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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Edward" data-source="post: 1284141" data-attributes="member: 822">Monday 2 JuneThe plan this morning was to visit the South Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We started off in the camp site where we saw three Lark Sparrows, two Yellow-breasted Chats, five Orchard Orioles, several Warbling Vireos, around 60 Cedar Waxwings, and two male Bullock's Orioles. Walking over to the picnic area, three Bison sitting directly outside the toilet block turned the act of relieving oneself into an extreme sport, but the area was full of birds: Eastern Bluebird, best ever views of a singing Field Sparrow, a pair of Black-headed Grosbeaks, a brief view of a male Lazuli Bunting and two late migrants, a Swainson's Thrush and a Tennessee Warbler. Once again the rain began to fall and we were again confined to the car for our drive through the park, although we did see several Mountain Bluebirds, two Red-tailed Hawks, a Lazuli Bunting (again briefly) and plenty of Black-tailed Prairie Dogs. After lunch in the tourist town of Medora (think of a Western theme park with people living in it) and watching the heaviest rain yet through the window, we headed to Sully Creek SP just south of the town. By now the rain had stopped. New birds here were Brown Thrasher and a pair of Say's Phoebes, while Lark Sparrows and Yellow-breasted Chats were again common, and Lazuli Buntings at last gave views. While the map suggested that we could head straight south from here to Amidon on a back road, the GPS was not at all sure that we could and we relented and heeded its advice, taking the Interstate back to Belfield and then drove south on the 85 towards Bowman.A soaring roadside raptor not far south of Belfield prompted another screeching halt, our first Swainson's Hawk and we were to see three more Swainson's on the stretch to Bowman, including a perched bird with kill very close to the road, a beautiful raptor. The rain was torrential again in Bowman and not only was the rain biblical, so was our search for an inn for the night as we were twice turned away from full motels. We ended up at the cheapest motel of our trip, where the proprietor seemed genuinely astonished that we wanted to stay there. By now it was late afternoon and once the rain had abated, we drove south towards the South Dakota border, turning off east to the Bowman-Haley Dam area. Just before the turnoff, I finally saw the bird I'd been keeping an eye out for since we passed Watford City, Lark Bunting. We only ever saw this grassland specialist south of Bowman but wherever it occurred it was very common, and its beautiful slow-motion display flight reminded us very much of the slow-wing display of Golden Plovers back home, definitely one of my favourite birds on the trip. As we approached Bowman-Haley, we noticed a Northern Harrier mobbing a much larger raptor on a fence post, an immature Golden Eagle, a bird we really hadn't expected on this trip. We watched the eagle fly off into the small wood and refound it later. The lake itself was very quiet as was the small wood. The wind had picked up and under a belligerent, ashen sky, and not a soul around, Bowman-Haley Dam seemed a very lonely place indeed, with only the obligatory Lark Buntings, Horned Larks, Bobolinks and Western Meadowlarks and a roadside Sharp-tailed Grouse for company. Instead of heading straight back to Bowman we tried a few side roads in the hope of finding the most elusive of local buteos, Ferruginous Hawk. The sideroads south of Bowman were very rough and the landscape here was exactly how I imagined North Dakota would be like before I came here, namely empty grasslands stretching to the horizon in all directions, with vistas as treeless as anything I've seen outside Iceland. These side roads held lots of Northern Harriers, four more Swainson's Hawks and our only owl species of the trip, Short-eared Owl (as beautiful as they are, of all the owls we could have seen on the trip, Short-eared would have been way down at the bottom of the list), and our first Pronghorn Antelopes. No Ferruginous Hawk and the day predictably ended at a local diner for yet another meal of burger, fries and unpalatable coffee.More photos from Simmi1. Bison at Theodore Roosevelt NP2. Lark Sparrow3. Eastern Bluebird4. Sharp-tailed Grouse5. Turkey Vulture</blockquote>

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