Articles

May 27 2018

A Cluster of Cuckoos!

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments

Spring migration is largely over. It was a rather disappointing migration overall, in that there were relatively low numbers of warblers, which also seemed to cut into the variety I normally see. Despite a very wet spring and many flooded fields and other suitable habitat, shorebird migration was VERY slow in our part of the state. After having the heater on last weekend, today we’ve touched 102 degrees! From a birding perspective, we’re on to looking for summer residents.

This morning I went down to Newton Hills State Park, about a 30-minute drive south of us. It’s a gorgeous park that is characterized by beautiful deciduous forest with a wonderfully healthy understory. In other words…a rather unique habitat for South Dakota. It’s one of the best spots in the state for finding eastern “forest birds”, and this morning certainly didn’t disappoint.

While I saw a number of the “usuals”, it wasn’t long after arriving at dawn that I heard a Cuk-Cuk-Cuk-Cuk…Cuk…Cuk…..Cuk…a rather unusual, non-musical call with a distinct slowing pace at the end. Cuckoo! We have both Black-billed and Yellow-billed Cuckoos around here, but I don’t come across either one very often, so at first I didn’t remember which species to associate with that call. The answer soon came though as two of the birds drifted into the sumac on the side of the road next to me, seemingly chasing each other. Yellow-billed Cuckoos! Two of them! While I’ve heard them on occasion, Cuckoos are notorious for staying close to vegetative cover. In my 18 years of birding here I’ve only gotten one halfway decent look at them, yet here two of them were interacting within 30 feet of me!

They were definitely more interested in each other than me, with each vocalizing and moving occasionally through the sumac and surrounding trees, with one often following the movements of the other bird. They’d occasionally disappear from view so I can’t be sure, but I believe there were actually three birds present from the views and simultaneous calls that I heard.

It’s been an absolutely miserable day here with the heat, humidity, and cloud of gnats seemingly everywhere. However, if that’s the price that has to be paid to get great looks and photos of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, I’ll take it!

May 16 2018

Birding > Bird photos? Or vice versa?

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments

My start in both birding and photograph began in December of 2000. I bought my first SLR camera, and was excited to go out and use it. I headed out on a cold, snowy day, looking for…something…to photograph, when I came across some Canada Geese around the small unfrozen edge of a local quarry. From the start, birds were my most common photographic subject. Soon, they were nearly my ONLY photographic subject.

While I loved shooting birds, for many years, my primary focus when going out was getting photos. Seeing birds was certainly wonderful as well, but I tended to measure success of a trip in terms of how many “keeper” photos I got. Even if I saw a rare bird, I was often disappointed when I was unable to get a photo of it.

Fast forward 18 years. I have photos for most species you could reasonably expect to see in South Dakota. I have photos for many species you would NOT normally expect in South Dakota. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve reached my saturation point for photos for many species, but in the last 3 or 4 years, things have changed. I was a photographer first, birder second. Now, I’m definitely a birder first, photographer second. I spend MUCH more time using my binoculars, scanning that far away bird to see if it’s a rarity. In the past, I often ignored far away birds, as I knew I couldn’t get a good photo. I think that’s what’s so nice about valuing BOTH the birds themselves, and the photography aspect. When you go out on a trip, you’re rarely disappointed.

Here’s a few recent photos…

A curious Yellow Warbler. It’s been a very slow spring so far for migrating warblers, but as always, there’s never a shortage of Yellow Warblers around.

One of my favorite species, a Harris’s Sparrow. They are actually relatively easy to find here during migration.

Blue-winged Warbler - Vermivora cyanoptera

A Blue-winged Warbler, a rarity in South Dakota. However, there’s one specific spot of Newton Hills State Park where one or two breeding pairs are almost always found.

Northern Cardinal - Cardinalis cardinalis

I have a billion Northern Cardinal Photos. However, when you get an opportunity for these guys, even if it’s a relatively long-distance opportunity such as this one, you can’t pass it up! I’m starting to really appreciate shots like this, or other shots where the bird is smaller in the frame. That’s particularly the case if I’m able to show a lot of their natural habitat in the frame. Here, I just like the simple composition, the pose of the bird, the warm light, and that beautiful blue sky.

May 13 2018

American Golden Plover! (Photographic) Lifer!

