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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Edward" data-source="post: 1283671" data-attributes="member: 822">Sunday 1 JuneUp again at dawn and we headed out to the marsh at the edge of Kenmare. Yesterday evening had been magical but the marsh was quieter this morning and we soon left. We stopped at the edge of the town at a site mentioned as good for Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow in The Birding Guide for north-western North Dakota just north of the marsh on Country Road 1. No Ammodramus sparrows were in evidence but listening to the call on the CD was to stand us in good stead later in the day. We then headed off towards our main destination, the Lostwood NWR, just a few miles away. En route we stopped off at the Gammell Longspur Pasture just east of Niobe. The first birds we saw here were four Sharp-tailed Grouse that exploded from beneath our feet but apart from the inevitable Western Meadowlark, there wasn't much about, and we didn't spend too much time looking for Chestnut-collared Longspur as we'd seen them so well at Felton, MN. On arriving back at the car I noticed a tick crawling up my leg, which prompted a bout of frantic searching. I had five and Simmi had six of these most unwelcome hitchhikers and although none had bitten us, our imaginations kept us itching and scratching all day. We had just another four miles to go to the Lostwood NWR, the site that I was most looking forward to on the trip.  Lostwood is described as the quintessential example of northern prairie pothole country and is renowned as a great place to see such elusive North Dakota specialties as Baird's Sparrow. Although we were there on a Sunday during the peak birding season, we only came across one other car. After picking up a map of the Auto Tour route and noting which areas were recommended for certain species, we headed slowly along the road. The grasslands held lots of birds, Clay-colored Sparrows, Savannah Sparrows and Horned Larks were particularly abundant. In a small slough just past the fire tower and 1.2 miles from the park headquarters we stopped and saw the usual suspects but just as we were packing away our stuff, a faint, sibilant noise that I recognised from playing the CD in the car that morning stopped me in my tracks: a Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow, a bird I wasn't sure we'd see because of the very dry conditions in North Dakota. We eventually found it singing off to the right of the road and enjoyed good scope views of another of my most wanted birds. Grasshopper Sparrows were easily seen in the grasslands throughout much of the area, and once we'd seen our first Vesper Sparrow they appeared to be everywhere. Four miles from the refuge headquarters we came to a small lake on the right and a bigger alkali lake on the left. The smaller pool was a superb example of a prairie pothole, packed with displaying wildfowl and other birds: Redhead, Canvasback, Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, Mallard, American Wigeon, Ruddy Duck, Lesser Scaup, Pied-billed Grebe, American Coot, Wilson's Phalarope and Western Willet. The alkali lake to the left held hundreds of Red-necked Phalaropes, ten American Avocets and several Semipalmated Sandpipers but the position of the sun made looking for Piping Plovers difficult and we failed to see any on the trip. We then reached an area recommended for the trickiest Ammodramus sparrow and it's doubly important to learn its song, for Baird's Sparrow is a skulker. We stopped and listened and drove on a bit further and got out and listened again. By doing this we came across at least three singing Baird's Sparrows but we only managed to see one in the scope after a lot of searching. Seeing this secretive prairie specialist in its pristine habitat was a real trip highlight. In the same area we had neckache-inducing views of a Sprague's Pipit circling in its beautiful song flight high above our heads. We thought we'd wait for it to come down but the pipit had no intention of indulging us and it continued to pour out its highly evocative song suspended above the prairie as we left.  There were few birds around the refuge headquarters, no sign of Black-billed Magpie or Say's Phoebe which apparently usually breed here and we were also very surprised by the lack of raptors. Apart from one Northern Harrier at the entrance, not a single raptor was seen over the vast expanse of Lostwood despite the warm, sunny conditions.So after a superb morning, we headed south, the landscape taking on a distinctly more "western" feel as we crossed the Missouri west of New Town. As we drove south from Watford City on the 85, the sunny skies disappeared and the clouds on the horizon were black, illuminated by spectacular flashes of lightning but it remained dry as we reached the spectacular viewpoint over the Little Missouri and the badlands of the North Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The drive to the campsite provided our first Mountain Bluebirds and the only Northern Rough-winged Swallows of the trip attending a nesting hole, and we got our first sighting of the numerous American Bison which are no less impressive just because they've been reintroduced to the area. Then the rain came, and it really rained, an absolute cloudburst with attendant thunder and lightning for about an hour, making it impossible to get out. We made our way up to the top car park and sat in the car, trying to identify the sparrows sheltering in the bushes (Vesper and Chipping) when the wipers allowed us momentarily to see out of the car. Eventually the storm blew over and we walked over to the viewpoint (beautiful) and soon saw a Spotted Towhee and plenty of Vesper Sparrows. Two stunning Lark Sparrows flew in and we headed back down the hill. A couple more Mountain Bluebirds were seen, but the best thing en route was a Sharp-tailed Grouse lek close to the road, with 14 displaying birds giving us easily our best views of the species. At the camp ground car park there were four more Lark Sparrows and two very noisy Yellow-breasted Chats. The short nature trail was well worth exploring, with Spotted Towhees and Yellow-breasted Chats particularly conspicuous, while the tall trees near the start of the trail had Baltimore Orioles, a male Bullock's Oriole and our first House Wrens of the trip. The clock was ticking (although we found out we had gained an hour crossing the Little Missouri into the Mountain Time Zone) and we made our way to Belfield, staying at the Trapper's Kettle Motel.1. A birder's eye view of Sprague's Pipit2. The fantastic grasslands at Lostwood NWR, North Dakota3. That's me looking for Baird's Sparrow, Lostwood NWR4. Clay-colored Sparrow5. Horned Lark</blockquote>

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