Mr. (or Ms.) Dark and Ominous

One last photo from my outing on Monday...just down the road from the bighorn sheep, I found this bird of prey on the side of a tree...I did a quick U-turn and got a couple shots when it flew off...I was in mid-curse when it landed on the top of the bare tree and I got more, better photos.  Lucky break! Y'all know how bad I am at ID'ing hawks, but after looking online at photos, it really matches the red-tailed hawk in its dark phase. Anyway, this is my idea of a dark, ominous Halloween post.  Have a fun, safe All Hallow's Eve!

Bighorn Sheep Traffic Jam

Thanks for all the nice comments for yesterday's post! My lovely, eventful drive this past Monday ended quite nicely too...I expected to see the bighorn sheep herd just about a mile further E on Hwy 44, when I came upon this congestion next to a private drive w/ a closed gate...

...If you look closely you can count five sets of ram horns...

The herd was spooked by a man in a pickup at the closed gate (to the right, out of sight) and decided to cross the road...

...What a handsome ram! He seemed to be the alpha male...he does have very long horns, which indicate his level of maturity...look closely to see just how long that right horn is...

...Does this look like a promotional, posed photo or what?! If you look really close you can see that the ewe is wearing a radio collar, like the female antelope I keep seeing in Custer Park. These sheep are not contained within any park, however. They just really like this area of the Black Hills, just SW of Rapid City.

October's Textures and Patterns

Another look at the photos I took on Monday's drive in the Hills reveals just how much I enjoy all the different textures and patterns Mother Natures provides us with, as the very short-lived autumn gives itself over to W. South Dakota's typical early winter. If I shared just a single photo it wouldn't be very impressive, but together each subject enhances the collection...

...A small, single strand of bright yellow leaves...

...Pristine white snow caught among evergreen pine needles...

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...Wild cucumber, dead but still ornamental....

...A stand of aspen, wearing nothing but cloaks of powdery snowflakes...

...A dead tree, well-loved by woodpeckers...

...The glassy surface of Roubaix Lake, as captured by a first-time visitor...

...The woolly seeds of candle anemone (buttercup family)...

...The intricate patterns of a single growth (mushroom?) on a tree...

...Pale lichen growing on the tip of a broken branch...

...Pretty coral leaves, one of a kind in their surroundings...

...The tiki man, carved out of a tree stump, standing guard over Steamboat Rock picnic area...

...Crying copper tears...

...A drying, gnarly mushroom imbedded in the base of a Ponderosa pine...

...Another, more delicate mushroom with mossy wallpaper behind it....

...And withering berries still clinging to their bright red color.

Three Lifers near Box Elder Creek

Whenever I drive up Nemo Rd. along Box Elder Creek, I always stop at this one spot where the creek passes the rocky face of a canyon wall, and Monday I took my most recent look around...

I don't know how long it was sitting there, like a statue at the top edge of the canyon wall, but eventually I saw this 'rock' move...no wonder they're called rock doves...my first photo of one even though I've seen zillions of them.

I had a heck of a time trying to get a clear photo of this busy little canyon wren...a lifer! I'd already snapped my first house wren in July; they prefer open land compared to this guy, who was all over the rock face of the canyon wall...too far away and too small to get a good photo...

...It also zipped down on the rocks by the creek...then back to the canyon wall...

...Well I think this is a thrush, possibly a hermit thrush...rump and tail would be reddish but I couldn't get a good enough photo to tell, other than the distinct eye ring. Two shots like this and it was gone...if it's a thrush or flycatcher it'd be a lifer...

Update: I think this is a Townsend's solitaire, which is from the thrush family.

...I didn't have any better luck trying to snap this zippy little fellow than with the wren, but I'm still real excited about him all the same, cause he's a 'lifer'... I'd recently photographed a red-breasted nuthatch, my first lifer nuthatch...this is a white-breasted nuthatch! Yesss! The 'white' doesn't have the black line through the eye that the 'red' has, nor the red breast. It's in one of the trees in the wooded area across the road from the creek. I also sighted black-capped chickadees.

Does a Doe Know Where to Go when the Snow's About to Show?

...What, do I sound bored?! How about just, "Oh Deer!" I've been seeing deer a lot lately, about 99.99% does....

...There are white-tailed does all over the Black Hills, the most commonly sighted of the deer...

...Why did the doe cross the road....? Yep, you guessed it...just checking...

...This is only the second buck I've seen this year, both were in Custer St. Park...they're safe from hunters in the park, so you'd think they'd be a bit less stand-offish...instinct must run deep...

...And last but not least, there are mule deer, which seem a lot less common, at least for me, than the white-tailed deer. It's easy to see why they're called 'mule' deer.

Autumn Reveals

I recently visited a favored bird-watching spot, along Elk Creek in Vanocker Canyon in the NE Black Hills area...

...And spied a female spotted towhee hopping across the gravel road...

...A perfect wasps' nest framed with fading leaves...

...A second wasps' nest, that I'd seen earlier this summer, busy then with activity...

...And a third papery nest among wild plum thorns...all three nests within 20 yards of one another...         

...A dark-eyed junco peering out at me from brown, faded leaves...

...An empty nest in a leaf-less tree...