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments

A new lifer! Oh, I’ve seen American Golden Plovers. There have been a number of springs where I’ve looked out in a muddy field or the edge of a wet area, and have seen them. However, they’d definitely fall under the category of “photographic nemesis” bird, in that I’ve never gotten anything close to a “satisfying” photo.

Yesterday wasn’t exactly a day where I’d have expected any halfway decent photos. It was rainy, gloomy, and a bit windy…not exactly great birding weather, much less photo weather. The rain changed my plans though, and it’s because of that I ran into a small flock of American Golden Plovers foraging in a flooded field. Perhaps it was BECAUSE of the somber, gloomy day, but they let me get uncharacteristically close. With the lighting these photos aren’t exactly going to win any prizes, but when you’ve been shooting birds for almost 20 years, ANY time you get a new “photographic lifer”, it’s a good day!

May 08 2018

“High-rise” Peregrine Falcon

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments

I think every birder and every bird photographer has their “nemesis” birds, a species that has somehow eluded them over the years. Peregrine Falcons would be one of my nemesis birds. They’re definitely not common here in South Dakota, but I have seen them on a few occasions However, it’s always been a really quick glance, or a view from a very long distance.

One and sometimes even two Peregrine Falcons have occasionally hung around downtown Sioux Falls. Lately a lone bird has occasionally been sighted…almost always while perched on a true South Dakota “high-rise”!! The U.S. Bank building, at a TOWERING 9 stories or so, really is one of the tallest buildings in downtown Sioux Falls, and it’s a favorite perch for this bird. Tonight on the advice of a birding friend who had seen it earlier in the day, I swung by and saw that yes, the bird was still perched on a ledge one floor from the top of the building.

A real treat! I pulled onto the top floor of a nearby parking garage and watched him for a good hour. Not the greatest photos in the world, but hey, I finally have SOME recognizable photos of a Peregrine Falcon! I won’t check it off my “nemesis” list until I get some top-notch photos, but tonight was a blast nonetheless.

Apr 22 2018

“Blind Luck” – Shooting Waterfowl

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments

Silly waterfowl. In a state where everybody seems to have a shotgun in the back of their pickup, for some reason waterfowl here are quite shy when people are around. For a bird photographer, that makes life a wee bit difficult. It’s practically impossible to be walking, standing, or otherwise visible and be within shooting range of most waterfowl here. Fortunately, there are several ways of using blinds that allow you to get extremely close…sometimes so close that the birds are too close for my 400mm lens to focus (it has a 12 foot minimum focusing distance).

After a blizzard and 19″ total inches of snow last week, today is sunny and 60. I left before dawn and went west of Sioux Falls in search of waterfowl and shorebirds. The shorebirds weren’t around, but there certainly were plenty of waterfowl. I won’t go into the details (I had a post once about the blinds I use to get close to birds), but this morning used a combination of three blinds…1) my car, 2) a portable blind I always have with me, and 3) a permanent blind build on a local wetland. GREAT morning of shooting, with absolutely perfect light for some of these. Some pics from the day:

Female and Male Redhead, taken in some nice warm, early morning light on a local wetland.

One of my favorite little birds, a Pied-billed Grebe. They’re not as shy as all the ducks and geese around here, but they do have a nasty habit of just slowly sinking below the surface and swimming away underwater, RIGHT when you’re about to hit the shutter on the camera. Was glad to get a nice detailed shot in the light right after sunrise.

“Just” a mallard. “Just”? JUST!?!?! I admit that’s my opinion too many times, but you have to admit a drake Mallard is one damned beautiful duck.

It’s not just waterfowl moving through right now. Red-tailed Hawks and American Kestrels are seemingly everywhere right now, and today MANY Swainson’s Hawks like this one showed up.

With snow still on the ground in many places and temperatures only starting to warm up in the last couple of days, I wasn’t sure what I’d find this morning, but I think the birds are moving more by the calendar than the temperature. I did run across one large wetland with many Great Egrets foraging in the shallows.

Such beautiful birds! Such wonderful lighting this morning! This may be one of my favorite duck photos that I’ve ever taken.

Double-crested Cormorant - Phalacrocorax auritus

A Double-crested Cormorant swimming near the shoreline. They are SUCH cool birds when you see them up close, with those impossibly blue turquoise eyes.

