Blue Goose ~ Day 19

June 19, 2014 ~ Kenmare, ND to Stanley, ND

I slept well enough and woke at 0600. The convenience store was buzzing with people (mostly men) starting their days and buying coffee and food and gas. Middle-aged and older men, wearing well-worn bluejeans, were outside smoking. I brushed my teeth and bought ice, coffee and a hot breakfast sandwich. I love mornings with the potentials of a new day. 

Des Lacs NWR Visitor Center was on the west side of the Des Lacs River. There are three lakes, Upper, Middle and Lower, connected by the Des Lacs River. The Upper is a long narrow lake; the lower two much smaller. I got to the VC, arriving as it opened. I was curious about the Souris River, it seeming to be all over north central ND, and it actually was. The deal is that it comes down out of Saskatchewan, draining the high prairies there, turns south into North Dakota and then makes a giant U-turn near Minot going north again into Canada where it flows into the Assiniboine River and then into Lake Winnipeg. Its water eventually gets to Hudson Bay via Lake Winnipeg and the Nelson River. I found this fascinating, and one of the men in the office kindly printed out a map for me. 

We talked about the great Minot flood in 2011. I learned a lot about water management and how controversial it can be, about how much water is impounded, how much can be released, how different city, state and federal agencies all have some discretion on water flow regulation and especially how there are different priorities. What happened in 2011 is that the Canadian prairies got a lot of rain in a short period and all that water came roaring down the Souris into North Dakota, filling and threatening to overtop the reservoirs. So, it became a question of who and what was going to get flooded. This whole subject of hydrology is interesting. Water has its way and men scramble to control, divert and parcel it out, on and off the refuges. 

Des Lacs is noted for what they call a "blizzard of snow geese" stopping by in their fall migration, up to half a million of them!

The biggest Visitor Centers have exhibits, and this one had a small but meticulous butterfly collection. I noted especially the lovely little Melissa Blues, which reminded me of the Karner Blues at Necedah in Wisconsin. Each specimen was perfectly mounted and labeled and enticing in that I immediately wanted to add butterflies to my repertoire of things to identify but probably won’t as it would be a whole new learning curve and more field guides. Still…..they are seductive. While out watching for birds I have mistaken a butterfly for a bird until I realize how relatively slowly and more randomly they move. 

I drove south on the east side of the the lower lakes, spending an hour in one spot, counting over 100 cars of a train on the other side of the lake, seeing an occasional bird and hearing Clay-colored Sparrows constantly. It was still drizzling off and on, but was slowly clearing.  

I then drove north up the west side of Upper Lake, mostly through woods and dense green riparian habitat, reminding me of Michigan.

Upper Des Lacs on the NWR - ND

When that route ended, I turned west, leaving the refuge and headed to Bowbells, ND, thinking this would be a sweet little town, so close to the Canadian border, and that I would be able to get a good cup of coffee at the Abstract Coffee House. In reality, it was an unprepossessing town with nothing enticing and no signs of the coffee house, but from Facebook postings from two years ago, it apparently was someone’s dream that failed. There was nothing charming about the town at all, except it’s pretty name, so I headed south to Stanley where I spent the night in a grocery store parking lot. 

Stanley is part of the oil boom, so what used to be a small North Dakota town on US2 is now very busy and energetic with new construction and businesses all over, catering to the oil workers and their families. It is amazing to see how much has changed over the last few years. Along with the new businesses and roads and housing is dust and noise and money. 

I had asked if I could sleep in my van at Lostwood NWR since I was going to their one-day Birding Festival on Friday, but the refuges seldom allows camping, and I was directed to a campground down the road which I checked out, but it did not meet my criteria and besides, it had the big RVs / fifth wheels, most of which looked like semi-permanent places with a mishmash of “stuff” outside each one. The 24-hour grocery parking lot was fine.