...And common tansy, fading but still holding on to its yellow.

A New Sparrow and some Scenery

Yesterday I took a nice long drive through the Hills, to the far-south end to check out a favorite birding spot, Keith Park, along Cascade Creek...no luck there, but...

Along the way, I drove the Wind Cave loop off of hwy. 385, that takes you to the actual cave entrance, and drove into the campground area, which was deserted except for a flock of chirping sparrows. At a distance I thought they were chipping sparrows...but it turns out they're a 'lifer'...the American Tree Sparrow! They have a gray head and rufus crown and ear patch.

The Cheyenne River runs along at the very SE edge of the Black Hills, through the Wild Horse Sanctuary. This is the view from the bridge that crosses the river on hwy. 71.

I got lucky while driving back home, via the Custer Park wildlife loop...this lone black-billed magpie tolerated me more than magpies usually do, as it chattered from the top of a lone-standing pine.

Two Swans A-Swimming

Also sighted at Lacreek Nat'l Wildlife Rufuge a week ago...

Trumpeter Swans! I only saw the two, at a good distance as you can see by the blurry photo. The Trumpeter Swan is North America's largest waterfowl and one of its rarest native birds. Trumpeters may live 20-30 years in the wild. They usually maintain very predictable annual movement and habitat use patterns unless faced with a significant habitat change. In turn, they teach these patterns to their cygnets. Pairs usually mate for life and return each year to the same nesting wetland, (Lacreek is a hotspot in SD), often using the same nest mound. After gaining flight in September, cygnets follow their parents to their wintering area and learn its resources and hazards while they remain with their parents through their first winter.

...The water channel at Lacreek NWR...the phalaropes favor this area for wading...

These snakes were all over the road in the refuge...some slithering, some unmoving like this guy, giving me the evil glint...and some road kill. I was frequently dodging snakes; good thing I don't have Ophidiophobia! I do, however, have Arachnephobia, so don't expect any spider photos on my blog...

Here's another ring-neck pheasant shot (see yesterday's post), the best I could get that day...I had to keep a good distance or they skeedaddled under the shrubs...which is exactly where this guy's heading.

Lacreek Pheasants and Phalaropes

The following was cut/pasted from the refuge's website...Lacreek National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1935 as a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife. The refuge is located in Bennett County in southwestern South Dakota. The refuge lies in the shallow Lake Creek valley on the northern edge of the Nebraska Sandhills and includes 16,410 acres of native sandhills, sub-irrigated meadows, impounded fresh water marshes, and tall and mixed grass prairie uplands. The refuge serves as an important staging area for migrating Canada geese, other waterfowl, sandhill cranes, shorebirds, and neotropical migrants. Providing critical wintering habitat for the high plains trumpeter swan population is a primary goal. The refuge provides a variety of habitats for resident and migrant wildlife.

There were many pheasant hens and a few males along the road. Pheasant hunters were scattered around the borders of the refuge, which I expected. Pheasant hunting is a major sport in South Dakota. My bird book says that in 2004, pre-hunting season, there were an estimated 8.1 million pheasants in SD. The pheasant was introduced to SD in 1891, 1899, and 1903. Outside of the Black Hills, S Dakota is pretty much all high plains landscape. Perfect pheasant country. They're very skittish and very hard to get good photos of.

There were also plenty of phalaropes, in the water channel. While driving the loop at the refuge, I startled two owls out of a shrub. Couldn't get a photo and don't know what they were. But they were the size of a great horned owl.

Paint in the Badlands

This past Saturday, I drove E to Kadoka, then S to Lacreek Nat'l Wildlife Refuge, near Martin, SD. Almost a 3-hour drive. My friend Jayne took me to the NWR back in late May. Ever since, I'd wanted to get back there. Driving just S of Kadoka, Hwy. 73 passes along the eastern-most outskirts of the Badlands, where I saw this pretty paint grazing.

Yep, that's it for today...more to come from Lacreek.

Update: Marnie, there was a red horse in the pasture w/ the paint.

Sunrises/Sunsets

I'm posting these photos for you, Andora...this is a recent sunrise as seen from my house. I saw the color outside the bathroom window as I was about to take a shower, so I threw a robe on and took these for you. Now, about those sunrise/sunset photos...I'm simply not up and looking out any window at sunrise, therefore I don't take sunrise photos. And I don't do sunset photos because I'm not out tooling around the Hills at sunset. I dislike driving at night, and as you can see, taking photos of the sky colors from my house means rooftops get in the photos, which I dislike. My friend over at http://www.barbedwireandroses.blogspot.com/ however, takes fabulous sunrise/sunset photos in the Black Hills area, and I highly recommend you check her site out for such photos! :o)

This is from my backyard...it was the poplar tree or rooftops in the way...

This is from the front porch.

Buffles, Blues, and Black-cappeds

Also seen at Sheridan Lake on Fri. was this female bufflehead, far rt., and I believe the other two are juvies...I was really bummed not to see any males...

Besides the nuthatches and squirrels, I also saw some blue jays near Spring Creek on Fri. Spring Creek runs out of Sheridan Lake, from both ends...

...There were also black-capped chickadees attacking the pine cones, not just the nuthatches and squirrels. (See yesterday's post.)