missing waterfowl – Canvasback. As I was getting closer to the lake I looked
back to the west and the clouds were getting more ominous, and the lightning
more frequent. Plus there was this odd
low white cloud that was in front of the dark clouds called a roll cloud.
In any case, the lake was at least 8 miles
from paved roads, and I didn’t want to be too far out on the dirt roads if a
rain storm should hit. So I only made a
quick stop at the lake and left as soon as I spotted 2 male Canvasbacks (#20). On the way back to the main road I had one
singing Sprague’s Pipit (#21), heard more Baird’s Sparrows, found another
Sharp-tailed Grouse lek, had numerous Upland Sandpipers, a few Marbled Godwits,
and many longspurs. It was quite a spot
for prairie birds. I now have Sprague’s
in all 3 of its nesting states and 2 states where it is a winterer or migrant.
The last stops were to the west to Shadehill
Reservoir and the campground at the Hugh Glass Recreation Area. With one brief stop there didn’t appear to be
much on the lake, so I headed directly to the campground. Migration was pretty much over by now, so I
wasn’t surprised that I didn’t have many migrants in the woods and brush around
the campground. Though eventually I ran
into a small group of Empids which looked like Willows. Then one started to sing a good Alder
Flycatcher song (#22) which is pretty far west of its normal migration route. I reported the others as “Traill’s”
Flycatchers as who knows which species these silent birds were. My statebird map for Alder is pretty spotty
at least partly due to the fact that these birds are frequently silent during
migration.
As I was heading out of the campground I
heard what I thought was a Lazuli Bunting singing. It was close to the road so I made a quick
stop to track it down and realized it was a Lazuli x Indigo hybrid. The upper chest was blue instead of rusty red
with just a couple rusty feathers on the sides, and the belly was white. Pretty neat bird on my last stop in SD before
heading back into ND.
I tallied 111 species in two half days of
birding in SD, including 22 new statebirds.
That gives me 203 for my SD statelist - my 46th state over
200. And of course I’m closing in on the
ABA threshold of 216. I still need a
number of eastern birds in SD, so I’m thinking that a trip to the eastern edge
of the state in spring migration might be enough to reach and then exceed the
reporting threshold.
No comments:
Post a Comment