Birding My Way ~ Loveland, Colorado to Murdo, South Dakota

May 20, 2013

I had the intention to watch the sun rise over the Pawnee National Grasslands but that meant I would have had to leave the motel at 4 a.m. Which did not happen.

Instead I left about 7 and headed east and north, stair-stepping my way for 40+ miles, sometimes on gravel roads, until I got to the edge of the grasslands. It is a large area, checker-boarded with both protected lands and ranching / farmland. After all the heat of the past days, the morning was much cooler with a bit of overcast and a slight breeze, but still mostly sunny.

I had researched ferruginous hawks on eBird and saw they had been seen recently by a guy named Guillaume Peron. I googled that name and found him as he works for some nature conservancy organization. There aren't lots of guys with that name in Colorado. He responded almost right away and said he HAD seen the hawk on a nest but found it kind of accidentally near "Murphy's pasture and quite far from the road," so I had asked for more specific directions. Which he didn't give, although I guess he thought he did, meaing I had to search about 100 square miles. I didn't do that of course, but meandered about on the north-south and east-west gravel roads. I stopped twice and set up the scope as I came on and flushed large hawks who would then fly and perch just out of good range, even with the scope. But it was frustrating as both times, the hawks would then sit quietly for as long as I looked and I ALMOST could see enough to ID them. The first time, it actually flew to a medium-sized tree and I could see a large nest in the tree, but it was too far away. So it goes with birding.

What it was though was a lark day....hundreds of lark buntings, horned larks and lark sparrows. Male lark buntings are handsome, mostly black, chunky, sparrow-sized birds with a large white wing patch. Females look totally different and are brown and stripey. I saw them here and throughout the rest of the day.

I drove through the sweet unpretentious campground on the Crow River on the southern boundary of the grasslands. There was a softball game in progress and several campsites were occupied and there was a cluster of green tents in the distance near the river. I am sure if I had camped there and birded several hours, I would have seen many species.

I talked to a middle-age couple from Boulder. The woman was peering up into the trees with her binoculars and the gentleman was sitting at a picnic table with a well-worn Sibley's in front of him, saying he was "overwhelmed" in this habitat with birds that they don't see in Boulder. I definitely know that feeling.

I was starting to feel pressure to move on and headed north to I80 and into Wyoming for a very short distance and then into Nebraska, east for awhile and then north again for a long way to South Dakota. This road through western Nebraska was absolutely stunningly beautiful. Vistas from huge rolling hills, very little traffic, sandstone buttes in the Scotts Bluff area, occasional small creeks and rivers, a sky that goes forever, benign clouds, early spring greenery and, surprisingly, large areas of evergreen-dotted hillsides. There actually is a Nebraska State Forest.

The weather began to change though and the next several hours got increasingly menacing. The radio stations began interrupting their programming to give weather warnings with possibilities of "quarter-sized hail and high winds, up to 60 mph and torando watches." Then they would name the affected counties and towns which I would try to find on the map. And the skies also darkened considerably (and quickly).  I could usually turn north or east to avoid the worst of the weather, bascially keeping ahead of the front.

I went through Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (Oglala Lakota Indian tribe) and the town of Pine Ridge in SD and turned east from there. These Indian towns are alike in that there is always lots of human activity and cars and dogs. I thought I would see signs for Wounded Knee which is just east of Pine Ridge,but never did, and the sky was getting darker and darker and I was fretting too much to try to figure out where and when I would have to turn to see it. But then I would pass small groups of Indian families, with 3 ro 4 cars parked down off the road by little lakes, with kids and adults fishing from the shores and just  hanging out. They obviously weren't fretting about the weather.

I finally got to Murdo, SD. All day I drove through the prairie. I loved this landscape. There are occasional deserted school buildings or homesteads that intrigue me. There is a stark beauty to these old weathered structures. Birds fly in and out the windows. There are often outhouses nearby. What stories they have. I came on one close to Murdo, and at first I though it was a grand new home like one sees off and out here. It was situated so the view to the south and west was incredible with wide open, gently rolling plains and a small valley with a winding water course. It was late afternoon and the light (even with the restless weather, or probably becasue of it) was spectacular. But as I got closer, I saw it was another abandoned place.

It stormed in the night and I half slept thinking about what would happen if the tornados came through Murdo.

The next morning, in the dining area, the weather channel was on, and a woman asked me what state we were in. I pointed out South Dakota. She said they HAD got caught in the "ping-pong-sized" hail in late afternoon the day before, and their brand new car was dented all over. But she was laughing about it. They were headed to Chicago and the forecast was still not good in that direction. They had only stopped in Murdo for the night because of the ominous skies ahead and didn't want to continue.

I particularly don't like to be on an expressway in tornado weather since one cannot just change directions easily. Most of the day I could keep moving out of harm's way (sort of).