South Dakota: Badlands National Park and Buffalo Gap National Grasslands

I finished all of my work for the Playa Lakes Joint Venture Habitat Survey three days ago.  On my last day of work, I saw this bald eagle:

immature bald eagle: Cherry County, NE

And this great horned owl:

great horned owl: Cherry County, Nebraska

And these two trumpeter swans:

trumpete swans: Cherry County, Nebraska

I said goodbye to Nebraska and headed north to South Dakota, only about a 2.5 hour drive.  My first stop was Badlands National Park.  The weather has been excellent here, and it was a gorgeous day in the park.  There really weren't too many birds around; in the park, I only saw a kestrel, some bluebirds, starlings, and a golden eagle.  But there was plenty of other wildlife to keep my busy.  At the entrance to the park was a few mule deer, including this huge buck!!!

As soon as you enter the park, you see just why this area was designated a national park.  If you haven't been there, you need to go!!!

About a mile or so down the road I came across this bighorn sheep, just walking down the middle of the road.  He barely looked at me as I snapped a ton of photos.  I let him walk by, then drove around again, just so he could walk by again.  At one point he walked right next to my car.  Later, when I drove back through this area, he was standing on the side of the road eating grass.

A little farther down was this mule deer, that had climbed to the top of an outcrop, and was following his buddy down the steep slope.

At another overlook, this little rabbit ran right towards me.  I later found out he was a desert cottontail.  There were more throughout the park as well, in addition to a few large colonies of prairie dogs. 

Over one colony of prairie dogs was this golden eagle.

And a little further down the road was a herd of bison.

As I was watching the bison, I noticed a coyote in the field.  I drove to get closer, and as another car drove by, the coyote got even closer to me, allowing me to get really good photos.  I have not been hiking alone ever since I heard of the story of a 19 year old in Canada getting attacked by two coyotes.  She later died in the hospital. 

The badlands are surrounded by various tracts of National grasslands.  I drove through the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands on my way to Rapid City.  Before I got there, I came across this herd of pronghorn antelope, the first I have seen on this trip.

Within the grasslands, I found this rough legged hawk sitting on this sand dune.  There are not many trees here, so raptors make due by using these natural perches.

So now I am in Rapid City, waiting for Alex.  In the last two days, I got an oil change and cleaned my car, and did some laundry.  Today I went to just about every city park, looking for birds.  I didn't find anything spectacular yet, but I will keep looking.

1200+ raptors in 3 days!

Alex and I spent the weekend at the Pulpit on the Tuscarora Summit.  On Friday, we had over 400 birds.  On Saturday, we had over 200, and on Sunday, we had over 500 birds!!!!  We witnessed huge kettles of broadwing hawks, that migrate in flocks of 100+ (one kettle was over 200 birds).  We also saw two golden eagles (it is a little early for golden eagles) in two days, and 7 bald eagles in one day.  We also saw 5 northern harriers on friday, and many sharp shinned hawks, cooper's hawks, and osprey in migration.  The only time I have seen more birds in one location is when I spent a week on Skomer Island , Wales in spring 2007, where I saw thousands of nesting seabirds.  You can also see Monarch butterflies and hummingbirds migrating through the area, and other small birds.  We saw also saw an immature male yellow-bellied sapsucker, and indigo bunting, and a horned lark, in addition to a few different species of warblers that continue to migrate through the area.  Tomorrow will be my last day at the hawk watch until November or December.  I am leaving central PA this week to go home and pack for another trip out west, to Oklahoma where I will be working for The Playa Lakes Joint Venture.  I will be stationed in central Kansas and Nebraska, after two days of training in OK, and will be doing roadside habitat surveys for 1.5 months.  I will be covering the same area that I worked in this summer along the Platte River in Nebraska, so some territory will be familiar.  I am looking forward to being in NE in the fall, since it is in the central flyway where thousands of birds migrate through each fall.  After finishing my surveys I hope to make a roadtrip through part of Colorado to see more birds before heading back to PA in December to spend some time with my family (my sister Theresa is currently in Iraq and will be home for the month, and my sister Krista who just had a cute little baby named CJ in June will hopefully be around too).