A male Blue-winged Teal. One of the most common dabbling ducks around here, and not all that colorful (until they fly), but they do have some wonderfully intricate patterns on their flanks, along with the unique face crescent.

A male Lesser Scaup, one of the most common diving ducks we get in migration.

Apr 15 2018

Blizzard-inspired Drawing – American Woodcock

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: 1 Comment

I don’t draw a lot any more…perhaps twice a year at most. Not sure why, as I really enjoy it when I do drag out all the colored pencils and give it a go. With the blizzard this weekend, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to draw. The species is actually inspired BY the blizzard. American Woodcocks show up here in early April, and are already on their breeding grounds. They’ve already been doing their spectacular, unique display flights in the late evenings, spiraling up into the sky and diving back down, producing series of twittering and tweeting sounds as they go. They normally feed heavily on earthworms. When the blizzard hit, I remembered the posts of people seeing their displays here already this spring, and was wondering how they’d handle the blizzard. Inspiration leading to this, a colored pencil drawing of an American Woodcock.

American Woodcock Drawing - Scolopax minor

Colored pencil drawing of an American Woodcock – By Terry Sohl

Feb 26 2018

Updated “South Dakota Rockhound” pages

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments

Bubblegum Agate - South Dakota Rockhound

An incredible, polished bubblegum agate from the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands of South Dakota. An amazing little piece, it was a small, black, featureless lump when we found it, but we’ve found that these little dark bubblegums often have some GORGEOUS patterns that reveal themselves once you polish them for a while. There are other examples on the updated pages on South Dakota Rockhound pages.

I’m 51 years old. I already have so many unprocessed bird photos sitting on my hard drive that I doubt there are enough years left in my life to process them all, and add them to my website or blog. It’s easy to take photos! It’s FUN to take photos! It’s much less fun to process them all and DO something with said photos.

And now my son and I have a new hobby that we started last summer…rockhounding in the incredible areas near the Badlands of South Dakota. We certainly have found some beautiful pieces of agate, jasper, petrified wood, and other stones over the last year. The wonderful and variable patterns and colors just BEG a photographer to get out the camera…I can’t resist! As if I needed more unprocessed photos cluttering up my hard drive, now I’m also taking macro photos and photos of rocks and minerals, many of which will likely never see the light of day.

I’m trying! I’m trying to be more selective in what I shoot, both for birds and for rocks! And in an effort to at least get some photos of my favorite pieces out on my website, I have just recently updated the “South Dakota Rockhound” section of my website. Click on the following for photos of some of the pieces we’ve found over the last year. There are also some cool macro photos of other mineral assets we’ve acquired over the past year (for now, just a batch of Mexican Crazy Lace agate). As with the birding pages on my website, I’ll try to continually update the Rockhound site as I have time! For now, enjoy the new photos.

South Dakota Rockhound (Click here)

Mexican Crazy Lace Agate - Macro Photograph

A macro photo of one of the pieces of Mexican Crazy Lace (agate) we bought recently.

Feb 18 2018

Rather slow (but enjoyable) winter raptor search

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments

I treasure my trips to the central part of South Dakota in the winter. Given the bleakness and bitter cold that a South Dakota winter often brings, it’s a true joy to head to the area near the Fort Pierre National Grasslands and generally find it so incredibly full of life. Winter on the Grasslands means raptors, often in numbers that boggle the mind. Rough-legged Hawks by the dozens, huge Golden and Bald Eagles, Ferruginous Hawks, Prairie Falcons, and the occasional Gyrfalcon, Snowy Owl, Short-eared Owl, or other “goody”.

That’s the normal winter day on the Grasslands. A recent trip unfortunately wasn’t “normal”. It’s been a hard last year or two for grouse and pheasants on the Grasslands, with drought and some cold winters taking a bit of a toll. It’s the grouse, pheasants, and other prey that attract the winter raptors, and with the lower prey numbers, raptor numbers have been far below what they normally are. In a full day’s worth of birding, I “only” came across 15 or so Rough-legged Hawks, about half-a-dozen eagles, and some scattered Red-tailed Hawks and Northern Harriers. I usually find multiple Prairie Falcons and an occasional Merlin or Gyrfalcon, but no falcons of any kind were seen on this trip. A quiet day, but still enjoyable, thanks to the occasional raptor sighting, and VERY large numbers of Mule Deer, Pronghorn, and even 4 or 5 (normally very shy) coyotes.

