On a trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota this summer, I added quite a few new birds to my list. Much to my delight, one of them was a new woodpecker species. The Red-naped Sapsucker flew right up to me and posed beautifully for a photo and its one of my top favorites from the entire year. A Western Flycatcher had its nest built on the cabin we stayed in, and while it may have been unhappy with our presence, she made for some really nice photos. I didn’t get a great picture, but I saw a lot of Western Kingbirds while out and around Wall, SD.
Red-naped Sapsucker, Western Flycatcher, Western Kingbird
Some cute little birds, with cute little names are the Eastern Wood-pewee, and the Western Wood-pewee. The y sort of look the same to me but they identified differently in the Merlin app, so I wont argue !
Eastern Wood-pewee, Western Wood-pewee
Another flycatcher for the list, the Least Flycatcher was another quick snap while driving. I happened to see it fly in a bush and lucky for me a new species. A big bucket list bird for me was the Eastern Bluebird. I got a terrible photo of one and am definitely striving to get a better shot, but I was happy to see one anyway.
Least Flycatcher, Eastern Bluebird
Two really big additions for me were Green Heron, and Marsh Wren. The Green Heron is so beautiful but also sort of odd looking. They’re a smaller size heron, and to me when they have the head tucked down, remind me of a potato. The Marsh Wren was a nemesis bird for me all summer long. I could always hear them around the lake hiding in the cattails and reeds, but could never get a look at them. When I finally did get a photo, it turned out so perfectly.
Green Heron, Marsh Wren
European Starlings are an invasive species and a lot of people really hate them. They can certainly be a nuisance at bird feeders and bully other birds, but they can’t help being what they are. I think they’re fun to watch and have beautiful winter plumage. I was luckily early in the fall and came upon some Blackburnian Warblers on their migration path. Sadly they didn’t have the beautiful orange coloring but still a great addition to the list.
European Starling, Blackburnian Warbler
Hairy Woodpecker took me a long time to find, but when I heard the telltale peep of a woodpeckers in my back yard one morning, I knew it wasn’t a Downy. I did not get a good photo of him at all and have since gotten nicer photos. Trumpeter Swans were another bird that really eluded me until it started to get closer to fall. Suddenly they were at the lake every weekend and I really loved taking photos of them.
Hairy Woodpecker, Trumpeter Swan
Last two birds for this post will be Solitary Sandpiper, and Weastern Meadowlark. The Solitary Sandpiper was a real surprise for me to find while out on a walk around a local pond. I’ve never seen any sort of shore bird like that in the area before and snapped some really great photos of it. The meadowlark honestly took me a while to get a decent shot of. I would see them pretty often in the fields after the crops started being harvested but they wold easily spook away.
Solitary Sandpiper, Western Meadowlark
