As I do every year, I completed a free, downloadable and printable bird calendar for the upcoming year.  The calendar pages can be downloaded by month, and are set up for standard letter-sized paper, so they can easily be printed at home.  The calendar pages are available from here:

Free 2017 Bird Calendar

I changed things up a bit this year.  Given that I always offer the calendar through my South Dakota Birds and Birding website, in the past, I’ve always restricted myself to photos from South Dakota itself.  Not this year.  Any time I go on travel outside the state, be it for work, family vacation, or other reason, I bring my camera.  I have so, so many bird and wildlife photos from outside of South Dakota, none of which have been on my calendars before, so this year decided to use images from across the United States.  California, Alaska, Oregon, Minnesota, Florida, Maine, Arizona, Utah…several states are represented, with many birds that you’re just not going to ever see in South Dakota (or are there Horned Puffins in South Dakota?).  Below are the months, the bird that’s represented for each month, and where that photo was taken.  You can also click on the links below for direct access to the printable PDFs for each month.

• January – Common Loon – Bald Lake, Alaska
• February – Northern Hawk Owl – Sax-Zim Bog, Minnesota
• March – Gambel’s Quail – Tucson, Arizona
• April – Black Oystercatcher – Cannon Beach, Oregon
• May – Black-throated Blue Warbler – Acadia National Park, Maine
• June – Western Bluebird – Zion National Park, Utah
• July – Gila Woodpecker – Saguaro National Park, Arizona
• August – Horned Puffin – Fox Island, near Seward, Alaska
• September – Burrowing Owl – Antelope Island, near Salt Lake City, Utah
• October – Roseate Spoonbill – Everglades National Park, Florida
• November – Black-throated Green Warbler – Maine
• December – Steller’s Jay – Lassen Peak, California