Not only were the birds rather sparse on this day, but photo opportunities weren’t great. Here are a (very) few photos from the day, including the highlight…a gorgeous, pure white Snowy Owl.

The definite highlight of the day, an absolutely stunning, pure-white Snowy Owl, found on the Fort Pierre National Grasslands. Clearly a mature male with the lack of black barring. Most birds we see around here in winter seem to be younger and/or female birds with substantial black barring. Unfortunately he was pretty shy, and preferred to observe from a distance on a high point in a nearby corn field.

I love Golden Eagles, particularly when you get to see them at such close range such as this. Such massive, massive birds.

Pronghorn are something you don’t always see on the Fort PIerre National Grasslands, but they are around. On this day, I saw multiple large groups, including this group (there were about 30 animals in all) moving quickly through a field.

A quite common sight on the Grasslands, Mule Deer were bunched up and quite common on this day. I saw several very large bucks such as this. Shouldn’t be long before they lose their antlers and start growing next year’s.Mul

Feb 05 2018

2018 SuperB Owl Winners – Top 10

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments

It was a long year of hard work and dedication, with participants from across the country vying to win the ultimate prize on SuperB Owl Sunday. Would it be the established veteran, winning yet another title? Or perhaps a young, local upstart? Fans from across the country enjoyed a heck of a competition, but a winner was finally crowned.

With that, here are the final rankings in this year’s SuperB Owl competition! The young underdog scored upset after upset in the final playoffs, winning the title in a closely contested match. Congrats to this year’s SuperB Owl winner…a winking Northern Saw-whet Owl, taken at Newton Hills State Park in South Dakota!!

Northern Saw-whet Owl - Aegolius acadicus

Northern Saw-whet Owl – Newton Hills, South Dakota – 41 (quite arbitrary) points

2nd place – Yawning Snowy Owl – Near Sioux Falls, South Dakota – 33 points

3rd Place – Long-eared Owl – Big Sioux Recreation Area, South Dakota – 30 points

4th place – Northern Hawk Owl – Sax-Zim Bog, Minnesota – 28 points

5th place – Elf Owl – Near Tucson, Arizona – 25 points

6th place – Short-eared Owl – Minnehaha County, South Dakota – 20 points

7th Place – Burrowing Owl – Near Brandon, South Dakota – 15 points

8th place – Great Grey Owl – Sax-Zim Bog, Minnesota – 12 points

9th place – Eastern Screech Owl – Sioux Falls, South Dakota – 10 points

10th place – Barred Owl – Newton Hills State Park, South Dakota – 7 points

Dec 09 2017

Common Redpolls are Back

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments

It was a over a month ago when I saw three Common Redpolls feeding at our thistle/niger feeder. It was only the 3rd winter (in 24 here) that we’ve had Redpolls in our yard, and given it happened so early, in early November, I was hoping for continuous visits by Redpolls all winter long. That certainly would make a dreary South Dakota winter a little brighter, but alas, I only saw them for a couple of hours that day, and then they disappeared.

Until now. I looked out the kitchen window, and there 15 feet in front of me in a paper birch, were about 20 Common Redpolls. Finches seem to love the catkins on our paper birch, as I’ve seen American Goldfinches, House Finches, Pine Siskins, and now Common Redpolls feeding on them. Interestingly they were only interested in the catkins, and ignored the big finch feeder just 20 feet away. It’s been a great winter for winter finches, as while the Redpolls were feeding on catkins, there were about 8 Pine Siskins mixed in with Goldfinches on the thistle feeder. Hopefully they don’t disappear again…would be nice to have them around this winter. Some photos:

Dakota Birder

Nature, science, photography, and more

Articles

A Cluster of Cuckoos!

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Birding > Bird photos? Or vice versa?

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American Golden Plover! (Photographic) Lifer!

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“High-rise” Peregrine Falcon

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“Blind Luck” – Shooting Waterfowl

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Blizzard-inspired Drawing – American Woodcock

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Updated “South Dakota Rockhound” pages

South Dakota Rockhound (Click here)

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Rather slow (but enjoyable) winter raptor search

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2018 SuperB Owl Winners – Top 10

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Common Redpolls are Back

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Nature, science, photography, and more

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