Southern New England Outdoor and Nature Site: Birds that I saw in South Dakota

There is a difference from hiking and birding. While hiking, one goes at a walking speed to the best of their ability or as fast as the slowest member of the group will go. Usually, but not always, there is a destination to see such as a lake or, waterfall, or mountain top. Sometimes it is not about the destination, but just the hike itself such as the Notch Trail in the Badlands and Zion Narrows in Zion National Park.

Although birders use the same trails, birding is different. Birders stop at every sound, sight, and movement. So obviously they do not cover nearly as much ground. A prime example would be my last day when I saw the rattlesnake. In 90 minutes of birding, we didn't cover a quarter mile.

I am a birder. However, Laurie is not. She will gladly go birding with me. She will look at an interesting bird and enjoys looking at the pretty ones. Yet, she really doesn't care what they are and still hasn't bought her own binoculars (can someone say Christmas present?)

Obviously, when we were out on the trails, I wanted to see new birds and favorites that I can't see around here. Laurie was not going to only cover a mile in an hour of "hiking". So I took what I could get. When we went hiking I wore my binoculars. I only stopped at obvious birds. Luckily for me, my gait is longer than Laurie's so I always seem to get a few steps ahead of her. So I'd usually have time to ID a bird before she caught up.

All that said, I love seeing the birds on the prairie. I never grew tired of meadowlarks. There are other fairly common species out there that I really enjoyed watching such as Black Billed Magpies and White Winged Junco. I think my favorite bird in North America is the Mountain Bluebird. That blue is absolutely amazing. I got more excited seeing them than I did bison.

One species I thought I'd see hundreds of but didn't see any are Bobolinks. The prairie is perfect for them. I was told that they do not travel that far west. They should consider a move. Custer State Park and the Badlands would be perfect for them

I did not write down every species I saw. If it was common in New England such as blue jays and robins I didn't write them down. So my list is incomplete. It does have all the species that were important to me.

Prairie Falcon *lifebird
Western Wood Peewe *lifebird
Black Headed Grosbeak *lifebird
Rock Wren *lifebird
Spotted Towhee *lifebird
Yellow Breasted Chat *lifebird
Long Billed Curlew *lifebird
Western Tanager
White Winged Junco *lifebird
Canyon Wren (would be a lifebird, but not 100% positive)
Meadowlarks
Upland Sandpiper
Horned Lark
Red Tailed Hawk
Red Haded Woodpeckers
Burrowing Owls
Barred Owl
Mountain Bluebirds
Lark Sparrows
Cliff Swallows/ Barn Swallows
Wild Turkeys

Meadowlark

A quick detail of some of the species. Mountain Bluebirds, Magpies, Meadowlarks, Cliff Swallows, Barn Swallows, White Winged Juncos are all extremely common. I saw the Black Headed Grosbeak, Prairie Falcon, Western Wood Peewe, and the Western Tanager on the last morning bird walk. I saw many Spotted Towhees on that walk but only one the whole trip before that

I never would have seen the Black Headed Grosbeak if it weren't for the ranger. I would have looked too quickly and assumed it was another Spotted Towhee.

I saw multiple Red Headed Woodpeckers. Usually in the Ponderosa Pine forest, but also on a snag in the prairie. The Rock Wren was in a Badlands parking lot. I followed it for five minutes as it hopped under cars. I must have looked extremely suspicious pointing my camera at twenty or so cars.

Black Billed Magpie

I saw at least three Upland Sandpipers in Custer State Park in the open grasslands. They do seem to prefer taller grass. The horned lark was seen at the Missile NHS in the parking lot. Burrowing owls were around prairie dog towns in the Badlands. I'm told they are also at Custer. There were quite a few Lark Sparrows at the Badlands. I don't remember seeing any at Custer, but that could be an oversight on my part. Yellow Breasted Chat was seen at a picnic area on our way back from Hot Springs, but some were calling in French Creek of Custer.

The Barred Owl landed at the Center Lake Campground right as the evening ranger program was about to start. It landed right above some kids who took some phone pics from five feet under it. I would loved to have been them with my camera.Cliff Swallows and Barn Swallows were under almost every bridge that had water. Many Cliff Swallows nest in the Badlands formations.

The Long Billed Curlew was probably my "best bird. We saw it on our way to Sage Creek Campground. I got good looks at it. I can't say for certain it wasn't a Whimbrel, but based on the range of both and they are found in the prairie and Whimbrel are not, that was the deciding factor for "calling it".

Although Mountain Bluebirds are not as common as robins, they did seem to be in a variety of habitats. We saw them in the Badlands flying from one of the few trees to another. We also say them at Legion Lake which is very wooded.

The pictures below can not compare to two thousand pound buffalo. Birds are fast. Most don;'t tolerate people as much as female bighorns or buffalo. Therefore, I did not get any "wall hangers" most of the photos I got were just proof shots. A couple are cropped.

For those of you that are sick of South Dakota posts, this is the last one. I saved it for last because it is about one of my favorite hobbies. Every new bird or favorite bird was (almost) as exciting to me as seeing most of the large mammals